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INTERNATIONAL STUDENT RETENTIONH-1B applications to be submitted for 2015 visas and this past April over 233,000 applications were filed duringthe five-day application window. 26 Because of this some U.S. companies are re-locating operations in other countrieswhere visa availability makes it easier to hire high-skilled international workers – creating jobs elsewhere that couldhave been created in the U.S. 27 Cities whose employers faced large numbers of H-1B Visa denials experienceconsiderably less job creation and wage growth for American born computer workers in the years that followed. 28In pioneering research analyzing the international student visas from over a decade’s worth of data, the BrookingsInstitution has highlighted the opportunity that international students present for the U.S. economy, noting that“if legislation is passed to create an easier pathway for retaining international students that obtain advanced STEMdegrees at U.S. universities, the impact could be huge: about 96,200 incoming international students on F-1 visas in2010 could have become eligible for a green card upon graduation. Currently, only a fraction of these students attaina temporary skilled-worker visa after graduating.” 29The optional practical training (OPT) portion of a student visa can function as a bridge to attracting and retaininginternational students. Providing international students with a potential opportunity to be able to stay aftergraduation could draw them to studying in the U.S. By utilizing an OPT, international students have theopportunity to gain business knowledge while potentially demonstrating the needed skills that would motivate anemployer to apply for an H-1B visa to retain them. An international student who returns to her home country afterworking for an American employer under her OPT benefits that American employer by serving as a connection totheir home country and its businesses, trade, and investment opportunities.Michigan Global Talent Retention Initiative (GTRI)The Michigan Global Talent Retention Initiative was created in 2011 out of the Global Detroit study. As thenation’s first international student retention program with full-time staff, GTRI focuses on strengthening anddiversifying the state’s economy through the retention of top international talent. By retaining internationalstudents, GTRI is a catalyst to lessening the skills gap, especially in the STEM fields, and cultivating a climate inwhich Michigan businesses can be competitive in the new economy. GTRI works with over 30 Michigan collegesand universities to attract and retain talented international students as well as with over 60 Michigan employers tofill their unmet talent needs.Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has noted that:The message to international students who take part in GTRI events is simple. Michigan wants you! . . .Connecting highly skilled international students with employers and giving them the opportunity to workand live in a beautiful, vibrant state will help create a strategic advantage for our state and strengthen theMichigan economy. 30GTRI provides international students and local employers with training and resources on relevant immigrationregulations (including promoting awareness of the OPT program), information on finding a job in Michigan, andhelp with cross-cultural issues that both employers and international applicants may experience during the hiringprocess. Its Global Opportunity Employer (GO Employer) program allows Michigan employers to signal theirwillingness to hire international talent. GTRI provides guidance and assistance in hiring international talent, distributingjob postings to their networks, and maximizing company talent searches by making it easily recognizableto international students as a GOemployer (via an easy-to-spot GO Employer logo that the companies can use intheir postings).26 See U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, http://www.uscis.gov/news/uscis-reaches-fy-2015-h-1b-cap-0.27 Giovanni Peri, Kevin Shih, Chad Sparber, Angie Marek Zeitlin, “Closing Economic Windows: How H1-B Visa Denials CostU.S. –Born Tech Workers Jobs and Wages During the Great Recession,” rewewoureconomy.org. The Partnership for a New AmericanEconomy, June 2014, http://www.renewoureconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pnae_h1b.pdf.28 Ibid.29 Ruiz, “America’s Foreign Students and Immigrations Reform”30Letter from Governor Rick Snyder posted on the GTRI website, http://www.migtri.org/mission/.WELCOMING AMERICA | GUIDE TO IMMIGRANT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT | CHAPTER 429