<p>Im thinking about software engineering because i wanna know how to mod games :) but I have never coded before and i hear that programming is hard and this major imvolves lots of math and im not exceptionally good at math. I think im more of an imaginative person.</p>
<p>So my purpose is to find a job in the US which allows me to stay in the States ( and eventually granted me a green card- dont know if this is possible or not ) after i got a bachelor (or master if possible). What majors/degrees are best for this?</p>
<p>The only people I have personally met who managed to get sponsored for an H-1B right out of college were working either in the STEM sector (specifically computer science, engineering, statistics) or got a ‘prestigious’ consulting or finance job. All of them graduated from very selective universities (Ivies and the like). </p>
<p>Your odds of getting sponsored for a work visa get a lot better with a graduate degree; both because you are more qualified and because there are extra visas set aside for applicants with a graduate degree from an American university. (The yearly cap on the number of work visas is a big issue right now because it effectively turns the work visa application into a lottery for your employer.) However, graduate school can be expensive. </p>
<p>That being said, choose a college major and an occupation that you enjoy and can excel at. There’s no need for companies to “import” mediocre software engineers - there are plenty American ones already.</p>
<p>By the way, getting a green card through marriage is much faster and more reliable than getting a green card through employment. </p>
<p>If you marry a US citizen, you’ll have your green card within half a year. If you go the employment route, you’ll be in for a 5-25 year wait, depending on the benevolence of your employer and your nationality. (Citizens of India and the Phillipeans currently face the longest waiting periods; up to 20 years after their employer submits their green card petitions.) In order to petition for your green card, your employer will have to conduct a national search and document that there are no qualified Americans available to fill your position. You are also tied to one specific employer until you get your green card. </p>
<p>I’m not saying that you should enter a sham marriage solely for the purpose of immigration; but it won’t hurt to put ‘finding a partner’ on your priority list in college. </p>
<p>Well i have never had a girlfriend before so i think my chances of finding a girl thats willing to marry or even dating me is non existent (im not too ugly but extremely timid.) </p>
<p>TCooper, if there’s even a HINT that your goal isn’t to return home upon getting your degree, you will NOT get your student visa. Period. And final.</p>
<p>Overall, OPT is easier with a degree in CS or engineering or in a field where you can use your bilingualism (native language/English) but H1Bs are very hard to come by under the current laws since they’re hogged by a sort of “in/outsourced” systems (the original goal was to let highly qualified internationals, American-educated especially, to work for US companies who could use their ideas, but it’s been deviated in the past few years, making it harder for legitimate companies and legitimates graduates to actually use the system which is supposed to help them. So, right now, a company can have a job that’s perfect for you and be willing to hire you due to your unique skills but can be barred from it, leaving hte company in a lurch … because some offshore company used up visas to “import” workers and pay them less than they should. The system is being modified but I think it got blocked in Congress. I’m sorry because I’m not explaining this well. )</p>
<p>“By the way, getting a green card through marriage is much faster and more reliable than getting a green card through employment.”</p>
<p>That has been my personal observation too. My SIL was a top notch student Was a Fulbright scholar, had a masters from a prestigious program, had work experience in the country at very high levels and was accepted to Harvard after a stint with MicroSoft, and she HAD to get married to my brother or get deported because of a gap between job and the start of school She literally had days before deportation which would have put her Harvard acceptance in jeopardy, before she and my brother, threw up their hands and went the marriage route which they had planned to do in couple of years anyways. Cost our government, and all of us a tidy sum, as my brother immediately left for a combat zone and she was entitled to spousal pay under those provisions as a result of the hasty marriage which would not have happened had our immigration laws been more reasonable. Serves us all right for having such stupid laws as there are illegal immigrants all over the place that are being protected by our laws and yet someone who falls into s small gap as she did was going to be deported. </p>
<p>So, yes, getting H1Bs are very difficult to get since companies do not like going through the process is tedious and not something they want to do. You don’t fall into a certain set category, you don’t get. It’s a lot easier not to hire foreigners. STEM is the best way to go, usually for jobs that employers simply cannot fill with US citizens. Also finding the funnel through which internationals are hired can be tricky. My SIL simply was unaware of the process and nearly got shafted as a result. She says a lot of people are. </p>
<p>If you are looking at specific professions, physicians and religious workers have their own green card categories. Physicians can get a green card without a sponsoring employer if they make a commitment to work in an underserved area (e.g. prisons, free clinics, rural communities) for 5 years.</p>
<p>Religious workers can also get a green card without a sponsoring employer after they have been affiliated with that religion for at least 2 years, if they can convince immigration officials that they seek to stay in the US solely to carry out their religious calling.</p>
(im not too ugly but extremely timid.) </p>
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