bepster:
What a lot of firms do is to first offer a J-1 visas for 12-18 months.
Technically called an internship or traineeship, it is often practically much more like junior position and a way for US based firms to get designers from abroad into their studio and both parties get to use this limited time as a trail period.
The J visa is easy to get year round, low commitment and there are no quotas.
Also, no caps on salary so some studio will pay a competitive Jr. Designers salary even though it says โinternโ in the paperwork.
Most of the firms you mention do this or have done this and have hired people this way.
So I would approach them through the J-1 route first and then during this time, have them apply for an H-1.
This makes also sense from a timing perspective as H-1b can only be applied for starting April and take 6 months to process.
Hi bepster,
Thanks for the reply. Currently, I am already on F-1 visa as a student in US (MechE Masters CMU). Ideally I could apply for a job right now but want to experience ID studio life