Episode 101: F-1 visa challenges facing students and employers

Episode 101: F-1 visa challenges facing students and employers

This episode of the BAL Immigration Report is brought to you by BAL, the corporate immigration law firm that powers human achievement through immigration expertise, people-centered client services and innovative technology. Learn more at BAL.com.

In this week’s episode, BAL’s Stacey Scorza assembles a panel of designated school officials and an executive in employer relations from Southern Methodist University (SMU) to discuss F-1 visa challenges and STEM OPT issues facing international students and employers.

From Dallas, Texas, I’m Rebecca Sanabria.

The F-1 visa, also known as the student visa, was introduced in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, enabling foreign nationals to temporarily live in the U.S. while pursuing a course of study or degree at an accredited college or university.  

Upon graduation, students with degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, also known as STEM, are eligible for Optional Practical Training, or OPT, for up to 36 additional months, after which they must find employer sponsorship to continue working in the United States.

BAL Senior Associate Stacey Scorza from the Dallas office assembled the following panel from SMU to discuss the challenges facing employers and international students with F-1 visas and STEM OPT status: Lauren Searway, Assistant Director of Employer Relations, and International Program Specialists and Designated School Officials Angie Garcia and Ginger Gonzalez. 

[The following transcript has been slightly edited from the original audio for clarity.]

Scorza: Lauren, Ginger, Angie, I’m not sure if you share international student meetings from time to time, but I searched online in advance of our discussion today, and some really resonated with me from my times when I was studying abroad at the University of Bourgogne in France.

For example, some of the struggles international students at American colleges and universities face include things like converting everything from American dollars to your home currency, feeling abysmally poor or dangerously rich, depending on where you’re from.

You know, I can say for myself, being in France at the time where they were still using francs and changing over to euros, it was quite an experience trying to figure all that out all the time, every time I went to the store. But I don’t know for you guys, is there anything that’s resonated with you?

Gonzalez: I think about when students first arrive here in the United States and they start going through that culture shock and they’re wondering, “Where can I find grocery stores where I can buy food that is comforting to me.” That’s something that we try to provide. We do a lot of research based on the different cultural cuisines and grocery stores that are available around SMU so that students do have some semblance of normalcy when they arrive here at SMU.

Scorza: That’s really great because I do think that we’re lucky to be here in Dallas, that there’s a lot of opportunities like that — lots of different restaurants and different stores from different cultures that make it a little easy. I will say for me, I still remember my first Thanksgiving when I was living in England. It was quite interesting the way they prepare stuffing as compared to the United States. But they tried, so it was good.

What about you, Lauren and Angie? Anything that you notice?

Searway: This is Lauren. So many potential employers seem to be allergic to the words “visa” and “sponsorship.” I think that rings true sometimes.

Scorza: I definitely hear that. How about you, Angie?

Garcia: What comes to mind is how students often come with this intense pressure that their domestic peers might not carry; pressure related to maintaining status, understanding the impact of their decisions when it comes to remaining compliant with their F-1 visa regulations.

Scorza: I hear that. The fear that comes through with the letters O, P and T definitely is a real thing.

I’m really excited to have you all here to discuss some of the current F-1 visa challenges from both the student and employer point of view. And as we said, I’m here with Lauren Searway, Assistant Director of Employer Relations at Southern Methodist University. Lauren, tell us a little bit about what you do.

Searway: Thank you so much for having me, Stacey. As you mentioned, I work on the employer relations team, and that’s within our all majors career center on campus. I primarily work with recruiters and other employer partners to get them connected to campus so that hopefully they can hire some of our students for either full-time positions or internships.

We handle the career fair, which is kind of one of the main events that we’re known for, but there’s so many other touch points that we do. We find those employers that come to campus often have some of the best success with recruitment. That’s a little bit about what I do in the career center.

Scorza: Thanks, Lauren. We also have here Ginger Gonzalez and Angie Garcia, both international program specialists and designated school officials at SMU. It sounds like a loaded title. Tell us a bit about what your day-to-day roles entail. Ginger, do you want to kick us off?

