On a current weekend afternoon, at a Chinese language comedy present in northern Virginia, the host requested the viewers, “What food do you like?” The loudest reply echoed via the corridor: “Chick-fil-A!”
“You still haven’t gotten your H-1B lottery, ha?” quipped the host, citing the preferred work visa amongst Chinese language college students.
It’s an easy-to-get joke within the Chinese language pupil neighborhood, the place these looking forward to U.S. visas imagine their probabilities at success would possibly hinge upon one thing sudden: an American hen sandwich and the corporate behind it.
Chick-fil-A has no branches in China. However the model has enticed Chinese language college students within the U.S. for a easy motive: “Chick-fil-A” appears like “check files.” In a tradition that places nice inventory in soundalike phrases and numbers, it’s believed to carry good luck to these with difficult visa purposes.
“It feels like I am one step closer to the green card after having a Chick-fil-A meal,” says Zhou Yilu, an AI software program engineer in his late 30s who lives in Wilmington, Delaware.
Since arriving in america as a pupil 14 years in the past, Zhou has had a roller-coaster expertise along with his visa standing. He was repeatedly requested so as to add paperwork whereas switching amongst 4 kinds of visas, one in every of which was permitted days forward of its expiration. That was when Zhou turned to the favored poultry purveyor.
Nobody can say who initially had the concept, however it has been kicking across the Chinese language pupil neighborhood for years, particularly for visa purposes such because the H-1B, which relies on a lottery system and has turn into tougher to safe.
Some 3D-print the Chick-fil-A emblem on coasters. Some embroider the emblem right into a small cross-stitch pendant for key chains. Others set Chick-fil-A’s emblem as their profile image on social media, typically changing it from pink to inexperienced — as in inexperienced card.
They imagine they’re one wordplay away from ‘stay’
Chinese language folks, notably youthful ones, have lengthy been captivated with wordplay.
On the evening earlier than Christmas, for instance, consuming apples — “pingguo” in Mandarin — prospers as a result of the phrase echoes “ping’an ye,” which suggests Christmas Eve. Brides carry lettuce bouquets as a result of lettuce — “shengcai” — appears like “getting rich.” Who doesn’t like catching that at a marriage? A a lot older use of wordplay lies in Chinese language folks’s aversion to the quantity 4, which sounds just like the phrase for loss of life in Mandarin.
The Chick-fil-A superstition displays how tough it’s for immigrants to beat the obstacles to work legally within the U.S., even for these with prestigious instructional backgrounds and high-level job titles.
Greater than 46,000 Chinese language college students and employees have been permitted for H-1B visas in 2024. Accepted Chinese language candidates account for 11.7%, the second-largest group by nation, after India at 70%.
Fan Wu, an information scientist residing in Indianapolis, didn’t win his H-1B lottery regardless of altering his social media profile image to the fast-food chain’s pink emblem and touring to Hawaii to wish at a Japanese Taoist temple.
“I was forced to turn to these mysteries,” he says. “The lottery itself is a matter of chance. It depends on luck, and we need another mystery to echo it.”
It goes past hen. The necessity for higher fortune in visa lotteries has given rise to a brand new occupation — brokers who pray in temples throughout the Pacific on behalf of others.
When the scholars attain out to 24-year-old Meng Yanqing in Beijing, the world over, via the social media platform Xiaohongshu, Meng traces as much as enter and pray on the well-liked Lama Temple, holding a paper between his palms that expresses his want for an H-1B visa. That includes “precise positioning” with their private data, reminiscent of passport numbers and birthdays.
“I respect them, they have their demands, and I offer the service,” says Meng, who additionally helps his purchasers purchase consecrated bracelets from the temple and ship them throughout the Pacific to the U.S. “I truly hope the best for them.”
The visa subject is all the time looming
The Trump administration’s abrupt resolution to impose a $100,000 price on H-1B visas a number of months in the past surprised Chinese language college students and employees, created chaos and fostered a extra chilling environment. It was later defined that it solely utilized to the brand new visas. However the roller-coaster expertise added anxiousness to a panorama for Chinese language college students that already contains language and cultural boundaries and a good job market.
Some specialists imagine employers’ sponsorship of inexperienced playing cards via visas like H-1B is why america can entice a number of the greatest and brightest.
“A real talent pipeline,” says Juliet Gelatt, affiliate director of U.S. Program below Migration Coverage Institute primarily based in Washington, “we’ve really benefited as a country and as an economy from bringing in smart young people from all around the world, including from China.”
The air of suspicion surrounding Chinese language immigrants, particularly in high-tech industries, makes it even tougher. Specialists warn that it reduces the U.S.’s capability to draw worldwide expertise.
One supervisor at a brand new power firm in his late 20s lastly modified his profile image to the hen emblem after months of ready for his visa. Like many Chinese language, he would give solely his surname, Yang, and in any other case spoke anonymously, fearing bother along with his visa standing. Of his standing in america, he says, “It feels like living under someone else’s roof.”
The US limits participation within the H-1B visa lottery. STEM majors are eligible for 3 years of optionally available sensible coaching below their F-1 pupil visa, whereas different majors are eligible for one yr. After that, they flip to Chick-fil-Some time searching for a piece visa to proceed their work in america.
For Harriet Peng, an information analyst residing in northern Virginia, consuming a hen sandwich and having the corporate’s T-shirt on the again of her chair weren’t sufficient. After dropping the lottery repeatedly, she went to a temple in upstate New York to wish in particular person — or, as she places it, to “make some efforts using scientific materialist methods in metaphysics.”
The temple incorporates many sculptures of gods, every representing a specific side of life, reminiscent of fortune or childbirth. There may be, she says, no god for visas.
Nonetheless, Peng jokes, “I knelt in front of almost every god and prayed, in case they all know each other.”
