<p>Wow, carnelian you enlighten me. Is it true that the academic people can stay back easier? And to what extends? Thank you.</p>
<p>Ah alright I understand why US would impose such quotas but still I am looking more for “reality” than for “theory”. In theory, especially in this economic crisis, all jobs particulary that of the undergraduate level should strictly be limited to american citizens only, and internationals should only be hired if they are in a field where no American can replace, such as a Masters or a PhD. However in reality, hundreds of INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE students get hired in firms, whether they majored in business or engineering.</p>
<p>Now I definitely understand (and know as a fact) that petitioning for an H1B visa will be significantly easier if one has a specialty, such as engineering and the sciences (all STEM majors) but I want a REALISTIC overview of the employment rate of international undergraduates, not just a flat out 0% - like what it should be in THEORY.</p>
<p>By the way, I really appreciate your posts Carnelian, its good to have someone reply TT</p>
<p>Well, I do know that when my father’s attorney completed his paperwork they only had to advertise in the local area within the state where the job was. So you could perhaps look at what shortages particular geographical regions have. For example, the Southern US has very few schools prominent by international standards compared to the North. Therefore, it might be easier to find a ‘willing’ employer to sponsor a student in such an area.</p>
<p>But one thing I’ve learned living in America is that every person you meet has a different story and got here a different way. Some were lucky who found an employer who took a chance on them. Some, like my father, worked for a big multi-national company who transfered them here. So I don’t know of any way to give you a realist assesement of the opportunites available to international students. Also, the way our economy is going, it’s very diffucuilt to predict the situation that we will be in by the time you graduate. There are those that say we will be booming again and all will be as it was before. There are those that say that this recession is going to end US economic dominance. I take what “they” say with a grain of salt; afterall, “they” had a very big part of getting us into this mess to begin with. Bottom line: no one, even top economists, know what the future holds. 10 years ago we didn’t know about the mess thats going on now, and we have no way of knowing where we will be in another 10 years time. But the health of the overall economy will affect your ability to get a job in this country as an international student.</p>
<p>Also, you might want to try and look at other countries as well. For example, Britian has a very generous immigration system. Its easy for students who have studied there to stay there. Australia also has a very generous program towards students. If you complete a degree there, you are immediatley eligible to apply for permanent residence after you have graduated. And Canada’s immigration minister recenetly stated Canada’s desire to attract and retain more international students.</p>
<p>Another thing. When you try to find a job in America, the way you ‘sell’ yourself to your employer and the impression that you give them of yourself often counts even more than your qualifications. For example, I recenlty had two friends who graduated college from the same school and had the same major. One had a GPA that was borderline, and another one had a virtually perfect GPA. Well, the one that was borderline has excellent people’s skills and she got 9 interviews and 3 job offers. The one that had the near perfect GPA had also around 9 or 10 interviews but didnt get a single job offer. </p>
<p>So obviously those internationals who get job offers were able to convince their employers that they had something unique to offer their company and that hiring them was well worth the extra effort that they would have to put in.</p>
<p>Lastly, some personal advice. America is a wondeful country, no doubt. As somebody who grew up in England ,I can tell you that there is more opportunity in America and more earning potential than in Europe. I can honestly say that I have noticed that the average American earns more money and pays less tax than the average Briton. Combine that with the fact that the general price of “things” in America is much cheaper in Britian and then you get an increased standard of living.</p>
<p>However, I do not think that the difference between America and other industrialized countries is so great as to justify the stress and burdens that many F1 students go through in their pursuit of permanent residency. I would not personally go through it. If my parents had not brought me here, I would not have come here. I would either have stayed in Britian or moved somewhere with more generous immigration laws, such as Australia or New Zealand.</p>
<p>@carnelian You spelled Britain wrong. Three times.</p>
<p>lol noob. his replies were informative thou gg</p>
