Visa regulations pose challenge

For their time at the University, international students receive an F1 visa, which includes 12 months of non-school work time that can be spent in the United States and is termed Optional Practical Training (OPT). This extra time is often used for summer internships, but members of the Class of 2007 who wish to remain in the United States beyond this period must have their employers file an application for an H-1B visa before April 7.

“The real issue is even when my application is perfect, there’s a very low number of visas and a very high number of applicants,” said Tomas Blanco ’07, who is currently applying for an H-1B. “Having everything in order does not guarantee that you will get it.”

Blanco is referring to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) system of selecting applications for H-1B visas, which are chosen by a lottery system in mid-April. USCIS caps the number of applications at 65,000, and last year the quota was filled on the first day, when USCIS received 150,000 applications. This year, however, USCIS will accept all applications between April 1 and April 7 and then will use a lottery system to determine the lucky 65,000. Candidates will be informed in mid-May of the application decision.

Reforming the system

International members of the Class of 2007 will go through a slightly different process from their predecessors.

USCIS has issued a new regulation ensuring that no company can submit more than one application for each potential employee to stop companies from trying to increase their employees’ chances.

“USCIS will deny or revoke multiple petitions filed by an employer for the same H-1B worker,” USCIS announced in a statement on March 19.

Because submitting applications is also costly, this regulation will prevent bias in favor of those with enough resources to file multiple applications.

“There should be these kinds of regulations,” said Cee-Kay Ying ’08, an economics major and native Australian. “It costs money to apply for these, so companies with more money can afford to apply more.”

Another change will make it so that applications from foreigners with advanced degrees will be processed by random lottery. In past years the first 20,000 such applicants were immediately accepted and not counted toward the cap.

Frustration

The University’s late graduation date poses a particular problem for seniors wishing to obtain H-1B visas, as only applicants who have finished their degrees are eligible for H-1Bs

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Yigit Satilmaz ’08, who is from Turkey, said he is “very pissed” with the situation.

Applicants are required to present a letter indicating that they have fulfilled all graduation requirements, but the University is unable to issue such a letter until after the April application deadline has passed. This leaves students essentially stranded without visas for almost a year.

“I did all the things that I could do to get a good GPA and good job,” Satilmaz said, “but right now I’m facing as situation where I can’t do anything ... it’s just a matter of numbers and quotas.”

Many international students don’t snag one of the allotted visas. Those who don’t must leave the country for extended periods of time.

“The U.S. is not going to be receiving anything from me while granting me this opportunity to study in one of the best universities in the world,” Satilmaz said.

Students like Satilmaz, who are granted financial aid by Princeton, may feel as though they are not offered the chance to give back to the economy.

“I feel that the U.S. has to ask us to pay back,” he said. “But right now I’m not allowed to do that.”

Getting a job

Because of the risk that their newly hired applicants may not get visas, some companies are reluctant to take a risk on foreign students, Satilmaz said.

“I have many, many of my friends who couldn’t get jobs because of this,” he said. “There are several large companies that refuse to even get any applications from foreigners because of this issue. They don’t want to deal with this later on.”

Both Google and Barclays Capital stated on their TigerTracks postings in the fall that only Permanent U.S. Residents, U.S. Citizens or U.S. Nationals were desired for their open positions.

Now that Blanco helps with recruiting at JPMorgan, he has had an inside glimpse of this issue.

“Being on the recruiting side this year, I was able to see how having to put up with all of those hurdles to hire internationals actually dissuades companies [from hiring foreign students],” he said.

“Looking at all the problems that human resources has to go through to get the visa, it’s a real pain,” he explained.

Corporations, though in some cases reluctant to do so, will still hire talented foreign students, Blanco said. “If you prove you are a valuable asset, a company will go the distance for you,” he said.