I have a PhD in Electrical Engineering and MS in Finance. My NIW case was approved (for my research in Electrical Engineering) a month ago and I am waiting for my I-485 to get approved. Meanwhile, I have an offer from a Financial firm to work as a financial software developer and an offer from a prop trading company to work as a trading assistant. Am I allowed legally to pursue these opportunities?
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Urgent: NIW approved, can I work in a different field?
- Thread starter gholizad
- Start date
Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
You can work wherever you want while the I-485 is pending. Or not work at all. But once your GC is approved, if you don't ever work in the field for which your NIW case was approved, that could jeopardize your green card.
However, your job offer may indeed be considered to be related to your field, depending on the specifics of it. Big financial companies, especially investment banks, often require an advanced technical degree (engineering, physics, math) for developers who work on their high-end quantitative analysis and high-frequency trading systems. But if you're just doing ordinary software development that an ordinary $80K/yr programmer can do, I don't think that would be good enough.
However, your job offer may indeed be considered to be related to your field, depending on the specifics of it. Big financial companies, especially investment banks, often require an advanced technical degree (engineering, physics, math) for developers who work on their high-end quantitative analysis and high-frequency trading systems. But if you're just doing ordinary software development that an ordinary $80K/yr programmer can do, I don't think that would be good enough.
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Do they do background check on my job before my GC is approved?You can work wherever you want while the I-485 is pending. Or not work at all. But once your GC is approved, if you don't ever work in the field for which your NIW case was approved, that could jeopardize your green card.
Do they do background check on my job before my GC is approved?
They may request interview with you to confirm your current job especially if something strange trigger that like changing address to another state for example. Otherwise no job background check to the best of my knowledge.
Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
And when you apply for citizenship, they go over your post-GC employment history and may check if it is in line with what your GC was based on (you have to list employment history on the application). If nothing there is similar to what qualified you for the GC, you could have problems.They may request interview with you to confirm your current job especially if something strange trigger that like changing address to another state for example.
And when you apply for citizenship, they go over your post-GC employment history and may check if it is in line with what your GC was based on (you have to list employment history on the application). If nothing there is similar to what qualified you for the GC, you could have problems.
What if the first job is related to Electrical Engineering but then I switch to other fields? Is that acceptable?
Jackolantern
Registered Users (C)
What if the first job is related to Electrical Engineering but then I switch to other fields? Is that acceptable?
The first post-GC job? Yes, that would be fine. Or even the second or third job. Just make sure you have something in your post-GC employment history that's good enough to avoid having your NIW look like a farce.
But your stated job offer at the financial firm should be fine, if it is a high-end quant or HF-trading system for which an advanced technical degree is a requirement. The skills for such jobs are very much related to engineering and advanced math. Given your qualifications, I expect that is the only thing they would hire you for.
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