<p>honeybunny =P, you misinterpreted the list you quoted. The list shows how many H-1B visas go to employees of these universities, e.g. professors. Look at the reference of the wiki table if you don’t believe me.</p>
<p>You can most certainly get a job in the US with a degree in business. However, you will most likely need several years of work experience or an advanced degree to gain skills and knowledge in an area not covered by a typical Bachelor’s degree unless you are lucky enough to get one of those highly-sought-out jobs in e.g. consulting, which do not need any internship experience. Getting a management job with no work experience is arguably a lot more challenging.</p>
<p>Same goes for liberal arts. Most liberal arts degrees don’t teach any knowledge sought out by employers (except in academia, but here again you would need an advanced degree). But you can certainly make up for that with several years of work experience in some specialized area.</p>
<p>*** ? i guess its freak luck that 11 out of 14 friends of mine got visa sponsorship. i swear this whole thing is being exaggerated to no end. and no, none of them were from top colleges. not even top 50, in fact.</p>
<p>
The problem is not getting a job. The problem is getting the visa. This past year’s graduates got help from the recession: the visa quota was not reached until December. In pre-recession years, the quota was reached in early April (within a week of the first day that applications were accepted!). We should expect the demand on visas to go back up once the economy recovers.</p>
<p>well yeah that’s basically what i meant. they’re all working in the US right now. the remaining 3 moved to australia, which is surprisingly liberal when it comes to handing out work visas, though the blatant racism is something that’s sorta worrying.</p>
<p>Like I said before, visa sponsorship is usually much easier with an advanced degree. There are 20,000 H1-B visa’s reserved for people with advanced degrees from the US, so they get first priority there. Also, you can file EB2 for permanent residence which usually means you will get your greencard faster versus other routes. You are also much less likely to run into problems with labor certificaiton with an advanced degree.</p>
<p>At the end of the day a company can offer you any job they want. But it is still up to the INS to grant you work authorization to take that job. They make the rules and they dont make exceptions.</p>
<p>Going from H-1B to a permanent resident visa is tricky. With few exceptions, your employer would have to prove that there are no eligible American workers to do your job. </p>
<p>There is no such rule to get the H-1B in the first place. The DOL’s Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2006-2011 (pg. 36) states:
To get an H-1B, your employer merely has to show that you are paid the same or more as local American workers in your position.</p>
<p>By far the fastest (and easiest if you are lucky) way to get a Green Card is through the lottery. I had my permanent resident visa a bit over a year after my initial lottery entry.</p>
<p>b@r!um -</p>
<p>Do you know if it is possible for a student to pursue only UNPAID rather than PAID internships as a way of reserving all of their OPT for after graduation?</p>
<p>Supposedly unpaid internships can be done without OPT provided the position is usually unpaid. If no intern is paid for the internship, international students don’t need OPT. However, if other interns are paid, foregoing the salary or stipend or other benefits does not exempt us from the OPT requirement.</p>
<p>That is what an immigration lawyer said at an employment workshop last February. I wish I had a reference to an official source.</p>
<p>Barium is correct. I have participated in several unpaid internships and such. He /She is also correct in that if a job pays, the student cannot just forgo the payment so he or she could go unpaid (maybe the student just wants experience). The Job has to be advertised as an unpaid internship.</p>
<p>So, how is the job scene for international Master’s and PhD students?</p>
<p>Thanks b@r!um! Back in the stone age when I was in college, “internships” were unpaid and only rich kids could take advantage of them. The rest of us had “summer jobs” which sometimes were career related and sometimes weren’t. I’m trying to catch up with the change in terminology.</p>
<p>arronie - I know several internationals with PHDs in the bio-sciences and multiple years of post-doc research who have managed to find jobs in the US. If that is your goal, try to avoid studying here with a J-1 visa. Many J-1 sponsors will not release the visa holder to a job in the US even if there is an employer who wants them.</p>
<p>The shift in terminology is interesting! It seems like almost any job can be labelled as an internship nowadays. How about an internship in the Provost’s Office (filing papers and answering calls)? Or in internship with Multimedia Services (porting the content of the old college website onto a site with a new layout)?</p>