Do Internships Extend Student Visas?

As I've said before, on internships young people do for free jobs that would otherwise go to paid workers, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.  Casually perusing Craigslist will prove that this is truest in the creative professions, including marketing.

 I felt sorry for the young college students and grads so desperate for jobs that they would work for free as “interns”.  And for their parents, paying for an education during which their kids toil like slaves for college credit.

Maybe, though, not all those laboring unpaid are penniless students.  I recently found an internship position that stated, “Must be authorized to work in this country, we will not endorse F-Status.”

Perhaps some of those interns are extending their US student visas by taking nominal “jobs.”  If so, those students and their “employers” are jumping through a loophole called Optional Practical Training (OPT).  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) permits graduate students and undergraduates who have completed or who have been pursuing their degrees for more than nine months with F-1 status to work in the US for at most one year on their student visas without needing to acquire a work H-1B visa.

A year’s a long time—time enough to gain work experience, to acquire an H1-B visa, to get married, and to keep the paycheck away from skilled native workers.

In that case I feel less sorry for those students and their parents.  Keeping American jobs out of American hands is both shameful and short-sighted.  Of course, I have a dog in this race.  I want those jobs--but I don't want to work for free.

(To be fair, don't blame Craigslist for this problem.  Craigslist is based in California, where positions that violate the FLSA are illegal.  Craigslist's official policy is that they are not allowed in its classified ads.  Officially, it requests all users to flag off the bad ads.)