CHELMSFORD — Vineeth Murali of Chelmsford lost his job. Then, he lost his H-1B work visa — and his American dream.
He almost lost his two beloved cats, Gamora and Thor.
“I’ve been here for 15 years, everything done the right way, the legal way,” Murali said. “There are so many people like me, who spent their entire adulthood, all the prime years, giving their heart and soul in this country, worked hard, risen up the ladder—and just in an instant, their whole life gets turned upside down.”
Murali, now 37, moved from India to the United States when he was 21 years old. He was looking for an opportunity to prepare for a career in cancer research.
He earned a master’s degree from Georgia State University in Atlanta and went on to work at prestigious medical research centers, including MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
After living in a Westford apartment for about three years, about a year ago, Vineeth and his wife, Sreesha Murali, bought a house in Chelmsford. Their 2-year-old daughter, Vaagmi Murali, loved their new house. It had a big yard.
Embracing America
The family embraced America, Murali said. He told his daughter, who was born in the U.S., that “she is American first.”
As a graduate student and from then on, people in America welcomed him, Murali recalled.
But because Murali was not a U.S. citizen, sometimes issues would come up with his visas. Through the years, Murali has had several visas, which have permitted him to work and live in the U.S., including student visas, an Optional Practical Training visa and, most recently, an H-1B visa.
He said he has not been able to apply for full citizenship because “especially for Indians, there is a severe backlog. It is still 10 to 15 years of wait time.”
According to Pew Research Center about 400,000 H-1B applications for high-skilled foreign workers were approved in 2024, which is more than twice the number of applications approved in the fiscal year 2000. But since 2013, the majority of those applications have been for renewals for people already working in the U.S., the center found.
Roughly 73% of H-1B workers whose applications were approved in the fiscal year 2023 were born in India and the majority of approvals in the years from 2010 on have gone to Indian workers. China is the second most common birthplace of H-1B workers with 12% approved in 2023. No other birthplace accounted for even 2% of H-1B workers approved in 2023, according to the research center.
President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to reduce immigration to the U.S. through many actions, but most recently, the administration signed a proclamation to restrict certain H-1B workers by requiring a $100,000 payment with new H1-B applications.
Murali kept working and living his life. In spring 2025 at his most recent employer, a Boston-area biotech company, Murali received a good performance review. (He did not want to share the company’s name). He was looking forward to family vacations at Glacier National Park and the San Diego Zoo.
Then, a layoff changed everything.
A layoff ends American dream
In May 2025, Murali was laid off from his position. He had 60 days—until the end of July 2025—to find another job in his field, a requirement of his H1-B visa.
Murali had been through a layoff before, but this time, he was having trouble finding another position in a tight U.S. job market for professionals. On June 20, Murali applied for a change in status for his visa and thought, if approved, he would have until early January.
He could take a breath, but not really. “I was running out of all of my savings and I was running out of severance,” said Murali, who is the sole wage earner for his family. At the end of August, Sreesha and Vaagmi left to stay with family in New Delhi, India, where Murali thinks there may be job opportunities for him.
In early September, Murali sold the Chelmsford house that they bought a year ago. He sold the new furniture they had bought for the house.
Then, came another shock.
Murali thought he would have until early January. On Sept. 19, he received an update on his visa request—he learned that he had 10 days to leave the U.S. And he had not figured out what to do with his beloved cats, Gamora and Thor.
A Facebook post
He wasn’t sure if the family’s pets, Gamora and Thor—who, like most cats, do not like change—would be able to make the long flight and adapt to a new life in India.
The cats, Murali said, are also “my babies.” They helped Vineeth and Sreesha through depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and lifted their spirits when they were having trouble conceiving their first child.
(In the photo at the top of this article Sreesha Murali hugs, Thor, one of the family’s cats).
Feeling overwhelmed, Murali posted on the Westford Friends Facebook group and explained his situation. About 20 people commented. Some said he should try to take the cats. Others offered the names of local animal shelters.
After contacting about 25 veterinarians, Murali found a vet in Brookline, Mass., who is USDA-accredited, so he could get his pets OK’d to travel.
Murali’s friend, Srinath Sridhar of Ayer, Mass., had been concerned for Murali when he learned of Murali’s layoff. He let Murali and his cats stay at his house in the summer for two weeks and he offered for them to stay longer.
Sridhar says he is doing what he can to help. He is storing some of the Murali family’s possessions in his basement and hoping that when the family is reunited that things get better for them.
Still chasing the American dream
After the stay at Sridhar’s home, the cats, Gamora and Thor, relocated with Murali to a hotel. The family’s final decision: the cats would come to India. Murali wanted some constants in his daughter’s life.
Four days before Murali’s flight to India, he sat outside of a hotel in Burlington, Mass. He shared a photo of Gamora and Thor on the hotel bed, lying close to each other.
While attending high school in India, Murali’s close friend died from bone cancer. The family also lost the teen’s mother to cancer three months later. That experience touched him and led to him wanting to research cancer.
But Murali says he cannot be the type of cancer researcher that he is in the U.S. in India because, by Murali’s estimate, his native country is years behind the U.S. in cancer research.
“I have a huge question mark on my life,” Murali said. “I am a fiercely self-made person. I’m the only one in my family to be in this field… I am just so emotionally connected to this country…I would give anything to be in this country and be a citizen.”
He says he has a new extension request for his visa that is still pending.
Murali is thinking of applying for doctorate programs in Germany, Singapore or Australia, countries that he has heard are welcoming Indians. He has also reached out to mentors and former colleagues as he continues to look for jobs in the United States.
“Whatever I am today is because of my own, sheer hard work and determination,” Murali said. “I am not giving up on my American dream.”
