Job Employment for international student

Student Lounge International Students
1

I am looking for advice from undergrads or graduates. I am an international student from South Korea, who goes to school in America. I was wondering how hard is employment in U.S for international student, and is going to U.S college worth over going to college iN my home country. You know U.S colleges are so expensive!!! I heard even if I get a decent job in U.S, the possiblities of me getting a visa to stay is difficult, since visa is distributed randomly. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE!!!

2

Do NOT count on getting a work visa for the US. Other posters will jump in with more details, but the bottom line is that very very very few new college graduates get work visas. The company who employs you has to apply for the visa for you, which takes time and work and they would have to really really want you to go through that process- and even then there are quotas on the types of visas, etc.

3

I think employers also have to show there are no citizens available for the job. Since thousands and thousands of US students graduate from college each year, the chances of not being able to find a qualified American to hire are really slim.

4

In that case, will it be better for me to go to college in my home country???

5

Two choices:

  1. Go to US college with prestige(since Korea in general doesn’t understand that in U.S, college education is what you make of it in college) and go back to Korea and get a job. I am a Korean btw and I know how prestige-driven Korea is regarding both employment and colleges
  2. Go to school in Seoul
6

I know several internationals have become professional students, they kept on going with their studies and have completed several advanced degrees in hope to get employment in U.S.

7

My cousin, a new tenure track professor at a great LAC, is currently struggling to get a work visa. He is a physics professor. It is hard as only 30% of applications that are sponsored by employers get through (although I think my cousin has better odds because he is competing in a different pool).

So yeah, don’t count on it. You can work anywhere from 12 to 27 months depending on what your degree is, but that’s it.