Originally a pre-med student, Said found his true calling in computer science, discovering a passion for research through his work with machine learning in medical diagnostics. After several years in the field, he decided to pursue a PhD. Though he initially applied for a green card, Said shifted his focus to an O-1 work visa after learning about the Biden administration’s revised D3 waiver policy. With support from his employer, who agreed to sponsor him, Said traveled to Tijuana to obtain the visa. It was approved, and he returned safely to the U.S. ahead of the January 2025 inauguration.
In undergrad I was pre-med. I knew getting into medical school was going to be difficult and I’d really enjoyed my computer science courses, so I decided to do a master’s in it, both as a way to make myself a more interesting medical school candidate, as well as to explore combining two subjects that I liked.
I was interested in how machine learning and deep learning could be used to improve medical diagnoses. I worked closely with a PhD student who became a good friend. He got me into the idea of research and publishing, which I wasn’t really thinking about before. A project we worked on together led to me publishing my first research paper. It ended up being very well received and I enjoyed myself so much I decided to keep exploring the field more.
Shortly after starting college, I fell out of status. It wasn’t until I wanted to do an internship that I realized I didn’t have status anymore. I’d been too caught up with trying to be a first year college student, and I hadn’t paid attention until it was too late.
When DACA was announced, I started looking into it. I remember some people around me were discouraging me from applying. They said, Why would you want to disclose that you’re undocumented? Why volunteer your information to the government? I didn’t know anyone else with DACA or have undocumented community. It was just me and my sister. We filled out the applications ourselves and were approved quickly. It was a huge relief to have work authorization again.
There was a research position at a tech company that my mentor encouraged me to apply for. The job description said they wanted people with PhDs, which I didn’t have, but I applied anyway expecting to be rejected. I ended up getting an interview and they flew me out to their office to meet them. They were interviewing a bunch of candidates at the same time, and they invited several of us out to dinner with the hiring manager. One of the other candidates was an assistant professor who’d already done so much research, and I thought, Wow, I have no business being here.
I was so certain there was no way I’d get the job that I went into the whole thing very relaxed. I thought of it as a free trip and the opportunity to meet some interesting people. Much to my surprise, they offered me the job. I accepted it and moved across the country. It was both exciting and scary because I had major imposter syndrome. I kept thinking, Did I fool them into hiring me?
The PhD had always been in the back of my mind, but it didn’t feel like the right moment until I started working on natural language generation. I was really enjoying it but I wasn’t able to go as deep into the research as I wanted at my job. I decided to apply for the PhD program with that topic in mind.
I was able to transfer a lot of credits from my master’s to my PhD. I got the syllabus for each of the courses and went to talk to all the professors to explain that I already understood the material and ask them to sign off on it. It took a lot of convincing, but I was able to waive or test out of most of the courses, which gave me the time to focus on my research.
A couple of years ago I applied for an EB-1A green card, which is reserved for people with extraordinary ability in their fields. I got approved, but given my situation, it was going to take many years before I would receive a decision. That is when I came across the Biden administration’s revised guidelines to expedite the D3 process for temporary work visas. I started reading more about employment sponsorship, talking to people who had done it. I knew I didn’t want to be in a position where I lost my work authorization, or worse, had to leave the country all together. At that time I was working for a small start up that didn’t have the resources to do this kind of thing, so I switched employers to one I knew would be able to sponsor me.
I was still in the research phase when I heard about Path2Papers through one of my previous attorneys. The name sounded familiar and I realized I’d read some of their resources online. She said they were helping Dreamers figure out their legalization options and that they knew a lot about the D3 waiver process. She encouraged me to reach out and so I filled out a form on their website and took their first available appointment.
They didn’t ask about my status initially and I didn’t disclose it. I just gave HR my work authorization and they pointed out that it was expiring soon. That’s when I told them that I had DACA and had to renew every two years. I didn’t bring up the employment sponsorship idea until after the election. Thankfully, the company was very open to it and put me in touch with their law firm.
I explained my situation and they said they thought it was way too risky. They saw that I had applied for an EB-1A green card, and felt I would be rejected for the O-1 because of it. But I pushed back. After speaking with Path2Papers, I did research and showed the law firm that my application was, in fact, “permissible.” They agreed to talk to the law firm and managed to get them on board. They had to assure the firm that they understood it was risky but were willing to move forward anyway.
They started working on it around Thanksgiving and put together the O1 application in a week or so, which is really fast. Next I had to figure out where to go for the interview and the visa stamping. Everyone advised me not to go to my home country of Pakistan, but to do third country national processing in Mexico instead.
