Four unsuccessful H-1B lottery attempts threatened the life a Nepali engineer had built in America. His response was to leave Google, build an AI company and pursue a different immigration route.

A family’s American story, interrupted

Long before Pratik Karki worked at Google, his family had already confronted the difficult choices imposed by migration. According to Karki’s public account, his father completed postdoctoral research at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. When his parents’ marriage ended, his father returned to Nepal to raise Pratik and his brother. The family moved into a small attic room in their grandparents’ home.

For Karki, his father’s decision became an enduring reference point: professional opportunity mattered, but so did responsibility to the people whose lives depended on it. Years later, Karki would face a different version of the same dilemma in the United States.

When a prestigious job was not enough

Karki joined Google and built a career in cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence. Yet his employer’s reputation and his own professional progress did not guarantee an enduring right to remain in the country. In a public post in May 2026, he said he had failed to secure selection in the H-1B lottery four times.

He recalled the possibility of relocating to Canada or returning to Nepal, potentially separating him from the life he and his partner had built in San Francisco. At 27, he said, he walked away from annual compensation approaching $300,000. That figure is his own description of total compensation, not an independently verified salary statement.

His decision was neither effortless nor a universal prescription for migrants facing visa uncertainty. He credited a conversation with his wife, who pointed to their savings and encouraged him to pursue his entrepreneurial ambition. Their financial cushion mattered: taking a startup risk without comparable resources could have had very different consequences.

From Google’s AI problems to Anthromind

Karki began testing ideas with founders, friends and mentors. He said the difficulties he had encountered in enterprise AI deployments at Google suggested a commercial opportunity: improving the quality of human expertise and data used to train and evaluate advanced AI systems.

At a San Francisco founders’ event, he met Mannat, who was pursuing a similar problem. They co-founded Anthromind. According to Karki, an initial data pilot and venture investment followed. The business focuses on specialist human data and evaluation for AI teams. Its existence and Karki’s co-founder role are independently visible, although claims about individual customers or commercial results should not be treated as audited performance figures.

A different immigration strategy

At the same time, Karki prepared an application for the O-1 visa category, which is intended for people who can demonstrate extraordinary ability or achievement under the applicable rules. He said his professional work, hackathon judging and published writing contributed to the evidence assembled for his application. He reported that the petition was approved.

An O-1 visa is not a green card, and establishing a startup does not automatically secure either status. Permanent residence requires a separate qualifying process. Karki has said that he subsequently obtained green cards for himself and his wife, but has not publicly documented every adjudicative step in the account reviewed for this article.

What his story does—and does not—prove

Karki’s experience illustrates a tension familiar to many skilled migrants: high earnings and recognised professional achievement do not necessarily remove immigration uncertainty. It also illustrates the advantages of professional networks, accumulated savings, legal preparation and a career record that may support alternative pathways.

It would be misleading to frame his outcome as proof that abandoning secure employment is the best response to a failed lottery. Most aspiring founders do not have identical financial reserves, industry credentials or investor access. His story is compelling precisely because the decision was risky and the eventual outcome was not guaranteed.

In announcing the couple’s permanent residence, Karki returned to his father’s sacrifices. “Baba, this one is for you,” he wrote. The achievement connected two generations of decisions about family, ambition and belonging: one father left America to care for his children; one son later found a way to build a future there.