I am talking about entering the workforce as a graduate of a US university. In that case, an international student will already have an F-1 visa and can simply use that to get STEM-OPT. One doesn’t even have to have a job offer to apply for OPT.
Not really, they have been hiring a lot lately (including internationals).
True, but again, you get 3 years to try, and even then, 3 years is long enough to save up a lot of money.
Not sure I understand your point here. As I said previously, H-1B is a dual-intent visa and one can apply for a green card (usually EB3 as far as I know) while on H-1B. With a green card, one can apply for citizenship after a couple more years. “Worker can be replaced by a US citizen” → Also don’t understand this point either. Of course you can be fired; but if you’re on H-1B you can find a new job (the new employer would have to take on the sponsorship of course, but this is easier when employees already have an existing H-1B).
Depends on the country. Indians and the Chinese unfortunately have, for the most part, no hope of ever getting a green card in their lifetime. For smaller countries this is not so much of an issue, because of the way the applications are processed. I don’t know how long the processing time exactly is, but I’m pretty sure it should be shorter than 6 years, which is the maximum duration of an H-1B visa. But even without permanent residency, this is still 9 years (3 years STEM-OPT + 6 years H-1B) of being able to work in the US. With a good tech salary, after 9 years of working, it’s very possible to retire ($1-2 million saved up), and then you can sip Mai Tais in Thailand, or Portugal or some other tropical country. Or just return to your home country where you will have a much higher standard of living than if you had stayed there all the time.