The Plight of International Students at the GSB
My sister in high school dreams of studying and working in the United States, like me. I don’t have the heart to crush her dreams. But my interviews with international students at the GSB find that many are living a nightmare right now, especially under the Trump administration’s stricter H-1B restrictions.
Most international students at the GSB came to the United States hoping to build a career here, to tap into opportunities that only this country offered. By attending one of the world’s top MBA programs, they hoped to avoid the many challenges in getting work visas. If Stanford GSB graduates couldn’t work in the US, they thought, who could?
But they’ve realized that the opportunities they were promised are limited to a buffet of big tech, big banks and consulting companies that are more likely to sponsor students. They don’t know if they’ll even be in this country in a year. “With such lack of clarity, I’m struggling to make a decision on whether I want to try staying in the US,” said a second-year MBA student from South America. “Some of my friends have given up and are packing up their bags,” said a student from India.
The H-1B work visa permits foreign nationals to work in the United States if sponsored by their company. With an H-1B in hand, employees can apply for a green card through employment, and start a wait that can last decades.
Since 2003, the number of H-1B work visas doled out annually has been reduced from 200,000 to 65,000 (plus 20,000 reserved for master’s degree holders), while the number of applicants has exceeded ~200,000 for the last four years. That’s a 30 percent shot at winning the lottery every year and about a 50 percent shot at winning the lottery as a master’s degree holder.
Students get a temporary permit after they graduate (OPT) that allows them to work for a year in the U.S. and gives them one shot at this lottery. If they don’t win it, they must leave. If they work in STEM jobs (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), they can stay a year and a half more, and get two more shots at the lottery. “I worked in the U.S. for a year after my undergrad and didn’t get the H-1B lottery that year, so I had to leave,” said an MBA student from China. “It wasn’t voluntary. I wrote a long Facebook post to my friends and left within a month to restart my career and build a network in China. Now I’m not considering staying in the U.S. after the GSB. My potential in China is higher.”
An MBA student from Korea sees it differently:
“Right around four years out of college in the U.S., most of my international friends were getting kicked out of the country. It was emotionally jarring to lose like 75 percent of my support network. For a lot of us, going back to our home country is not an option; we don’t have a base there. If I get kicked out, I may not have a support network anymore, but at least I have my family and I will be fine.”
The students I interviewed expressed frustration at how little they heard from the GSB about the limits on working and staying in the United States, from the moment they got admitted to the moment they accepted. For a school with entrepreneurship at its core, the challenges faced by international students considering such work are even more dire. An MBA student from India exploring a startup idea for the US market said, “I can’t start a company and get an H-1B, so the information I have right now means I can’t work for my own company. I’m thinking about Entrepreneur in Residence roles at VC firms where I can at least work on my idea for a year on OPT. After I’ve raised money, I can try to apply for an O1 visa” (for those who demonstrate extraordinary ability in their field).
“I don’t see anyone at Stanford problem solving with me to figure out a solution. The GSB and Stanford’s entrepreneurial programs defer to the Bechtel International Students Center for all questions, and talking to Bechtel is like banging your head against the wall. My friends and I have mostly been consulting expensive immigration lawyers ourselves for what seem like standard questions for any international student interested in entrepreneurship.”
The changes this year have only made it harder.
Last April, President Trump suspended issuance of new H-1Bs. A second-year MBA student from India breathed a sigh of relief: “My husband got lucky he got his H-1B the very month they stopped issuing them.” International students also face significant travel challenges, with their life toppled by proclamations like the one signed in July suspending the re-entry of H-1B visa holders to the US, among other restrictions, for the rest of the year. (A court blocked it in September.)
Even in the routine process, students face international travel restrictions for months. “I’ve never been tied to one place,” said an MBA student from South Korea. “Now I can’t travel during big parts of [this process], I can’t see my family.
“You face the risk of leaving the country and all you can do is plan and wait. That takes a toll on you. The green card process is notoriously unpredictable and takes years. But it could all disappear in one moment.”
This month, the Trump administration issued two new rules. One mandates that employers pay H-1B workers higher wages, and restricts which workers are eligible for H-1B visas and for how long. If these rules go into effect, the implications for international students are disastrous. But the message to employers is already loud and clear: Don’t hire a foreign worker unless absolutely necessary.
Walling off international talent from American companies will only impede innovation. As of 2019, nearly 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants. About 45 percent have been founded by immigrants and their children, and have employed 13.5 million people. In 2019, there were 583,420 H-1B holders in the U.S.
Skilled immigrants vying for H-1B visas complement the American workforce, create jobs and bring an entrepreneurial spirit, forming the backbone of innovation in America. Between 1990 and 2004, increased immigration was correlated with increasing earnings of Americans by 0.7 percent. “The contributions of foreign-born workers through payroll taxes are shoring up the country’s social safety net for years to come,” said Tom Jawetz, Vice President of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress.
Even Netflix gives me more notice before changing subscription plans than does the U.S. government when disrupting our lives. None of the proclamations talk about a phase-out period, or grandfathering students who came with very different expectations.
Look, I was one of the lucky ones. I came to this country nine years ago for college. Only in my junior and senior years did I realize I needed to optimize my career choices if I wanted to stay here. Like many international students, I lived one year at a time, hoping I’d win the H-1B lottery. I did get my H-1B visa and eventually green card by marrying a U.S. citizen.
But a green card through employment for an Indian national can take up to 50 years, because citizens of any one country can be granted only 7 percent of all available employment-based and family-based green cards annually. This means citizens of Malta can get as many green cards as citizens of India or China.
America’s primacy in innovation relies on attracting world-class talent to American universities. This incentive structure has been propped up by a patchwork of work permits like the OPT and the H-1B visa, and green cards with the same per-country cap for all. The Trump administration’s recent actions show how fragile this patchwork is, and how liable it is to change based on political whims. International students who committed to a U.S. education years ago are seeing the ground pulled from under them, with no path to a stable job here. Some of them are forced to go back to countries with a lower cost of living and lower salaries — carrying debt incurred in U.S. dollars.
Such uncertainty can only dissuade internationals from investing in America. My hope for the new President is comprehensive immigration reform that treats international students with the humanity they deserve — aligning the expectations and incentives of schools and employers with those of students, and a structured phase-out process for changes. Living each day wondering when you’ll be kicked out of the country is too high a cost to pay for international students at the GSB. And it will be America’s loss.