Gonzalez: Basically, our jobs are to support the students to maintain their F-1 status and remain legal here in the United States. That support comes with answering lots of emails, helping them navigate the American academic climate here. We do activities to give them information about how to obtain a driver’s license and how to obtain a Social Security number. And then know the differences between what goes on in an American classroom versus what they’re used to back in their home country.

There’s the legal aspect of it. Then there’s also the cultural knowledge aspect that we do on a daily basis.

Scorza: You must feel a little bit like a surrogate parent trying to help these students while they’re here.

Gonzalez: It feels like that sometimes.

Scorza: How about you, Angie? Anything you want to add to that?

Garcia: Ginger really hit the nail on the head. Yes, it can feel a little bit like we’re a surrogate parent, but it’s a role that we’re happy to take on. This position requires a lot of empathy and understanding for where our students are at, coming to sometimes the United States for the first time ever. It’s a great responsibility, but one that we’re both grateful to have.

Scorza: That’s great. That’s really wonderful to hear. Students definitely count on the help their DSOs give them through all aspects of the change and the adjustments and just what they go through while they’re here.

Why don’t you tell me a little bit about some of the challenges that students are dealing with currently with the government?

Garcia: Angie here, and I’m happy to take that question. As DSOs, our primary role, like we’ve mentioned, is to help international students maintain their nonimmigrant status. We act as liaisons between the university, the government and our international student population.

What many students and employers don’t realize is that we face several challenges working across multiple agencies, such as the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, and even the Social Security Administration, the SSA. These challenges often stem from miscommunication, delays or conflicting policies even between these agencies. And these agencies are just to name a few.

As DSOs, we frequently find ourselves working independently with limited support from our overseeing government agency, the Department of Homeland Security. While there is a help desk that is available for DSOs to access, they really can’t do much when the issue involves another government agency.

This lack of communication and clear assistance from these agencies makes it difficult for us to support our students effectively, and when our hands are tied waiting on government action, students are depending on us to resolve their issues and it can feel like a helpless situation.

Scorza: That’s really, really hard to tackle.

Garcia: Yes.

Scorza: Definitely, as the students, they come to you and they want you to just help them just fix it because there’s no one else that they know that they can turn to.

What are some of the recent trends you’ve been seeing from the government that are causing some difficulties for the students? I’ve heard there are some USCIS errors that have been leading to some dire circumstances for some individuals and just hassle for others. Ginger, tell us a little bit about what you’ve been seeing in that respect.

Gonzalez: We’re seeing a delay in the production of EAD cards and errors in the EAD cards. If there is a mistake in the EAD card, then it requires the student to send their EAD card back to USCIS before they will send them a corrected EAD card. If a student is in this situation, even though they’ve been approved for OPT, they cannot start working until they have the correct EAD card in their possession. This can cause a potential lost opportunity for employment, which is very frustrating for the student.

We had a student today receive an EAD card, and his gender was wrong. It was marked female when he is obviously a male. Now, we have to go through that process of helping him get a replacement EAD card.

We learned that one reason these EAD cards are delayed is because there’s only one facility in the United States that processes all of the EAD cards for all work authorization. That could be for Temporary Protected Status. That could be for people applying for permanent residency and then the students on OPT. All of them are generated out of one facility. That is also a reason why things are delayed.

Scorza: In those instances, have employers been sympathetic or able to hold jobs while these things get fixed, or have students been losing some of these job opportunities?

Garcia: This is Angie. We’ve seen mixed results in these cases. It could be that an employer really wants this student, and they’ve been selected as the top candidate for that position, and they’re willing to empathize and be patient while we wait for the EAD card or while the student waits for the EAD card. Then we’ve seen in other cases that, unfortunately, the employer decides to move on. I believe it comes from the position of not knowing even when to expect that EAD card.

