How Do You Get a US Work Visa? What Are OPT and H1B? Is the Work Visa Lottery Hard?

Hello everyone, I'm Jeff

Today I want to share my process and timeline from finishing my master's in the US to getting an H1B work visa. It covers the OPT application, switching jobs, the STEM OPT EXTENSION application and finally the H1B lottery. If you're interested in any of this, feel free to leave a comment!

Also, today I won't be covering how I found a job back then, like grinding coding problems or interview tips and experiences

Video version:

Super useful: Is a US work visa hard to get? What is OPT? H1B? The first step to immigrating to the US? My journey applying for a visa after my US master's!

https://youtu.be/KEEl-Y5aXF4

1. What is OPT?

OPT is a status permit that lets you stay and work in the US.

OPT stands for Optional Practical Training. It's reviewed by USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Service), which issues a work permit called an EAD card. (Don't forget this, it comes up a lot later)

As a law-abiding foreigner in the US, you can't just pick up odd jobs to cover living costs. To work in the US, you first need the US government's approval, which means getting work authorization.

Pre-completion OPT: OPT before graduation. I won't explain it here (I never applied for it).

Post-completion OPT: OPT after graduation. This is what most people apply for, so every mention of OPT below means this one. (You don't need a job offer to apply for OPT.)

Here's the table

The first requirement, of course, is that you must currently hold F-1 student status, which is the status everyone uses to study in the US, and have completed the credits to graduate from a degree program recognized in the US.

You also need to meet these four conditions:

1. The job is directly related to your current degree

2 The job is directly related to your current field of study

3. You must work at least 20 hours a week

4. Paid or unpaid (I won't go into detail here; in my case, both jobs were paid)

Note that you only get one chance to apply for OPT at each level: bachelor's, master's and PhD. So even with two master's degrees, you still get only one OPT. That's why F1 visa holders usually have just 12 months left in the US after graduating.

But if your major is a "STEM" field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), you can get 36 months (3 years) of OPT.

OPT application timeline and dates

1. You can apply for OPT from 90 days "before" graduation up to 60 days "after" graduation.

2. Your EAD card (if you forgot what that is, go back and reread the last part as punishment🤣) can take effect on any day within 60 days after graduation (the day you agreed with your employer to start, or whatever day you want to put down), and then you can legally work on OPT.

3. The 60th day after graduation is the last day USCIS will accept your OPT application, and also the last day your OPT can start.

4. There's also a 60-day Grace Period after OPT ends. So there are 60-day Grace Periods both before it starts and after it ends.

5. Once OPT starts, you get a total of only 90 days of unemployment, meaning time without a job. For example, if you get fired and don't notice you've gone past 90 days, you have to leave the country within 60 days.

And here's a diagram

My case:

First, I graduated at the end of March 2021. Following the rules, I applied for OPT 90 days before graduating and set my OPT start date to 60 days after graduation

Then in April I started working at Company A. You're probably wondering: my OPT hadn't taken effect yet, so how could I work at Company A? Right, this is a bit of a gray area. When I first joined Company A, I wasn't paid. We agreed they would pay my back wages once my OPT started. I had no other offers at the time and didn't want to waste my unemployment period, so I joined Company A

Fast forward to July: I resigned from Company A because they owed me two months of pay (long story)

From April to June, I was miserable, working while interviewing for jobs and almost out of money to live on. Luckily, at the end of June I got a good offer (I interviewed with something like twenty or thirty companies during that time)

So in July I started at Company B, still on OPT

If you're interested in the story of how I switched jobs, let me know in the comments and I can make another video about it later

I worked at Company B on OPT until January 2022. That's when the company started collecting documents for the H1B lottery. Of course I handed everything in right away, to see if I could be one of the lucky ones on my first try

So what is H1B?

The H-1B visa is issued by the US to people doing specialized professional work in the country. It's a non-immigrant visa and the main US work visa category. The employer has to apply on the applicant's behalf, and the employment petition needs approval from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Each year 85,000 H-1B visas are issued: 20,000 priority slots are for beneficiaries with a graduate degree or higher, and the other 65,000 go to those with a bachelor's degree or other beneficiaries who didn't get a priority slot.

H-1B holders can work in the US for three years, then extend for another three. When the 6 years are up, if the holder's status hasn't changed (for example to EB-2, EB-3 or another work-based category, which I won't go into here), they have to leave the US.

1. The position usually requires at least a bachelor's degree or higher, or the equivalent;

2. Because of its specialized and complex nature, the position can only be filled by someone with a bachelor's degree or higher, since they have specialized knowledge;

3. The position is generally considered a "specialty" occupation;

"Specialty" occupations include, but are not limited to: architects, engineers, professors, teachers, researchers, medical specialists, nutritionists, physicians, nurses, computer programmers, accountants, lawyers, social workers, economists and librarians.

In April the H1B lottery results came out. In a year with a low selection rate, I got picked on my first try. My company also agreed to pay for premium processing, so I got my Approval in June. In the meantime I also applied for the STEM OPT EXTENSION, because my first year of OPT would expire at the end of May and the H1B would only take effect on 10/1. There was a gap in between, so I still had to get the OPT EXTENSION even though I'd be switching to H1B status soon. Bye-bye, my money (application fee 710USD)

Summary

For me, the most stressful part of my whole time studying abroad was waiting on visas, whether it was OPT, the OPT Extension or H1B. And while waiting, I couldn't stop myself from looking up cases online where applications failed or documents got lost in the mail, scaring myself

The US process for these visas is very inefficient, and changing anything after you submit is a hassle, so my advice is to check everything over and over. Schools usually have a checklist to make this easier. After you submit, just track the progress regularly, and the rest is keeping a healthy mindset and waiting patiently. After all, on top of waiting for visas, you also have to put a lot of energy into classes, studying and even job hunting. Being careful, keeping a healthy mindset, not obsessing over the outcome and not scaring yourself with cases online matter most

From graduating in March 2021 to June 2022, it took me over a year to get my work visa. Getting picked in the first year was actually pretty lucky. I've heard of people who entered three times during their entire 36 months of STEM OPT and never got picked, which makes it harder if they want to stay and keep working

Generally, the path to staying in the US after studying is: OPT-H1B-green card-US citizen

If you join a company willing to sponsor a Day1 green card, you can actually skip the OPT step, but not every company sponsors. As far as I know, most only start the green card process after you get the H1B, but it really depends on company policy

PS. If you like this content, please subscribe to my channel. It would help me a lot

https://youtube.com/@metal_jeff?si=_BTiCBw7b_Pu1Nm-

Thanks again to everyone who read this far