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Unravels how US visa laws fail Indian professional workers and their legally dependent spouses and familiesThe Opportunity Trap is the first book to look at the impact of the H-4 dependent visa programs on women and men visa holders in Indian families in America. Comparing two distinct groups of Indian immigrant families —families of male high-tech workers and female nurses—Pallavi Banerjee reveals how visa policies that are legally gender and race neutral in fact have gendered and racialized ramifications for visa holders and their spouses. Drawing on interviews with fifty-five Indian couples, Banerjee highlights the experiences of high-skilled immigrants as they struggle to cope with visa laws, which forbid their spouses from working paid jobs. She examines how these unfair restrictions destabilize—if not completely dismantle—families, who often break under this marital, financial, and emotional stress. Banerjee shows us, through the eyes of immigrants themselves, how the visa process strips them of their rights, forcing them to depend on their spouses and the government in fundamentally challenging ways. The Opportunity Trap provides a critical look at our visa system, underscoring how it fails immigrant families.

East Indians --- Foreign workers, East Indian --- Professional employees --- Skilled labor --- Visas --- Social conditions. --- Asian migration. --- H-4 dependent visas. --- Indian skilled workers. --- Trumpian futures. --- acts of disruption. --- class and domestic work. --- compensatory Femininities. --- dependent Visa. --- devaluation. --- disciplining the Self. --- forced dependence. --- gender and migration. --- gendered division of labor. --- gendered migrations. --- global labor migration. --- governmentality. --- ideal Workers. --- immigrant Skilled-Workers. --- immigrant families. --- immigration policy reforms. --- intensive mothering. --- intersectionality. --- invisibility. --- legal entailments of visa categories. --- liminal Legality. --- middle-class parenting. --- model Minority. --- nursing. --- out-migration of tech workers and nurses. --- parenting while dependent. --- public discourse. --- racialization. --- reassertion of masculinities. --- recruitment process. --- resistance. --- standpoint dilemmas. --- state-imposed dependence. --- tech Work. --- temporary H-1B Visa. --- transcultural cultivation. --- visa regime. --- “Third-World” women.