<p>I'm an international student who's interesed in applying to U.S. Colleges(Aren't all we?)
I have a 97/100 GPA and scored around 2100~ in the SAT Blue Book, and some good ECs.</p>
<p>But enough bragging (everyone here is much better, anyways), what I want to ask is this:
How possible it is to stay in America after Graduation?
I know I need to get a H1B Visa, but how hard it is to get one with Undergrad education?
I mean, I could take out big loans and stretch out the money of my parents, but it would be useless if I can't get a job here. And I still would have a loan I couldn't pay because the average salary is much lower in my country.</p>
<p>I could try and get an Undergrad degree in my country, and then try to get a PhD in U.S., but for some reason I think that would be harder (Differences in Academic standards, Even if I got in the best University in my country, "Nowhere State U" is still better, among other things.).</p>
<p>I could also -try- looking at Canada, but they don't give a lot of Financial Aid to Intls.</p>
<p>After all, (at least from my point of view):
What's the point of studying in America, and pay a big amount of money just to get told "Get the f. Out!" after Graduation while all your peers get nice jobs?</p>
<p>It can be very difficult for many international students to stay after graduation. Student visas are just that - for students. To stay longer, you’d need to find a company willing to spend the time (and money) to sponsor you for an H1B. </p>
<p>Also, you should know that American universities, like Canadian schools, don’t give a lot of financial aid to international students either.</p>
<p>Hmm. I had intended to eventually ask this question once the decision period is over and all…</p>
<p>The fact that you would’ve to come back to your home country and is nothing new. H1B visas, as you might know, are strictly capped in the US. Manny internationals who apply for the ‘highly-skilled-immigrants-visa’ eventually do not get it.
Plus all the stuff with the current economy there, they are all the more protective about their jobs going to int’ls. But on the other hand, there are also advocates of increasing the number of H1Bs arguing that int’ls infact benefit the economy of US (by creating jobs, bringing in money etc.). Anyway, let’s not digress</p>
<p> It depends on which school you graduated from, what placements were you offered (if any), financial stability factor, how skilled you are at your job. </p>
<p>A ‘Nowhere state U’ degree would make it difficult for you to stay in US, for example.</p>
<p>
The Education(?). </p>
<p>EDIT: Oh and google this up, you’ll find some very good links on this matter.</p>
<p>katliamom, if you land a job during on-campus recruiting (you pass the interview, and get hired), is it safe to assume that they are going to sponsor your visa? Or is the hiring process and the visa sponsoring process completely separate?</p>
<p>Also, though Canadian schools generally don’t have very good financial aid, their tuition is far cheaper to begin with.</p>
<p>I had the same question…but only for grad school. I have no intention of settling in the US but I * may * want to extend my education in the US after my undergrad (if of course, I get in). How does the visa thing work out in this case?</p>
You will be auto-rejected from a lot of positions if you mention that you are an international student. If you get hired by a company who knows that they will have to sponsor you for a visa, they are most likely willing to do the paperwork for you.</p>
<p>There’s really two main obstacles. The first is that you need to find a company who is willing to invest several thousand dollars into visa fees for an international applicant instead of hiring an American one. The other obstacle is a yearly quota on the number of H-1B visas. If that quota is reached before you apply, you won’t be eligible for a work visa that year. (Currently the quota starts counting in April and students are not eligible to apply for a work visa until they have their diploma in hand, which usually happens in May.) The quota has been reached within a few days in some years and not at all in others. It’s impossible to predict the visa demand (or the supply) for the year that you would be applying for jobs.</p>
<p>“I could try and get an Undergrad degree in my country, and then try to get a PhD in U.S., but for some reason I think that would be harder (Differences in Academic standards, Even if I got in the best University in my country, “Nowhere State U” is still better, among other things.).”</p>
<p>There are many PhD candidates in the US right now who come from universities that may be no better than the one you are describing. Do not assume that that particular pathway is hopeless.</p>
<p>In the past, compared to the US, Canada and Australia have been more generous with work permits for international students, and more generous with immigration visas for those students after they graduate. If your goal is to leave where you are now, and have the chance to make a new life somewhere else, you should investigate opportunities in those two countries.</p>
<p>Well, personally, I’d like to get a good education, interact with people from all over the world, broaden my horizons, and eventually return to my own country, which I love, or, ideally, get a job that allows me to travel all over the planet and visit all kinds of places. There you go.</p>
<p>It’s horrible to plan to stay in America even before you come. I mean the US allows you to come to study at the first place, that’s kind enough. You get chance to learn from the top professors, world-class technologies etc. what more can you ask for?
You should come back to your country soon after you finish studying. From what I saw, people with work visa (H1B) can only stay for a few years, then they can’t extend the visa any more.</p>
No. They can if they want to and if the government permits. After a few years (10, I believe) they can even apply for citizenship. And mannny people do.
It is perfectly alright if you want to stay back.</p>
<p>Get a job wherever you can–is probably the best option in this economy. Getting a job in your home country or in the US are probably the easiest options for a US undergraduate degree holder, but it’s not impossible to get a job in a third country.</p>
<p>This H1B visa has also been giving me a headache… I’m going to apply for undergrad next year, and I definitely don’t want to come back to my home country to work. I want to work in either USA or Canada, but from my initial googling, I have a feeling that there would be a higher chance of landing a job and successful immigration to Canada than the US, if you rule out marriage as an option (which is rather unpredictable I suppose).</p>
<p>What do you guys think? Is it really worth giving up an education in USA and settling with an education in Canada for the job prospects?</p>
<p>It depends. But yes, the USA is (uniquely?) harsh in this respect: after your visa is up, you get a year (or 2?) of Optional Practical Training work, and then it’s back to your home country or apply for a working visa like everybody else. And that work visa would likely be the dreaded H1-B, which is both very hard to get, and tough to live with. America is not nice to economic migrants, generally.</p>
<p>Realistically, you would be extremely lucky to stay in the US after finishing an undergrad degree here.</p>
<p>Canada, the UK and Australia are much more sensible about this.</p>
<p>Why is that so horrible? After living in a country for 4 years your whole life will be based there. All your friends will be there and you might have a girlfriend/boyfriend. It’s perfectly normal to want to stay, especially if you want to go to graduate school.</p>
<p>Sorry I should have been a bit less curt. The h1b can only be renewed up to 6 (?) years, but by that time you can apply for a green card. Then it can be renewed indefinitely.</p>
<p>That process takes a long time, though, I think.</p>