Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Work visa problems

Over the last few years immigration or visa is a hot topic in the US and getting a work visa or H1b has become increasingly difficult

With the H1B cap reduced to 65000 for the past few years, along with additional 20000 for international students having a degree in the US.

The problem five years ago was getting a job and of course one with H1B sponsorship after a successful completion of graduate school.
Now the problem does not end there. Students normally have a employment authorization document(EAD) to work for a year after their degrees. What after that?

Now an H1b is based on lottery program as the number of applications increase every year much beyond the 65000 cap .

How has this affected studends graduating and starting on a job?
1. How long do they sign the apartment lease? Until their EAD or hope that they are lucky that they scrape through the H1b lottery system
2. Should they invest in a car? Who knows they might have to sell it off as soon as their EAD expires.

Life has certainly become more difficult for international students after graduation..

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tapan! I've tagged you and Kasturi on a post on my quirky habits. I'm hoping that you will do the same!!
for details:
http://onlyshruti.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/who-me-quirky/

Anonymous said...

I heard the same from one of my friends staying the US. He has gone back to being a part-time student so that ensures that atleast he stays back in the US. I do not know how the nitty-gritties work but that's what I understood from what he told me.

Thanks for your comment on my blog!

Anonymous said...

I seem to agree with that not by experience but by conversational knowledge with a friend! :) That only means that I spoke to someone in the US who told me that he was facing these H1B problems big time!

Thanks for your comment on my blog! :)