Graduated and Shut Out

The legal landscape has become even more hostile. A recent executive order from the Trump administration imposes a $100,000 fee on employers seeking to hire workers on an H-1B visa — a move that could force even tech giants and research labs to back away from hiring foreign talent. Though companies like Nvidia have promised to continue sponsoring graduates and the order is being challenged in court, immigration attorneys warn that the rule, coupled with plans for tighter restrictions on entering the country overall, could fundamentally reshape who gets to stay after graduation.

Why does this matter? Because these international students aren’t just dreamers; they’re vital contributors to America’s innovation economy: In the 2023–2024 school year, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy and supported over 375,000 jobs. Many come with advanced degrees in STEM majors, and they enter the job market with specialized skills and a determination sharpened by the obstacles they face. As Domaskina, herself an immigrant, put it, “They try harder. They care more. They put in extra work because they know what’s at stake.”

But talent and perseverance are sometimes not enough. What happens after graduation depends heavily on what major a student chose, whether they interned during school, and how quickly they can find a sponsor. In fact, the increased effort comes with diminished returns: international students apply to twice as many jobs as domestic students but receive about 30% fewer offers.

A STEM graduate with U.S. internship experience is often in the best position. Thanks to the OPT extension for STEM fields, they can work in the U.S. for up to 36 months after graduation. If they have already interned at a company during their degree, they may be offered a full-time role and begin work immediately using their OPT. With three years of work authorization, they have multiple chances, up to three, to be selected in the H-1B lottery.

For the media and news industry specifically, employment of news analysts, reporters, and journalists is projected to decline 4% from 2024 to 2034. Despite declining employment, about 4,100 openings for news analysts, reporters, and journalists are projected each year, on average, over the decade. All of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire. Still, it's hard to find an entry-level job.

Contrast that with a non-STEM student who didn’t intern during school. Their OPT lasts just 12 months. If they graduate without a job offer, they have 90 days to find one before losing legal status. Even if they manage to land a job quickly, they’ll likely only have one shot at the H-1B lottery. If they aren’t selected — and many aren’t, given the program’s 25% success rate — they must leave the country, often within weeks. The result, according to a 2023 study in the Journal of Public Economics, is that these students “exhibit transition to employment rates not significantly different from zero.”

Even with OPT, the H-1B lottery remains a bottleneck. In fiscal year 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) drew 120,603 H-1B visas from 470,342 eligible registered applicants, a rate of approximately one in four. In fiscal year 2026, a newer, beneficiary-centric system reduced the number of multiple registrations to approximately 1.01 registrations per applicant, but the lottery rate remained at a similar level. This means that, on average, each beneficiary had only approximately one registration submitted on their behalf, resulting in many graduates being eliminated before they could be sponsored.

The emotional and financial toll of this uncertainty is enormous. Students and their families typically invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in an American education, viewing it as a gateway to global opportunity. When that door closes, the disappointment is devastating.

“I lived here for four years. I got friends, a partner, and my go-to shops. Then one day, the lottery that I’ve got no control of tells me that my time is over,” said Haolin Zhang, a PhD student in additive manufacturing at the University of Pittsburgh, who was not selected in the H-1B lottery. “It doesn’t feel like losing a job; it feels like losing part of me and the future.”

The common thread in all these scenarios is urgency. The U.S. immigration system was not designed to support a smooth transition from student to employee. Instead, it creates a narrow window in which graduates must both prove their value and convince an employer to take on the cost and legal risk of sponsorship. For smaller companies and startups, that risk can be too significant — especially in uncertain economic times. Oleksandra explained that while her team would love to support more international candidates, they “have to prioritize stability,” which often means sticking to applicants with green cards or citizenship.

For the graduates left behind, the consequences are personal and profound. Some leave the U.S. reluctantly, their careers disrupted just as they’re beginning. Others return to school for another degree simply to stay in the country longer, gambling on better conditions in a year or two. And some, those lucky enough to secure H-1B visas, finally step into stable roles, though not without anxiety over future policy shifts. Yet, even for those who overcome the legal hurdles, the path to integration is paved with unspoken challenges. As Oleksandra Domaskina, reflecting on her own experience as an immigrant from Ukraine, noted, the barriers can be deeply cultural. “Sometimes, certain employers, without telling you that, would discriminate against you because of your background. And I think this has nothing to do with a person's credentials or work experience... but mostly they're just worried about your work ethic, because it might be different from their expectation.” Ultimately, the quest for an American career requires international graduates to win not just a high-stakes legal lottery, but also a more subtle, daily battle for acceptance.