Dear reader,
I came to the US about a month and a half back. I’m here for my undergraduate degree. I had wanted to come to the US because I wanted to give myself a playground for maximum growth.
But there is a major problem with being an international student here in the US. I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. It directly affects me and there’s a good chance that, if you plan on coming here, it might affect you as well.
I hope this will come in handy when you are making decisions for your future and education.
The problem is the F1 visa restrictions. I understand that the restrictions are put in place to ensure that the F1 visa is not misused but sometimes it feels a little too limiting.
You cannot build or maintain any kind of side hustle
I am the kind of person who’s always building something.
I started the blog “High Approach” when I was in my junior year of high school. In less than a year, I had grown it significantly and was also making good income from it. It was not entirely passive because I had to write an article every now and then but it wasn’t a full-time thing either. A “side hustle” you could call it.
In the meantime, I also used to freelance whenever I could. This wasn’t necessarily for the money, but I did it because it helped me practice and improve on my skills and the money I made from it was an additional perk.
Then, after completing my senior year of high school and before coming to the US, I started my YouTube channel. I started making videos about lessons I learned and found interesting.
At the time of writing this (Sept 5, 2024), I have uploaded 15 videos and have 726 subscribers.
I have been uploading videos almost regularly for the past few weeks and have noticed a momentum build-up as well.
But guess what? If I continue to grow at this rate, I will end up violating the terms of the F1 visa.
“F-1 students may not work off-campus during the first academic year but may accept on-campus employment subject to certain conditions and restrictions. After the first academic year, F-1 students may engage in three types of off-campus employment: CPT, OPT, and STEM OPT.”
The OPT or STEM OPT comes after graduating. But after the first year, the interesting bit is the CPT aka Curricular Practical Training. CPT provides temporary employment authorization for F-1 visa non-immigrant foreign students while enrolled in a college-level degree program.
The condition for CPT is that you can only work under an employer, at a position related to your major, not more than 20 hours a week, and have to obtain permission for that.
The problem arises if you try to do something on your own. For example, if you want to start your own business, a SAAS startup, or a YouTube channel, you are not allowed to do so.
This is fine for the people who want to walk the regular path but even if you have an incredible business idea and the willingness to work and build it, you cannot do it. It’s legally prohibited. You can start a business, but you cannot actively research for it, you cannot raise funds, and even if you think you’ll hire others to work on your business idea and not work yourself, you cannot actively spend time hiring or managing people. This makes it almost impossible for international students to become entrepreneurs in the US.
I used to wonder why despite of there being amazing Nepali students in the US, there is very little Nepalese-student-specific help available on the internet. Yes, they could’ve just written an article or something but it’s a risky move. If an international student, even mistakenly, violates the terms of the F1 visa, and if it is found out by the US government, they could be deported.
For now, I am going to continue uploading videos on my channel but it won’t be as often because why take the risk?
Warmly,
Suraj
