Design visas and H1Bs

I feel you, I think it should be that any graduate of a US educational institution should have some preference over the 172k+ applicants… :confused: It’s so odd to think that we would put in 4~5 years of time in education in the US, do multiple internships, yet at the end, we have to leave the country. Thankfully, I recently received my H1-B receipt, which means I was in the lucky few. I agree with yo; just like getting a job is based on merit, immigration should also be based on skill, not random lottery.

@Bepster: I knew you had to be graduate and have like a year working experience, but I couldn’t find anything about for how long is it valid. Thanks for all the info! I think it’s a very good option for both company and you to go there and see how’s life in the US, I might try that in the future. Could you also get an extension or anything like that?

@yo: Good to see there’s people thinking that way there. I’m an immigrant myself at the moment, luckily I had no VISA issues because it’s within the EU, but still not the same culture or language or legal system. It’s shocking seeing how countries like USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, which grew up and became what they are because of immigrants, now are so restrictive (Probably the US more than the others). I could expect that from Japan or any other country which has been historically closed to immigration, but especially not those.

Just because I am curious, what about emigrating to the Eu from the outside? What’s that like?

I’m a US citizen and my German doesn’t suck. What’s the process like to get a job in Austria?

And you thought coming to the US was difficult. I did a little research a few years back when I was being recruited for a position in Germany. Didn’t seem easy.

Well, I’m not expert on that matter, in my company I’m the only one who doesn’t speak German, all foreigners come from around Austria, so they do speak German and are EU citizens. I did interviews on skype with them and I knew I was coming here with the position secured. I’d say if you have a good background, including working experience, it shouldn’t be that complicated to find something. Most of my friends don’t speak German or didn’t before coming here and they got jobs with around the same wage as Austrians.

I’ve met non-EU citizens, but almost all of them were students in Europe or permanent residents before getting the job so the issue wasn’t that complicated to obtain. A friend of mine was doing an internship here and then he got offered a permanent position, they company was sponsoring him so it was easy. At my flatmate’s agency they have people from the US (3 -4 in a 35 -40 people office), some of them came straight from the US, the company sponsored most of them. Here we have Redbull HQ, so there are plenty of non EU working, but I never had the chance to ask any of them how they got their visa, maybe there’s somebody here who went through that process.

I just did a little research and apparently they changed the visa system, they unified it in a way. It’s called BLUE card, for high skilled workers, you can come here and work for up to 2 years. I’m not sure if you can get a permanent one afterwards, but probably it wouldn’t be that complicated.

http://www.internations.org/austria-expats/guide/moving-to-austria-15578/austria-visas-residence-work-permits-2

As the son of a Spanish immigrant to Australia in the 1960s, it saddens me that the political climate here is turning inwards. Lots of rhetoric of “stop the boats” and offshore processing (i.e. refugees sent to camps in PNG, explicitly designed to be a worse option that where they are fleeing from), for example federal elections last year the ruling Liberal party had an ex-refugee on a ‘stop immigration’ platform.
Nothing really to do with skilled migration but colours any discussion of it with a giant racist brush.

The other side of that coin is countries being rewarded with easy visas. Australia as part of the ‘coalition of the willing’ was rewarded with easy visas to the US. An E3 visa is an Australia-only skilled visa to the US with better conditions than an H1B.

I’ve read and read that the traditional Aussie-backpacker-in_London-right-of-passage is pretty much over, because it’s so easy to get an E3 and they are under-subscribed.

That said, I was made to jump through hoops to get a J1 visa to the US, and that was with a visa agency. Having a wife and kids make you a flight risk apparently (insert Henny Youngman rim shot here).

It’s amazing how hypocrite people can be, you could expect that from the 2nd or 3rd generation, but not from somebody who literally left his country on a boat.

By the way, do you also hold a Spanish passport? I know that many descendants from Spanish citizens fleeing the country back in the 50s and 60s do, especially in South America. I’m just curious if there’s any kind of agreement for those who went somewhere else.

I have an Austrian friend (who has a military background) and who successfully negotiated the H1B visa issue, but they were from a top European uni which would be considered (in points) to be on a par with ivy league/MIT level from a US perspective and did have a sponsoring job from a reputable design company on the East coast. I think it mostly depends on what value “on paper” the immigration folks think you’re offering. Def would be harder to get the H1B if you were (a) coming with sub-elite qualifications from outside European countries (b) not having firmly in place a sponsoring “career” job from an established US company.

2 cents.

Sorry, but this is not true.

H1Bs are not being evaluated and handed out based on merit or how prestigious the school was. It is only the luck of the draw that decides.
If you have a sponsor in a qualifying field, i.e. a job offer for a “high skilled” position and you have academic standing recognized by the USCIS (a recognized bachelor from anywhere in the field will suffice), then you are entered into the lottery.
As stated in my original post, this year, the worst to date, success rate was below 50%.

Where you studied has no weight whatsoever as all applications are assigned a number and entered into a program which randomly selects the winners. After the draw, the winning applications are processed. If you tick the right boxes, you are through.

