Hi. I am an international student, and I heard about how it’s hard to find a job without a work visa.
How hard is it? Are there some states that are more lenient with international workers?
I plan on going into science major in a liberal art school. Would it be hard for me to get a job with only bachelor’s degree?
I heard getting a graduate degree is kinda required nowadays. But I don’t want to due to financial reasons. I will be in debt of about 50k from only undergraduate school…
Can anyone please share their insights?
It’s not a state-by-state thing. There are a set number of visas for set types of situations set by the federal govenment. The short answer is, yes, it is hard to get a work visa with a freshly-minted bachelors: there are a lot of citizens who are in the same boat and the view is that they should be first up to get the jobs. Your employer would have to say that you have some special skill that they can’t find in the US, which is why the most common way in is high-tech visas. Another way is to be transferred within a company, another is to start a busines. I am sure that other people will jump in to outline the various visas and who qualifies (somewhere on this thread, in the last month or so, somebody did a nice job of it. But no, it is not realistic to plan on getting a work visa straight out of college. Sorry…
I used to work for J&J about 30 years ago, their lab technicians were all Phd graduates. Today’s science employment market is full of graduates, most of the undergraduates in science fields are selling clothing’s and working as a bar tender. Those are US citizens, as far as internationals, I don’t think you stand a chance to get a work visa after getting a science degree. Computer, perhaps, not pure science.
Oh. thanks for the reply.
What about going into pharmacy school?
I got accepted to 6 year program pharmacy. If I go to that field, what are the chances that I’d get a sponsor?
You didn’t listen to the previous advice. It doesn’t really matter what the major is because working in the US requires a lot of commitment on the part of the employer and you need to realize that you are in the US for your education only.
AND,
Pharmacy is not lacking US citizens for applicants.
In California, there are too many pharmacy graduates and not enough jobs.
In other words, plan to return home to do pharmacy. The US companies won’t sponsor you.
It’s possible but unlikely. The Department of Labor publishes data on every position that a “labor certification” is sought for - the labor certification is the first step for an employer who wants to sponsor a work visa.
You can see that about 300 labor certifications were issued for pharmacist positions in FY 2014. Most of them were at retail pharmacies (Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS), with yearly salaries in the 40k - 70k range.
To put the 300 labor certifications for pharmacists into perspective, over 200,000 labor certifications were issued for programming and IT jobs in the same time period.
Since the employers are even more discouraged to pay for expensive government fee, it would be even harder.
However, wouldn’t it be slightly easier if you say: I will pay for the government fees associated with applying for H-1B?
I mean, I would be more than glad to pay for those if I could AND if it makes things much easier
Are you imagining that the government thinks that there is such a shortage of Americans who are familiar with the American system and can speak English that they need to encourage foreign workers to come to the US? Or that the money from the fees (~$1500-$2000) is meaningful in government terms?
The US government - in this area at least -is like politicians and governments in every single country in the world: they want their own citizens to have first crack at the jobs going. If you have the money (~$150K+) to invest in a business, then the government will be happy to give you a visa.
In the meantime, if I remember correctly (I might not), you are currently getting a nearly free education courtesy of the American taxpayers in Alabama. I know you don’t like the answers you are getting, but I am not understanding your indignation.
I am 100% fine with the companies prioritizing citizens. I would, too. Why would I employ a foreign perso unless he or she has outstanding skills? I am just saying that if companies want foreign workers (who can speak English and are well adapted to America) for whatever reasons, the current policies about H1B would only hinder that.
By the way, I am NOT going to my school for almost free. Including very necessary personal expenses and other stuff included I am still paying close to 10k per year, and will increase next year because my engineering courses cost a bit more than other courses. Plus the book costs will add to that. Yes, much less than what other people pay but still not really free, strictly speaking. Also my MERIT scholarship is given not because UA is being nice to me but because the school has been working really hard to attract high stat oos kids.
Yes I am VERY grateful to my school that I have been awarded full tuition scholarship, and that money mostly came from FOOTBALL profit that our school makes, not from either government or tax payers.
Actually, I agree with you that the H1B system is seriously flawed, and imo making it easier for really talented people to go where their skills can be used best - in the US or any other country- is a good idea: sharper competition makes for better overall results.
However, it is also fair to say that very very few freshly minted undergraduates- however talented they are- have “outstanding skills”- they may have outstanding potential, but as a group they are necessarily green, and the correlation between shining in university and shining in the workplace is not not a perfect one. Thus, “if companies want foreign workers (who can speak English and are well adapted to America) for whatever reasons”, the onus is on them to find ones who bring something that is not generally available locally, and most often that is specific skills/experience, which new graduates generally don’t have much of.
As for the funding of your merit scholarship (which exists, as you say, specifically to attract talented students, which you obviously are): it is a bit disingenuous to imagine that taxpayer support of UA is unrelated to you.
The direct allocation of funds for academic merit scholarships is (I think) from UA’s Endowment, which is largely funded by donations (including some of the ~$70m in private gifts (ie from individuals) that UA gets annually (I think that the scholarships funded through the football revenues are for athletics). But, without annual income such as the $144m in operating funds from the state of Alabama and the nearly $60m from the federal government (http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20100430/NEWS/100429415), the University would not be in a position to either provide scholarships or provide the education you are getting. It’s all part of a whole.
I am actually more sympathetic to your situation than this post might make you think, but getting mad or being belligerent isn’t going to help.
*though imo they have gotten too hard, but that is another conversation
Thanks for your post collegemom3717.
I m not necessarily mad, not even pissed. I am just not understanding absurdities of H1B processes.
I agree on that freshly graduated kids dont have much if experience and expertise , though.
Also about merit scholarship coming from Football, thats just what I was told in my schools forum.
Married? I dont know XD. However I may get GC withi 4 years.
A graduate education in the US in the sciences typically is fully funded, meaning the student receives a full tuition scholarship plus a teaching/research assistantship which pays a modest stipend to live on.
Forget trying to get a work visa w an undergrad science degreee. Even US citizens have a hard time finding related work w only an undergrad science degree.
Yup. Med school is essentially never funded (though there are exceptions, e.g. through the military). But it’s super easy to immigrate with a US medical education - you can self-petition for a green card via national interest waiver, if you’re willing to do a 5-year stint in a medically underserved community.