Ginger and I learned that the I-765 applications that are submitted are processed manually. When a student is looking at their case status, it could be because of a simple mistake and forgetting to click a button. They wouldn’t be aware of when to expect or where their EAD card is in the process. It could say that there is a four-month process and the card arrives the next week.

That insecurity and where the student stands in the process, I think it’s really difficult for employers to justify waiting on the EAD card.

Scorza: I think that’s a real valid point. USCIS, in addition, only has certain dropdowns in the background. If somebody is checking their online case status to see where they’re at, hoping to track things, just waiting for it to say a card being produced or a card has been shipped, sometimes they can’t or they don’t update that. So even though everything is moving smoothly in the background and it’s going to happen soon, nobody knows, just like you say.

What have students been doing in these situations or what have you been seeing them do in these situations just to make sure they can maintain their F-1 status?

Gonzalez: This is Ginger. Some students get really creative with stopping their unemployment clock. They receive 90 days of unemployment throughout that first year of OPT. With this job market now, we’re seeing a lot of students asking us how to participate in volunteer opportunities.

Angie and I have to really educate them on what true volunteering is based on the definition defined by the Department of Labor. We try to make them understand that they need to be aware that they are not being exploited and that it is a true volunteer opportunity.

Internships are also being considered. Students can be employed or stop that unemployment clock by doing a short-term internship, paid or unpaid. And that is one thing that we’ve seen an increase in.

Another thing that we’ve been seeing is students are now just opting to forego their OPT and go and return home to pursue their career at home or in a third country if they can get a work permit.

Scorza: That’s interesting. Oftentimes, they come here and they spend so much time studying and investing in friendships. Maybe they have a partner here and it’s hard for them to do that. But there are times where it does make sense and there really is no other option if they want to make sure they don’t stay here unlawfully.

But I think this is a good point to kind of segue over into a discussion with you, Lauren, about employers and how they can often feel there’s an iron curtain with respect to the process of hiring international students. Lauren, why don’t you tell me a bit about what you see as some of the biggest challenges institutionally for the university with respect to international student employment opportunities?

Searway: I’m glad we’re having the opportunity to talk about it, because I think it’s really important to talk about this challenge and kind of educate some of our employer partners. As I mentioned earlier, I work in the all majors career center, and we’re constantly seeking opportunities for internships as well as full-time jobs for our students. Looking at the international student population specifically on our campus here at SMU, we have at any given time around a thousand international students, which is a decent size for our institutional size on campus.

Out of those thousand, about three-fourths of them are graduate students, and a lot of our graduate programs are 2 to 3-year programs — really short. Meaning that as soon as they get on campus, they might be starting their job hunt since it can be such a time-consuming process. A lot of these graduate students who are international students are spending a good portion of their time here on campus just looking for a job in addition to their coursework. I think that’s kind of interesting to keep in perspective.

When working with employers, some of our larger employers that we work with might have a program within their organizations for hiring international students. But it’s some of the smaller or midsize employers who often just don’t understand the process or what sponsorship entails, the struggle with international student hiring.

Scorza: That’s really true — I’ve heard that often too from students. And can you expand on that a little bit for us? What are you seeing as the education gap with small and midsize employers?

Searway: We’ve just found that a lot of employers just don’t know the process. They might not have looked into it or maybe their current organization doesn’t have a set policy. They’re sort of uneducated on everything that sponsorship or hiring an international student might entail. They lean on our DSOs quite a bit to decide if they want to proceed with the hire. Or worse, it might even deter them from proceeding with hiring the student altogether. So I find that employers often don’t know what sponsorship entails. If someone were on STEM OPT and they have a fear of commitment, they might think that with proceeding with that hire they’ll somehow be locked in for a sponsorship or even that that employment relationship might not work out.

Here at SMU, we’ve taken a proactive stance on this by hosting an annual employer symposium with a panel discussion focused solely on F-1 hiring. We’ve teamed up with Stacey here at BAL for the last several years to help educate our employers, and we’ve received really good feedback from that.

