ukbritguyusa

Below is a copy of an email I just sent to Jason at enteramerica.com taking advantage of his free consultation. I have posted it on here as I rate this site highly and I thought I would see if anyone could comment on it. Thanks for reading:



Dear Mr Nikolovski,

I was referred to your website by a friend of mine and I would like to take advantage of your free consultation. I am an English Citizen and I there is a company in the US (New Jersey) who has offered me a job. This is an outline of my situation:

1) I have known the company that has offered me the job for about 6 years but only on an associate basis and I have a few very good friends who work there (including the Executive Director) and are willing to take the time to get this right. Basically they have never paid me to do any work, etc. The company has been interviewing for this position for about 6 months and has interviewed only about one person. Because of the nature of the business, it is a very specialist role (the business is Youth Music Education/Marching Bands/Concert Bands/High School Bands, etc). The role is actually a Sales orientated one, which is my background, but they are looking for someone with not only sales experience (face to face/telesales, etc) but also someone who has been involved in one of the 2 marching bands that they run. Because of this, it cuts down the people that could do the job dramatically. I was involved in one of their marching bands on a volunteer basis during the summers of 1997 and 1999. Not only do I have all the experience they are looking for, but I fit the job description exactly.

2) I have been working in the field of sales since I left college which was in 1997, so that gives me around 6 years experience. I don't have any real formal qualifications, like a Degree for instance. A couple of my past employers have gone out of business, but I can get references from everyone else plus professional references from individuals I have worked with at the companies who are no longer in business.

3) My potential employer in the US has told me they have just applied for a Labour Certificate for the position and then they are going to apply for a Non Immigrant Temporary Work Visa (H1-B I think) which can hopefully be extended to 6 years.

4) If it helps I have an Aunt (my Fathers Sister) who is a US Citizen, also various cousins. I have a lot of family like Uncles/Aunts/Cousins in Canada (I know this part means nothing, but I am scraping the barrel!)

5) I am currently engaged and if everything goes to plan and the Visas are approved, I would be taking my Fiancé with me. I am trying to find out also if it is easy to marry here and then apply for a K1 (?) visa so she can become my dependent.

This is opportunity of a lifetime for me and I want it to work out really badly. I don't believe I am taking anything away from a US worker as the company has advertised for many months and hasn't found anyone.

I wanted any advice you can give me at this stage. The company in the US is a Not-For-Profit organisation and if there is anyway of avoiding hiring an expensive Lawyer then that would be very beneficial. I am hoping that the only advice you will give me isn't going to be "Your case looks complicated and dangerous, you need to hire me", because that isn't going to help me!

I would appreciate it very much if you could comment on my case and tell me if I have a hope in hell or not of getting this done.

Because I don't have a degree or lots and lots of years of experience, is this going to make things impossible? If it is possible, what exact visa in the H category do you think the employer should be applying for? Is there any particular information that you think is important that I divulge?

OK I think that’s it. I would appreciate it very much if you could help me in anyway.

Very kind regards,

Matt Rosine

[email protected]
[email protected]

J. J. Farrell

"ukbritguyusa" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > 2) I have been working in the field of sales since I left college
    > which was in 1997, so that gives me around 6 years experience. I
    > don't have any real formal qualifications, like a Degree for
    > instance.
    > 3) My potential employer in the US has told me they have just applied
    > for a Labour Certificate for the position and then they are going to
    > apply for a Non Immigrant Temporary Work Visa (H1-B I think) which
    > can hopefully be extended to 6 years.

H1-B requires a 4-year USA degree or equivalent, and the
job must require a degree. If you don't have a degree,
3 years of relevant experience can often be substituted
for each year of the degree course. It doesn't look like
you qualify for an H1-B.

    > 5) I am currently engaged and if everything goes to plan and the Visas
    > are approved, I would be taking my Fiancé with me. I am trying to
    > find out also if it is easy to marry here and then apply for a K1 (?)
    > visa so she can become my dependent.

If you want to take her with you if you enter as an H1-B,
you need to be married to her first. She would get an H4.

    > The company in the US
    > is a Not-For-Profit organisation and if there is anyway of avoiding
    > hiring an expensive Lawyer then that would be very beneficial.

Trying to get an H1-B for a sales position without a
degree sounds near impossible to me. I would strongly
recommend using a very experienced immigration attorney
for anyone without a degree applying for an H1-B.

ukbritguyusa

Thanks for the reply.

So if I don't have a degree and am just short of the relevant experience (I have about 7 or 8 years instead of about 9 needed) what next?

Is there any other catergory I could go for? Like an Unskilled person?

The potential job position is working in Youth Music and Marching Bands. I have been involved in this since I was 8 years old. Does this count for anything?

Thanks for your help everyone.

ucomms

ukbritguy, have u received any replies from Jason yet?
Am very happy with his service. If you have any problems contacting him, email me.
Do you have his private email address? let me know if you dont and i will be glad to forward it to you mate.
Good luck

ukbritguyusa

Hey, yes I have had replies from Jason at enteramerica.com and he has been very helpful so far.

