H-1B Visa changes – A Potential Boon for MBA Applicants

I follow US politics a lot closer than Indian politics, and I think Trump cares about his own agenda, which reflects in his policies. This helps out some Americans, doesn't help others.
What's more important to understand is that he does what he thinks his voters want him to do, that is stricter immigration policies. Forget immigration, there have been cases where naturalized citizens are being "denaturalized" because of silly traffic violations.

Anyways, I don't think we are allowed to talk politics in this thread so won't continue my rant any longer. What's important is that the USA, as a country, has officially decided to make life difficult for immigrants, while it's neighbor is "officially" announcing it's open culture and welcoming immigrants. If an "Oxford + Stanford" combo can be denied visa 6 months after it was approved - it's too big a risk for a middle-class average student/immigrant to rely on the whims of the immigration officers. I know where I want to build my life!

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/23/opin ... rump-.html

__________EDIT_____________
To add to this, I've heard rumours that quite a few top notch organizations are moving their future businesses to Canada due to the immigration friendly culture.
The source of the rumor is my own connections in various organizations like Intel and Cisco, nothing official but where there's smoke there's fire.

Also, even if you get an H1b - good luck changing projects or visiting clients -

"the Trump administration had already made working on third-party sites more complicated. A Feb. 22 memo from the USCIS announced that H-1B beneficiaries—both existing and new ones—working at third-party sites had to provide “specific and non-speculative qualifying assignments… for the entire time requested on the petition.” This makes it almost impossible for workers to remain on the bench, or move between short-term projects at short notice."

Hello nice people, I was just revisiting this thread after a long gap and saw the mood has not changed. I read a lot of articles online and talked to quite a few alums from Non US bschools (Canada, Germany and Australia). The strict immigration policy of the Trump administration has made life difficult for international students in US. But from what I have heard, it's not impossible to get jobs in US. Companies are, cleverly, hiring people but posting them in Canada or other countries. Where there is a will, there is a way right

The drop in MBA applications in the US clearly illustrates the trend of falling international applicants after the restrictive visa policies have been introduced, courtesy of this brilliant article in P&Q (https://poetsandquants.com/2018/09/29/whos-hardest-hit-in-this-years-mba-app-slump/). Articles in GMAC (https://www.gmac.com/why-gmac/gmac-news/immigration-visa-policy-updates/foreign-students-avoiding-us-mba-programs) and FT (https://www.ft.com/content/49d6794c-5855-11e8-b8b2-d6ceb45fa9d0) are also posting facts about the situation. I am just glad to see that my decision of not choosing a US bschool and not taking a back breaking loan has been vindicated! I still think US is the best place for an authentic MBA experience. Rochester Simon has already reduced their fees by 14%. Makes me wonder, if other US schools might consider charging a little less for international students.

Will add some good news here.

DHS approved changes in h1b lottery starting April 2019
From now on general lottery is conducted fisrt (65k cap) and if you are not selected your application will participate in Masters lottery (20k cap)
It used to be vice versa before.
Uscis estimates Masters chances of winning to increase by up to 16%

https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-release ... sa-program

Hi peoples,

I am writing here cause I think a lot of the previous posters can see the post and probably clear a few things.Am I wrong in assuming the following...?

1)Most MBA jobs are "specialised" jobs.So chances of RFE are probably less...?

2)Last year 94000 masters students applied for approximately (20000 + 27000) = 47000 visas.So the chances of getting selected in the lottery is still 0.5..?

3)Do I have 2 shots at getting an H1B visa if I do my MBA..?(first April of pass out year & then the next year)....
If this is correct, then the actual chances are (first year getting or second yr getting).Using some probability I would get

First year getting = 0.5
First yr not getting = 0.5
Second yr getting = 0.5

So the actual probability is 0.5+0.5X0.5=0.75 or 3/4?

4)I was reading somewhere that the number of RFE's issued for H1B's this year is around 60% or 0.6.The most of them would be for IT jobs I presume.Again is it true that 90% RFE's don't end up getting an H1B..?

Assuming it is 50%(reduce from 90% to be on the safer side),30%(0.6X0.5) of the accepted H1B cases don't get the H1B.The bulk of this 30% are from Non-Specialised IT jobs..?So 30% of 65000 is 20000.USCIS needs to fill these 20000 with MBA's and genuine "specialised" IT jobs.Will it be a stretch to assume that 5000 of these leftovers will be filled by MBA guys..?

So apart from 75% chances, we also have these 5000 which might bring the overall chances for an MBA guy(If selected to a specialised Job)to get a visa at closer to 90%..?

I haven't considered the fact that among the other masters students 80% apply to IT jobs.RFE rate is probably lesser than 60% but still is high I guess.So that increases the chances even further but lets keep the chances at 90%..

Have I lost my mind in assuming the above...?

Hello Everyone!
It's 2021 and the posts above are from 2017, but the question is pretty relevant even today.
What after you complete an MBA in the US? Do you get 1 year or 8 months or 5 months to find a job? And if you do, does your employer sponsor you for n number of years ahead or just 1 year?

Can we re-start the conversation with respect to the current scenario?
I would really appreciate some insights as I was fixated on the US till recently when I bumped into this question.

Thank you in advance!

NCC - three years if you have a STEM MBA (which most top schools are). Also, given the demand, finding a job will likely not be a problem if you graduate from a top school.

-Rajat