It’s clear that it’s not always that organizations just don’t want to hire international students. Sometimes they just don’t know the process or what all that entails. So we’ve had really good success with hosting that program.

Scorza: I’m really glad that you brought up SMU’s employer symposium. I personally really look forward to speaking with the employers every time you invite me, and I’m happy to do it as much as you need it.

I will say you can almost visibly see that light bulb go off with some HR professionals when they talk about it, because they want to hire international students. They just don’t understand or they need more details themselves so they can report back to decision-makers in their organization to make it a thing. I like to hear that although they may be nervous, they appreciate the value and they know that these international students will add so much to their organization.

They come here, they move from another country all on their own. English is their second language, and they’re here and they’re thriving and they’re operating. They seem to do it seamlessly. So if they find that an international student is, in fact, the best candidate for the job, it’s unquantifiable how much that would enrich their workforce for them. I think it’s wonderful what you guys are all doing over there at SMU.

Shifting gears just a little bit, I’d like Angie and Ginger to weigh in on the challenges they see between the students and the employers as you try to support the students in their job search and maintaining their F-1 status.

Gonzalez: Ginger here. We find students who are hired by startups or small to midsize companies. Their HR offices, as Lauren mentioned, might not know the procedure to hire an international student. So the students will often connect us with their employer. Angie and I try to give as much information as we’re able to, not being human resource experts. We inform them that they have the work authorization. They need to show more documentation proving that they are authorized to work in order to complete that I-9 for the hiring process.

If the students are having trouble finding a job during their job search, we’re always referring them back to their career centers. After they graduate from SMU, they still have access to the career centers from campus-wide and within their schools.

Garcia: Another thing we often see is that for students that are work authorized based on Curricular Practical Training, or CPT, which is another benefit for F-1 visa holders, in cases where the student and the employer want to continue the working relationship beyond the program end date, we’ve seen that they are not considering the importance of maintaining the compliance piece of CPT authorization, which is that the CPT employment should be a part of the formal curriculum at the institution and the employment must end exactly when classes end, or this can lead to misunderstandings and sometimes disappointment on both the student and the employer side.

However, we try to just encourage the student that they could potentially reengage this employment relationship once the student graduates and receives work authorization for a full-time opportunity through OPT or STEM OPT extension.

Scorza: That’s really, really interesting to hear that employers want to continue the engagement with the employee. I think, ultimately, we do want the students to be successful here and for employers to reap all the benefits and all of that success that they get with having an international employee.

I’m curious, Angie, if you’ve noticed any trends given the current economy in terms of student hiring?

Garcia: Currently, based on a recent economic data report from the NAFSA Association of International Educators, we are able to see that within our district alone, District 24 in Texas, international students contribute $49 million to the economy and support over 500 jobs just at SMU alone.

We currently have a population of about 1,300 enrolled, and we’ve seen that when we’re looking at the economy and our conversations with students, we observe that there’s a decrease in the volume of overall opportunities in the tech field, both for undergraduate internships and postgraduate roles. It does seem to be driven by the economy as a whole within the United States, as these employers downsize or restructure or cut budgets altogether.

Scorza: That makes sense. And it makes sense for it to be in just pockets of the economy, pockets of different sectors where that happens to be the trend right now. It’s unfortunate for all grads, right? It’s not just our international students are facing this — it’s even our U.S. citizen and our permanent resident graduates as well.

But before we close things out today, I’d really like to chat for a minute about the breadth of the DSO role. I know both you, Angie and Ginger, discussed earlier where you both fit in the international employment space. But I just want to highlight exactly how big of a deal it is and what you’re actually doing for these students.

Ginger, is there a way you could outline for us all the different things that you do handle regarding the international students?

Gonzalez: Sometimes I think the students think that we’re a one-stop shop because we help them with so many facets of their lives, with working on campus and off campus, getting that work authorization, helping them to apply for driver’s licenses, Texas IDs or Social Security numbers or even the individual tax identification numbers.

