- Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.
Today we're gonna talk about employment in the U.S.
And I know this is like number one question among any
students who are coming to the U.S. to get their education.
They're like, would I be able to work?
Would I be able to get a job after I graduate?
What happens with my student visa?
All of those questions that I'm getting from you
I'm gonna try and answer them today.
If you have any additional questions
please don't forget to ask them in comments below.
One thing to remember, I'm not an Immigration Attorney.
I'm just talking about things based on my own experience,
based on students' stories, based on my own story
of getting a job in the U.S.
So if you're interested, continue watching this video.
(upbeat music)
Okay, first thing to remember,
if you're a student coming to the U.S. on a student visa
and taken a course at a university or college,
you have a right to work on campus 20 hours a week.
And it's only on campus, right?
So what are the campus jobs?
You can work in a cafeteria, you can work in a library,
you can do all kinds of things on campus.
The average pay rate is $10 to $15
and if you can do maximum of 20 hours a week,
that means that the maximum you can do in terms of money
is like $200, $250 a week which is unfortunately
not enough to cover you tuition fees.
So that would be enough to cover your living expenses,
maybe renting a room, maybe covering some of your food
and travel but not really covering everything.
So this is number one thing to remember.
Yes you can work off campus but only if you get a permit.
A lot of programs actually want you to enter
in companies outside the university's campus.
But your job has to be connected
with whatever you're studying.
So if you're doing Master's in Marketing,
this is your second trimester,
and you just found a company who wants to employ you
for again, only 20 hours a week,
you come to your international office in the university
and you show them the offer letter
and you tell them this job is connected with your subject.
You can not just go to Starbucks and work as a barista.
(laughing) Only if the Starbucks is on campus.
But in all other cases, you need to prove that
this job is connected to whatever you're studying
and if it is, you get a CPT which is
an approval to work off campus.
Which is again great because the pay rate
can be a little higher but please remember that
you come to the U.S. to study, not to work.
Study is your number one goal,
so please take care of your GPA,
attend all of the lectures and all of the seminars.
Because if you study a while and you graduate,
you're gonna get an OPT.
I'm gonna talk about it in a minute.
One quick disclaimer, sometimes people are like,
oh Marina, but there is a assistantship
which is also work on campus 'cause you can work
as a lecturer, you can work as an administrative assistant,
and if you get an assistantship,
the university covers the total costs.
Sometimes it's the total cost of your tuition
and they give you a stipend.
Sometimes it's like half of your tuition
which is not even close to getting $15 an hour.
Yes this is completely different thing.
This is a type of financial aid
and I'm talking about it in my other videos.
So assistantship is yes, it's a work on campus,
but this is financial aid, it's not awarded to everyone.
It's only awarded to those who are eligible,
who have good results and who have proven
that they're strong academically.
OPT, this is your chance to get work experience
in the U.S. after you graduate.
What happens?
So imagine you've just graduated.
You've done Masters, you've done Bachelor's,
you're getting either one or three years of OPT
which means you can work in the U.S. for one to three years.
The length of your OPT really depends on what you study.
So there are so called STEM subjects.
Scientific like science, technology, engineering, medicine,
maths, IT, like all of those subjects are STEM subjects.
And if your university decides that your Master's in IT,
probably 99% STEM Master's, then that means
that you're gonna get a three year
work permit after you graduate.
If you're doing Master's in Economics,
if you're doing Master's in Psychology,
Master's in painting or whatever, acting,
this is not a STEM subject.
Sometimes in rare cases, Master's in Economics
is a STEM subject if there is a lot of analytics and stuff,
but this is something to ask during the admissions process.
Is it a STEM subject?
What's the OPT that I'm getting after graduation?
But normally it's a one year OPT.
What happens?
You graduate, you find a job that's related
to the subject that you've studied.
This is a chance for you to get work experience in the U.S.
and this is what government does to support you as a student
to get you this real life experience in America.
Later, some people stay.
Again, here the best thing to do
is to talk to an Immigration Attorney.
Some of the stories that I can share with you.
Story number one's my story.
As you know I haven't graduated.
I was just accepted with full financial aid.
But then I got some funding, our company got funding
from a local VC in Silicon Valley and we started a company
and my own company sponsored my O1 visa.
An O1 visa is an extraordinary ability visa
for foreign entrepreneurs, foreign specialists,
foreign talented workers and I got it.
And after that, I got an EB-1,
which is also a Green Card for extraordinary ability people.
So this is the way number one.
I interact with a lot of graduates from Stanford,
Harvard, Berkeley and even smaller universities
that are not really entrepreneurial,
I see a lot of people starting their own companies,
getting some local funding while they're still studying
and then applying for the O1 visa.
Also if you're joining a startup as a co-founder
and that startup shows some results.
Like again funding is a good result, some press,
then you can apply for the O1.
And I would say (chuckles) among all of the visas,
I've talked to a lot of lawyers when I was
in the same process as you guys.
I talked to some lawyers and they were like H-1B,
I'm gonna talk about it later,
H-1B's tough, L-1 is tough, that visa's tough.
That one's tough.
O1 is like if you have some press,
if you manage to get some results,
this is your number one choice.
Something to discuss with a lawyer.
Some lawyers give free consultations.
Some would charge you like $250 per hour.
Just do your research, do forums, do stuff
and find somebody to work with.
Honestly, I think I've talked to maybe seven lawyers
before I found mine 'cause every single lawyer
told me I had no chances.
Option number two is the H-1B visa.
