For those who received their EAD (K1)

[2019&beyond 10]

Hi,

 

I am the foreign beneficiary, and I am currently waiting for my K1 interview at the US embassy. 

 

I went on the USCIS website and saw that it takes approximately 4-6 months to receive EAD and AP. 

 

For those of you who waited that long to start working with your EAD, how did the long wait affect you as far as finding a job in your respective field goes?

 

- Were companies reluctant to hire you because of the time gap in unemployment? 

- Was it harder for you to find a job in your respective field since you've been out of work for so long? 

- Would I be putting my career at risk by not having a job for that long when I go back on market to look for a job?

 

I work as an engineer.  I know I have a very valid reason that I can tell my future employer if they ask why I've been out of work for that long. But really, are they gonna care much? At the end of the day I know it's nothing personal. It's just business as usual.

 

Anyway, I would love to hear your stories as far as how waiting on the sidelines for 4-6 months made a difference (if any) with you being hired by a white collar job that you went to college for. 

 

Thanks.

[USS_Voyager 1,972]

Employment rate in the US is extreme high right now. People are even "ghosting" their first day of work. Yes, EAD can take 4-6 months, some report even 10 months. It is one of the downsides of K-1 route. K-1 is a little faster for the couple to physically be together but involved a lot more paperworks/costs and this wait for work and travel.

 

I can't answer what other companies might feel. For me, my company is hiring like crazy and I am on the panel to interview people like at least 3 times a week now or more, and personally I don't care if there is a gap 4-6 months. It all comes down to how you perform at the interview and if you hit all the right "notes".

[ineedadisplayname 501]

39 minutes ago, 2019&beyond said:

(I believe I posted this in the wrong section so I'm posting here):

 

Hi,

 

I am the foreign beneficiary, and I am currently waiting for my K1 interview at the US embassy. 

 

I went on the USCIS website and saw that it takes approximately 4-6 months to receive EAD and AP. 

 

For those of you who waited that long to start working with your EAD, how did the long wait affect you as far as finding a job in your respective field goes?

 

- Were companies reluctant to hire you because of the time gap in unemployment? 

- Was it harder for you to find a job in your respective field since you've been out of work for so long? 

- Would I be putting my career at risk by not having a job for that long when I go back on market to look for a job?

 

I work as an engineer.  I know I have a very valid reason that I can tell my future employer if they ask why I've been out of work for that long. But really, are they gonna care much? At the end of the day I know it's nothing personal. It's just business as usual.

 

Anyway, I would love to hear your stories as far as how waiting on the sidelines for 4-6 months made a difference (if any) with you being hired by a white collar job that you went to college for. 

 

Thanks. 

 

Depending on how long did you work before.....

I mean if you have only a year of experience and out 4 to 6 months that might be a lot, so it depends on your own circumstances.

For me it was a nice break and  I've put it on my resume that now I have an EAD and don't need sponsorship, and in previous jobs instead of listing my last job I've put waiting for work permit. My recruiter told me to take that out. It came up at every interview, but they didn't care about it once I told them why I was not working.

 

In reality I had a really good time not working for a while. Had time to do other stuff outside of my field, travel, see the USA, explore my new city. Sure this depends on how much savings you have and if your spouse is OK with that or they expect you to sit home if you don't work and spend mostly noting.

 

In reality I had a really good time. Had time to do other stuff outside of my field, travel, see the USA, explore my new city. Initially I was stressed on not working, but made myself to do things every day so I would not be a couch potato. After getting my EAD I was again stressed out because now I can work and felt like that I should after not earning for 6 months.... I've got my EAD in December so had extra month and a half because most of the companies didn't hire til January/February, so all the interviewing started in the middle of January.

 

It had zero impact on my job search. I was looking, but didn't apply for anything because in my field they wanted to see work authorization first so I didn't want to send in my resume to be filtered out on the phone screening. Sure, keeping up to date with what is going on in your field is important....

Also the higher paying job you want it is going to take longer to get hired. The recruiting process was very very different from what I was used to. For me to deal with recruiters not employed by the company where I was applying was hard. I don't like middle men, but that is how it was for me. So it takes a lot of time (especially if you get your EAD in the beginning on December when nobody hires in my field), phone calls, doing preliminary phone screening than depending on the size of the company  1 to 4 interviews on site, getting offers, looking into benefits/salary. After accepting the offer background checks which can take up a week, drug test and such....

 

- Were companies reluctant to hire you because of the time gap in unemployment?  Not in my case

- Was it harder for you to find a job in your respective field since you've been out of work for so long? Not in my case

- Would I be putting my career at risk by not having a job for that long when I go back on market to look for a job? That depends on your carrier, but I don't think so.

 

Usually they care about what you know and not the years you worked. Yeah I've been refused too, also refused position because just didn't feel right after the interview, felt like I don't want to work there. But at the end I've ended up at a place where I love to work. So don't be desperate, pace your interviews, so you would have time to learn from/reflect on the previous interview.

 

All this was possible because of a very supportive spouse who cared more for me to have a good job instead of jumping on the first offer and bring money home....

 

 

 

[Maria002 54]

I actually thought EAD takes about a year.  I am also waiting for my K1 visa to be aprobed  and  for when I aply to a job I was thinking about mentioning I had a gap  of some months because I traveled from a foreign country and it is that time that the work permit took  before I was enabled to work in U.S. 

I don't think it could be a problem to get a job, but I am also curious to know the experiences of  people that have already  gone trough this process.

[Ryan H 3,815]

***Duplicate threads merged and merged thread moved from K1 Progress Reports to Finding Work in America forum; please do not start multiple threads with identical content.***