I will be completing my design degree from a swedish university. I want to know if I would be allowed to work in the USA if I get an offer. Will I have any problem since I am not a student from the US ?
I am talking without experience, but I will tell you what I ‘know’:
Basically, if you are lucky enough to get a job offer in the US, they need to help you with applying for a working visa. This may sound easy, but then they have to explain why you are more suitable for the position than, say, someone who has a relatively similar portfolio from the states. So you basically need amazing work for them to even consider having to put a lot of effort into getting you into their country.
Recently in papers in the UK there was talk about immigration laws in the US and the amount of Irish Americans. Apparently, because the immigration laws are getting stricter and stricter the ‘real’ Irish Americans will not exist in another 1 or 2 generations.
I suggest contacting the American Embassy in Sweden (or wherever your home country is?) and asking them about the process of receiving a working Visa for the US. They may be able to give slightly better info than me!
Isn’t it just as difficult in the UK and EU? Do you have more info on that?
In the US, the company usually will sponsor the application. It involves money, lawyers and most importantly, time.
Money and lawyer fee may not be the biggest issue, but asking extra resources and time on top of the company’s work load doesn’t make sense to a lot of them.
So, even if a company is willing to do all that for you, there’s another cut-off.
The government only offers about 75k applications year, and they get snatched up right on the first day. Right now, there are 150k applicants, so the government is going to have a lucky draw. The chance is therefore 50%.
Personally, I find this quite insulting. I rather be rejected based on my professional ability than being accepted by some computer lucky draw.
my impression is that foreigners will find it a very hard time to get into the US and Europe. I also think its the timing too. When i was a student, all I could get was project based work if they like your folio. Getting in to work is another different story. It doesn’t matter how good you are-- top of the class or top 10%of your level, you don’t exactly get the job mainly because you are a foreigner. I had once gotten as far as to the final intervew for a MNC and was rejected because they had missed my nationality. But they refered me to another branch. It was also because that during that time, times were bad for the locals, so naturally jobs for foreignrs become even scarcer.