India, March 11 -- A family emergency in India has turned into a professional and personal nightmare for one US-based professional. After flying home to care for her critically ill mother, she now finds herself unable to return to the life she built over the years. With visa appointments unavailable and a mountain of American financial obligations piling up, she is facing the heartbreaking possibility of having to liquidate her life from thousands of miles away.

"Unable to return to the US," a Reddit user wrote and shared their friend's situation. "A friend of mine had to urgently fly from the US to India because her mother became very sick. Now she's stuck. She can't get a visa appointment to return to the US. Her entire life is there ,...