Would a law firm sponsor a work visa?

Graduate School Law School
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<p>I'm English and am an aspiring attorney. I'm currently doing my A-Levels and I'm contemplating two different routes.
One is come straight to the US and stay for College and then Law School. This would make me eligible for the citizenship test, I believe?</p>

<p>The other is where my question lies... Stay in England for Uni, and then come to the US for law school. This would be my preferred route as it means I wouldn't being relying on scholarships. </p>

<p>If I did the latter, how much chance do I have of getting a job? Would any law firms, preferably New York or Chicago, be willing to sponsor me? I hear it is around $6k. </p>

<p>Or would the first be better?</p>

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<p>Not an immigration attorney (and you should speak with one), but the question I would ask would be, why would a US firm hire you if you are US educated? We have plenty of US citizens with new US law degrees - why go to the trouble of hiring one who requires so much additional paperwork and expense? What’s the advantage to the law firm? An American firm hiring an experienced British lawyer for it’s international practice would make sense - a British firm hiring a British national trained in US law would make sense, even a newly minted one, but your case makes little sense for anyone - at least in my opinion.</p>

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<p>So would it make more sense to go to college as well in the US? That way, I’d be able to gain citizenship?</p>

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<p>Mr.Mom offers good advice - it might be easier for you to land a job if you have familiarity with British law. That might allow you to have something to offer that an American candidate does not, especially for firms that do business with/for clients “across the pond”. </p>

<p>Otherwise, why would a company want to hire you on the CHANCE that you would be able to get a green card/work permit/license to practice law in the US? People generally get citizenship because they offer something that the US lacks, which is why in the past we’ve gotten a lot of computer experts and engineers from other countries, but now not as much. Lawyers are a dime a dozen these days and there are numerous unemployed law school graduates. Unless you are hoping to fall in love and marry during your American college and/or law school days and get citizenship that way, it might be pretty darn difficult.</p>

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<p>Students attending college in the US do not ordinarily gain the right to reside here permanently - you are generally required to return to your home country. But there are all sorts of exceptions - too numerous to list here, but none of them simple or automatic, short of marrying an American citizen. Canada might actually be an easier route, especially since it is a Commonwealth country.</p>

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<p>Why do you need to be sponsored? Most students are on a student visa, not a work-sponsored visa (and there may be restrictions on attending school if you are on a work visa). Citizenship is an entirely different path.</p>

<p>Law school is not like other schools. You go full time or 3/4 time (night school). Many students work, but not at ‘sponsored’ positions. I really don’t think that a law firm would sponsor a law student. Sponsored employees (on that type of visa) are usually highly specialized like computer programers or engineers, and one of the requirement is that there is a shortage of trained employees in the area who can do the work. There are NO shortages of law students. Firms have programs for law clerks in the summers, and some do employ law clerks part time during the school year, but few are doing unique or specialized work. </p>

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<p>In general, there are “companies” who will sponsor an employee to obtain PR status. They are not necessarily a law firm. I know several. But the sacrifice an alien to get the company sponsorship is too much. You basically have to work for nothing, or just above the poverty level for an otherwise 100K job. The companies do that will exploit the employees to the fullest, until they obtain PR status. Normally the day the employees got the status, they quit.</p>

<p>I know that, because I dated such a person about 30 years ago.</p>

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<p>OTOH, there are plenty H1B visas issued by the state and they are work visas, not for PR status.</p>

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<p>There are more lawyers than the US can handle. Canada needs bilingual lawyers versed in Common Law and Civil Law, but in the US there are so many unemployed law school graduates that only one third actually work as lawyers. So, yes, why would anyone hire a lawyer on H1B unless they bring their special expertise to the table?
You could potentially do your undergrad in the US - for the college experience, because you want to study, say, neuroscience and American studies and couldn’t do that in the UK…- then return to the UK and get your Law Degree from a top UK program with a specialty in corporate, then transfer to a top American Law program, then look for a company impressed with your pedigree. It’s risky and potentially costly.
Getting citizenship is pretty difficult in the US because you need to work, and for that you need to get a H1B, and H1Bs are currently hogged by subcontracting companies that have totally undermined the original purpose of the H1B (which was to stabilize highly educated international workers in the US so that our economy could benefit from their expensive education and skills), with the paradoxal effect that it’s easier if you’re not qualified and just want to be a farmhand, than if you have a master’s degree. :s (I’m not kidding and I don’t think I’m exagerating). Which means your odds of getting a H1B are pretty low. And then you have to work and keep that H1B for 5 years - if at any point you lose your job, you must go home. Only then can you apply to become a citizen.</p>

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<p>^^ Of course, there are exceptions than the rule. If you are a PHI BETA KAPPA, member of Harvard Law Review, you have a good chance.
My Cousin married one, he was in that group and after 40 years, he is still the top lawyer/partner in DB LLP, now DL LLP.</p>

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<p>“So would it make more sense to go to college as well in the US? That way, I’d be able to gain citizenship?”</p>

<p>You have a very deep confusion about the steps toward citizenship in the US. Spend some time reading through the information at <a href=“http://www.uscis.gov/”>http://www.uscis.gov/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If your goal is to work in the US, your best bet would be to complete your legal studies in your home country, then get a job with a large firm that has offices here, and eventually get that firm to send you here to work. </p>

<p>If your goal is citizenship (and you don’t have a US citizen adult sibling, parent, or grandparent) the most direct route would be to marry a US citizen thus qualifying for legal permanent resident status, and to apply for citizenship after 3 years in that status.</p>

