UK student wanting to move to the US upon graduating - Advice on best degrees to do

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hi guys, I’m hoping I could get more relevant advice here. I’m a 21 (nearly 22) year old British student and will be moving to the US (maybe Canada) sometime in the future, I want to know what the best degree/major would be for this, taking into consideration salary and career stability in the states.

Currently I’m due to start a Civil Engineering degree in a few weeks, I completed a foundation in engineering a few years ago and in all honestly really disliked it, the only reason I would be doing this would be for career/financial stability and nothing more. I have the option to change to a few other subjects, I’m sticking to quantitative courses because that’s something I enjoy, I’d appreciate if you guys could give me some advice on which of these subjects would A) Make the migration process a little easier, B) Are in demand, or will make job hunting easier C) have the potential for higher salary (both short and long term). These are the degrees I have offers for in addition to civil engineering (all are BSc) at various universities:

Mathematics and Finance
Economics with Finance
Finance
Software engineering
Computer science
Mathematics and Statistics with Management

I’m also more than willing to undertake a 1 year masters if it will help improve my prospects.

All of these will take the same amount of time to finish; 3 years. As I mentioned, I do like quantitative subjects, but I don’t think I want to go for something that is primarily a Maths degree, e.g Maths & finance. Can you guys tell me which you think would be the best way forwards?

One more thing, I actually have zero in a career in Banking, but interested in the general finance field. Thanks in advance!

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If you like coding, programmers have received the most H-1B work visas in recent years (with a variety of job titles: software engineering, operations research analyst, database manager, etc).

I would like to warn you that it is non-trivial to obtain a work permit in the US. If you are a sufficiently important person in an international corporation, the company can transfer you into its US branch on an L-visa.

There are “general purpose” H-1B work visas that US companies can use to hire foreigners with a college degree. Unfortunately, these visas are handed out by lottery because the number of applications far exceeds the number of visas allowed by law. Even in the best-case scenario, the company would have to wait at least 6 months between submitting your visa application and your earliest allowed start date. (Which is why H-1Bs are typically sponsored for people already in the US on another visa type, such as a student visa that comes with a 12-month work permit post-graduation.)

If you happen to find a small firm run by a citizen of your country of citizenship on an E-investor visa, that company could sponsor you for an E-visa as well (but the citizenships need to match).

Alternatively your US employer could skip the work visa process and sponsor you directly for an employment-based green card. However, in the process they have to document that they were unable to find a qualified American worker for the position, which usually limits this path to highly qualified individuals (such as university professors).

A few select occupations can self-petition for a green card, including religious ministers or physicians working in medically-underserved communities (such as prisons), or people with documented “extraordinary abilities” in the arts or sciences (e.g. scientists with a Nobel Prize, or actors with an Oscar Academy Award.)

If you just want to work in the US for a short period of time, you can pursue an internship on a J-1 visa. However, that requires an organization that overseas your internship, which you will have to pay. (And unless you can find yourself your own internship placement, you may also have to pay an organisation to find you a placement.)

You could also get a graduate degree in the US, and the student visa will come with a 12-month work permit that you can use for a degree-related job after graduation.

Or you can ditch the idea of work-related visas altogether and pursue a family-based immigration strategy. If you already have close family members who are US citizens (e.g. parents or siblings), that may be an option, though there’s a long waiting list in some categories (as long as 25 years…).

The quickest way to get a family-based green card would be to marry a US citizen.

3

Any of those besides the civil engineering (ABET accreditation is actually something that matters in that field in the US, and your uni likely doesn’t have it for its engineering programs).

And yes, a graduate degree or marriage are probably the easiest ways.

4

You can’t just up and go to the US to find a job the way you’d do for Germany, Sweden, France, or Bulgaria (or used to). You can use your ESTA time to travel but officially you can’t be looking for a job. And if you don’t have a US degree, only a British BS, you can’t have OPT and thus you odds of getting hired are virtually nil.

5

Thank you for this very detailed reply, I’ve done a lot of research on the different routes into the US and it’s by no means straightforward, unless your employed by an international company who’re willing to relocate you. For now I’ll be applying for the DV lottery, no luck last year but I’ve got a few more years yet, we’ll see how it goes lol.

6

Yep, I talked with a guy who was a chartered civil engineer in the UK, he married a US citizen and moved over there, it took him a couple of years, moving to a different state and a few more examinations to finally get his Professional engineer status. It sounds like a nightmare.

You mentioned that any of the other degrees would be fine; I’m more drawn to either Economics with finance, or Finance and accounting (this one I can complete in 2 years as the university offers an integrated program). Do you think these degrees would allow me to get a good Job in the US?

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Not sure why my replies aren’t showing up :confused:

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.@MYOS1634 the plan was never to just pickup and move to the US, after graduating I’ll be working for a few years to gain experience, once I have this, I’ll then go through the official routes to gain work visas, or if I work at a firm that has branches in the US, I’ll go down that path.

9

Accounting is different in the UK and the US - you’d need to complete 2 years in the US after your British degree. (Americans have to complete 5 years to be CPA’s).
I don’t think you can get a job and a work visa as an international educated abroad, frankly. :frowning: The system is really completely crazy at the moment - even for internationals who have a US degree and OPT and an employer who wants them, there is a lottery, so imagine for someone who comes in without those…
I agree participating in the DV lottery is a good move.

10

I imagine there does exist some demand for experts on the Irish tax code, with so many “American” corporations being headquartered in Ireland…

11

^ Demand for them in Ireland, sure.
Don’t see why American companies would put their Irish tax experts in the US.

12

Can confirm that there are lots of specialists in US tax code working in Dublin :slight_smile:

…and a certain amount of sharing of staff and other resources between the offices of the big accounting/tax/legal firms. It does seems as though more US folks rotate through Ireland than the other way around. …