This is actually like the mainstream visa
for U.S. university graduates.
So what happens, you can apply every April.
Just once a year.
(laughing) So you have to be a really good specialist
'cause imagine what happens, you apply in April,
and you can only start working in October.
There are not a lot of companies
that are willing to wait for you that long.
So what I recommend is getting an internship in a company
while you study in a company that sponsors H-1B visas.
And please be careful.
The recent news that I've heard,
but please don't quote me on that
but I think if Facebook has stopped sponsoring the visas.
What they do, they hire you to their Irish office
and then they do the transfer.
They do L-1 visa, I'm gonna talk about it a little later.
So, yeah, tricky thing.
Just make sure the company does H-1B's.
You work for them for a year, you've done your internship,
you're still on your OPT and this is a good time
to talk to your manager and tell him,
hey I actually wanted to stay in your company
and I need to apply for a visa.
Do you guys sponsor H-1B and I hope the answer is yes
'cause then there's the whole preparation process.
And then in April when you apply, listen to this.
They don't consider every single application
at the immigration office of the U.S.
There's a lottery.
There are some quotas.
The general quota, if you don't have Masters from the U.S.
is like 65,000 and on average, (chuckles)
200,000 people apply.
So there's on average 30% that your application
would be considered and after it's considered,
they're gonna decide whether to approve it or not.
And your employer in the U.S. need to prove that
they were not able to find a worker
who already has a U.S. work permit.
So it's a complicated process.
Again, it's gonna be your employer,
your lawyer and yourself.
But if you have Master's from the U.S.
and if it's from one of the top universities,
your chances are slightly, well I would say a lot better.
One of the Harvard graduates recently shared with me
that it's 80% actually if you are like Harvard MBA graduate
and you're applying for an H-1B,
there is an 80% that you're gonna get it.
And still he's applying for the O1
so again, I'm just sharing rumors.
This is something to remember,
if you've only done your Bachelor's in the U.S.
your chances of getting H-1B are a little lower
than if you had gotten Master's in the U.S.
And MBA's the same as Master's so bear that in mind.
If you're doing your PH.D, the typical visa is O1.
A lot of universities sponsor O1 visa.
If you've done your research,
if you wanna stay as a professor,
they're gonna use your publications to file.
So this is a pretty common and easy case, I would say?
I know a lot of researchers who stayed in O1
as well as entrepreneurs.
Another visa that I mentioned, L-1,
this basically management transfer.
So for example, you're working for Facebook in the U.S.
on your OPT and then you're like,
omg you guys, I wanna stay in Facebook,
and they're like I'm sorry, we don't sponsor visas anymore,
we're gonna put you into our Irish office
for a couple of years, see how you perform
and then we're gonna do an L-1,
and management transfer from one office to another.
This is how it works.
But again, talk to your employer.
I made an interview with Luba,
you can Google How To Get A Job In Silicon Valley.
She didn't even graduate from an American university,
she graduated from a Canadian university.
She came to Silicon Valley to Airbnb to do her internship
and then she applied for a full-time job
and they sponsored her visa so, there are a lot of ways.
Again, I think, so my perception,
it's my perception to everything in this life,
if you really want something, you're gonna find ways
'cause there are ways.
There are thousands of people who are staying in the U.S.
and I know there's like, the current administration
doesn't really want people to come to the U.S.
I know that companies want employees.
I know that there's shortage of skills in Silicon Valley.
I know that people are looking for talents all the time.
I know that VC funds are looking for talented startups.
So whenever you're here in the U.S.
day one, I would start figuring out your strategy,
what you're gonna do after you graduate.
I would talk to other people,
I would listen to success stories,
I would talk to lawyers.
I would just be hands on everything
'cause when I came to the 500 Startup program,
when my tourist visa, from day one,
I started inquiring, how did you guys stay
'cause I just registered my company in the U.S.
and all of my bank accounts are here
and my Master's are here, I don't want to go back to Russia
(laughing) and do everything remotely.
I really want to stay here.
I guess some of you would have the same thoughts,
oh I got my education here.
If you do your Bachelor's here and then your Master's,
you've lived like a third of your life in the U.S.
and you probably want to get a job here as well.
So these are my five cents on the work visa situation
after you graduate from an American university.
Questions below, I'll try to answer some of them,
if I know the answer.
Talk to lawyers, talk to other people,
go to forums, research.
The more time you dedicate, the better it is
for your process for your outcome
'cause everything depends on you.
I know you're gonna make it if you want it, you'll be here.
You're gonna reach everything in your life that you want.
Thank you so much for watching this video
up to the very end.
I'm gonna go back to enjoy my weekend in Yosemite
and I will see you very soon in the next videos.
I hope you're enjoying my new schedule guys
for the next couple, three weeks
'cause I really want to pour all of that
admissions information on you as soon as possible.
Oh my god, I almost forgot to tell you one
very important thing, DV lottery, the Green Card lottery!
Play it, please start playing it.
If your goal is to get a job in the U.S.
start playing it now.
The chances are really low, like 1%
depending on where you're from
but it ranges from like 0.1% to 2%
but I know a lot of people win.
I actually am here in this cottage in Yosemite
with a guy whose wife won a Green Card lottery
when she was still at a university
and they were studying in Liguria.
They won it and they came here
and now they live in California.
She does email marketing, he does film-making
so chances are low but there are chances
so start playing now.
The next DV lottery is October 2019, don't miss it.
Okay, that was it, bye.