Navtej Kohli

By Navtej Kohli

PLEASE NOTE: I realize that American Citizens do not need Green Cards. This review is purely hypothetical. Please read all the text before you make comments, as many of your complaints are addressed therein.- Kohli Navtej.

A friend of mine recently went through the process to become a U.S. Permanent Resident, meaning that he got a “Green Card.” The process of obtaining such a thing is very complicated. So complicated, in fact, that almost 17% of the United States’ population would either not qualify to be permanent residents of their own country, or would find significant road-blocks on their way to residency.

Why, you ask, does it matter if you are gay? The answer is this: One of the only ways to get permanent residency in the US is by marrying an American citizen. Employment-based residency applications usually require the immigrant to be a “person of extraordinary ability”. The likelihood of obtaining a Green Card without “extraordinary” or “exceptional” abilities is very low.

Marriage is the most simple way to get an immigrant visa. As gay marriage is not recognized in the United States, a gay U.S. Citizen cannot act as the sponsor of his or her foreign partner.

Just to clarify, most people enter the United States on “non-immigrant visas”, meaning that their stay in the country has a time limit. If I, Navtej Kohli, came to the U.S. to take a vacation, I’d need a visitor’s visa, which is also (obviously) of the non-immigrant type. Students who come on F-1 student visas, for example, usually have a visa that lasts for four years. Unless the person extends their visa or obtains a new one, they must leave the U.S. after their visa expires.

Here’s a link to the http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-693.pdf medical examination report that doctors fill out. You’ll see the ailments they test for on Page 3.

Nav tej Kohli is standing on a cliff in Leichtenstein, braced against the cold as his trenchcoat whips in the wind. He is a long way, both distance and climate-wise, from his homeland of India, and even further away from his adoptive home of UK. But he is here with two missions in mind: to find grade G9 oil, and to find ways to use some of his profits from his eventual excavations to help the impoverished children of the surrounding towns.

“I believe in turning around and helping the people coming up behind you in life, because growing up in India, I was able to see so many different levels of the social caste system and I was fortunate to have people who believed in me and wanted better for me in life,” recalls Kohli. “It’s just good business too, because I believe that if you do good with the money you make in life, then the world will find a way to help you make more of it.”

All a person has to do to know that the world’s having problems with energy prices is look at their home heating bill or read the signs at gas stations. Prices are going haywire and Middle East tensions are only making things worse.

Many people might consider that situation and feel it’s hopeless. But Mr. Kohli is not one of those people. That’s because throughout his entire life, he’s been a man who finds solutions where others see problems. And these days, he’s diving in to help find new sources of oil for everyone’s benefit.

A native of New Delhi, India, Nav tej Kohli has a proven track record of success on two continents. He has invested not only in businesses that could turn him a profit, but donated hundreds of thousands of dollars through his foundation to help improve the lives of neighbourhood communities.

But it’s his newest venture – an oil exploration firm called Granox, Ltd. – that has provided him with his greatest excitement. Drawing on the help of experts in the oil industry, he is actively seeking to develop oil fields throughout Eastern Europe and Russia that can provide plenty of fuel for the future.

“Life is all about figuring out which choices can produce the best results not only for yourself, but for the world around you,” says the philosophical Kohli. “It’s great to make profits in the present, but helping kids is an investment in the future. And keeping the planet up and running is the most important thing of all.”

When Navtej Kohli heard about the plight of poor farm children in Costa Rica, he felt compelled to do something about it. After all, as a boy growing up in New Delhi, India, he’d seen plenty of hardship himself. And as an adult, Costa Rica had become a splendid new place for him to live.

Kohli had learned that with perseverance and opportunity, any rough circumstance in life could be overcome. And he has spent his adult life spreading that example to others.

As the founder of the Navtej Kohli Foundation, he has spent the past four years providing educational and other aid to needy children. In fact, he has watched the foundation’s outreach programs grow from helping a dozen Costa Rican youth at first, to 72 and now more than 125 students. With well over $150,000 of his own funds already invested in providing everything from school supplies to soccer fields, he is reaching back to help those less fortunate than himself.

