H1B desperation Forum

[Anonymous User]

My firm entered me in the lottery every year starting in 2015 and I only finally got it in 2021!! Atrocious luck. Luckily they were incredibly flexible.

which firm is this!!

[Anonymous User]

Your gf being a US citizen makes this such a no-brainer straightforward solution that I have trouble believing you genuinely need advice whatsoever…

Anyway, congrats on the impending marriage! And sympathies to the scores of other F1s who are victim to the extremely ridiculous realities of the H1B system. Poster above gave perfect advice to any lurkers facing similar problems but lacking the obvious solution OP has.

Thank you so much for the reassurance! Honestly, marriage it is. We were planning on doing it anyway! Any idea how long it usually takes to get the EAD after applying for the green card?

You can check USCIS EAD processing times but it’s usually 120-180 days. One point of caution (because also catholic and also got married when my alien spouse was ending school), you do not want to step out of the country while you are between your F visa and OPT. There are also consulate procedures for getting married in a foreign country and you should read up on for your country. Last but not least if someone plans to change their last name it can be a real pain with a foreign marriage certificate.

Best of luck!

[Anonymous User]

Your gf being a US citizen makes this such a no-brainer straightforward solution that I have trouble believing you genuinely need advice whatsoever…

Anyway, congrats on the impending marriage! And sympathies to the scores of other F1s who are victim to the extremely ridiculous realities of the H1B system. Poster above gave perfect advice to any lurkers facing similar problems but lacking the obvious solution OP has.

Thank you so much for the reassurance! Honestly, marriage it is. We were planning on doing it anyway! Any idea how long it usually takes to get the EAD after applying for the green card?

You can check USCIS EAD processing times but it’s usually 120-180 days. One point of caution (because also catholic and also got married when my alien spouse was ending school), you do not want to step out of the country while you are between your F visa and OPT. There are also consulate procedures for getting married in a foreign country and you should read up on for your country. Last but not least if someone plans to change their last name it can be a real pain with a foreign marriage certificate.

Best of luck!

Sorry, what do you mean I don't want to step out of the country between F-1 and OPT? I was told I would be allowed to do that! My OPT starts on July 15 this year and I have a trip planned at the end of May!

[Anonymous User]

Don’t plan to leave the country if you’re F1 has expired and you don’t have the OPT in your hands. I recall there was some weird rule where you couldn’t apply for OPT until 60 days before the student status expired but the OPT can take 120 days to process. I also experienced everything under the Trump Administration. Back then there was also a presumption of fraudulent marriage if you got married within a certain time frame upon any entry into the US - hope Biden got rid of that but something to look up.

[Anonymous User]

A friend of mine got her EAD 8.5 months after her marriage to a U.S. citizen. This was in 2021, so there might have been a Covid delay, but the processing time definitely varies and there is no guarantee at all. If marriage is the solution, I'd say start the process ASAP.

[Anonymous User]

I've been at the lowest point in my life over the past few days.

I'm a 3L about to graduate and start work this coming September. I was notified a few days ago that I wasn't picked through the H1B lottery, which means that, after my OPT is done, I'll in all likelihood have to leave my firm. Getting this job has been my dream since undergrad and anything I'd have to say about how happy I was to get it would be an understatement (please go light on the cynicism.)

I did everything right. I did my research. I picked what most people told me was the absolute BEST firm for an international J.D. to go for. I talked to the HR people, I talked to people AT the firm who went through the same process, and everyone assured me that I would just have to go through an office transfer for a year and then be brought back. They're a firm that has always done this.

On the same day I was sent my lottery outcome, a first year at my firm told me that the decision for this year was that NO ONE would be getting transferred, apparently because the market was just so bad. I also heard about the news from Goodwin (for those not in the know, they literally just fired everyone who didn't get in through the lottery), which didn't exactly make things any better. I'm not exactly optimistic about the market outlook for next year - if anything, things are bound to get worse.

How do I get through this? I was planning on proposing to my gf soon and finally having kids. What am I supposed to tell her? How am I supposed to start a family if I have no clue about what the future holds beyond one year from now?

Should I start looking in another market? What's in store for those of us who were unlucky enough not to get in through this braindead lottery system?

It's been many years for me, so someone correct me if I'm wrong. But if you're just graduating, you should have at least one more shot at H1B, don't you? When I was in your shoes, my understanding was that you would only be thinking about transferring to an overseas office only after you don't get selected the second time. So you never know if your firm will change course and resume transferring people to London next year. Also, transferring overseas is not the only way your firm can keep you. When I talked to the person in charge of this stuff at my firm many years ago, I was told basically that while trasferring to London for a year is an option, there may be more preferrable ways to keep me in the firm and in New York. So just because they're not transferring anyone overseas this year (if that's even actually true) doesn't mean they're not going to try to keep you if you exhaust your chances of getting H1B while on OPT, which again I don't think is this year.

[Anonymous User]

Your gf being a US citizen makes this such a no-brainer straightforward solution that I have trouble believing you genuinely need advice whatsoever…

Anyway, congrats on the impending marriage! And sympathies to the scores of other F1s who are victim to the extremely ridiculous realities of the H1B system. Poster above gave perfect advice to any lurkers facing similar problems but lacking the obvious solution OP has.

Thank you so much for the reassurance! Honestly, marriage it is. We were planning on doing it anyway! Any idea how long it usually takes to get the EAD after applying for the green card?

You can check USCIS EAD processing times but it’s usually 120-180 days. One point of caution (because also catholic and also got married when my alien spouse was ending school), you do not want to step out of the country while you are between your F visa and OPT. There are also consulate procedures for getting married in a foreign country and you should read up on for your country. Last but not least if someone plans to change their last name it can be a real pain with a foreign marriage certificate.

Best of luck!

Sorry, what do you mean I don't want to step out of the country between F-1 and OPT? I was told I would be allowed to do that! My OPT starts on July 15 this year and I have a trip planned at the end of May!

I left and returned from the US in between F-1 and OPT, and had no issues. This being said, 'officially' you're not supposed to leave in such period.