I have an offer to study a CS Masters in the US. I have two questions:
1) What are my options after my 3 year STEM OPT ends? Can you comment on the likelihood of being able to stay in the US after? Do I need to be working for a company capable of sponsoring me (e.g. FAANG)?
2) Let's say I don't do my Masters in the US – what is the process of getting a visa if I raise from a US VC?
The easiest way is to win the H1b lottery, sponsoring an H1b worker is pretty easy and straightforward and plenty of companies do that.
You can also apply for a green card (employment based), and this heavily depends on your personal circumstances. If you're from India or China, you will have additional problems. But you'll need to do that anyway if you want to stay in the US permanently because the H1b visa is time-limited (unless you have a pending GC application).
Other than that, you can apply for an exceptional talent visa or a green card yourself.
Also good response below. The visa options are the H-1B (out of your control) and, depending on your qualifications and country of nationality (that is, country of birth), the E-1, E-2, or O-1, or a green card (some paths allow self-filing/sponsorship).
I have an offer to study a CS Masters in the US. I have two questions:
1) What are my options after my 3 year STEM OPT ends? Can you comment on the likelihood of being able to stay in the US after? Do I need to be working for a company capable of sponsoring me (e.g. FAANG)?
2) Let's say I don't do my Masters in the US – what is the process of getting a visa if I raise from a US VC?
Thank you for helping us all! :)
* For anyone wanting to search through Peter's past AMAs, this might be of interest: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...