1. How can international students get American green cards?
The first step to get a green card: choose the right major
Science and engineering: easy to find a job
The United States has always advocated "less empty talk and more practical work", and science and engineering are more popular, specifically science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Short for STEM. As early as June 5438+ 10, 2006, US President Bush announced an important plan "American Competitiveness Plan" in his State of the Union address, and proposed that one of the goals of school education is to cultivate STEM talents.
STEM includes computer science application, actuarial science, engineering, engineering technology, science and technology, biology and biomedicine, mathematics and statistics, military technology, physics and medicine. The STEM field itself needs professionals, and all levels of school education also need STEM teachers, so the employment prospects are bright. In addition, accounting and nursing are always in short supply.
Liberal arts: There are few opportunities.
It has long been an open secret that liberal arts graduates find it difficult to find jobs in the United States. The so-called liberal arts students mainly refer to social science students, including art students and education students. American students are not interested in studying science and engineering, the number of engineers trained in the United States is insufficient, the high-tech industry in the United States has a great demand for highly skilled workers, and foreign science and engineering students are very popular.
American native students study more business and liberal arts, and their cultural background, language advantages and personal connections are far from comparable to those of foreign students. In addition, government departments that need liberal arts students generally only recruit American citizens or permanent residents, leaving much less choice for liberal arts students.
The second step of getting a green card: contact the internship.
Two kinds of internships: helping to find a job.
The United States provides two internship opportunities related to majors for international students: CPT is the work internship they applied for during their school days; OPT is a kind of work internship. You can apply at school or after graduation. CPT internship at school should be part-time, otherwise one year's internship will be deducted from OCP in the future. OPT internship can be carried out after one year of study, but usually after graduation.
The internship period of OPT is 12 months, but STEM students can apply for an extension of 17 months, so the total internship period is 29 months. OPT is not only an important stage to accumulate work experience, but also a golden age to find professional jobs.
Looking for internship opportunities: five choices
When you are inexperienced and your resume is not good, professor recommendation is a good channel; There are two kinds of career centers: schools and universities, which often publish news about internships and jobs. Remember to ask the teacher of careercenter how to subscribe to formal career information when entering school. Large companies have their own InternshipProgram, some only in summer vacation, and some are rolling recruitment.
Mixer can also be divided into several types, including getting together with my brothers and sisters and getting together with classmates at the same level or in the same city. You can go online to find people with similar interests, or people who work in industries you are interested in, and then come out to get together with them, and you can get internship opportunities inadvertently. Linkedin is also an important tool, and HR of many big companies spend some time watching LinkedIn every day.
Step 3: apply for H- 1B visa.
H 1-B application: submitted by the employer.
The visa for international students is usually F- 1 visa. Except for internships, international students cannot work legally in the United States. If you want to stay and work in the United States, you must apply for a work permit for a professional occupation. This is the H 1-B visa.
Before applying for this visa, you must first find a job related to your major, and the employer is willing to apply for H 1-B for you. The employer shall submit an application for labor status (LCA) to the Ministry of Labor, indicating that the employer will pay no less than the current wage standard and provide you with the same treatment as other employees. Hiring you will not have a negative impact on the work of other employees. After the LCA is approved, submit an application for H 1-B to the Immigration Bureau.
H 1-B requirements: find a job.
The basic requirement of H 1-B visa is that the job you want to do requires a bachelor's degree or above, and you just meet this requirement. The H 1-B visa is issued to foreigners, which means that people can apply even if they are not in the United States.
However, relatively speaking, international students have much more opportunities to get a degree in the United States. If you show your advantages in OPT internship, your company will be happy to do H 1-B for you to keep you. Usually, the period of H 1-B is 3 years, which can be extended for 3 years.
H 1-B draw: unlucky to be returned.
Due to the large number of applicants, the Immigration Bureau had to accept the drawn applications by computer lottery and return the applications exceeding the quota. If you are unlucky and are not drawn, OPT will lose its legal residence status in the United States after its expiration.
If you don't want to go back to China, you have to maintain your legal status, you can re-register your school, you can study anything, and you can maintain your F- 1 visa. You can also change the F- 1 visa application to J- 1Trainee to exchange intern visas. If you have a spouse, you can also change your status to a spouse-dependent visa, such as F-2, H4, J-2 and L-2. Keep your legal status and reapply for H 1-B next year.
