If you had an infinite amount of time to find a sponsor, your world would be perfect. Ice cream would have zero calories, and you wouldn’t even need to read this article. With an infinite amount of time, eventually, one day, you would find a willing employer, and you'd live happily ever after.
In reality, you are working within a very tight timeframe to, not only secure a job offer from a potential employer, but also to successfully navigate an immigration process. To put it more precisely, the time typically needed to find a sponsor and obtain a work visa or green card often surpasses the length of your Optional Practical Training (OPT) period. For this reason, every semester approximately 291,000 students on OPT face the heartbreaking need to leave the country because they can’t secure a sponsor on time.
So, let's work on a timeline to boost your chances of achieving your career goals in the US. To do this, we will analyze the timeline for the two most common options you have to secure employment beyond the OPT period: the H-1B visas and the EB-2/EB-3 processes.
The H-1B visa is a popular choice in the US, letting you work (temporarily) with an employer. This visa can be attained within the duration of an OPT, especially considering the “Cap-Gap Extension,” a provision that allows F-1 students to extend their F-1 status and OPT until the start of their approved H-1B employment period. However, the H-1B has an important drawback: It's a lottery. Every year, around 600,000 people vie for 60,000 spots, leaving only a 10% chance of getting one. Even with an employer on board, you might miss out due to this lottery.
The timeline for completing the H-1B process is straightforward but requires careful timing. If you are considering this option, you should aim to secure a sponsor at the start of the calendar year, ideally in January. This allows the employer ample time to fulfill the requirements for the electronic application, which is due in March. Results are announced in April, with visas typically issued in October of the same year (yes, it's a fixed cycle).
But remember, only 10% of applicants get this visa. For that reason, whenever possible, we encourage you to consider employment-based immigration processes, like the EB-2 and EB-3.
The EB-2 and EB-3 processes will take you from an F-1 visa to a green card, usually within 18 to 24 months.
Here’s a simplified timeline of these processes:
Prevailing wage determination: 6 to 12 months.
Labor certification (PERM) with premium processing: 15 days.
Petitioning for the alien worker and adjustment of status applications: Around 12 months.
With this information, we can strategically plan when you should connect with employers, allowing you to complete your immigration process before your OPT expires. Keep in mind, the entire process spans 18 to 24 months. This timeline is suitable if you are enrolled in a STEM program, because you have a 12-month OPT plus a 24-month extension. However, this doesn’t work if you have a non-STEM OPT.
To make this timeline work for you, if you have a non-STEM OPT, you should start seeking sponsors at the beginning of your junior year. This timing ensures that the employer can finalize the prevailing wage determination by the time you graduate, thus saving an entire year from the process. It's important to note that during this prevailing wage determination phase, the employer isn't required to formally present you as a candidate to the immigration authorities, so it’s okay that you still haven't completed your degree.
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