Engineer's Guide to US Visas • Hacker News Board

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#61

Post by jongold » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 1:56 PM UTC

Excellent guide; shame the situation sucks.

The H-4 & O-3 mean that I have these options: - Work at a US startup, marry my girlfriend, she has to be a non-working housewife - Work at a US startup, live the rest of our lives in a long distance relationship - Move to work at a big company like Google (not my scene at all) where I could get an L-1 (which has a good spouse visa) - Go for an O-1 or H-1B & hope that my girlfriend can get one in the same batch. - Just give up on the idea of living in the US

I love California; wish it wasn't so hard for me to live there :(

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#62

Post by nodemaker » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 1:57 PM UTC

ashray wrote: post #52

nodemaker wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar story here. Indian citizen with a US masters degree. Left after working in the US for a year, travelled around SE Asia ,and then moved to Amsterdam! Can choose to work four days a week, have side projects and take 26 days of vacation a year. H1B is totally a sucker's game.

How did you move to Amsterdam ? Is it like fulltime work or did you sponsor yourself with an EU Blue Card ? I'm always interested in learning about the various possibilities engineers have around the world! :)

I applied to a few companies, got an offer and moved with a Dutch residence and work permit. The whole thing took about a month. There is a huge demand for skilled engineers in the EU.

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#63

Post by jplmelanson » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 1:57 PM UTC

  The important difference is that the TN isn't dual intent, and you therefore can't apply for a green card while on it

Is there a path to permanent residency for this specific visa or you're better off finding H1B sponsorship?

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#64

Post by maguirre » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 1:58 PM UTC

NhanH wrote: post #9

thomseddon wrote: post #3

To anyone with experience with a H1-B: How closely related does your degree have to be? I get the impression this is a relatively grey area - I have a BEng in Civil Engineering, in my opinion it's somewhat related, I just wondered if there is a clear guidance on this?

Another question regard the H1-B: is it a bad idea trying to file H1-B without a lawyer? I'm working for a startup, and in the spirit of not-wasting-money, we're trying to file the H1B by ourselves, would that be too risky?

Don't try to file w/o a lawyer, you will come to regret it. It might be cheaper to do so ($$ wise) but in the end you will be treated with more respect if you have legal representation standing behind you.

source (anecdotal): I went through the process of obtaining visa(s) with and without legal representation

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#65

Post by speeq » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 1:59 PM UTC

"L-1 visa for inter-company transfers

If you've worked for the company in a foreign subsidiary for at least one year in the preceding three years, you may be eligible for a L-1 visa. When the H-1B cap is reached, large companies like Google often look to L-1s instead, moving new employees to their Canadian offices for a year to make them eligible.

The foreign subsidiary must be related to its US counterpart in one of four ways: parent and subsidiary, branch and headquarters, sister companies owned by a mutual parent, or 'affiliates'.

It's a fairly straightforward visa to get if you qualify, and has the added bonus of being dual intent."

Would it be possible to open a US business remotely, then a foreign subsidiary in your country of residence - work for a year there and then be eligible for an inter-company L-1 transfer?

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#66

Post by huherto » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 2:03 PM UTC

rjzzleep wrote: post #51

i'm surprised no one is mentioning the eb-2 visa. if you have a masters or higher in cs and are not born in the india or china the wait times seem to be reasonable. [1] the h1b is a dangerous game. it's essentially a do whatever i say, and i "may" sponsor your green card "eventually", with an emphasize on the may. not everyone uses it that way, and i would would be leaning out of the window saying most do, but it's d…

I have a MS from a good US university. I am one of the principal software engineers at my company, and I lead the technical development on some of the most critical systems. It is medium size company.

But, I don't do any state of the art research, or highly specialized academic work, or anything worth publishing on academic journals.

How hard is to do the Labor Certification for the EB-2 green card?

Edit:grammar

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#67

Post by k3oni » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 2:05 PM UTC

Here's another one which might help some that want to move to US - Diversity Visa Program(DV Lottery).

If you are lucky enough(like my wife was) you will have your green card and visa for the whole family.

Some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigrant_Visa

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#68

Post by rjzzleep » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 2:06 PM UTC

huherto wrote: post #66

rjzzleep wrote: post #51

i'm surprised no one is mentioning the eb-2 visa. if you have a masters or higher in cs and are not born in the india or china the wait times seem to be reasonable. [1] the h1b is a dangerous game. it's essentially a do whatever i say, and i "may" sponsor your green card "eventually", with an emphasize on the may. not everyone uses it that way, and i would would be leaning out of the window saying most do, but it's d…

I have a MS from a good US university. I am one of the principal software engineers at my company, and I lead the technical development on some of the most critical systems. It is medium size company. But, I don't do any state of the art research, or highly specialized academic work, or anything worth publishing on academic journals. How hard is to do the Labor Certification for the EB-2 green card? Edit:grammar

IANAL, but I think in theory you already qualify. The effort is a little on the employers side. They have to post the job offer publicly in a news paper in the area, and then they have to have a good reason for hiring you. In theory I would say it's just a question of having a good lawyer. But then again those things have to be done ANYWAY if you want a green card.

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#69

Post by donohoe » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 2:16 PM UTC

Credit History

It would be worth adding a note about Credit history and some simple steps you can do to start establishing a good one. I recall getting a joint-loan with my wife (girlfriend at the time) to get things started. I'm sure there are many other ways.

Re: Engineer's Guide to US Visas

#70

Post by huherto » Tue, Mar 04, 2014, 2:18 PM UTC

jbarham wrote: post #38

I'm Canadian and worked for over four years a software engineer in SoCal on work visas (TN then H1B). My wife, an Aussie and high school teacher with several years of teaching experience in top international schools in Asia, couldn't legally work in the US. So she volunteered teaching ESL at a local adult school. Ironically many of her students were Hispanics who had originally entered the US illegally. Doubly ironic…

Your situation is special because you were married to an Australian. How would it be if she was a US citizen? It would probably be easier for you to legally work in the US than in Australia.