U.S. Degree? Check. U.S. Work Visa? Still A Challenge

Huang Yimeng was disoriented when she learned that her U.S. visa was denied last November. It meant the recent University of Virginia graduate wouldn't be returning to the U.S. to start the job she was offered at McKinsey & Company, a consulting firm.

She was in Shanghai when she got the news, having bought a return ticket and leaving most of her belongings in her apartment in the U.S.

"I thought about the yellow towel in my new kitchen, the toy shark from IKEA I have kept for five years ..." Huang wrote in a blog post, translated here from Chinese, "but the key will never turn in the lock again."

When international students like Huang graduate from U.S. colleges and stay in the country to work, they have a few visa options. If they want to stay short-term — one to three years — there's Optional Practical Training (OPT), an authorization granted by U.S. immigration authorities that allows students to work in their field of study, as an extension of their student visa. The number of students approved for OPT has surged in recent years, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.

For those who want to stay longer, there's the H-1B visa: an employer-sponsored visa that in most cases allows students to work for up to six years in the U.S.

Following the Trump administration's executive order last spring encouraging employers to "hire American," the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has requested further information from a rising number of H-1B applicants, lengthening their time of uncertainty as they wait for word about whether they can stay and work in the U.S.This includes international students like Huang, the UVA grad hoping to start her new job. There is no data available to show if this is happening more frequently to international students than it was under the prior administration.

But it's always been hard to stay in the U.S. after graduation as an international student. - Read More

U.S. Degree? Check. U.S. Work Visa? Still A Challenge

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