Also read: 30 Companies that Hire International Students

Knowledge. You need to know the different channels through which you can apply for the H1B visa in 2011. You also need to know if you qualify. You will need to know important deadlines and will have forms to fill out.

What is the easiest way to get an H1B visa in 2011?
The easiest way to get an H1B visa in 2011 would be if you were already physically present in the U.S. Well, lets not use the word easy, less difficult would be a more appropriate term. You see, U.S employers are more inclined to respond to your resume and call you for an interview if you are present in the country. Employers like to meet and talk to the person they are going to be hiring before they sponsor an H1B visa. If you are in the U.S on a student visa, you get OPT work permit for 12 months (longer for STEM majors) after your graduation. That is the time you should use to find a company that will sponsor your H1B visa. Read this article on how to effective use your OPT work permit to find a job: Give Yourself 5 Months to Find a Job Before Your OPT Starts. With your OPT work permit, you can start working right away, and when the time comes, you can apply for the H1B visa and if approved, switch your status from F1 to H1B. The hard part is finding an employer that is willing to sponsor you for the H1B visa.

USCIS starts accepting H1B applications in April of each year. If your application is approved, the work permit starts in October.

What should you do if you are not in the U.S?
You can still apply to companies from your home country to see if they will hire you. But unless you have skills that are highly sought after, chances are slim that you will get a H1B visa this way. Companies do not want to wait until October for an employee to start working if they need someone in April. Another route you can take to get a H1B visa in 2011 is to go with consulting companies. There are IT companies that will hire you to work as contractors on projects. Most of these companies are owned by Indian IT folks. A google search on Indian IT consulting firms will give you a list of these companies. However, some of these companies have been accused in the past of illegal and/or unethical practices, so you should be careful if you decide to take this route.

What are the minimum requirements for H1B visa?
To apply for an H1B visa,

• you must have at least a Bachelors degree
• the minimum entry requirement for the job must be a Bachelors degree or higher
• to see the full requirements, visit the following site: http://www.uscis.gov

Let us know in the comments if you are going to be applying for H1B. Good luck on your H1B visa application in 2011.

International students in the United States were allowed to work for 12 months after their graduation in a related field of study under the Optional Practical Training program (OPT). In 2008, under the Bush administration, this was increased to 29 months for students graduating with a STEM major (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The reason for this increase was a shortage of workers in these fields. Opponents of this program however, argue that this extension is just another way to train foreign workers and take away jobs from qualified Americans.

The Supreme Court is not obligated to hear the case. We’ll keep you informed as the story unfolds.

Related news: USCIS to Conduct 25000 H-1B Inspections

The Optional Practical Training (OPT) allows international students to work in the US for twelve months. If you are on a STEM major, then you are eligible to get a 17 month extension. However, there is a catch. If you are unemployed for more than 3 months combined during your OPT, then your OPT automatically gets cancelled and you will have to leave the US. Therefore, it is very important that you give yourself ample time to find a job before your OPT even starts. There is a way in which you can give yourself 5 months time to look for a job after you graduate and before you start your OPT. All this requires is a little planning in advance and some time management skills.

Before I explain any further, let me tell you some laws regarding international students that many of you probably already know. You have a sixty day grace period to leave the US after you graduate. If you choose to stay longer, you will need to get a new I-20 or apply for OPT before the sixty days are up. When you apply for OPT, you can set your OPT start date to be 3 months from the day you apply. Once you apply for OPT, you will be in status even if your sixty days are up.

I am sure most of you have caught on by now. The trick is to apply for OPT almost two months after you have graduated. In the application form, set you OPT start date to be three months from the application date. So the two months grace period plus the three months OPT processing time will give you five months. You can utilize these five months to look for a job which is much better than having your OPT in hand but no job offers.

I think a few words of caution are in order here. Don’t wait until the 60th day of your grace period to apply for the OPT. You may not have all your paperwork in order or the day might fall on a weekend. Its too risky. Give yourself at least a week of slack time to apply for the OPT. Also, immigration laws change all the time. Make sure you speak to your Designated School Official (DSO) about your plans way in advance so you don’t get any nasty surprises later on when its time for you to file your application.

Do you know of any other ways that international students can utilize their OPT work permit effectively? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Further reading: Companies that Hire International Students & Sponsor H1B

The Bait
These IT consulting firms are mostly based out the tri-state region with a few scattered in cities with significant desi (people of Indian origin) populations. They have a handful of employees working in their US offices with the majority of their staff located in India. The companies collect information on international students from the career services department of various US universities. Their recruiters located in India then call up international students with job offers in IT. Students are qualified no matter what their GPA or major is. The recruiters promise salaries in excess of $50,000 per year and sponsorship for H1B and greencard. The IT firm promises to train students on technologies such as Java, .Net, SQL, SAP, data warehousing, Quality Analysis, Business Analysis, etc and then place them in jobs within Fortune 500 companies. Whats more surprising is that these companies guarantee to do all this within two months, even with students that have had absolutely no education in IT/computers. With the US economy at one of its lowest points in a number of years and the job prospects for any new grad getting bleaker by the day, it does not take long for these recruiters to sign up international students to join their company. The recent rule change in OPT that states that international students cannot be unemployed for more than three months while on OPT further helps drive international students looking for jobs to these companies.

Training
Training at one of these companies is a joke. When you walk in you’ll be handed books to study on your own. In most cases someone in India will train you for 30 minutes to an hour everyday through video conferencing. Although this person will be a whiz at Java, SQL, .Net or whatever else that you’ve signed up for, his English will be very limited, thereby making communication very difficult. You’ll be left to your own devices to learn as best as you can using books and the internet. You’ll have relocated by this time to whichever city the consulting firm is located in; which is New Jersey in 90% of the cases. The company will provide you with a room in a guest house which you will be sharing with 6 other consultants and scores of mice and roaches. One positive thing about training at one of these firms is that it is paid by the hour. Expect to be paid anywhere between $7 to $10. However, you will only be paid if your OPT has begun.

