Background

Hi everyone. I’m a science guy who just finished "permanent head damaged" studies. Because I still had unrealistic fantasies about my old field, I kept digging into this deep pit. These days I’m a postdoc, and I’ve now been working for two months. In that time, I pushed myself a bit stubbornly to get back on track academically—every new project needs heavy reading and background work—so life has been chaotic in that sense.

But in daily life, I ran into three big traps (immigration status, health insurance, and retirement accounts). I’ll share what happened recently, as a warning and maybe a help to anyone coming later. Also, having spent most of my life studying, I don’t have much work-life experience. To be honest, employee benefits after starting a job are still a bit confusing to me, and my new workplace had no proper orientation for this. So please be kind: cry:. I’m sharing these frustrating experiences so future readers can learn from them.

Immigration status

The first blow came from immigration status. I had a plan: during my three-year postdoc period, I could fully use 3 years of OPT, so my PI wouldn’t need to sort out immigration for me. OPT (Optional Practical Training) is basically an extension of an F-1 student visa. For STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) related majors, there was a policy introduced a few years ago that allows an extra extension of up to two years. OPT can be approved for up to one year, and then extended by up to two years, so in the best case it can last up to three years as long as your job fits the criteria.

Then one day, the department secretary told me that starting in January 2018, our school stopped supporting OPT extensions because they couldn’t do E-Verify. I’ll be moved to J1 next year, and I’ll have to handle the J1 waiver myself (my PhD was completed in the U.S., so I qualify for the waiver and do not need mandatory home-country return service).

So I learned, first-hand, that this isn’t just one school’s issue—school reputation or size doesn’t seem to matter much. Of course, I chose this place because I thought doing a postdoc here was the best path if I wanted to stay in academia, and I didn’t care where I eventually worked. So status concerns were not top priority for me. But if status matters to you, learn this before you start.

Changing status within the U.S.

Another issue is changing status from within the U.S. As mentioned, OPT is effectively an extension of F-1 status.

Next year I’ll switch from F to J. I was shocked to find that changing status inside the U.S. can take a long time now, especially in the past two years. You can check actual processing times here: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/.

To change from F to J, you file Form I-539. This form can take more than a year to process. USCIS has two service centers for I-539: one in Vermont and one in California. California appears a bit faster, but that may be because they only began processing I-539 around March this year, so they only have about six months of data. On the USCIS site, Vermont is showing 12 to 15.5 months for I-539, and online you can find many complaints from fellow internationals about slow processing.

Also, when we submit I-539, it doesn’t seem like we can pick which center handles it. Applications are sent to one central location and then assigned there. So your case could end up in California or Vermont.

For the fastest possible status transition, the practical way is to return home and reapply for J1 at the consulate. In my case, my OPT expires in early September next year, so I have to go back around late August and apply at the embassy. Then I’d enter the U.S. with a newly issued J1 visa, similar to my first F-visa process.

A note for sensitive majors: leave yourself at least a full month in-country because you may be checked. If you plan to change F to J inside the U.S., prepare at least a year in advance.

Here’s the USCIS link for changing nonimmigrant status:
https://www.uscis.gov/visit-united-states/change-my-nonimmigrant-status-category/change-my-nonimmigrant-status

OPT and EAD

If you already have a job offer, my advice is to apply for OPT as early as possible. In my case, I mailed my application to the Phoenix center on 6/5, and my work authorization was to begin 9/1 (same date as my contract start). I still got it wrong. My EAD card issue date was 9/8 (the day USCIS approved it), so from 9/1 to 9/7 I was basically working for free.

And things got worse: my new employer also did not start salary from 9/8. They started paying me only after I handed the EAD card to HR, i.e., on 9/18. Because I moved across states and hadn’t fixed my address yet, my EAD was sent to a teammate’s house (hard luck if you’re an out-of-state move), and my teammate then forwarded it to me. So it took another 10 days after approval to get the card in hand.

I’m currently trying to recover payroll from 9/8 to 9/17. HR said they had never done this before, but they may try to help. So with luck, I lose about a week’s pay; with bad luck, more than half a month is gone.

