For Int'l H1B students - May vs. December graduation?
I'm asking this to international students currently working in finance on a H1B Visa - would you recommend a December graduation date or a May graduation date? (or does it not matter at all?)
My main concern is that one of the pre-requisites for a H1B Visa is a bachelor's degree and therefore, you can only apply for an H1B AFTER you have received your diploma.
If you graduate in May, most likely the 65,000 quota has already been filled up (usually gets filled up within the first week when applications open on April 1).
If you graduate in December, you will receive your diploma by January and hence you can apply right on April 1, right when the applications open.
Thoughts on this?
BUMP
I would strongly suggest May graduation.
I'm assuming you didn't do a STEM major which buys you a lot more OPT time.
Quick question. How does a STEM major buy you more OPT time? Also, if I were to get a math minor but have all the necessary credits for a major, does that still kind towards STEM major? I'm in a sticky situation where the school doesn't allow triple majors but I was hoping to get business,econ, and math triple. Right now, I was thinking declaring busi/econ majors and math minor b.c. there is no econ minor at my school. Is it a better idea to just declare business/math majors and no econ major?
Thx
I think I was less specific on the dates. What I meant was graduating a semester EARLY rather than 1 semester later. So in the scenario above, we would be comparing the benefits/disadvantages between graduating in May 2013 vs. December 2012. Hence my point on how a December graduate can apply for the H1B on April 2013, whereas a May graduate will have to apply for the H1B in April 2014 (assuming quota gets filled up for April 2013, which it usually does).
Regarding your point #2, do BBs/elite boutiques not sponsor H1B right away? Do they actually "tread the waters' first to see if the int'l student is competent before they sponsor the H1B? Mostly what I hear is that banks prefer to sponsor H1B right away.
Ultimately, graduating in either May or December has the same result: you only have one window within which to apply before your OPT runs out. Unless I'm missing something. Firms will sponsor the visa right away.
You get 27 months (or something like that) with a STEM major. I think your job will have to be in a "STEM-related" field though.
So I am assuming a STEM related filed rules out business jobs?
STEM definitely rules out business jobs. The firm has to be approved for it. I'm a bit late to respond on some things but here goes:
The big issue though is that this last H1B period there were a whole lot more apps in the first week alone than there are H1Bs. My advice - try to get into a global firm, that way you can always hope to work out a situation where you're in another office eg Europe, HK, Australia etc.
I think you can extend OPT until the next filing period if your company applies for an H1-B on time but loses out on the lottery...but not sure.
Just want to correct a misconception here.
Your major needs to be STEM - your job does not have to be.
A Math grad working in IB will get 29 months 99.99% of the time - if their lawyer can "frame" their job in the right way.
I have seen tens of my friends do this, and not a single one has had their STEM extension rejected. (All of their firms used the Fragomen Law Firm I believe).
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