How will you leverage your law degree for success?

Law School: Is it advisable for a foreign student to obtain a JD degree in the United States?

• How common is it? Given that the degree will be worth a dime only in the U.S., and once you graduate, you will be dependent on U.S. law firms willing to sponsor you an H-1B visa, how advisable is it? Are most U.S. law firms willing to sponsor H1-B visas for foreign applicants as long as they are willing to hire the applicant otherwise? Are applicants hired on more-or-less equal grounds, regardless of their citizenship/residency status? Are there other hurdles down the road? Is it too risky to have your career depend on labor market of a country you are not a citizen of for the remaining part of your life? Is it easy for a non-resident alien lawyer in the U.S. to eventually obtain permanent residency? Are there a lot of success or failure stories about this?

• Answer:

  IANAL but... It is very, very, VERY common for foreign students to get JD degrees in the US. The vast majority don't bother trying to get an H1B and work for an American firm in the US. Instead, they go home (or to major outsourcing hub) and sell legal services to the American firms from abroad (this may even be the majority of California JDs now). This is a very lucrative career and (I'm told) a much better move than trying start a "traditional" legal career in the US. If you decide, despite the warning you're liable to get from most any US attorney, to pursue a law career in the US, immigration problems are liable to haunt you for a long time. Nothing is ever easy or certain with US immigration.