A benefit of applying for OPT early: if you receive a job offer in April, for example, you can choose the EAD issue date—provided it is on or after card approval. So if you’re applying for OPT over summer (especially those with job offers), please prepare your application at least 100 days before your contract start date. Summer approvals tend to be slower.

For tracking USCIS card issuance progress, there’s a crawler I found on Maimo’s forum that shows which serial number ranges have been processed to date. Very useful:
https://uscis-opt.s3-website-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/vis/

Taxes

Since I’ll be switching to J status, my annual taxes may change. In my situation, I was on full scholarship for all 6 years of my PhD, so my filing status changed from non-resident alien (NRA) to resident alien (RA).

I do not fit the common claim that J1 income is fully exempt for the first two years; that usually applies to many who finish in China, come to the U.S. as postdocs/visiting scholars, and remain NRA.

My question was whether I could still use the $5,000 treaty exclusion. My initial conclusion: if your job title is "trainee," you may still qualify for the $5,000 exemption. If your job title is "researcher/scholar," maybe not. I’m not certain about the second one. I’ve also read sources saying that as long as you hold F1 or J1 status—whether NRA or RA—you can claim the $5,000 exclusion.

So my current conclusion is that I should probably still be able to claim it, but I need to confirm with my PI and HR. The exact title should be reflected on the DS-2019 (the F-visa equivalent is I-20). If anyone knows more, comments are welcome.

Health insurance

Second pitfall: health insurance. I only learned outside school that, as an employee at a new institution, you now pay for health insurance yourself. During school, insurance was fully funded by your advisor.

Most employers, however, do subsidize plans so employees can buy good insurance at a lower price. At my new place, the policy is that you must complete enrollment within 30 days of hiring to get the school plan.

I completely missed that window. I didn’t understand this, and no HR staff reminded me. Suddenly I had no insurance.

Before 2019, if you were uninsured for more than 2 months in a year, the IRS would add a shared responsibility penalty of the greater of 2.5% of household income or $695 per person.

My good news: I noticed the gap within two months and fixed it quickly by asking a teammate to add me as a dependent on their employer insurance (much more expensive than school insurance, by the way—quite a shock). So in 2018, I was uninsured for only two months and avoided the penalty.

Also, how those two months are counted:
If your previous employer’s coverage ended on 5/15 and your new coverage starts 8/15, only June and July count as uninsured months, so you still avoid the penalty.

From 2019 onward, tax changes mean no penalty even if you have no coverage for the full year. But I strongly advise against doing this on purpose. A single hospital visit in the U.S. can financially devastate you—there are many stories.

For more on insurance and federal tax penalties, see this page.

Retirement account

Third pitfall: retirement accounts, the oft-mentioned 401(k) (names vary by institution).

Compared to losing almost half a month’s salary and the gap in subsidized insurance, this one isn’t a major problem for me. My school does not offer this type of benefit for postdocs, so missing the registration window means just missing it. I don’t plan to stay forever anyway—I’ll likely return to China eventually.

At the moment, research funding is tight, and professors who can actually support postdocs are fewer. People even say funding one postdoc can cost as much as funding three PhD students. The biggest cost is the institutional overhead, which some call a “protection fee.” I’ve heard that 50%–60% of postdoc grants are paid to the institution, though the exact percentage varies by university.

At my teammate’s previous school, that split was high, partly because their employee benefits were better. In this specific case, retirement plans are simple:
Each month, 6% of a teammate’s salary is deducted and deposited into the retirement account, and the school matches with the same amount. So the school is effectively adding 6% of annual salary.

Money in a retirement account is tax-deferred, and many people use it to invest. But if you withdraw before retirement, you pay a penalty.

At my new employer, there is no such match for postdocs. Maybe they keep less overhead that way, who knows. I still haven’t worked out whether the right strategy is that these contributions are tax-free now, or whether paying penalties when leaving for China is worse.

Summary

So that’s my three traps. In total, it felt like I lost a few thousand dollars and got pretty frustrated. I moved in and immediately switched into work mode to leave a good first impression with my new PI—but then found myself constantly hitting potholes.

I hope readers here won’t repeat my path. Wishing everyone smooth job hunting and good progress in their studies.