Anyone sucessfully moved to the USA for work?

[anonymous-user]

Hi all, not sure where to start with all this so I thought I would ask you good people on PH before I try to find one of those 'Emmigration forms' via google...

I'm 30 years old and have been in several tedious lower/middle management jobs in this country ranging from automotive to housing/construction, and I have decided I need a complete change. Some friends have just gone through the whole 'sick of the weather here' thing and moved to France, but working in Europe doesn't really do it for me despite enjoying holidaying all over it each year. Call me a hillbilly if you want, but I enjoy Nascar, shooting, drag racing, cheeseburgers and terrible American supermarkets!

My cousin moved over there as a student, loved it, stayed a couple of extra years illegally working as a waitress then married a guy and got citizenship. My friend went to California as a student, met a girl over there and got married when he finished uni and now has a rather splended life in california as a personal trainer.
Another friend went on a 2 year contract to Canada to teach rugby and, erm, married a girl and lives there permanently now.
I can see a 'marriage' pattern emerging!

I have been on holiday to Vegas, new York, Chicago, Florida and spent a few weeks living at my Cousins house in a small town in Idaho. So I've kind of seen the extemes and really felt more at home there with the locals than I did here.

What all this is leading up to is, how can I legally gain employment over there before I get any older! Even if it's only for a couple of years.

Has anyone done it? Know the best ways? Are there any employment agencies you know of that can help with a move like this?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[unpc]

I lived and worked in the US for a few years, many moons ago. In my field (car design) it used to be relatively easy such as, just find a recruiter that's got jobs going and let them handle the visa side of things. However, I'm told that those days have long gone and the only way in is getting an inter-company transfer by working for a multi-national. Either that or marry your way in.

Sorry I don't have an easy answer for you.

[Matt Harper]

unpc said:

Sorry I don't have an easy answer for you.

That's because there isn't one.
Marrying a USC is by far the easiest way to accomplish this.
Immigration through employment is very tough, frustrating, expensive and long-winded.
Unless you have executive managerial expertise within a qualifying organization that would transfer you - or you possess highly specialized skills and expertise that is in high demand in the US and you can convince an employer to go through the expense and inconvenience of sponsoring a petition for you in these tough times, you are pretty much excluded.

[dvs_dave]

Yep, going through this at the mo. Marriage is pretty much the only way in the current economic climate. I'm in the lucky position of having a job waiting, however it's dependent on me getting green card which will take a few more months. Sponsorship was not even an option.

[thatone1967]

A mate of mine moved out there about 3 years ago to get married.
He's a clever IT techy guy and has not worked since last October, first kid on the way and living off one wage... I am sensing the US is not a good place to be right now... (for him / his proffession anyways)

[Matt Harper]

For balance, it's worth pointing out that this isn't an impossible concept - just not easy to pull off.
The USCIS issued 45,000+ H1-B visas this year, which suggests that there are still companies over here with a need for specialists that they can't hire locally.
The petitioner has to jump through some hoops and fork over a reasonable chunk of money, in order to prove that they have a genuine need of the foreign beneficiary, that hiring a USC or LPR is impractical and that the job is real, full-time, permanent and pays the prevailing rate.
Unfortunately for some, the US doesn't have a shortage of IT boffins.
I believe the openings are still in the field of medicine, electronics development (semi-conductor, avionics, defense systems etc), bio-science and legal and forensic specialties.
Most H1-B beneficiaries tend to end up in the San Fernando Valley, Pacific North West and Texas.
I live in central FL and the big hitter for foreign workers is still Lockheed Martin. My nextdoor neighbor works for them (Guidance Systems/Apache Longbow) and he has 5 or 6 British H1-B engineers in his staff.