Securing a job out of college is no easy feat in this economic climate, but holding a foreign passport can make it even harder. While the federal government allows foreign students to work in the country for up to a year after graduation, they must find an employer willing to sponsor a work visa if they wish to remain in the United States beyond that period. And some Brown international students have found that not all firms, especially not small ones, are able or willing to go through the process of securing a visa for foreign employees.
Foreign students holding F-1 student visas are permitted to work for up to a year in jobs related to their field of study. At the end of the year, the American employer must sponsor the student for a long-term H-1B visa to allow them to stay in the country. The federal government grants a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visas each year, and not all companies will sponsor H-1B visas for foreign citizens.
"Obtaining a license to sponsor work visas is a lengthy process with lots of legal hoops to jump through, so usually only bigger firms can afford it," Carlo Coppetti '10.5, a Swiss citizen, wrote in an email to The Herald. Coppetti pointed to consulting, finance, academia and engineering as sectors in which foreign graduates are likely to find sponsorship.
Work status woes
Timing, previous experience and the size of a firm play major roles in the job application process for international students, according to Petros Perselis '10. Perselis, an electrical engineering concentrator from Athens, Greece, said he was initially unsure if he wanted to pursue graduate study or work after graduation. When he finally decided on the latter, he found he had missed many firms' recruiting cycles. Though he was interested in positions at big finance firms, which generally have the resources to sponsor visas for international candidates, he said he had to resort to applying for jobs at smaller firms.
But because firms must go through a long process to sponsor work visas for foreign citizens, Perselis said he felt he was at a disadvantage. Some firms could not even consider his application because they did not have the resources to obtain visas for foreign employees. When he applied for a position at M&T Bank, Perselis said he was rejected on that basis. He eventually took an internship in London and now studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
A representative of M&T Bank did not respond to requests for comment.
Adem Dugalic '12, who interned at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago this summer, learned after his internship ended that he would not be able to apply for a full-time job at the bank because it is no longer willing to sponsor visas for foreign citizens.
Dugalic, an applied mathematics and economics concentrator from Bosnia and Herzegovina, said international students have a difficult time finding jobs not only because a number of firms do not have the capacity to support visas, but also because they prefer to hire U.S. citizens. "They don't officially discriminate," he said, but "it's harder for international students."
Tanika Panyarachun '10, a visual arts and history of art and architecture concentrator from Bangkok, described the job-seeking process for foreign students as "very hard," especially for humanities and arts students. Panyarachun, who sought jobs in graphic design, said the small firms she was looking at were unsure if they would be able to sponsor her for a work visa.
She landed an unpaid full-time internship at Tibet House, a New York City-based organization dedicated to preserving Tibetan culture, where she designed catalogs and exhibits. Panyarachun said she had been hoping the internship would give way to paid employment, but Tibet House did not have sufficient resources to sponsor a visa. Unable to afford living in New York without an income, she returned to Bangkok after five months at the organization. "It's just really hard if you're not in a structured company, a big company like J.P. Morgan or Morgan Stanley," she said.
Though Panyarachun said the CareerLAB was a useful resource when searching for jobs, she said the office did not have the specialized knowledge to help international students deal with such obstacles. Andrew Simmons, director of CareerLAB, declined to comment for this story.
How to make it in America
Despite these obstacles, many foreign graduates do succeed in securing long-term employment in the United States.
"I haven't had pretty much any trouble," said Angela Santin '12, a computer science concentrator from Bilbao, Spain. When technology firms visited Brown to recruit, they told Santin they had the resources to hire foreign citizens. She has been offered a position at Microsoft, and though she had to fill out extra paperwork, she said she did not encounter any problems during the process.
Elke Breker, director of the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, said she has not heard of international students having difficulties obtaining jobs because firms are unable or unwilling to sponsor H-1B work visas. But she added that the success of international students, like that of domestic students, in finding jobs depends in part on their field of study.
Many international students choose concentrations that tend to lead directly to employment, such as computer science, economics or international relations, said Coppetti, the Swiss graduate. Coppetti double-concentrated in mathematical economics and architectural studies.
According to Coppetti, international students may decide to work abroad following graduation for reasons other than being unable to find a job in the United States. He was offered a research assistant position at Columbia but opted to return home to Switzerland because of its stronger economy and to be closer to family.
Though Anna Matejcek '12 has not yet applied for a job, she has a number of concerns based on what she has heard from other students. Matejcek, who holds Czech and Canadian citizenships, said she is worried about "employers not wanting to p
ut in the extra work to hire you." Other international students have told her that a number of firms hire foreigners only after they determine there are no Americans qualified to perform the jobs in question. Because foreign students cannot stay in the country to "hang around and work in a coffee shop" while applying for other jobs, Matejcek said they have to plan further in advance than other students.
But acknowledging the value of a Brown degree, Matejcek said she is optimistic. "I think it'll work out."