“Having come from India to create my own life across the planet, I know that there’s a world of opportunity out there for children, if people will only take the time to help them,” says Kohli. “When a child’s life is made better, their whole life will go better, and they will pay it forward someday as well.”

The Nav tej Kohli Foundation is just getting started as well, as its founder vows to spread goodwill to kids around the planet. With more people like him, the planet will be an ever greater place to be.

Navtej Kohli is driven by a passion to do more and positively impact an ever-growing number of youths. Expanding into the oil industry is just one entrepreneurial way to make a tremendous leap forward, even as he is trying to spread the word of his endeavors to attract outside donors as well..

Sanjay Reddy and Konstantin Menshov’s have always loved working with maps. Lately he’s been using them for an entirely new and exciting purpose: to help a new oil-drilling venture called Granox, Ltd. figure out the best places to find rich fields to explore.

As a cartographer in the Ukraine, both of them are long been familiar with the rich culture of the people and terrain around him. But now that Granox founder Navtej Kohli found out about his skills and asked him to pinpoint the most valuable lands in the region, he has a newfound sense of purpose and enjoys the respect that his family and neighbors are giving him. For once Kohli uses his information and teams up with his engineers, many jobs and plenty of revenue for Konstantin’s village will follow.

“It’s exciting to know that my abilities could result in helping hundreds of people here,” says Sanjay and Konstantin’s, whose big smile is a reflection of his deep pride and satisfaction. “I want to make the world a better place, and I can both do it on a small scale in my village and then on a bigger scale when that oil can be used to help people the world over.”

Creating those kinds of opportunities is what Granox Ltd. and its founder Navtej Kohli are all about. Whether helping people in Kohli’s homeland of India, his adoptive home in UK or halfway across the planet in Siberia, he knows that laying the groundwork today will pay big dividends tomorrow.

Most people spend their entire lives living inside a box created by societal conventions. Navtej Kohli is not one of those people.

Growing up in New Delhi, India, amid the sweeping cultural changes of the 1960s and 70s, he always envisioned a better life for himself and those around him. He knew that with hard work and a firm belief in himself, he could rise above the poverty that much of his nation experiences and make a true success story that could inspire others.

Now he’s achieved that dream, as the founder of the Grafix Softech interactive software firm, the oil exploration corporation Granox, Ltd., and the charitable Navtej Kohli Foundation. Living amid the lush surroundings of Costa Rica, Kohli might have broken out of the poverty of his past, but he’s never forgotten his humble beginnings and always looks to give a hand up to those who are willing to improve themselves as well.

“I think it’s important to show people that there is a better way to live their lives, and that giving them economic opportunities through jobs and better schooling is key to achieving solid goals,” says Kohli. “If each person who has the opportunity to help others would care enough to do so, the world would be a lot better place to live in.”

Blazing a path for others to follow to success, Navtej Kohli is truly one of a kind. Explore his endeavors and you’ll find inspiration to do the same.

Eight-year-old Svetlana Patakovich has a lot more spring in her step lately. That’s because her dad Viktor has a great new job, working as a wildcatter oilman in the newly mined Russian oil fields for Granox, Ltd. Thanks to Granox, Viktor is able to make the best paychecks of his entire life, and that translates to a nicer life for everyone in his family.

“Papa gives me nice dolls now,” says Svetlana, happily waving a doll in her hand. “It’s an American Girl doll.”

Truly a sign of the times, we think. Remember how, just 20 years ago, Russia was America’s enemy? But now, thanks to a bold new world of economic and political freedom, companies like Granox can seek new opportunities in Russia, and in turn create new opportunities for thousands of oil workers like Viktor. And that’s all because of the forward-thinking vision of Granox founder Navtej Kohli.

