International PE associates - leaving the US
Has anyone done the 2+2 path then left the US? Given the lack of meaningful improvement to immigration policy it’s getting more and more difficult to envision building a long term career here besides from marrying a citizen (and I’m not willing to commit marriage fraud)
Those who decided to leave: where did you go and what career path did you pursue?
I would encourage you to consider the UK. If you have meaningful PE experience from the US, it is not impossible to land a decent role in London (bonus point if you speak a European language). US funds in London have global pay which can be very nice, as rents in London are much lower than NYC.
I’m not in a US megafund unfortunately. I have a sense that trying to lateral directly in this market is also an extreme uphill climb. Have people moved directly from US to London without doing an MBA?
People in London generally don't care that much about MBAs. Lateraling to a MF might be hard, but MM funds would be possible for your background. However, the pay will then be below US levels as most of the MM funds pay local levels, although I would say still enough to have a comfortable lifestyle.
Lmao consider the UK. Might as well shoot yourself in the head
At least the UK doesn't have guns. In the US, you might actually get shot in the head :)
Agree that moving to London would be by far the best fallback option. However, OP - be mindful that the lateral market is quite crap at the moment and there's no shortage of local talent, so it may take a long time to find a good opportunity (plus if you're not European, you'll be low in the pecking order). To the extent you want to seriously explore this, I would suggest to start doing work sooner rather than later (reaching out to HH, LinkedIn, any contacts you may have here, etc). I'm based here with friends both in Europe and US trying to come over, and I was surprised to see how much they're struggling (afaik, some smaller firms aren't even sponsoring Europeans post Brexit as there's still enough people on the settlement scheme to pick from, so go figure...)
I’ve started doing this last year but seemed like the market was dead. Will try to reach out to connections again to see if anything changes….
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Yup but not Indian or mainland Chinese. Either way employer GC sponsorship feels unheard of so I’m starting to consider alternatives. Have people lateraled from US to Canada?
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Finding new job in Canada is also difficult, just go to the subreddits, immigration forums or lookup the Canada threads on WSO.
You'd then also need some form of sponsorship for Canada, stay there, be employed and then need another role back in the US which fits the TN criteria.
Feasible? Yes, but all not that easy.
Sike. Maybe I should in fact commit marriage fraud…
Doesn't have to be fraud, maybe you will find the right one?
Impossible
why don't you just do a masters or an mba?
Should internationals avoid buy side even if they have H-1B visa? If they are not promoted to VP and only have 1-2 years left on H-1B, then it would be very difficult to get a new job that would sponsor green card immediately on day 1? My rationale is that it is a lot harder to get a VP promotion in buy side vs IB.
Thanks!
Any internationals should negotiate a green card sponsorship within their 2x3 H1b. Otherwise the one year cool off period kicks in afterwards where they are forced to leave the country. H1x is a dual intent visa, so you may have immigrant intent. But someone still needs to sponsor it.
The alternative way is another degree on F afterwards.
Makes sense. A lot of firms, from my experience, are reluctant to sponsor green card early and are quite stingy about it. The issue is they are only willing to sponsor if you're promoted to VP, but at the same time, hitting VP occurs at the same time where H1B is about to run out
I had to go through this a couple of weeks back. I had PE offers from two different firms that both sponsored the green card at the VP level. However, one of them had a 3-year timeline to VP and the second one had a 4.5-5.5 year timeline to VP. I'll have 5.25 years left on the H1B when I start at either firm and that would make it a pretty tight window (and with the green card processing times increasing, borderline impossible) - given second firm wouldn't start sponsoring a year before I am up for VP promotion.
Hence, had to go with the first offer where it was a 3-year timeline to VP where they would sponsor a year before that - so I would still have 3.5 years left on H1B. Definitely make sure you do your diligence RE: when they sponsor the green card when accepting a PE offer.
This was extremely helpful. Thank you!
I personally find it absurd that there are many smart and capable international students from the top universities in the country who have to deal with all this non-sense while there are unemployed and uneducated people coming from the border and getting their green cards sooner than them.
I wish our politicians were a bit smarter regarding their policies on skilled-labor immigration.
While the US absolutely needs more smart people, we all know that immigration is a hot button topic.
And it's an election year.
The fraction of degree qualified, top tier professionals in medicine, law, finance (..) is abysmal compared to the majority of immigrants. The ivy internationals already come from extremely wealthy families in their home nations. I am not saying they don't deserve it, but their finances make it easier to remain in legal status.
if all things don't work out they can always buy/start a business, go back to school or marry someone.
Not all immigrants have these options. If everyone had this kind of wealth, they wouldn't cross the border in the first place.
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