The reality of the American dream: What it takes to study and stay in Trump’s America

Chilean Victoria Guevara had hoped the American dream would be, well, like a dream. 

The vision she had in mind was close to perfect. After graduation, she could move to a city by the coast and spend weekends tanning on the beach. The work culture would meet her ideals, following a methodical, to-do list structure rather than what it’s like in her home country – a free-flow mess, a home that often made her feel like an outsider. 

She was a glass-half-full type of person, an everything-has-a-reason type of woman.

Come December 2023, Guevara would graduate from Drake University in Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in international business. Of all things uncertain, her goal to stay in the US no matter what remained solid, but a shift in presidential administration would change the probability of her dreams taking flight: Donald Trump’s re-election.

Instead of her ideals and desires being met, the past year has felt tangibly real with visa shake-ups dominating the headlines. Over 1,000 students and recent graduates have had their visas revoked. College campuses are now riddled by anxiety and the threat of detainment instead of school spirit.

By the time of the elections, Guevara had been working three jobs on the Optional Practical Training (OPT) programme, which allows temporary employment to F-1 visa holders post-graduation. Despite her performing well, none of the companies would petition an H-1B1 for her — a non-immigrant visa for citizens of Chile and Singapore.

The clock was ticking fast on her OPT card, passing by with rejected job applications for no other reason than her being a foreigner. Seemingly overnight, Guevara’s hopes and dreams were draining into a glass half-empty.

Guevara felt at home with the international community at Drake University. Source: Victoria Guevara

Why stay in the US?

Perhaps, Guevara’s picture of the US was too far-fetched; a little too idealistic. Even its citizens are split on whether the American dream is possible, with 41% saying it once was, but no longer is. But here’s the thing: while it’s true that the nation is no longer the beacon of freedom it once used to be, the fact that it’s the “land of opportunity” – where careers flourish and networks grow – remains true. 

Drake was the first time Guevara would fall in love with an experience. She was no longer an outsider, and the university was no longer a 24-hour study shift. She lived a balanced life, met like-minded individuals and gained opportunities beyond the classroom. An operations internship at a global ingredients manufacturer would only further prove that, yes, the US is precisely where she needed to be.

“Those two years were the happiest of my life. I looked forward to doing stuff, every single day,” says Guevara. “The biggest goal from now on is to find that happiness again.”

When you’ve reached a particular peak, there’s no returning to what your life once looked like. Guevara loved Santiago and missed her parents and sisters every day, but she knew the kind of happiness she got to experience at Drake couldn’t be replicated back at home.

There was, however, one thing Drake didn’t prepare her for: how difficult it would be to stay in the US.

To stay in the US, Guevara had to struggle to find jobs for a year. Source: Victoria Guevara

What does it take to remain?

Selling the US with the idea of the American dream would’ve worked maybe 10 to 15 years ago, but today, it’s unlikely.

Hundreds and thousands of dreams have been stripped away in a country that promised sanctuary. International students struggle to find employers willing to sponsor an H-1B or H-1B1 visa, since a petition and an extension could cost over US$33,000.

Many employers won’t hire OPT holders because they’re unfamiliar with the process.

For Guevara, stepping into the real world was no liberating feeling. After graduating, she moved to Georgia to stay with her aunt’s family for the short term. She would wake up in the morning with the singular goal of applying to jobs in mind — sometimes, up to 25 — and fall asleep hoping tomorrow would drop some good news in her inbox.

“The uncertainty and for the process not to go through; it’s one of the most difficult parts,” she says. “You know that you can do the job very well, and it gives you this anger. Most of the applications are read by AI, and you never get to talk to somebody. You’re not able to show them who you are.”

Hope would flicker in when a large marketing company, well-known in Latin American countries, contacted Guevara for an interview. They were looking for a Spanish and English speaker. Guevara knew she could fulfil every bullet point in the job description.

Everything about the company made it seem ideal, yet the interview’s outcome was anything but.

“They gave me a phone interview, and they said, ‘We really like you. We’re going to call you back,” she says. “But they never did. I reached out a million times, and they never responded.”

After four months of waiting, Guevara landed a job with a wine importer in Georgia, but she was forced to drag on the job search. “For OPT, there are two requirements. You can have as many jobs as you want, but they need to be related to your degree, and you need to work at least 20 hours a week,” she says.

Therein lay the catch: the wine importer would not hire Guevara for the full 20 hours. That’s how she landed in the predicament of working three jobs during her OPT. Four, if you count the fact that she was still looking. She started working voluntarily in a non-profit as a virtual office assistant. Then, through a connection from her uncle, Guevara snagged a summer internship at a Chilean winery.

The irony of this is that Guevara doesn’t even drink wine.

“I did both of the jobs that I had to fulfil my OPT, but also in hopes that I would get a full-time job,” she says, but things didn’t pan out that way. Even after getting a lawyer to negotiate the details of an H-1B1 and offering to cover the costs herself, plans fell through. The visa required her to have at least 33 working hours for the application — the reality of which, her employer at the Chilean winery delivered through his mouth:

“I cannot afford you to come full-time.”

Guevara worked up to three jobs during her OPT period. Source: Victoria Guevara

The light at the end of the tunnel

By the end of the OPT period, Guevara gained a new power: immunity to rejection.

“I was underselling myself a lot, because I thought, ‘Maybe if I get this entry-level job and take a pay cut, it would be easier for me to complete my objective, which was staying under a visa,” she says.

For a year, the stress of the job search became her fuel to keep going, even if it meant dissociating from other aspects of daily life or bringing negative energy into her drive. 

By the end, her efforts felt futile. By December 2024, it was time for Guevara to go home.

“I knew exactly what I was going back to, and I was not excited about it,” she says. “Being at it for a year and for it not to work out –  it felt so unfair. I worked so hard for it.”

The days through her final month in Georgia were spent packing and saying goodbye to a family she had grown attached to. Guevara was going home, looking forward to seeing her own family, but gutted by the sheer fact that she wouldn’t return to the US, at least not for a while.

Then three weeks before the flight, everything would change.

After one whole year of searching for a job, Guevara received an offer from a Chilean airline in Miami, Florida – but the ticket was already bought, and the time was already up. Through the circumstances, she had no choice but to navigate the logistics from Santiago.

“I thought it was probably going to take two months. It ended up taking four and a half months, but I knew I was coming back, so that made me go home with a totally different mindset,” she says. “I was going to enjoy my stay.”

One could call this the light at the end of the tunnel. Suddenly, Guevara was booking a flight ticket back to the US, and her H-1B1 was secured alongside the position of infrastructure project analyst. She was moving to the coast, and she’d get the sun-tanning weekends she always wanted.

It should’ve felt like a dream come true, but it didn’t. Before accepting the job, she had long debated taking on the opportunity when she wasn’t genuinely passionate about the role or the industry. Through a year of hard labour, she learned that the American dream was merely a wishful projection. This was not the light at the end of the tunnel, but a leap into the next.

But if there’s one thing Guevara’s year in the US taught her, it’s resilience.

“I remember talking to my friend about it. He caught me in my window of stress. He said, ‘You should take it to have the experience. If you don’t end up loving it, you always have your home and your parents, and I think it would be idiotic of you not to take it,” she says.