{"id":75467,"date":"2019-02-01T14:02:18","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T20:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=75467"},"modified":"2019-02-01T14:03:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T20:03:02","slug":"more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"More international students in the U.S. ponder career prospects after graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lily Qi<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

After receiving another job rejection, 22-year-old Dayan Paiewonsky posted an Instagram screenshot of the email with \u201cthank u, next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paiewonsky left the Dominican Republic four years ago to study international business and finance at the Loyola University Chicago.<\/p>\n

With graduation approaching this summer, finding a job is becoming urgent for him. In Paiewonsky\u2019s eyes, completing college in less than five months isn\u2019t something to be excited about like fellow students, but a crucial stepping stone if he hopes to stay in the U.S.
\n\u200b
\nHe started applying for jobs last October, Paiewonsky said.\u00a0 “Nothing has panned out yet. I got a good number of rejections,\u201d Paiewonsky says. \u201cEven for internships, with a lot of internship programs [the company’s] goal is to train people so that they can become entry level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paiewonsky is qualified to meet every requirement most companies have set for jobs in the field of consulting, but companies still don’t hire him due to non-sponsorship policies and an unwillingness to pay visa fees for international students, he says.<\/p>\n

Under the current policy of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a sponsor company<\/a> needs to file the petition on behalf of the employee for a visa, including paying the legal and application fees. The total cost of filing an application is about $5,000 per employee.<\/p>\n

\"\"
At the NCA Winter job fair, employers are explaining job requirements to students. (Lily Qi\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A company also needs to prove they have enough cash flow to support a foreign worker for a certain period of time and file a Labor Condition Application (LCA) with the U.S. Department of Labor to indicate hiring a foreign worker won\u2019t affect U.S. workers.<\/p>\n

Only 85,000 H-1B visas are assigned by lottery for such workers every year while the applicants number more than 190,000 annual applications. Of the 85,000, 20,000 are reserved for applicants holding at least a master\u2019s degrees.<\/p>\n

That gives a student such as Paiewonsky, who will have an undergraduate degree, a 30 percent chance to \u201cwin the lottery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paiewonsky has access to one year of Optional Practical Training (OPT) that gives him a temporary working permit after graduation even without visa. So, even if he finds a job and gets sponsored for a visa, he only has one chance at the annual lottery to get an H-1B visa.<\/p>\n

Things are better for Rong Su, a Chinese student who will complete\u00a0 her master\u2019s degree in computer science at the Northeastern University this December. As a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) student, she can work for a three-year OPT term, allowing her two more tries than Paiewonsky has to win in the visa drawing.<\/p>\n

Growing demand for highly skilled workers in the tech industry is another obvious reason for the popularity of STEM students in the job market. \u00a0A report by National Foundation for American Policy<\/a> points out that the top H-1B employers are all tech companies.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A group of international students at the NCA Winter Job Fair.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t have difficulty in finding a job in the U.S., they are not \u2018we don\u2019t want you\u2019,\u201d says Su. \u201cIt proves the market is big and has growing potentials.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Paiewonsky and Su, coming to the U.S. is a pursuit of better income and future career development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that whatever area I went into was not going be in one of those traditional careers like doctor, lawyer, engineer or business because I always have a more international approach,\u201d says Paiewonsky, who wants to work as a consultant for multinationals. Fewer opportunities for such a profession are available in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

The reason Su wants to stay is direct and simple –\u00a0 the median salary for a software engineer in the U.S. is about $83,000 per year<\/a> while in China it is only around $27,000<\/a>, not to mention other employee benefits. It\u2019s normal for Chinese employees to work extra hours without overtime pay.<\/p>\n

In 2017, there were 27.4 million foreign-born workers in the U.S. labor force<\/a>, accounting for 17.4 percent of the total. According to a Pew Research Center report<\/a>, 30 percent of U.S. immigrants have bachelor\u2019s or higher degrees.<\/p>\n

Su confessed she never thought about it what would happen if she can’t stay in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t have a plan. I\u2019m going to have a job,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Paiewonsky seems uncertain. He has many back-up plans and most of them are based on the assumption that he is probably not going to get a job in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to using the OPT to work here for a year and my plan-b is to move to Panama and work for one of the transnationals there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Rong Su, who will receive her master’s degree in computer science this December, sees good job prospects in the U.S. with her advanced degree. (Lily Qi\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lily Qi Medill Reports After receiving another job rejection, 22-year-old Dayan Paiewonsky posted an Instagram screenshot of the email with \u201cthank u, next.\u201d Paiewonsky left the Dominican Republic four years ago to study international business and finance at the Loyola University Chicago. With graduation approaching this summer, finding a job is becoming urgent for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":75631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28,29,2951,30,675,4559],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-75467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-politicsnational-security","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","category-winter-2019","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nMore international students in the U.S. ponder career prospects after graduation - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More international students in the U.S. ponder career prospects after graduation - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lily Qi Medill Reports After receiving another job rejection, 22-year-old Dayan Paiewonsky posted an Instagram screenshot of the email with \u201cthank u, next.\u201d Paiewonsky left the Dominican Republic four years ago to study international business and finance at the Loyola University Chicago. With graduation approaching this summer, finding a job is becoming urgent for […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-01T20:02:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-01T20:03:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Rong-Su.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4378\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2918\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lilyqi2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lilyqi2019\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/\",\"name\":\"More international students in the U.S. ponder career prospects after graduation - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Rong-Su.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-01T20:02:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-01T20:03:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/f5848011fac8b083106152c2218b57cf\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/more-international-students-in-the-u-s-pondering-where-they-will-go-after-graduation\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Rong-Su.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/01\/Rong-Su.jpg\",\"width\":4378,\"height\":2918,\"caption\":\"Rong Su, who will graduate with her master's degree in computer science this December. 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