<p>The student visa to H1B (work visa) to legal permanent resident to citizen route has many, many bumps along the way. The only people I have ever heard of who did find an H1B sponsor with only an undergrad degree were in engineers or computer scientists. The people I have known who found H1B sponsors with only a Masters degree were also engineers or computer scientists. I have known many others who found H1B sponsors after completing a PhD and working for multiple years in their field of study. Even if you do manage to find an H1B sponsor, that does not automatically lead to permanent residence status, and permanent residence status does not automatically lead to citizenship. </p>

<p>I your goal is to get out of your home country, and make a new life anywhere, look at Canada and Australia. Both of those countries have less complicated immigration policies than the US does.</p>

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<p>In this article
<a href=“H-1B Visa Lottery to Determine Fate for Thousands of Tech Workers”>http://www.voanews.com/content/h-1b-visa-lottery-to-determine-fate-for-thousands-of-hi-tech-workers-/1894079.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Some of the top 10 H1B visa sponsors are Big 4 accounting firms, so, it is possible that a law firm will sponsor a H1B visa as well. Although, the lottery yield only 50% of the partitions.</p>

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<p>But it doesn’t say those employees are accountants; they can very well be IT guys. Also, these sponsored employees are not students but already have degrees. They are ‘highly qualified.’ Again, no such thing as a highly qualified law student because until one graduates and takes the bar, he is just a student and not of much use to the law firm.</p>

<p>I think the OP is just mixing up several different types of US visas - student, workers, sponsored workers.</p>

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<p>So the most likely way I’d get citizenship would be to marry?
And the chance of a law firm sponsoring me for a work visa is really low?
I’ve thought about taking the route where I start in England, and then try transferring, but there is no certainty in it. </p>

<p>Are there any ways where I could get citizenship?
I thought there was a naturalization test, where to be eligible, you need to have stayed in the US for at least 5 years? Is that right?</p>

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<p>If I may, for a future attorney you don’t read or process information very well. Go to the USCIS website. The naturalization test is in addition to qualifying under the other routes – not just being present for 5 years. You possess an extraordinary amount of bad information. And YES – the likelihood of a law firm sponsoring a just graduated student is infinitesimal.</p>

<p>And if you’re still unclear, read this again:

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<p>J21, you could certainly attend college and law school in the U.S. on a student visa but no one here can tell you what the likelihood is of you getting a job and being sponsored by an employer. That is too far down the road to even guess at and will depend on many factors in the intervening years. People here are being a bit harsh about the possibility of working in the U.S. if you are not a permanent resident or citizen. It does happen and isn’t as “infinitesimal” as some may believe. Becoming a U.S. citizen is an entirely different matter and process.</p>

<p>You might want to consider Canada. Gaining entry to law school here is much more difficult but if you do well in undergrad, score well on the LSAT, and have some interesting soft factors, you’ll have a good chance. You will face similar issues in remaining and working in Canada, unless you have an ancestral/familial right to Canadian citizenship. </p>

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<p>French language skills and training in Civil Law are only required in Quebec.</p>

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<p>Again, it happens every year with Canadian grads. So, while there’s no way to know if J21 will be a top student who might be one of those that a firm is interested in hiring, it does happen. U.S. firms hold OCIs on Canadian law school campuses every year and students from those schools go to work for U.S. firms every year. </p>

<p>J21, you’d be far better off, for many reasons, coming to Canada instead. Less expensive education, both undergrad and law school, better job prospects, and the better quality of life issues that exist here. You’re still young, and presumably will be applying this fall for September 2015, right? Have a look at some Canadian university websites and perhaps read through the Canada section of the International Students forum here. Another resource is OUAC, which will give you information on all Ontario universities, for both undergrad and law.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ouac.on.ca/”>http://www.ouac.on.ca/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Schools in other provinces do not have a similar umbrella organization so you’d have to look at individual sites, e.g., UBC, McGill, University of Victoria, and others. </p>

<p>Good luck to you!</p>

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<p>J21, I know of at least one British citizen who was hired last year by a top law firm in California after he graduated from Stanford Law. He did his second summer work in the same firm. His firm is sponsoring his permanent resident visa. Once one becomes a permanent resident, one can apply for citizenship after three years if the residency was originally sponsored by a spouse, otherwise, it is a five years wait after obtaining permanent residency. I believe one can still reasonably assume that a non-US student will be hired if attending one of the top three law schools. </p>

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<p>So it is easier to move to Canada? Do they do the same law course as ABA law Schools? Also, can you, once you have obtained Canadian citizenship, move the the US? Is it possible to get residency in the US after you’re a resident of Canada?</p>

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<p>No, that is what I said in the previous post. You won’t be ‘moving’ in the immigration sense, you’ll be moving on a student visa to attend a university. That process will be similar in both the U.S. and in Canada. International students study in both countries every year. It isn’t unusual. As to the possibilities of permanent residency years down the road, no one can guarantee what the process will be then, or how easy/difficult it may be. You cannot apply for permanent residency in Canada while on a student visa. Once you are a permanent resident, it can take several years to obtain citizenship. At that point, moving to the U.S. may be possible, given certain circumstances but that is impossible to answer hypothetically.</p>

<p>Canadian law schools teach the common law, other than the civil law schools in Quebec. Graduates of the common law schools in Canada are eligible to write the bar exam in NY and MA upon graduation. </p>

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<p>Yes, there are plenty of people with non-US backgrounds who are lawyers. Look at any law school’s yearbook, and there are plenty of foreign students, and the New York legal profession has plenty of people with non-US law degrees in it.</p>

<p>Why not just work for a UK law firm with a US branch office, and then transfer to the US branch office (likely NY), get an LLM in the US and be admitted to the NY bar? Then you can work anywhere, and you don’t have to go to the expense of getting a US BA or JD. I worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and people did that.</p>

<p>To answer the specific question, yes, a US law firm will sponsor you for a work visa. I would think that the job market would be tougher than the horrendous job market for US lawyers, though.</p>