Oh it has, and I’m about to drop some news to explain why I’ve been silent for so long since I feel bad :')
I’m glad you haven’t forgotten this thread 
Frédéric Chopin! 
Père Lachaise, isn’t it? 
I may or may not have done a little research on that in the past!
Alright guys, buckle up, because this is going to be a long one. While the length may be intimidating at first glance, I very strongly recommend reading through everything in this post. It may or may not be important 
So, as some of you might’ve known, I had been job-hunting for basically over a year. I sent out tons of applications that were mostly rejected, had interviews that didn’t go anywhere, and was just losing hope. It was worse for me since I’m on a non-immigrant visa status, so I only had a few more months to find a job, otherwise I’d once again be forced to leave everything behind
Then I interviewed with this one employer in my metro area. I hadn’t heard of the company before, but things seemed promising. In the meantime, I continued hanging out with friends, one of whom is actually in Chicago right now for an internship
Rendang plates from Rendang Republic; beet salad, beef stroganoff, and pierogi from Staropolska; Hainanese chicken, nasi lemak, and kangkung from Kapitan; Cantonese BBQ items from Hon Kee BBQ and Seafood.
I was getting hopeful with the interviews. The second-round interview went extremely well, and the third-round in-person interview went on for far longer than we foresaw. Like my online-turned-real-life friend would say, I needed food so that my brain would function during these interviews, so I made sure to eat at least decently before them—and treat myself afterward.
After four rounds of interviews, all that was left was to anxiously wait. And guess what: after a year of searching, I got my first full-time job offer! I was able to finally relax for a bit, thinking that I no longer had to worry. My real-life friends were the first to know and we made sure to celebrate.
Fast forward a couple weeks. I had passed the background check, did all the onboarding steps on my end, and was ready to roll into the office. I showed up to my very first day of work on Monday. Part of the onboarding process involves verifying your IDs and work authorization status. I did have work authorization status at the time—F-1 OPT, to refresh your memory—but it was expiring in less than a month. Luckily for me, as a STEM degree–holder on OPT, I was eligible for a two-year STEM OPT extension.
Or so I thought.
Unlike the initial year of OPT, STEM OPT requires employers to be enrolled in e-verify: a free system that checks documents against records in government databases to see if you’re authorized to work in the United States of America. On my first day of work, while I was sitting in the HR office, a ball got dropped on me:
The company was not only unenrolled in e-verify, but they had no plans to enroll in the future, and had rescinded job offers over e-verify requirements in the past.
So you can imagine my internal state of affairs when I heard that the job I worked so hard to get would not be enough to keep me here on legal status 
it felt like my whole world was falling apart.
But I went through my work day. My coworkers were awesome, especially the guy in my department whom I was hired to help in the first place. There was another coworker who was Malaysian and was happy to find out I could communicate with her in her mother tongue (different languages, but still mutually intelligible). The best and worst part, I guess, was that I actually liked my job.
Part of the whole work authorization extension thing, aside from the e-verify requirement, was that the employer has to fill out and sign a form that the employee must submit to the university they graduated from, and in turn, the university will give a document that the employee must use to file for the extension with USCIS. I was able to have that form filled out and signed, and I have submitted that form, but the e-verify thing is a whole mess that’s caused me so much stress since my first day of work.
I’ve had glimmers of hope. I saw in the employee handbook that they said they used e-verify, until I found out that the company terminated their e-verify enrollment sometime ago. Then I had hopes when one of my friends mentioned her boss looking for someone to hire, but then it fell through. And one of the people in the company who’s filling a similar role to mine is also on F-1 status—however, he had a different work authorization to mine that didn’t have that e-verify requirement.
And now I’m panicking because I basically have less than a week left to 1) get the university to approve my application and send over the document, 2) convince my employer to re-enroll in e-verify, even though they don’t want to and have rescinded job offers over it, and 3) file and submit the forms to USCIS.
What happens if I don’t make it by then, you ask?
Well, I not only have to forfeit my job, but I’ll also be unable to work, and I’d have 60 calendar days to leave the US which is why I’ve been so inactive lately—I’ve just been so occupied and so stressed, my sleep has been worse despite the more regular schedule 
@alcoholandcaffeine @rachelsfloetry @TheTigerWriter @LadyOfTheRiver @Akje @NatilladeCoco @jj_tesla I think I’ve mentioned job-hunting stuff to all of you at some point, so, yeah. Here’s this rollercoaster of an update
My only option left, aside from trying to take advantage of a sketchy loophole that I might not even have time to resort to, is to go to the same person who dropped the bomb on me and beg the company to re-consider their e-verify stance. I don’t even know what to do or say, though. I’ve only been with the company for a couple weeks 
It breaks my heart when I hear my coworkers talk about stuff months in the future that I’ll get to do, and knowing that I might not even be able to work beyond next week
Any prayers or well wishes will be greatly appreciated. At this point, anything will do 
Omg, that sounds so stressful! Poor you! I can’t even imagine! 
What about if you talk to the person who hired you and explain your situation? If they hired you, they find you worthy, right? Maybe they’ll be able to help you out? I would think if they wanted you, they’d want to keep you?
From their perspective, losing someone and then having to look for a new person is another long process.
sending love and hugs. I rly hope you can get a job soon :))
you got this! Good luck!
You came so far, got actually passed a bunch of interviews, and actually started working. What’s left on your plate seems like less work to me. Make a to-do list, and get started right away. If need be, you may have to call a few people. If it still doesn’t work, know that it wasn’t your fault, it was other people’s.
Best of luck.
Goodness, that’s a hell of a journey 0-0
I’m really hoping things turn around soon, wish you the best of luck! There has to be a way to make things work, especially given it’d be more work for the company to have to find someone else.
I wish I could give advice, but as someone who lives in the US and is currently dealing with it’s messed up job market, I fear that anything I’d say would just be optimism. Managing to finally get the job after several rounds of interviews and checks have to be a good sign though. These days no one is even getting an interview even after 100+ applications and over a decade of experience.
The one thing I would say is begging HR is probably not the way to go. You want to treat yourself as a product. What value am I/can I provide this company that they wouldn’t want to lose me? How can I have them make an exception for me because regardless of whatever policies a company has in place, sometimes for the right person especially for a position they really, really needed filled, there might be some wiggle room. I’d approach it professionally. Here is my current status. I really enjoy the work I’m doing here and feel I can contribute blah blah. What are my options?
HR’s job is to protect the company. HR doesn’t care about you or any of the employees for the most part even though they make it seem that way. They’re just trying to prevent bad PR and lawsuits. So your best bet is to take advantage of that mindset, and market yourself. Or worse comes to worse, network with those people you’re working with now because they might come in handy later.
Good luck! 
indeed! saw lots of other famous people’s graves that day, including Balzac and Marcel Proust. and Oscar Wilde! and Colette 
this part. HR is useless. talk to your manager instead, or the coworker you’re helping out. if they have to let you go, he will once again be on his own for who knows how long…that affects productivity, and productivity = profitability. maybe your manager can tell you why they’ve unenrolled from this e-verify thing if it’s free? I genuinely can’t understand why they’d rather lose valuable employees, that they clearly take their time to handpick, than sign up for a free online system…
