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Long time lurker, first-time poster. I'm a 24 year old male who has moved from Serbia to the US in 2008 for high school exchange for one year. Ended up staying for 4 years of college, graduated from one of the public ivy schools (University of Minnesota) with a B.A. in Economics. Got my OPT after that, and I got employment right away... except I was working as a software developer (which is my true passion). I was working for Thomson Reuters, though as a contractor, for one of the contracting agencies.
So this last March, I'm still on F-1 OPT (which would expire in July 2014) and my contracting agency tells me that they want to apply for H-1B for me. However, when April 1st comes, they tell me that they spoke to their immigration attorney who told them that it is an issue that I have a degree in economics and have worked as a software developer the whole time.
As time is running out, I quickly enroll in Masters in IT at a different university which allows me to work while going to school, but still on F-1 visa. I am expected to graduate December 2015. This field is also STEM eligible, so I can work for (hopefully) another 3 years after graduating.
With that in mind, after speaking to that immigration attorney and my employer, they still don't want to apply for H-1B visa even in April 2015, since I won't be done with my masters by then. They say the earliest they could apply is April 2016, and due to STEM, I'll have another shot in April 2017 as well.
In short, I bought myself time with the masters (and obviously education), however I'm always irritated that there's this "unsolved problem" that I have which doesn't make me feel happy, especially given the fact that you're not guaranteed to get an H-1B (that you're basically put into a lottery of its own).
Okay, now that you know my whole life story, I was wondering what would be the quickest and "easiest" approach towards obtaining a green card, in any way possible?
I don't have a girlfriend at the moment so the marriage would likely be far off, I have applied for the diversity visa lottery last year (did not get it obviously) and this year (cross your fingers!). Any other alternatives? I'm willing to explore all the options out there.
So this last March, I'm still on F-1 OPT (which would expire in July 2014) and my contracting agency tells me that they want to apply for H-1B for me. However, when April 1st comes, they tell me that they spoke to their immigration attorney who told them that it is an issue that I have a degree in economics and have worked as a software developer the whole time.
Could you show how the job as a software programmer would relate to database and software development programming involving statistics. Which may wouldn't be out of the norm for economics majors as econ is a lot of applied mathematics involving statistics . Or when you are done with your masters somehow tie this together?
The H1B would be the most ideal way of getting you on a permanent residence path, and your masters degree would allow you to apply under the EB2 category.
You're right that with the H1B there is a risk of not being selected in the lottery. But with a masters degree your chances are probably going to be around 75% (based on recent lotteries) vs 40-45% with just a bachelors degree.
Just be aware that you can only get one OPT (12 months duration) and one STEM extension (17 months duration) per stay in the United States. To get a second one, you would need to leave the United States for one year.
The puzzling thing here is that in theory, according to OPT regulations, your OPT employment must be directly related to your major field of study...which doesn't seem to be the case here.
So this last March, I'm still on F-1 OPT (which would expire in July 2014) and my contracting agency tells me that they want to apply for H-1B for me. However, when April 1st comes, they tell me that they spoke to their immigration attorney who told them that it is an issue that I have a degree in economics and have worked as a software developer the whole time.
Could you show how the job as a software programmer would relate to database and software development programming involving statistics. Which may wouldn't be out of the norm for economics majors as econ is a lot of applied mathematics involving statistics . Or when you are done with your masters somehow tie this together?
Unfortunately, not at this moment. I am currently working as a web developer, which has little to do with statistics.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hesky
The H1B would be the most ideal way of getting you on a permanent residence path, and your masters degree would allow you to apply under the EB2 category.
You're right that with the H1B there is a risk of not being selected in the lottery. But with a masters degree your chances are probably going to be around 75% (based on recent lotteries) vs 40-45% with just a bachelors degree.
Just be aware that you can only get one OPT (12 months duration) and one STEM extension (17 months duration) per stay in the United States. To get a second one, you would need to leave the United States for one year.
The puzzling thing here is that in theory, according to OPT regulations, your OPT employment must be directly related to your major field of study...which doesn't seem to be the case here.
Thanks for the reply. According to the immigration lawyer I spoke with (as well as my international school official), you can get one OPT per level-of-education. So you can get one for Bachelors, then another one for Masters, etc. But you cannot get two for two bachelors, or two for two masters, and similar.
As for the second part, I know that; however, when talking to the international advisor at my previous school, I remember him saying something along the lines of "well, economics is a broad field - by writing software, you're economically benefiting your company, so you're good". I did think that was odd, but oh well.
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