Last Sunday (September 6) was a particularly crowded one with a number of events, back to back.
For a journalist, there are noholidays, until one chooses to have one. In the morning, I had a breakfast meeting, followed by a video recoding of a new TV advertisement for The Indian Panorama with Balwant Hothi. And then, in the afternoon, a dear friend’s family had organized a party to celebrate their US citizenship, which was followed by the Punjabi American Night, organized annually by the dynamo of human energy, the one and the only, Mohinder Singh Taneja at Eisenhower Park on Long Island. Well, I will come to the Punjabi American Night later. It has been a busy day.
So, here it was. A party to celebrate the acquisition of US citizenship. No suspense here. Mr. Parveen Chopra, the man behind The South Asian Times, decided to call in a couple of friends to celebrate the entire family of three getting the US citizenship. Parveen considers himself lucky in this respect. He says he knows many who even years after their stay in the US and despite making all efforts, are still waiting to get even permanent residency in the US. He says he not only got the citizenship in less than 8 years of his arrival here but got it rather effortlessly.
In his own words, ” I arrived in New York from Delhi in 2007 to take over as Editor of Desi Talk and News India Times. Since then I have worked as New York correspondent for IANS, an Indian news agency, and currently, I am Managing Editor of The South Asian Times.
“In March 2010, I successfully self-sponsored myself for permanent residency in the EB1 category that recognizes extraordinary ability. My family – wife Renu and minor son , Shiv, too were granted green card as dependents. Naturalization came last month”.
Parveen, his wife Renu, a marketing executive, and son Shiv, a high school senior, are now proud American citizens.
“Immigrating the legal way can also be relatively quick and is certainly free of anguish,” Parveen says with a twinkle in his eye.
Congratulations, Chopras!