Job market a burden for visa students

Finding a job after graduation is no easy task, but add the pressures of staying in the country to the mix, and international students must plan many more months in advance.
Student visas expire after international students graduate from college, so to stay in the United States, the fresh graduates must immediately find a job with a company that will sponsor their work visas. Students said they fear they will not be able to find a job that will support their continuous need to renew visas, forcing them to leave the country.
‘I am more worried about finding a job as a foreign student, because a company needs to invest a little more time,’ College of Engineering junior Bhupi Nagpure said. ‘I need to be more persistent so companies will invest in me.’
Nagpure said his biggest worry is that companies will not want to pay the visa cost and some smaller companies do not even know about the process.
BU International Student Consortium President Nigar Chalabi Zada said she is nervous about finding a job in the United States that will sponsor a working visa because this means extra competition for limited visas.
Zada, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, said she found the process of getting a student visa ‘really easy.’
‘I didn’t encounter any difficulties,’ she said. ‘I think it is easier to get a student visa than to just travel to the U.S., there is more documentation required.’
International Students and Scholars Office Director Jeanne Kelley said BU helps international students obtain visas and continues to help them renew their necessary paperwork every year.
‘As international students are accepted in BU, we make sure they receive their student visa before they arrive,’ she said. ‘We issue paperwork, send instructions and give them the websites they need to go to. We care for them from point when they enter their academic program to when they are hired.’
International students have a temporary F-1 nonimmigrant classification when they are at BU, Kelley said. Once they finish their studies, they are able to apply for a 12-month extension to be able to work in the United States.
Kelley said once international students are nearing graduation, they are encouraged to work with the Office of Career Services to search for jobs the same way all students do, but she added that once students are able to secure a job, it is no longer BU’s responsibility to help them continue to maintain their visas.
‘Should they continue working at an employer in the U.S., it is up to the employer to help them fill out the H-1 temporary worker classification,’ she said. ‘But the employer has to be willing to do so.’
Many international students will choose to go home, and only some will decide to work in the United States, Kelley said.
College of General Studies sophomore Sanjana Balani said that while BU was ‘very helpful’ when it came to helping her apply for her student visa, she needs to always be prepared as an international student.
‘The main difference between citizens and international students is that international students must plan everything in advance,’ she said.