H- 1B visa is valid for 6 years. The new H- 1B visa is initially valid for 3 years and can be renewed. The longest initial renewal is 2 years, and the final renewal is 1 year, not exceeding 6 years. Six years is enough time for applicants to apply for a green card in the United States. Usually, after the H- 1B visa holder works for him 1 year, the American company will guarantee the applicant to apply for a US green card from the US Immigration Bureau. Green card holders can apply for American citizenship after living in the United States for a certain period of time. Few people become American citizens directly without obtaining a green card.
2. Introduction to the advantages of American immigrants
1. Residence right and travel convenience
With an American green card, you get permanent residency in the United States and can freely enter and leave the United States without going to the embassy to apply for a visa. Permanent residents of the United States can live in any of the 50 States of the United States and travel to many countries without a visa.
With a US passport, you can get visa-free access to about 186 countries and regions in landing visa. With the American green card, more than 100 countries and regions have implemented visa-free and landing visa.
2. Education for children
Admission rate: In the United States, 80% of the admission qualifications are usually allocated to students who are citizens or have permanent residency. This kind of students don't have to compete with the world's top students for admission places when applying, but a separate pool.
There are no restrictions on majors: some ace majors in the United States are not open to international students, while students with permanent residency apply as locals, which not only has a high admission rate, but also gives priority to many ace majors.
Scholarships: Students with permanent residency can apply for a variety of scholarships, with superior examination and approval conditions and a high probability of winning scholarships.
University tuition: The tuition fees paid by students with permanent residency to attend universities (including graduate students and doctoral students) are far lower than those paid by international students. Permanent residents can often save 2/3 of the expenses compared with international students.
Free education in primary and secondary schools: the benefits of becoming a permanent resident are not limited to higher education. Permanent residents can also enjoy free public primary and secondary education.
3. Work and employment
Freedom of employment: green card holders have no restrictions on employment, and can directly choose their favorite occupations like native Americans. Of course, there will be some restrictions. For example, some aerospace companies will require citizenship.
In the United States, international students want to stay only by applying for an H 1B visa. However, it is not easy for international students to find a job. It is even more difficult to find a position and a company is willing to apply for a job in H-1B. There was once a master student who had 72 interviews for H-1B. Because I am an international student, I have hit a wall many times.
Unemployment benefits: When the green card holder has no job, the government will give you a job for free. When you have a normal job, pay taxes for not less than six months (three months in some places), and then lose your job, you can get government relief on a monthly basis by reporting your unemployment to the local authorities in the United States.
The amount of unemployment benefits is usually based on the range of pre-employment salary, usually calculated on the basis of a quarter's salary, ranging from 500 dollars to 2000 dollars.
4. immediate family members benefit
Green card holders can apply for green card status for their spouses or unmarried children under the age of 2/kloc-0. Although Trump's immigration plan is to tighten chain immigration (that is, relative immigration), the focus is on immediate family members. However, it can be seen that immediate family members are not affected much and can still apply.
Social security benefits
After paying taxes for 40 quarters (equivalent to the payment period of 10 year), green card holders can receive the pension issued by the US federal government for life after retirement (700 ~ 65438 USD +0200 USD per month) (the legal retirement age for those born in or after 1960 is 67 years old). The retirement time is flexible, and the later you retire, the more pensions the government issues. For many immigrants, the number of years of receiving a pension is more than the number of years of paying taxes.
Retirees are exempt from taxes when they receive federal pensions, but those whose annual total income exceeds a certain amount have to pay taxes. Beneficiaries of federal pension include not only retirees themselves, but also spouses (including divorce) and minor children (including adoption) who meet certain conditions.
5. Old-age medical insurance
In the United States, medical expenses are quite high, but any "low-income" green card holder (with no tax record) can apply for a "medical card" after retirement, and any illness is paid for free. This completely relieved the worries of the old man's illness.
6. Housing subsidies
Green card holders can apply for buying apartments for low-income elderly people after retirement. About 35% of the market price, buy a house subsidized by your country in the United States. People who have no money to buy a house can also apply for government low-rent housing, which is only about 1/3- 1/4 of the market price.
7. Free entertainment
Eligible green card holders can enter the elderly centers in various communities after applying. All kinds of entertainment, fitness, study and medical treatment in the center are free, meals in the activity center are also free, and the shuttle bus from home to the activity center is also free.