Yes, Neal Katyal did much better than the US Solicitor General Sauer who was talking way too fast and was called out for it. Sauer is going to get skinned for a loss.
Early life and education
Neal Katyal was born on March 12, 1970,[citation needed] in Chicago, Illinois, to immigrant parents originally from India.[6][7] His mother, Pratibha, is a pediatrician and his father, Surendar, who died in 2005, was an engineer. Katyal's sister, Sonia, is also an attorney and teaches law at University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Neal Katyal studied at Loyola Academy, a Jesuit Catholic high school in Wilmette, Illinois. In 1991 he graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Nu fraternity, and the Dartmouth Forensic Union.[8]
Katyal then attended Yale Law School.[8] He was an editor of the Yale Law Journal and studied under Akhil Amar and Bruce Ackerman, with whom in 1995 and 1996 he published articles in law-review and political-opinion journals. After receiving his J.D. (Juris Doctor) degree in 1995, Katyal clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, then for Justice Stephen Breyer of the United States Supreme Court.[9]
Catholic schools and colleges are extremely liberal in the West. Almost cutting edge progressive except possibly the abortion issue.Vayutuvan wrote: ↑06 Nov 2025 06:04 That said, I saw Prof. Akhil Amar on TV once before when he was part of a panel debating the invasion of Afghanistan (or was it Iraq). The panel was on what is a just war. His arguments were very sophisticated and impressive. Since Katyal was his student, I would say Katyal is also quite sharp despite his getting brainwashed at a Catholic Jesuit convent school.
Oh he is messaging India, but is not going to get what he wants. Pakis need to act fast before his attention moves on to other issues. Otherwise they are going to be dumped as usualRudradev wrote: ↑06 Nov 2025 22:21 ^^Quite likely he wants to deliver new F-16s, AMRAAMs and more to Pakistan. But no US govt before has felt the need to 'pitch' or 'set the stage' for supplying weapons to Pakistan through such public pronouncements, even when they did in fact provide arms to Pakistan.
I wonder why this difference in approach. Is Trump mentioning this again and again as messaging to the Pakis-- reminding them
(1) that he knows how many planes THEY lost in Sindoor
(2) they are dependent on him to replenish these losses-- dangling the carrot by implication
(3) that while for now, he is not openly specifying these losses as PAF planes, he COULD humiliate Pakistan by revealing the truth if they reneg on their promises to America vis-a-vis Iran/Gaza/etc?
(2) could also be messaging to India-- give me what I want or I'll give F-16s to the Pakis.
Trump is the kind of guy who leverages public pronouncements as a pressure tactic to influence private negotiations, so everything he says should be examined in this light.
Trump has told India to stop buying oil from Russia, US commerce secretary
Oh well. I was suggesting "Understanding the US" dhaga. But now we are going on here, I am sure it is far less than 1 in 5. I would say 1/10 or even less than that.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Erasure of the 540-day automatic EAD extension puts lives on hold
I stared at the Federal Register on Thursday and felt the floor drop.
The 540-day automatic EAD extension I personally fought to create—through sleepless nights, 37 drafts, and a direct recommendation approved by President Biden’s AANHPI Commission—was gone in one paragraph.
On October 30, 2025, DHS killed it.
Any renewal filed on or after that date gets zero grace period.
Your card expires → your job dies → your family’s dreams pause unless renewed on time.
My Personal Stake
In 2022, I presented my recommendation for automated EAD renewal to the AANHPI Commission to “Save 1 Million Families.”
“Extend auto-renewal from 180 to 540 days.”
On May 3, 2022, they signed it into law. That single sentence kept 1.2 million legal workers—mostly Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lankan, Chinese, and several other countries on payroll while USCIS caught up.
Last week, Trump ‘unsigned’ it.
My phone has not stopped ringing since Thursday.
A software engineer from Hyderabad, a nurse from Kerala, a data scientist from Colombo, and an ERP developer from Dhaka – all asking the same terrified question:
“Ajay bhai, my EAD expires in February. If USCIS takes eight months, do I lose my job, my health insurance, my child’s school?”
The answer, unfortunately, thanks to President Trump’s latest executive stroke, is yes—unless you filed your renewal BEFORE October 30.
Who Loses?
100,000+ Indian H-4 spouses I met in temple parking lots.
OPT STEM grads from IIT, NUST, and Moratuwa who just landed Google offers.
Nepali TPS nurses who kept Boston hospitals alive during COVID.
One WhatsApp voice note from Priya in Fremont:
“Ajay bhai, I was the breadwinner when my husband lost his H-1B. Your 540 days saved us. What do I tell my daughter now?”
The Math Is Cruel
Card expires: 1 March 2026
File on: 3 Nov 2025
USCIS average: 7.5 months
Approval: 15 June 2026
Your gap: 106 days × $280/day = $29,680 gone
Do that for 100,000 South Asian homes = $3 billion vanished.
Five Actions I’m Begging You to Take
Screenshot your expiry date – right now.
File I-765 online tonight at my.uscis.gov (180 days early is no longer early enough).
Pay $520 + $85 biometric – fee waiver link in my bio.
Forward your I-797C receipt to HR titled “URGENT: EAD GAP LOOMING.”
Text “540” to +1-650-XXX-XXXX – I’ll add you to my daily alert chain.
Premium processing ($1,500) is now cheaper than one month unemployed.
Trump just deleted it.
The New Reality for South Asian Homes
• H-4 spouses: 100,000+ Indian women must now quit the moment their card expires.
• OPT STEM graduates: A fresh IITian’s Google offer letter becomes worthless if USCIS takes 200 days.
• TPS nurses: A Nepali caregiver in Boston loses her shift—and her apartment—overnight.
• L-2 entrepreneurs: A Pakistani 7-Eleven owner watches the franchise pull the keys.
Average gap: 4–7 months without salary.
Average loss per family: $35,000–$60,000.
Total hit to our community: $3–5 billion in 2026 alone.
Everyday Hurdles Starting Now
1. Mortgages stall – banks freeze lines of credit when pay stubs stop.
2. Kids switch schools
3. Remittances dry up – aging parents in Hyderabad, Delhi, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Lahore, or Colombo, skip support
4. Driver’s licenses expire – tied to EAD in 17 states.
5. Green-card clocks freeze – any employment gap can trigger “public charge” denials.
Quiet Changes You Can Make Today
File I-765 online tonight – 180 days early is the new bare minimum.
• Screenshot your receipt (I-797C) and email HR: “Possible unpaid leave Q1 2026.”
• Ask your employer about short-term disability or company-paid premium processing ($1,500).
• Save three months’ expenses in a separate “EAD Gap” account—start with $500 this week.
A Thread of Hope
USCIS still has 22,000 unused H-1B visas this year.
Congress still has bipartisan backlog bills gathering dust.
And every Sunday, several South Asian volunteers still cook meals with me for the homeless—proof that when we move together, systems listen.
Your story is still being written.
File early.
Plan calmly.
Lean on the auntie-uncle network that carried us through Y2K, 9/11, and H-1B issues.
We built Silicon Valley with less than this.
We will protect our families with more.
One renewal at a time.
Tagged:#@Ajainb#Ajay Jain Bhutoria#H4 visa#H4-EAD visa#OPT-STEM visa#TPS nursesL-2 Visa