Hey, I’m currently on F1 STEM OPT. I have one last chance remaining at the H1B lottery. I was recently referred to Google. I applied for their SWE position in NYC and Bay area. On my initial phone call with my recruiter, she told me that Google’s policy is that “they only hire people with two remaining chances at the H1B lottery”. Hence, she ended the call and closed my application. This is the first time I heard of it. Is this a new rule? Or has it always been like this? I was reading previous past Blind posts and it appeared that Google was one of the companies that didn’t care about your H1B tries left. #h1b #opt #google
Always been like this.
Mmm I see. I mean I’m actually happy they rejected me right away instead of interviewing me and then rejecting me. I just thought they were more flexible with STEM OPT candidates
Not always. I read lot of posts on blind saying Google, Microsoft and amazon are willing to accept candidates with less than 1 year OPT
With FB as well? FAANG?
FB has had the same policy for a while.
I am in the similar boat (1 H1-B attempt remaining). Faced the same issue from Microsoft and VMware.
Google is extremely conservative with visas. They only transfer employees on h1b or green card. I am a PhD with O1. They stopped the interview the moment they learnt about it.
Sorry to hear that, lots of companies have this policy. Try Amazon, they don’t seem to have this policy and even if getting into a US office may be an issue, AWS Vancouver is hiring.
How much left on opt? And are you from a country with backlog? I thought Google and Microsoft accepted people with 1 more H1b try hmmm
I have 8 months left of OPT. I am not from India or China. Not sure if my country has a backlog (Guatemala).
I work at Google, started in October and my STEM OPT ends March 2022 so I only have one chance at H1b.
Comcast is another that this type of unreasonable demands. They want someone who ha *h1b only* and nothing else and *3 yrs of vailidity. Recruiter is writing this in LinkedIn message. I am sure after 3 yrs they won’t offer to extend your visa and just want a free 3 yr ride on your visa
Weird..!