Work visa dilemma International graduates face deadlines, headaches and plenty of red tape to find U.S. jobs

TPittsburgh Post-Gazette he two graduates frowned at a monstrous diagram — a timeline spawning arrows to other timelines — that they had penned on a piece of scrap paper. None of the various programs, deadlines and visa systems seemed to spell opportunity as much as another source of stress.

“It’s really tricky to set up the dates,” said Tina Liu, who got her master’s degree in social work in May from the University of Pittsburgh. “It’s really hard to decide.”

Asked if they needed some help to figure it out, her friend, Chia-Hsien Lee, chimed in: “After you’re under this pressure, you can figure it out,” he laughed.

The pressure, as they describe it, is felt by hundreds of college graduates in the Pittsburgh region. If they don’t find a place to work within 60 days, their student visas expire and they have to leave the country.

It’s a challenge shared by workforce development officials who have long tried to retain the bulk of students who flood into the region to get college degrees. Those students, many of whom are from other countries, often leave Pittsburgh for other cities or go back to their home countries.

Ms. Liu and Mr. Lee, both from Taiwan, want to stay — if they can figure out how to navigate a system rife with pitfalls and companies hesitant to commit the resources necessary to apply for an H-1B visa, the temporary permit that allows U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. “Most companies, they don’t offer H-1B, so there’s no reason they want to hire you,” Mr. Lee said. “That’s the problem.”

Temporary work visas have always been complicated by paperwork and politics, keeping immigration lawyers busy. The visas allow American companies to tap specialized talent from universities in fields that require advanced engineering, computer science or bilingual skills — skills that companies say they can’t find in enough American job applicants.

But applicants have hit annual caps and snags in the random lottery systems used to distribute the permits to employers. Temporary work visas of all types have drawn