Immigration - 1

Oh immigration. I hate it. If you’re a U.S. citizen, feel free to skip this part. If you want to read my rant and what your fellow international students / foreign coworkers go through, feel free to read this section. Again, I am not an expert and this is not legal advice in any way. In the United States, foreigners are required to have this thing called a `visa’. This is not the one with your credit card, but this basically states the purpose of your being in the United States. There are many kinds, depending on your purpose of visit, from tourism, work, to study. I have had experience with two, student (F1), and work(h1b) visas. There is a world of complications with visas, so I can be absolutely wrong and misrepresentative. Please note that this book is of my experiences and thoughts, not a textbook or a guidebook. Since this is a very complex issue, like most other things I talk about in this book, I’m going to give you the basic concepts, and please find out more from a reputable source, if you are to apply this to your life.

 

Your visa is your identity. It will tag you along everywhere you go in the US. As a foreigner, my life has been quite unstable, with the very small but quite substantial fear that something might go wrong and I could be kicked out, losing everything I worked for. Having a visa has a rather gloomy power of impermanence, that unless I act otherwise, my life in the US has an expiration date. I think that’s why a lot of people who come with visas `don’t feel home’ in the US, because you’re constantly tested, and it just doesn’t feel that welcoming. Which makes sense in some ways, so I’m not going to go into the whole debate about the US immigration policy and how countries should think about immigrants. 

 

Before we start, there are two distinctions to be made - there is a `visa’ and a `status’. Generally, we call the whole thing `an immigration visa’, but I think it’s important to note the difference. Conceptually a status comes with a visa, but sometimes these terms can get tricky, since these two are very similar but different. So a `visa’ is the sticker? (usually the term is `stamp’) on your passport that has your photo and a bunch of your data. It’s basically a pass to the US - this document is needed to enter the US. A `status’ is your reason for staying in the US. The document to prove this depends on your visa type. If you’re a student (F1), this is your I-20; if you’re an employee, this is your I-797. These documents should have some sort of details about your status in the U.S. In your I-20, your school name, major, how you’re paying for it, and your school contact will be documented. In your I-797, things like your employer, and also your contact will be documented. 

 

Both documents, your visa and status document, come with expiration dates. The visa expiration date does not usually exceed the status expiration date, since if your status expires, you’re not allowed to stay (let alone come in from a foreign country) in the US. If your status expires (e.g. you graduate, or you get fired), you usually get a grace period, then you must leave the US. If your visa expires but if your status is still valid, you can stay in the US (assuming you’re already in) and do your thing (e.g. work or go to school), but you cannot come leave the US and come back, unless you get another visa. The duration of your visa / status depends on many different regulations. Status durations usually depend on the type of visa you have (e.g. work authorizations are 3 years max, per authorization), and visa duration usually depends on the type of visa and your country of origin. My Russian friend can only get a visa that lasts 1 year, while I can get a visa that lasts 5 years. It’s a whole thing.

 

This is quite a unique case, but your visa may expire before your status. For example, you might take more than five years to finish your Ph.D., or you’re from a nation like Russia. In less common cases, you may have changed your status while you’re in the U.S. For example, I changed my status to student to employee (F1 -> H1b), without leaving the U.S. So I just have an expired F1 visa in my passport. In this case, I would have to leave the U.S, and get the visa stamping before I come back into the U.S. If I do not plan to leave, I wouldn’t need to. But you just cannot travel internationally. I mean I could, but I can’t come back in unless I get a visa again, which usually takes from 5 days to a month.

 

Unless you’re someone really special (a gold medalist, a celebrity, or something), your visa will probably require a sponsor. In the case of F1, this is the school. In the case of H1b, this is your employer. They sort of have you by the balls, because if they withdraw their sponsorship (i.e. get expelled or fired), you have to leave the country. If it expires (i.e. graduate or fulfil work duration), you have a grace period to get your shit together. For h1b, your employer is required to pay for your travel back to your country. Now that we covered the basics, lets go deep into the tantalizing world of F1 and h1b - how to get it, their limitations, and things to look out for.