An important thing to consider if you are planning to study in the US is the immigration mess. Personally if I had understood the problems in advance, I would have been reluctant to work here. So here is a brief summary.
H1B visas
H1B visas allow a foreigner to work temporarily in the US for 6 years. Last year it was a challenge to get one, but this year it looks okay with the recession. Depending on when you graduate this can be a problem for you, if there are too many people with American graduate degrees.
Green Cards
Most people move to the US from Asia with the intention of achieving permanent residency. If you are from India or China you are in deep trouble at this point in time. The US gives about 3000 Green Cards per country per year for the EB-2 category (graduate degree holders or 5 years of work experience) for all countries. So if you are from a populous country like India or China, the demand far outstrips supply. According to an interview with the USCIS chief, Charles Oppenheim, there are about 60,000 people from India in the EB-2 Green Card line if you count applicants until July 2007. So that's 20 years to a Green Card right there, unless people start losing jobs ahead of you, move back to India, laws change so that we get more visas.
Why should you care?
So the longer you spend in the line, you start realizing how many limitations this puts on you. Once the first 6 years on your H1 finish, you can only renew your H1 every year, provided you have completed 2 stages of your Green Card application (a 3 stage process). Also there are limitations on switching fields, switching companies, starting your own company. In general you have to stick to your current job profile for as long as you have a Green Card application in flight, which I already told you is about 20 years if you were born in India/China. Also your spouse cannot work on a H4 dependent visa. Employment authorization for spouses is provided close to the end of the Green Card process. No intelligent spouse will be willing to put up with that for 20 years. Of course your spouse can get his/her own H1 visa.
I am brushing over a lot of details here but my personal opinion is that America isn't the right place for new immigrants from India and China for the longer term given the current laws. In any case all the top American companies have offices in India now, so there is little to gain by staying in America apart from the American lifestyle. America is a great place to learn though, so it is worthwhile getting an American degree.
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1 comment:
A post bang on target. I was thinking about the same things for past couple of weeks and I thought I should express my opinions about this subject.
Immigrating to the States was a taboo , say some 8-10 years ago, but now it has become a de facto standard for Indians. America has been saturated by Indians and Chinese. Almost every other Indian, who is a computer engineer, dreams of being a US citizen. Add to this the fact that , every year approximately 30,000 students, from India alone, go the US for higher education. So just imagine the number of people waiting and dreaming of a green-card. In fact I'm pretty sure that we have "TEAMS" of COEPians and IITians (and other elite colleges) in almost every state.
Of course education in America is considered world-class, but I think that given the current scenario people should rethink about US higher education. I mean , what good is a US degree if after two years your are back in India earning the same salary as a BE with two years experience ,or say an Mtech from IIT? Its like saying that I did MS from so and so university because my parents had a lot of extra money. I agree with your view about almost all big companies having their offices in India. Many of my friends here , when asked why they want a MS from US , promptly reply that a world class degree helps in getting a job at BIG companies like google/microsoft/yahoo/AMD/Intel/GE etc. I say , so what , big deal. You can get a job in these companies in India itself. The situation is not the way it was a few years ago. If someone has done Mtech from IIT /IISc or NIT he/she can get into top tier companies that for sure. Yes, salaries, exposure etc is nowhere near a job in US ,but still its almost the same. Furthermore, the current economic downturn is forcing companies in US to hire native employees which is a threat to international students. Again, an Mtech from IIT/IISc is almost free, a bigger bang for the buck. I think that students do not think of this option as getting into IIT for mtech is hell lot tougher than GRE. But its do-able. That is why Indians are considered talented and thats why the outsourcing cycle runs.
Anyway, in the end, its a matter of personal choice. I just thought that prospective students should have other options open as well.
Cheers! and take care
Harsh
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