# is this a good time to be an international student in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 5, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546 "2009-02-05T09:28:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZB134](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZB134](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZB134)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/1 "2009-02-05T09:28:50Z")
i am planning (already applied and waiting for admit) on doing a masters degree(industrial engg) in the US. once i am done with my degree i plan to stay on and work there… considering the present economic/job situation is it a good idea? keep in mind that it will be another 2 years by the time i graduate(hopefully:D) ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/2 "2009-02-05T09:35:47Z")
If the exchange rates are favorable, it may be cheaper to live and go to school here than wherever you’re from. In times like these, it’s hard to say what the next couple of years will bring. However–and I say this _not_ as an expert of any kind, but just as an American spouting an answer off the top of my head–engineers may see a higher and higher demand for their skills as Obama’s economic stimulus plan goes into effect. I’ll be curious to see if anyone who actually knows what they’re talking about can weigh in on this! Hostile Dialect, Hostile Dialect, Narcissist ---
**Author:** ![ZB134](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZB134](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZB134)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/3 "2009-02-05T10:52:45Z")
To elaborate a little more on my **OP** : i plan to join a pretty good (_top 30 in us news ranking_) university for a masters degree in industrial engineering, once i am done with the course which should be sometime in 2011 i am hoping to get recruited by some American company and plan to work and maybe even settle permanently from the many friends i have in US universities i know for a fact that right now is a terrible time to be an international student who is finishing his or her grauate degree…coz there are absolutely no job offers… infact a friend is reluctantly planning on doing a PhD just so that he can stay on in the US!! i am hoping things get a lot better by 2011… and Obama had said this "“We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work and become Americans over time…”… would love to hear your thoughts on this ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/4 "2009-02-05T13:56:29Z")
Getting a student visa doesn’t necessarily imply that you will get a work permit, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/5 "2009-02-05T15:30:05Z")
> [@treis](#): > > Getting a student visa doesn’t necessarily imply that you will get a work permit, IIRC. If you are a student in F-1 status, and you finish your degree, you are entitled to apply for one year of U.S. employment authorization to work in your field, without needing any kind of employer sponsorship. (The university internaitonal student office will help you with the paperwork.) They just changed the rules this past year so that you can’t be unemployed for more than a certain amount, cumulatively, during that period (60 days IIRC), or you are then out of status and are required to change to another status or leave the U.S. The international student advisor at your school can tell you all about how this works. If you want to work in the U.S. after your post-degree completion employment authorization runs out, your employer will need to sponsor you for a work visa of some kind, typically an H-1B for positions that require at least a bachelor’s degree. A person can be in H-1B status for a total of 6 years, cumulatively, though in some cases they can extend their H-1B status beyond 6 years if they have reached the appropriate point in the green card process. We usually start bugging clients about green cards for their employees by about year 4, if it hasn’t come up before then (usually at the employee’s request), because of the time that the first stage of the employment-based green card process (typically labor certification, which means documenting that there are no available U.S. workers who meet the minimum qualifications for the position in that geographic location) takes to set up and to do the legally required advertising, recruitment, etc. So basically, it comes down to whether you think there will be decent demand for your skills in the U.S. by the time you finish your degree - enough demand for an employer to want to spend thousands of dollars sponsoring you for a work visa, and eventually a green card. And really, at this point I think that’s anybody’s guess. (The above is, by necessity, an _extremely_ brief overview of U.S. employment-based immigration. IANAL, but I deal with this stuff for a living.) Eva Luna, Immigration Paralegal ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/6 "2009-02-05T16:20:51Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > If you want to work in the U.S. after your post-degree completion employment authorization runs out, your employer will need to sponsor you for a work visa of some kind, typically an H-1B for positions that require at least a bachelor’s degree. Hasn’t this become much more difficult in recent years? I understand the quota for this year’s H1B visas ran out on the first day. (Though educational institutions and non-profit organizations are exempt from the quota.) ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/7 "2009-02-05T17:02:35Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Hasn’t this become much more difficult in recent years? I understand the quota for this year’s H1B visas ran out on the first day. (Though educational institutions and non-profit organizations are exempt from the quota.) Yep, there’s been quite a bit of pent-up demand, now that the cap has dropped back to 55,000 from 185,000 (it was raised temporarily, but the cap increase expired). There’s an additional 20,000 quota for people with advanced degrees from U.S. universities, though, which usually lasts a bit longer. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/8 "2009-02-05T17:13:28Z")
But anecdotally, I think the H-1B season is going to be much quieter this year than it was even last year. At our firm (and at my friends’ firms), we simply aren’t getting as many inquiries about new H-1Bs this year. ---
**Author:** ![ZB134](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZB134](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZB134)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/9 "2009-02-05T18:41:03Z")
\*If you are a student in F-1 status, and you finish your degree, you are entitled to apply for one year of U.S. employment authorization to work in your field, without needing any kind of employer sponsorship. - * * * i think this is called Optional Practical training or something like that… and its max for 29 months only… and imho there should be a separate visa for intl students(atleast engineers) who graduate from US univs… and they shouldn’t have to fight it out for a H1B lottery visa ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/10 "2009-02-05T18:50:12Z")
> [@ZB134](#): > > \*If you are a student in F-1 status, and you finish your degree, you are entitled to apply for one year of U.S. employment authorization to work in your field, without needing any kind of employer sponsorship. > > - > > * * * > > i think this is called Optional Practical training or something like that… and its max for 29 months only… Yes, though the 29 months is a recent innovation, and is only for people in sceintific and technical fields. > [@](#): > > and imho there should be a separate visa for intl students(atleast engineers) who graduate from US univs… and they shouldn’t have to fight it out for a H1B lottery visa You sure aren’t alone in thinking that. 🙂 But there are certainly lots of people who think otherwise, especially when unemployment is rising among U.S. workers. ---
**Author:** ![ZB134](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZB134](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZB134)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/11 "2009-02-05T19:28:19Z")
well thank you every1 for ur replies…🙂 but i was really hoping that someone would comment on the obama words _“We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work and become Americans over time…”_ it has given a lot us potential international students something to hope for:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![ZB134](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e95f7d/32.png) [@ZB134](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZB134)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/12 "2009-02-05T19:36:52Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Hasn’t this become much more difficult in recent years? I understand the quota for this year’s H1B visas ran out on the first day. (Though educational institutions and non-profit organizations are exempt from the quota.) yes, it does get over in a single day… and i believe more than 50% of the applications are from consulting companies in India ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/13 "2009-02-05T20:26:14Z")
I work at a University and we are seeing a big upswing in international applicants, especially from China. The job market sucks now, but it sucks everywhere so what’s the difference? In two years it might be quite different. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-a-good-time-to-be-an-international-student-in-the-us/484546/14 "2009-02-05T22:11:38Z")
Don’t we shoot foreign exchange students here? Or was that back in the 80’s/90’s?