While I think the quota of 85000 is ridiculously low for the demand, I do not take issue with the selection process. Actually reviewing each and every application that comes in would slow the process to a crawl and also open up for endless discussions on whether one school or workplace is more or less prestigious than another.

On a personal note, looks like I didn’t get it and will be Europe bound in June. Frustrating to say the least for everyone involved.

Hope I didn’t offend you and I can see your point bepster… in a perfect world it might not matter where you went to school etc, but I do think “off-the-record” stuff like this absolutlely matters. The grads who have top degrees are the ones the US wants - the ones who hiring managers take first. I remember Jeff Bezos a few years ago in a Charlie Rose interview saying he thinks that we should be nailing a green card to every top grad who completed their education in the US; maybe its not written on the forms, but I very very much doubt my friend Stefan would be where he is at in the US today if he had middling/average credentials. It matters.

No offense taken.

Of course, whether you get hired and secure sponsorship in the US or not is a separate issue.
Over 50% of H1B applicants this year got hired but didn’t even have their Visa applications looked at, me included.

I am certain your friend got hired based on his education but he didn’t get an H1B because of where he went to school. He got the H1B because he had a degree, a job offer and had luck on his side in the lottery.

Sorry to hear that bepster!

Yes. Australia has always allowed dual citizenship (something like 40% of the population is foreign born) but Spain didn’t allow it until quite recently.

The confusing part is I’ve got slightly different surnames, due to Spaniards taking mum and dads surname, but Australians taking fathers only. Can be a hassle in buying plane tickets.

I know, people always mess up with that haha They look at you like what the hell is this. Lately I’ve been connecting the two of them with a hyphen, like its clearer which one is the name and which one the surname.

While I think the quota of 85000 is ridiculously low for the demand, I do not take issue with the selection process. Actually reviewing each and every application that comes in would slow the process to a crawl and also open up for endless discussions on whether one school or workplace is more or less prestigious than another.

On a personal note, looks like I didn’t get it and will be Europe bound in June. Frustrating to say the least for everyone involved.

And that is 85000 if you have an advanced degree. For most, it is still 65000 minus the amount reserved for singapore + Chile. Ugh it’s so stupid the way it’s set up. I’m sorry you weren’t in the lucky few… 175000 applicants for 85000 lucky draws. :confused:

@Yo/Michael thank you for telling us about your family history and your personal opinion on the matter as an American. It was very touching to read and let this foreigner know that people empathise with us!

Back on topic I personally don’t feel the visa requirements are too strict and should be kept in place. They do exclude a lot of people but it makes sense to only want those with degrees etc.

What I do not agree with at all is the cap. Not only is it a huge burden to have to go through finding a job, getting the company to sponsor, fill out the paperwork all to not have it looked at due missing the mark. It is also frustrating that there is only one window of the year to be applying for a job to try and get everything ready for April 1st. Unless you are with the company on a J1 there is no way people will be hiring at that given time. It also sucks that even if you get selected in April then you can’t start working until the start of October. The ideal situation would be to keep the requirements but scrap the cap, or at least make it more obtainable and accessible throughout the year - not just one week in April.

It feels as though the entire world is closing in on itself and each country inventing crazy rules to keep people out. When we can all be sat on a plane for several hours and be half way across the world it just doesn’t make sense.

The UK recently got very strict on their visa process for non-EU citizens. We stopped allowing students to stay after graduation which meant they were out pretty much after they took off their robes. They also raised salary caps for the visa’s they do allow to wages that aren’t realistic to most professions - this especially also applies to recent grads. Finally the marriage visa which should be the holy grail in most countries also took a blow with the UK citizen having to earn a certain amount before they can be a sponsor - this amount rules out average Joe on a low income or those that freelance etc.

There are also talks at the moment about us leaving the EU which comes with it’s own headaches. A lot of people don’t want others from the EU to work in the UK but they forget plenty of us would like to move to the continent, especially those that retire to Spain etc.

Hey all.
So it didn’t work, despite my company’s, the lawyers and my best efforts and I’ll have to leave San Francisco and the US for now.

I am disappointed that I didn’t meet more people from the boards while here in the Bay Area.
For all of you here in SF, I’ll have a going away beer (or rather beers) at Zeitgeist tonight, from 7 forward.

Come by, say hi and goodbye.

Sorry to hear Bepster. My friend heard the same news today. It is so stupid that all the effort of the company and lawyers have to go through BEFORE the lottery. Hope you get a nice little break at least.

I’m sorry to hear that bepster. Any plans for what next? Does being in the EU allow you to work anywhere in the EU or is the visa an issue as well? Or you could go work somewhere totally different, like Japan (though visa there is a bit nightmarish like the US as well). :confused:

All of Europe would be fine so that is where I am looking now.
It seems however that for what I want to do, which is CE, the opportunities are mostly west coast US. Firms doing this on a high, innovative level are harder to find in Europe.