<p>Hello,</p>
<p>We're Canadians and are wondering whether there are many opportunities for internships in the States (paid preferably) for Canadians without US citizenship. Do applications for internships often ask for your citizenship status? Are American applicants generally favored over others?</p>
<p>Also, if anyone has any information specifically about the above relating to Dartmouth opportunities for Canadians, that would be great.</p>
<p>Thanks very much for reading and taking the time to reply!</p>
<p>When DS went to the west coast for an internship with a major Electronics company, there were student-visa interns getting a healthy stipend. (This was a couple of years ago …)</p>
<p>I think your question is hard to answer now. It is dependent on several factors…the student’s major,his/her desirability to the employer and the employer’s history of hiring non US citizens. Many international students do have internships sponsored for them so it is possible.
Yes, the application forms generally do ask whether the student is eligible to work in the US or not.</p>
<p>Call Dartmouth; they have an office for foreign students which handles the legalities of a wide range of issues a student will face. Work/Immigration/Visa issues are complex and require accurate information, not random postings on an anonymous message board.</p>
<p>My own company deals with students all the time who try to tell us what our policy is on Green cards/OPT/LPT/student visas. It’s too bad they get their information from Vault or some other message board, and not from an accurate source. DHS is not the cake-walk it used to be on immigration; big companies do not want to violate the law; there is a lot of wishful thinking on the part of non-US citizen students on how easy it will be to get sponsored by their employer.</p>
<p>Make a phone call and get real information.</p>
<p>^^^ What blossom said.</p>
<p>I’m Canadian and naturalized American. Our family went through the whole employment-based immigration sequence. US law is complex and stringent.</p>
<p>blossom is right on. Our D is in college in the states and has to do an internship next summer, it is not as easy as just saying yes I will take it. There is paperwork involved and a number of restrictions that you need to be aware of. Make sure you do everything right or you take the chance of saying goodbye to any future chances.</p>
<p>Here is one link that will give you some basic information about CPT (while the student is still in college) and OPT (after graduation). <a href=“http://icenter.stanford.edu/docs/students/CPTvsOPT.pdf[/url]”>http://icenter.stanford.edu/docs/students/CPTvsOPT.pdf</a> Please note that the federal government could change these policies at any moment, and that they do vary by the field of study. For current policy, your student should speak with the International Student Office at his/her college/university. If your student is in the college application process, and has not yet committed to studying in the US, it is perfectly OK to email the ISOs at a couple of places on the application list, and ask about how that college/university handles internship issues.</p>