The UNC MBA Program thrives in large part because of our international student population, a mix of amazing individuals from all over the world, who come to UNC with at least the same levels of skills, commitment, energy and amazingness as our American classmates–and they all share the same aspirations: to do well and to do good with jobs of their dreams.
The road to employment often points toward an H-1B visa (not always but often), and that’s where the process gets complicated both in figuring out the legal processes around visa applications, and in figuring out which employers will sponsor individuals through these processes.
Re: figuring out the legal processes around visa applications, I cannot say enough good things about Mark Rhoads of McCandlish Holton Attorney-at-Law. Mark has visited UNC countless times to deliver incredibly engaging visa information workshops; he knows everything there is to know about the visa and work authorization processes; he has worked directly with many of our graduates who have gone on to great success. Need legal support around visa applications? Call Mark Rhoads
Re: figuring out which employers will sponsor individuals through the visa-application process:
Among the most important things that I learned from Mark:
- Many employers over-estimate the costs, complexity and obligations associated with sponsoring a visa application
- Not only massive US multi-national companies can sponsor; start-ups, SMBs, and main-street shops can sponsor too
- No one can guarantee anything, but having help makes an enormous difference
- The keys to best-chances: starting early and keeping up on the latest information
Here are some data resources to understanding just how many companies in the US sponsor (most of these resources focus on H-1B sponsorship)
These links are tried and true and have proved reliable over many years (although not entirely without ads of course! : )
- My Visa Jobs: https://www.myvisajobs.com/ (not that user friendly but good information and searchable databases + includes internships)
- Going Global: https://www.goinglobal.com/ (searches jobs in the US and abroad as many companies will first employ internationally and then return the workers to the US)
- H1B Data: https://www.h1bdata.org/employers (another searchable database that allows you to search by several factors)
- H1B Rank: https://www.h1brank.com/ (another searchable database that allows you to search by several factors)
- All of the above draw on the US Citizenship & Immigration Services databases which you can access here: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub
Here’s an interesting article from the US Chamber of Commerce https://www.uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/sponsor-h1b-visas and the main site is worth keeping up on as as the informaiton applies throughout the US and they have some interesting national-trends insights: https://www.uschamber.com/
And, finally, Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Indeed are the most popular job-search sites in the US. Here are links to each set to search for H-1B jobs (these links are likely to change over time; please email me if these links have gone outdated, and I’ll update them):
- Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/us-h1b-visa-sponsorship-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,2_IN1_KO3,23.htm
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/h1b-visa-jobs?position=1&pageNum=0
- Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/q-H1b-Visa-jobs.html
The US flag + Scrabble image came from https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2020/09/04/why-the-h1b-visa-program-needs-an-overhaul/?sh=45ab2a0e31a9