Finding appointments in Mexico is very difficult if you’re a third country national. I kept logging in every day to see if new slots had opened up. Initially I got an appointment for March of 2025 and then I sent a request to expedite. I explained that I had very little time to get this done and asked if they could please give me an earlier appointment. They gave me an appointment for an earlier date at the consulate in Tijuana.
First, I applied for Advance Parole as an extra safety net so that in case my O-1 visa was denied, I could still come back. I told the USCIS officer that I understood they were usually only granted for a maximum of 30 days, but that I didn’t know how long it would take to get the D3 waiver. She was understanding and agreed to lengthen my Advance Parole to 45 days.
Next, since my consulate interview was going to be in Mexico, and I’m from Pakistan, I had to obtain a tourist visa to enter the country. This part was a bit chaotic because appointments to obtain a tourist visa were fully booked where I live. The only appointment I could find was in New York and I was planning to fly there, but I decided to try my luck and showed up at a local consulate one morning to see if they’d let me in without an appointment. I got lucky. They let me in, heard me out, and once I showed them my Advance Parole, they processed my tourist visa. Immediately after that I started planning my trip to Tijuana. My wife and uncle decided to come with me for support.
When I arrived for my interview, it was extremely crowded, and after a long wait, I went through the initial document check. Then, after waiting another 30–45 minutes, I was called for the interview. The officer was very nice. She asked about my employment and my immigration history. I explained my background and told me that I would need the D3 waiver. She told me I qualified for expedited processing under the new guidelines because I had a U.S. degree and worked for a U.S. employer.
She also asked about the EB-1A green card. I told her that I had applied for it, but that it was going to take forever to process and that I needed to be able to work. She told me she was going to submit an expedited waiver request and that she’d call me to let me know how it was going. She gave me the option of taking my passport or letting them keep it for those couple of days. I chose to leave it. The next day, around lunchtime, I got a call from the officer saying, Hey, your waiver came in, you can come back. It was so quick that everyone was surprised.
Even though I had the O-1 visa in hand, I was scared that I might not be able to cross the border into San Diego. My wife and I had to go in separate lines and when they pulled me aside for secondary inspection, I was anxious to let her know because I knew she would be worried. Thankfully my uncle was behind me and he assured me he would tell her.
First they took me to a room to inspect my bags, and then they took me to a different room where the officer wasn’t sure how to process my documents, so they handed me to yet another officer. That person took one look at my documents and said, Whoa, I’ve never seen this before. It was kind of funny actually. He kept saying to his colleagues, Hey, come check this out. This is really interesting! The officer told me he’d seen a lot of people with DACA come through, but he’d never seen anyone with a PhD or an O-1 visa yet. He congratulated me on my accomplishments and eventually, I was let through.
When they let me go I immediately went to hug and kiss my wife. We went back to the hotel and flew home the next day. The whole process was so stressful that it didn’t register until much later that it had actually worked out. I’m thankful that it went as smoothly as it possibly could have given that there were so many things that had to line up just right.
In the span of just one week, my entire life changed. I feel like I aged so much during that week from the stress. But now that it’s done, it’s the first time in a really long time that I haven’t been afraid of losing my work authorization. I feel like I can finally breathe.
When I fell out of status in college I was so angry at myself for not paying close enough attention. I’d been trying to behave as though I were just another American kid—which clearly, I was not. After that, I promised myself I was always going to stay on top of things and be as proactive as possible.
Overall, my strategy for navigating the work visa process has been to appeal to the goodwill of all the individuals I encounter. That’s something that I try in general, wherever I can, because I feel like for the most part, when people can help you they will. So I try to ask for what I need and sometimes it works out.
A process like this takes time and it can feel really daunting, which is why a lot of people won’t take it on at all. But my advice is that, no matter how difficult it may seem, just go for it. Take it one step at a time.
I know some DACA recipients are hesitant to apply for a visa because they’re wondering, “What if a pathway to citizenship does arise for me?” But I believe it’s better to focus on what we can control rather than hang on to that hope.
I know some DACA recipients are hesitant to apply for a visa because they’re wondering, “What if a pathway to citizenship does arise for me?” But I believe it’s better to focus on what we can control rather than hang on to that hope. Honestly, I don’t believe that either political party is committed to helping us, even though they’ll gladly use us as talking points during the election cycle. This whole song and dance has been going on for the better part of fifteen years, but nothing has come of it. So, I say, if you have the opportunity to get more security through an employment process, you should absolutely take it.