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IT Internship In the US For a Foreigner?
grk writes "I am from Europe, studying Business Informatics. I have plenty of IT-related work experience (from my part-time job and summer jobs) ranging from Project Management and Software Planning to Programming. In the 5th semester my curriculum has scheduled an internship for February 2009 preceding bachelor examinations and bachelor thesis. It will last for about three months. I would like to do my internship in the US, but I do not know how to start. Is it common to send unsolicited applications to companies in the US? Try the big corporations? Should I go for an employment agency? Which ones to choose from? What about the pay? Where I come from it is common to pay only a fraction of what your work is actually worth if it's called an 'internship.' Does this apply to the US as well? Any other recommendations?"
you could try to get an internship through an international organization called IAESTE. They have organizations set up in over 80 countries around the world to do internships abroad. Go to www.iaeste.org (or more specifically http://www.iaeste.org/network/index.html ) and choose your country of residence to see if your country has a chapter. If they do, you should be able to provide you with the necessary information about applying for an internship through them. You can also get information thru the IAESTE-US website: http://www.iaesteunitedstates.org/
This advice is specific to silicon valley.
We hire interns as we would any other position (other than lowering the ar on the entry criteria), though we mostly look at Masters students. We expect unsolicited resumes, as we would with any position. We of course support students with the correct student visas (we didn't have a single American citizen apply for an internship last year - no joke), though the transition from intern to full-time employee if things go well can involve a month or two of not working because of said visa hassles.
We pay interns fairly. Not Google/Microsoft well (no one matches them), but our interns are effectively a paygrade lower than new college hires, and being hourly the benefits are minimal. It's the bottom of the payscale, but it's certainly not "work for free" or half pay or anything like that.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I should add that our interns were foreigners who were studying in America, so they already had student visas. Immigration law for students working is complicated, but any Silly Valley company with an internship program has a legal staff to handle this - you have to, as the pool of American citizens is too small to recruit from here (almost non-existant in Masters programs).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Of course there are visas available, my point is his first step should be to get one. No company will want to spend any time looking at you if you don't already have work authorization.
Wrong. The J-1 visa requires already having a sponsor, so you cannot get the visa and then try to fish for an internship, you need to have the internship first, then get the visa(which is usually just a formality, although it can take a bit of time).
Because the visa is limited in duration and you have to return to your home country after the visa ends --- although you can travel in the US for 30 days after, IIRC --- the bar to getting one isn't as high as the other types of visas.
Jean-Francois Im's blog
Sure, you can get a job mowing lawns or cleaning houses if you want to work in the US illegally, but don't expect a software company of any reputation to hire you with no paperwork.