<p>I was wondering how it would work if a married international student went to college in the US. Would the spouse be able to come with the student? How difficult would it be for them to get a work visa if they worked in some kind of trade (electrician, etc)?</p>
<p>Trying to find information for a friend who's considering this. :)</p>
<p>Most students have an F-1 visa. Their spouse could accompany them on an F-2 visa if they can document sufficient financial resources to support both of them without the spouse taking on a job. F-2 dependents are not allowed to work at all.</p>
<p>Americans are very protective of their labor market and don’t want foreigners to compete for jobs with Americans. All of the work visas out there are targeted specifically at segments of the job market where there are not enough Americans to fill the demand. For example, there are work visas for religious workers, for artists of exceptional ability, for seasonal agricultural workers or for college graduates. </p>
<p>I am not aware of a work visa that would fit your friend’s needs. However, I would encourage them to talk to a US immigration lawyer to find out for sure.</p>
<p>Thank you b@r!um, I really appreciate the information. 
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<p>Do you have any idea where I could find a list of the kind of workers that would be able to get visas? I know you listed a couple but I would be interested to see what the others are.</p>
<p>[USCIS</a> - Working in the United States](<a href=“http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD]USCIS”>http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=a39e901bf9873210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD)</p>
<p>The navigation menu on the left lists all of the various employment and student visa categories.</p>
<p>@b@r!um When you say there are visas for college grads. Do you mean that if I become a college graduate in america (taking my undergrad years and graduate years in the U.S) I am eligible for a green card?</p>
<p>Anyone with a Bachelor’s degree (whether from the US or abroad) is theoretically eligible for an employment-based green card. However, the employer needs to petition for a green card for you and that’s quite a non-trivial process. For example, your employer needs to document that there are no Americans qualified for and interested in your position. That practically limits employment-based green cards to people with advanced degrees and/or significant work experience. </p>
<p>It’s much easier for your employer to go the time-limited H-1B work visa route. An H-1B can be extended for up to six years; at that point you need to switch to a different visa (e.g. an employment-based green card) or leave the country. The catch here is that there’s a yearly cap on the number of H-1B visas issued. In some years visa candidates had to be selected by a lottery because the number of applications exceeded the yearly cap on the very first day of the year that applications were accepted.</p>
<p>I know only one person who received an employment-based green card. This person has a Ph.D. in a scientific field, holds multiple patents in the US and the home country, has multiple years of experience as a university professor and bio-medical researcher in the home country, and has been a visiting scientist (J-1) in the US for several years working with people who are doing cutting-edge biotechnical research. That is the kind of person who after months of legal wrangling, and several near failures of the application process, manages to get an employment-based green card. </p>
<p>Everyone else I know who got their green cards without winning the green card lottery, being married to a US citizen, or arriving in the US in refugee status, did so after working here for the maximum number of years permitted with an H-1B.</p>