The email address I have from him is [email protected] is that the best one?

It seems so far from everyone who has commented that I can't really apply for an H-1B because I don't have a degree. What I am trying to establish is where I can go from here....!

Thanks to everyone for their continued help.

Matt

J. J. Farrell

"ukbritguyusa" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Thanks for the reply.
    > So if I don't have a degree and am just short of the relevant experience
    > (I have about 7 or 8 years instead of about 9 needed) what next?

You would need 12 years (3 for each of the
4 years of a USA 4-year degree), but the
other problem is likely to be that the job
should be one that normally requires a
degree. I think they'd have trouble
swinging that for the job you described.

    > Is there any other catergory I could go for? Like an Unskilled person?
    > The potential job position is working in Youth Music and Marching Bands.
    > I have been involved in this since I was 8 years old. Does this count
    > for anything?

Sorry to tell you this, but I don't think
you've got a hope. There might be a chance
of getting a J visa, but they would have
to set the job up with the State Department
as part of an educational/cultural exchange
program. I'm not sure how long you are
usually allowed under a J.

Good luck.

Ingo Pakleppa

On Tue, 28 Jan 2003 16:42:57 +0000, ukbritguyusa wrote:


    > Thanks for the reply.
    >
    > So if I don't have a degree and am just short of the relevant experience
    > (I have about 7 or 8 years instead of about 9 needed) what next?

Wait a year. Then you will have the experience. As J.J. Farrell already
pointed out, a position in sales can be notoriously difficult in the first
place, even with a degree. There certainly are sales positions that do
require a degree, such as sales for highly specialized technical
equipment.

As for the job requiring not just sales but also involvement with marching
bands, Department of Labor would normally take the position that these are
two separate jobs, and the employer would have to hire two people if there
is no American who wants to fill both. To overcome it, you would have to
prove that there is a business reason why this has to be done by the SAME
person. A business reason could be that working with the marching bands
will be an integral part of the employee's sales strategy - but it does
not sound like that is the case for you!

    > Is there any other catergory I could go for? Like an Unskilled person?

Or skilled person, for that matter. Yes, as long as you can prove that
there is no American who would take this job.

    > The potential job position is working in Youth Music and Marching Bands.
    > I have been involved in this since I was 8 years old. Does this count
    > for anything?

If you can make a strong business case for it, yes. Keep in mind that in
order for it to count, the job description must actually require it. That
is, the job description must say something like:

"Any qualified applicant must have been a member of Youth Music and
Marching bands for at least ten years during High School". Note the phrase
"Any qualified applicant". If it says something like "The ideal
applicant..." you would be saying that this is desirable but not
absolutely required. Department of Labor would then require you to hire an
American without that qualification over you.

And, as I said, such a requirement would have to be supported with a very
strong business reason and probably documentation for this reason.
Otherwise, it will get rejected as unduly restrictive job description.

    > Thanks for your help everyone.
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Ingo Pakleppa

On Wed, 29 Jan 2003 07:50:09 +0000, J. J. Farrell wrote:


    > "ukbritguyusa" wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    >> Thanks for the reply.
    >> So if I don't have a degree and am just short of the relevant
    >> experience (I have about 7 or 8 years instead of about 9 needed) what
    >> next?
    >
    > You would need 12 years (3 for each of the 4 years of a USA 4-year
    > degree), but the other problem is likely to be that the job should be
    > one that normally requires a degree. I think they'd have trouble
    > swinging that for the job you described.

Actually, the original poster has an Associate's degree. If this is a
one-year degree, he would need 9 years of experience. If it's a two-year
degree, he would need six years (I'm not sure which it is).

    >> Is there any other catergory I could go for? Like an Unskilled person?
    >> The potential job position is working in Youth Music and Marching
    >> Bands. I have been involved in this since I was 8 years old. Does this
    >> count for anything?
    >
    > Sorry to tell you this, but I don't think you've got a hope. There might
    > be a chance of getting a J visa, but they would have to set the job up
    > with the State Department as part of an educational/cultural exchange
    > program. I'm not sure how long you are usually allowed under a J.
    >
    > Good luck.

ukbritguyusa

Hey,

I don't really understand the above posting? Could you explain it to me?

Where you saying that I had an Associate Degree.....?

Ingo Pakleppa

I'm not sure which posting you are referring to (there are hundreds, and I
don't memorize them all), but I do recall that there was something about
you saying that you had an Associates Degree and therefore only needed 9
years of experience rather than the usual 12 years.

On Thu, 30 Jan 2003 22:31:43 +0000, ukbritguyusa wrote:

    >
    > Hey,
    >
    > I don't really understand the above posting? Could you explain it to me?
    >
    > Where you saying that I had an Associate Degree.....?
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com