How To Move To the US if OPT is not an option
Guys, I would really appreciate some insight. I am not a summer associate as the title suggests.
I graduated from US based grad school a few years ago and used up my OPT at my first job upon graduation. My employer never applied for my H1B visa. Since then I moved to Vancouver (Canada), and am a Canadian permanent resident. I won't have the option to use the TN visa for a couple of years at least as I am not a Canadian citizen yet.
I would like to move to the US on H1B visa (try my luck at IB, in which I have experience) and am currently not working for anyone. Has anyone made the move to the US on H1B, while based in Canada, as an experienced hire? I am really struggling to see how can it be done and if it is possible. Please let me know. Thank you
Going to be next to impossible. Sponsorship is a total mess in the US, and there are plenty of people with the skills for IB who don't need sponsorship, so you will be auto-dinged at most banks and likely below US citizens who apply for the few banks that do sponsor. It's not worth it for most financial employers to sponsor, so most do not - H1B lottery odds are quite low if you're out of OPT.
Recommend you get a job in Canada at one of the BBs, ideally get your citizenship, and try to transfer to a US office of a BB - aim for one of the ones that is friendly to internal transfers. They'll sponsor if you already work for them, plus TN odds are a whole lot better.
This isn’t entirely true. Most banks in the US do sponsor (GS, JPM, Citi, Jeff to name a few) and for the ones that do they don’t discriminate between international and domestic students. Meaning being international won’t put you at a disadvantage. But, most banks take internationals through their campus recruiting pipelines because they can take advantage of OPT to apply for the H1b multiple times to increase the odds of getting through the lottery (if you have an STEM extension you can apply a total of 4 times for a H1b while on OPT). Unfortunately, I don’t think they sponsor experienced hires outright to come work for US offices.
I think you best bet is to do what the guy said above or apply for business school here in the US.
fwiw I've worked on recruiting teams at 2 of those 4 banks and they sponsored on a VERY limited basis, usually for LatAm groups or an outstanding diversity candidate. Candidates were presented with "Here's X, he's great but he needs sponsorship" which was pretty much an immediate no. You still see a handful of internationals but HR discourages groups from hiring them.
You’re right. Citi & JPM are limited now but there are some that don’t discriminate. OP- there’s a list somewhere on wso that details which banks sponsor and which do not along with their limitations.
Is this also true for STEM 3 year OPT?
Walk across the Southern border no one to stop you
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