Hi everyone,

I wonder if any of you good people could help me with my enquiry... the situation is this....

I recently married my fiancee after entering the US on a K1 visa, and have just recently received my NOA's for the AOS stage.

OK I am a marine biologist and I have just recently completed a PhD in this area back in the UK and was looking forward to applying for jobs in the state of California. The trouble is I have found that state institutes (eg. NOAA: National Institute for the Oceans and Atmopshere, and the Californian dept. of fish and game, both good places to find jobs as a marine biologist in CA) say on their job postings:

job requirements: US Citizenship..........

Ok so I e-mailed the NOAA about this and they say that it is clear, you have to be a US citizen.... and we all know that I can only apply for that in another TWO YEARS.......

surely this is bloody unfair don't you think?? Shouldn't qualifcations and experience be the main requirements........

and so will I end up working in a coffee shop for the next two years (with a PhD under my belt)???

It's so deflating to think that this may be the case???

any advice or similar experiences???

Paul

NOAA is a federal agency. Employment usually requires citizenship. However, NOAA often teams with academic or other research facilities. Although I am a USC, I work in one of the cooperative institutes that partner with NOAA and the institute does employ foreign nationals--I work with many people who are not citizens of the U.S.

For the area of marine biology there is also a cooperative institute(not the one I am employed by). Here is a link: http://cimas.rsmas.miami.edu/

It's in Florida, but at least it's in your field and working with NOAA.

Hi,
I share your frustration. I also have a College degree and had to sit waiting a long time until I got the green card. However, I have found that what most employers require is that you can legally work in the US, and not a citizenship.

My suggestion is to try to get the employement authorization ASAP, not wait for the green card. It took forever in my case, still don't know why, but if the maximun time has past you can schedule an appointment and get it.

I don't know why they are requestion the citizenship, this is not that common...

Good luck!

Read the post before this. NOAA jobs are federal civil service and require citizenship.

If you're a PhD then your best bet for a research job is with a University, in your case most likely one of the UC's. You may end up working with NOAA, even though you can't get a job with them directly. To be honest, if the federal requirement for getting a job with NOAA is anything like that for NASA (who I work with, not for, I work for a University on a NASA project), then its not a hard and fast rule. I know people with H1-B's and greencards who work for NASA for example. NOAA may well be different however!

Many with H1-B and GC holders do work at NOAA as employees of Cooperative Institutes.

I am paid by a university, but my office is in the same building and intermingled with the federal NOAA employees. My pay is based on my association with NOAA and not stacked against other university staff.

Yes, this is exactly how it works with NASA as well. I have colleagues that work inside NASA buildings, but are officially employed by Universities or organisations like USRA. However as you say, their pay is at the NASA level, not the University. Perhaps the only difference is where the jobs are advertised.

So it sounds like its perfectly possible to get a job at NOAA then.

You can thank Ronald Regan for siging that into law. When I tried to apply for a job with a federal agency (that was hiring MBAs), I got my application back with a note that Ronald Regan signed into law that non USCs can't be employed by federal agencies! Yes, this was back in 1981. And yes you can join the army and get your citizenship very quickly - just avoid the bullets/bombs coming your way. Good Luck