“All my life, I’ve sought opportunities for myself and my family, from the time I grew up in poverty in New Delhi, India, to today when I have homes in three different continents,” says Kohli. “There truly is no better way to improve the world and the lives of others than by giving them an opportunity to earn more money and lift their lives up.”

At Granox, Ltd., the company believes in a better future for all: whether it’s by treating its workers right, or finding new oil sources in an energy-hungry world. And as long as there are new opportunities to be found, Navtej Kohli will keep his eyes open for the Viktor Patakoviches of the world.

By Navtej Kohli

We often see advertisements on television and on billboards for associations and programs that receive donations for underprivileged children in foreign countries. We’re either moved to call a toll-free number and pledge money to such organizations, or we turn away from the images that make us uncomfortable. It is quite something else to be presented with these images in the flesh, meeting disabled and impoverished children and their families face to face. For me, meeting such people changed my outlook on philanthropy and helped me to understand that calling a toll-free phone line or pledging a couple of dollars to a trust fund isn’t the same as actually working to make a difference in people’s lives. More information is available on my two other blogs, Navtej Kohli at Wordpress, and Navtej Kohli at Livejournal.

On Christmas Day in 2001, my company, Grafix Softech treated our staff to a day out at a farm in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica. During the outing, I was introduced to some of the region’s disabled children and their parents. It was a moving experience. Their experiences with both disabilities and a total lack of resources of coping mechanisms highlighted the disconnect between the act of donating some money and the real people who benefit from those funds. The only real way to help people like this is to work with them, and thus, I was inspired to create what is now the Tej Kohli Foundation.

The Gunacaste province of Costa Rica

Although poverty has been reduced over the past two decades, Costa Rica still suffers from reduced economic growth and a 5.7% unemployment rate. Our government’s efforts to provide universal health care and education are hampered by deficits. This fact - the sticky situation our government is in - is one of the main things that fuels the tragic way many Costa Rican children live. While Costa Rica is quite prosperous in comparison to some of our neighbours, these factors mean that certain sectors of our society need help from the private sector and from philanthropic organisations in order to maintain an acceptable quality of life.

Since its inception, I’ve received immeasurable help from my business partner, Grafix Softech co-founder Juan Bonilla and his wife Alicia. Maria Pais has helped us out as well, and as of right now, the Foundation has helped over two-hundred and fifty children in multiple Costa Rican provinces. My plan is now to extend the Foundation’s reach to children in my native India, and to Africa. They’re lofty goals, but before our company outing, I’d never have known that a small group of people were capable of anything near what we’ve already accomplished.

In order to extend aid to the Far East, I recently met with General AJ Singh (Ret.). Up until now, the efforts of the foundation have been funded exclusively by me, but in order to grow, we’ll need funding from other sources. General Singh and I are attempting to find other donors in order to further the scope of the operation and we’ve had some significant interest, but securing some definite sponsors is still a work in progress.

This said, the Tej Kohli Foundation is far from limited in its achievements. My favourite memory from my time working on this project is probably that of a disabled young woman who was confined to the care and shelter of her parents and completely unable to pay for any education. We are talking about someone whose lifestyle and future are predetermined by her physical and financial constraints; however, with the Foundation’s help, she recently gained a Bachelor’s degree in Organic Chemistry and has since found employment.

Other examples of children whose lives we’ve helped substantially improve include a twelve-year-old boy, afflicted with autism and, again, in a severe state of poverty. With the help of the Foundation, Jose is enrolled in a special education program and enjoys are far more comfortable life than he did previously. Helping children like these is fantastic.

The expansion of the Foundation means that its services can extend from being primarily focused on providing medical and therapeutic care, and continue to offer funds for education, food, clothing and other daily needs. As tough as it can be to see the disastrous situations that children in Costa Rica and abroad have to live in, I really do believe that we’ve made a positive difference and have the potential to make an even bigger dent in the problems poverty creates in our world.

~ Navtej Kohli