How 2020 US Elections Will Affect Indian Students

Q; Which candidate from Democrat has high chances to stand for democrat ?

While on F1, can parents or siblings visit US to meet student?

Since data science is demand in the US, does it make it easier for me to get H1B visa if I get a data scientist job/

Q: If i get in top 50 univ for stem course… will it have a +ve effect on my H1b visa ? …like strength of previous institution ?

Apparently there is an amendment pending for August 2020 for OPT…I saw it somewhere on the USCIS website but no information was related to it. As this would impact fall 2020 admissions

I have 14 years of experience, I will have to travel to CA with my wife. Do I do have any other option to be there other than being on a student visa?

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

Frankly speaking, this is one place where I can only give my opinion. It might happen. But I don’t think it makes sense. I don’t think it is something that they will be going for as the first step. There are other things they would want to prioritize over reducing the OPT period. Because reducing OPT period is directly counter-intuitive to their plans of promoting the skill-based visas. But nothing has been called out per se at this point of time.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

If you can specify what you mean by the education gap, it would help me answer that. Usually, when students start working after their graduation is not considered an education gap per se.

False information will definitely be a big reason for rejection. But more often than not, the visa interview process is not a long process. I went through it as well when I applied for my Masters. So in my experience, they don’t grill you for an hour. It is about how you present yourself in the first minute or so and it will be a key determinant in how things will pan out to be honest.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

H1B visa numbers are still the same according to the data put out by the US government. What has happened is that if you segment it by companies and by your graduation skills then definitely the denial rates have changed drastically. Even the TCSs’ of the world have adapted reasonably well. You now see software companies increasingly higher in the US and most of the regulations talk of segmenting the H1B visa on the basis of skill. By skill, I mean education qualifications or your seniority in a company.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

Again, factor off what specific skill set you have and what specific domain you are going to work in. But the obvious choices are East Coast, New York centric areas and the Boston-centric areas and absolutely the Silicon Valley. Other areas would be the Chicago Midwest and Austin Texas. But you need to realise what you mean by high paying jobs because a salary of US$ 200,000 in New York or in San Francisco v/s US$ 120,000 in Austin might actually be the same.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

We will talk about one of the acts proposed in the senate. But if I have to give a very broad idea, there are multiple bills on the floor of the house at any given point in time. But the underlying philosophy is consistent across all candidates, at least all candidates who have put in some thought process. When I said highly qualified, it is based on your seniority and education qualifications. And one of the bills that was on the floors of the house a couple of years back and has been proposed again that talks about doing away with the lottery system and replacing it with a skill based system. When I say skill, one of the qualifications is anyone who is at a director level or higher in a company is probably a skilled person. Anyone in senior management gets first access. Then they gave preference to Master’s or PhD students in STEM courses and categorized them as effectively a highly skilled worker. Followed by Masters and PhD in non-STEM courses, followed by someone in mid-management level, followed by someone who is doing undergrad program in a STEM course, undergrad program in a non-STEM course. And finally the articulation was that anyone who doesn’t fall under these categories would fall in the last bucket. In your particular case, if you plan to go and study for Masters in Fall 2020, then you’d be graduating as a Masters in a STEM program and that would be at the very top of the qualification list. And in the proposals currently, there is no mention of the work experience per se. Though work experience could help you primarily in terms of your eligibility on getting better jobs. But in terms of the proposed process, there is no mention of work experience.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

All over the world, even in India, there is a huge scope for Data Science jobs. In the US, there is a significant dearth of candidates for data science jobs. That’s why all the tech leaders are talking about increasing the H1B visa limit, removing the limit on visas when it comes to the green cards. This is stemming from their requirements because they don’t have sufficient people that they educate who are skilled enough to take up these data science jobs. And every industry has a significant chunk of data science efforts at this point.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

Essentially, here question really is whether you are doing a STEM course or a Non-STEM course. Because there was a change in the OPT program. So generally when you go for your education you will get a one year OPT, which was extended to three years for the STEM program. What that effectively means is that when you complete your graduation, you can get a job and then apply for a H1B visa. But if you don’t get your H1B visa, you will get another shot the next year and the year after. So basically you are getting three shots in the H1B lot. So if you have done a STEM course and have a job but couldn’t get the visa and couldn’t get in the lottery system, you will be able to apply for it in the next year. So, probabilistically your chance will improve. Another positive thing that happened just around the time Mr. Trump came in, which was the way priorities were set in terms of the lottery system. There is a 65 thousand cap on the H1B visa and there is another 10 thousand cap for Masters programs. Earlier the prioritization was different. Now as a Masters student you get to double-dip in both the categories, which effectively increases your chances by 6% or 7% of getting a H1B visa.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

Pete Buttigieg is the only candidate who has a very well defined plan. Others are either silent or don’t have any opinion on this matter.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

So this is one interesting question. My take is on the ground it shouldn’t be much of a difference. But what could happen is the exact opposite of what we saw last time when Trump came into power. There will be a sentiment factor at play. What I mean by that is if a Democratic president comes into power then a typical HR in a company might foresee that as more receptive. There might be higher chances of now getting a job or companies making more offers to students. From that sentimental basis purely, you might see more companies being open to hiring folks or at least doing interviews. Whereas last time what happened was there was a phase of 6 months when certain companies, not the mainstream but smaller companies, were wary of how things will pan out.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

Frankly, this is something I won’t be able to answer. You can definitely come to the GyanDhan’s events and Fairs where there will be folks who will be in a better position to answer this.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

Generally, what happens is there can be only 65 thousand new H1B visas issued every year and another 10 thousand are allocated for MS programs. What happens is that the number of applications is far more than the number of visas available. So traditionally the way it works is that there is a lottery system. In a good year, they get 240,000 applications and only 75 thousand visas will be granted. So you have a one in three chance of getting the H1B visa. A lot of people are proposing the need to move away from the lottery system because this is in favor of the outsourcing companies. The outsourcing companies apply for n-number of visas and they don’t care who gets a visa or not because they will be able to have a one-third hit rate, they’ll be able to fulfill their requirements. Whereas companies who require really high-skilled employees and are doing cutting-edge work, they might not have the same flexibility as an outsourcing company.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

I wouldn’t focus on the green card, for now, to be honest. First, probably think about F1, then H1B and then probably at the end of it all think about the green card. Though I mean if you end up going for a Ph.D. and Joe Biden has his way then you might get a green card as an automatic thing with your Ph.D. degree.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

You can track different betting sites that talk about who has the highest chance of winning. At this point in time, Trump’s voter base has pretty much solidified because of the impeachment process. So there is a decent chance that he might be re-elected. As far as Democratic presidential candidates are concerned, it’s a toss-up at this point. These 4 candidates are in a very close fight. Earlier on Joe Biden was a clear favorite but now other candidates are surging ahead in the polls as well. What will happen in the Iowa Corpus will be critical and a couple of Corpus’ will be critical in determining who could be the front runner in the next couple of months’ time.

Replying on behalf of the speaker -

As far as parents are concerned, they come on B-1/B-2 visa which is a visitor visa. Given that you will have an H1B visa, you’ll be working so you can sponsor them. They can definitely come but there will be stipulations around that they can stay for only this many months and then they have to go back to come again. That is kind of an issue. Given that you are on a work visa and not a US citizen.
For your brother, I don’t know if it makes it any easier for the university or if the university looks at it favorably or not, frankly speaking, I am not aware of that. But at least from a financial standpoint, you would be able to afford the cost much better if you were working. That would be positive for sure. It would be positive even from a visa office standpoint wherein they know that there is another income stream that could support your younger brother’s education.