If they’re not eligible for a Social Security number, we help them with changing their degree programs or changing a major or adding a major. All of that has to be reported to immigration so that their documents are current and correct.

Sometimes students need to take a break from school. They’ve had a family emergency. How do they go about doing that and remain in status? We’re getting ready to have Thanksgiving break next week*, so travel is a big hot topic right now. There are procedures and policies in place by our office and by the United States government for students to comply with when traveling and returning to the United States after a holiday.

There’s just such a wide gamut of services and things that we have to keep the students apprised of so that they are doing what they need to be doing and not falling into trouble with their status.

Scorza: You touched upon one thing there where I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you tackle the changes if they’re doing a major program change, degree level change, whatever that may be. What do you look out for to ensure the student is well-informed and not addressing the different questions in a silo, because it does overall impact their immigration status?

Gonzalez: We have a process here at SMU that’s a cross-campus process that involves our office and the academic advisor. So when a student wants to change or add their major, there’s a form that they fill out. The academic advisor signs off on it.

Then it comes to our office and we review what change is being proposed. That review will determine whether or not the student needs a new I-20 because they’re adding a major or they’re changing the major. Then we also determine if that change is going to extend their program or shorten it.

That affects the program dates that are reflected on the I-20. When a student adds or changes a major, there is a code associated with that major defined by the Department of Education that determines whether or not that major is eligible for the two years of STEM extension once the student is on OPT.

For example, if a student wants to change degree programs from a STEM degree field that allows for that total 36 months of postgraduate work authorization to a field that may only allow for 12 months of work authorization, this is a big difference. We need to make sure that the student is aware that making this change can reduce their work authorization potential.

Scorza: I can honestly say international students are really lucky to have such thorough and committed DSOs to guide them through what really are future-impacting decisions.

I want to leave us off here with some really interesting statistics regarding international students and their impact on the U.S. economy and workplace. This comes from NAFSA the Association of International Educators. They have some new economic research that has said that the total number of jobs supported by the financial contributions of international students is up 9.8% compared to the prior academic year.

For every three international students, that’s one U.S. job created or supported. Contributions by international students at community colleges rebounded after four consecutive years of decline, measured up 16.5%, and they supported more than 6,000 jobs, which is up 8.6%.

In addition, five states that saw the largest amount of economic activity were California, New York, Massachusetts, Texas and Illinois.

We know with the recent election results that there are some changes that we’re probably going to see in the F-1 space. We don’t know what they will be right now, so we’re definitely waiting and watching, and I can tell you BAL is on the cusp of all of it. We will guide our clients and anyone who wants to engage with us in this space so that we can get through the next four years.

Thanks to all of my guests here today. It truly has been a pleasure chatting with you, and I look forward to more great things to come in the F-1 space.

Read Scorza’s most recent analysis, “Demystifying work visas for HR and mobility teams,” at bal.com.

And now, the top U.S. and global immigration news.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced both the federally mandated H-1B visa regular cap of 65,000 and H-1B visa master’s cap of 20,000 have been reached for fiscal year 2025.

The Department of Homeland Security announced it plans to make nearly 65,000 additional H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available for fiscal year 2025.

In global news, Chinese officials announced a visa-free policy expansion to nine more countries as well as updates to the period of stay and scope of permitted activities.

In Ireland, officials announced that certain individuals will be allowed to travel this holiday season on a recently expired Irish Residence Permit card, effective through Jan. 31, 2025.

Find all of our news at BAL.com/news. Follow us on X at @BAL_Immigration. And sign up to receive daily immigration updates in your inbox at BAL.com/newsletter.

We’ll be back next week with more insights from the world of corporate immigration.

I’m Rebecca Sanabria. Thanks for listening.

*This episode was originally recorded on Nov. 19, 2024.

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The BAL Immigration Report is provided by BAL. Copyright 2024 Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. All rights reserved. Digital redistribution to the public is permitted only with express written permission of Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. This report does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Visit bal.com for more information.