Marketing
Once the company determines through exams that you’ve completed your training, they will start marketing your resume to other companies looking to hire IT personnel. How long you take to complete your training really depends on your educational background but it is never within two months as initially promised, even for someone with an IT background. In most cases it takes people five to six months to pass the tests set by the IT firms. Building your resume is where the expertise of your IT company comes in. They will prepare a fake resume for you which will list between five to eight years of experience in the technology that you’ve trained for. They will make you memorize the resume by heart so you can answer any questions related to it during an interview.

Now the next step to getting the job is the phone interview. Once a prospective employer sees your resume, they will want to set up a phone interview with you first. You will be trained on all likely questions before the interview. During the interview, your consulting firm will have people with you listening on to the phone interview. These people will quickly write down answers for you if you get stuck on any technical questions. With all this help, students usually make it through the phone interview after a few failed attempts.

After the prospective employer is satisfied with the phone interview, they will call you for a face to face interview. By this time, you are a very strong candidate and the face to face interview is only a formality.

The job
One might be tempted to ask how these employees with spiced up resumes (no pun intended) do not get caught and continue to work in the industry. After all, they do not have the necessary skills to perform their job duties and surely are found out by their supervisors. I had the same question when I first learned about all this. So I spoke with some friends in the IT industry. I learned that any new employee, no matter how experienced, is not expected to perform right off the bat. They are given two weeks to a month to ease into their new positions. Also, any new IT project takes time to gather momentum. It is during this lull period that these fresh experienced IT consultants learn how to perform their jobs satisfactorily. They do this by mostly studying past projects of the company. This coupled with their training sees them through their first project. After they have successfully completed one project, they pretty much know all there is to know about their chosen technology.

Although at this point, the consultant has a job with a reputed company in the US, he is still formally employed by the Indian IT consulting firm. The firm takes a very large chunk out of the salary of their consultant. The reviews I’ve read about these companies and their practices in regard to paying their employees haven’t really been inspiring. You can read the reviews here and here.

I do not personally recommend taking this route to get a job as this is unethical and may also have legal consequences.

Do you have any experience in dealing with any of these IT consulting firms? Do you think what they are doing is ethical? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Further reading: The Secret to How International Students Can Work Legally in the United States
Companies that Hire International Students & Sponsor H1B
Email From an Indian IT Consulting Firm

If you have had a bad experience with Indian IT firms, please help to expose these companies by spreading the word. You can start by posting this article on your facebook profile.

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Full Disclaimer: ScholarshipForUSA or any of its writers do not endorse or engage in any of the practices mentioned in this article. The article has been written for informational purposes only. We respect all US laws (labor, immigration, etc) and ask you to do the same. ScholarshipForUSA or its’ writers cannot be held liable for any consequences that arise out of actions that you take after reading this article.

It is a condition of the F1 visa that international students cannot accept employment while they are on a student visa in the United States. However, it is quite expensive for international students to study in the USA and it is not always possible for their parents to cover the full costs of education and living expenses. There are a number of ways that international students can work and make some money legally to help cover some costs of their US college education.

On Campus Employment

This is the most common and easiest method for international students to earn money. Big schools usually have a lot of on campus jobs which are mostly filled by international students. This is the easiest method because international students do not need to fill out any special paperwork or get any authorization to work on campus. They are legally allowed to work 20 hours per week during semesters and 40 hours per week during breaks in on campus jobs. All they need to work on campus is a Social Security Number (SSN). International students can get the SSN at their local Social Security office. Click here to read my article on getting on campus jobs.

Work Permit for Economic Hardship

This is probably the least known method of how international students can work while they are studying in the USA. This method allows for international students to work legally off campus at any job while they are a full time student. This off campus employment authorization is meant to help international students that face unforeseen financial difficulty. An unforeseen financial difficulty may be the death of a sponsor, political instability, natural disaster, substantial fluctuations in currency exchange rates, etc. To be eligible to apply for this work permit from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) international students must be on F1 status for one full year and must be able to prove their unforeseen financial difficulty. The Economic Hardship Employment permit is given for one year and must be renewed each subsequent year. It becomes invalid if the student switches school.

Curricular Practical Training (CPT)

International students can get a work permit from USCIS to work in a job related to their program of study. This is an internship and international students can take advantage of this opportunity any time after they have been in full time status for one full year and before the end of their program of study. The internship must be in a field related to the field of study. Students in English language programs are not eligible for CPT. Another condition for the CPT is that it must provide credits that will be counted towards graduation. Students on CPT can work full time during the summer. Awarding of CPT work permits during semesters depends on the policy of the school the student is enrolled in. To be granted a CPT work permit, the student does not need to apply directly to USCIS. Rather, this permit is granted by the school itself.

Optional Practical Training (OPT)

International students have the option of working full time for 12 months after graduation. Again, as in the CPT, the job during OPT has to be in a field directly related to the students field of study. As the name suggests, the job during OPT is to give international students practical training in their area of study before they go back to their home country. UCIS recently made major changes to the OPT program. Some of these changes are:

• Extension of OPT to 29 months for students in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) majors
• Additional reporting requirements of address change and job change
• Students cannot be unemployed more than 90 days while they are on OPT

The following are the STEM majors:

• Engineering
• Engineering Technologies
• Biological and Biomedical Sciences
• Mathematics and Statistics
• Military Technologies
• Physical Sciences
• Science Technologies
• Medical Scientist

These are the all the ways international students can work in the United States while maintaining their status as F1 visa students. If you know of any other methods that might help international students gain employment legally, then please add it to the comments area.