My husband was a partner with one of the big 4...transferred to the US.

Hi,

As your husband is a contractor then he won't be eligible for a company transfer within the company he is based in as he isn't a permanent employee. I assume he 'owns' his own limited company who has a contract with the company or via an agency. I know this well as that is what my husband and I did

We moved over here 16 months ago, my husband being sponsored on a H1B visa, although he is actually onto his 2nd H1B as he switched companies. What he does is classed as pretty specialised (in IT), hence being lucky to find 2 jobs and sponsorship pretty easily. His work back in the UK was mainly for finance companies although not restricted to them as what he does is universal across all industries, it just so happened the finance industry had the most money and paid the best He found networking was the best way to find jobs, both came about via LinkedIn. I am no expert in specific 'finance IT' but if he is as good as you say he shouldn't have a problem as long as what he specialises in is used over here (what I specialise in isn't widely known here so when the time comes for me to get a job I will have to retrain in the US equivalent, although I am quite enjoying being a lady of leisure lol)

Good luck

B_2013

There is high demand for people with regulatory compliance experience with all the new financial regulations but I'm sure your husband will be aware of this if he is working in IT for a bank at the moment.

The majority of financial institutions in NYC have a freeze on recruiting and are going down the route of using contractors. Is your husband contracting as an individual or does he work for a company that supplies IT contractors? We know of a UK contracting company that has just opened an office in NY and has offered some of the contractors in the UK the opportunity to move to the NY office.

My husband works for a global bank in NYC in and the contractors that work for him have all come from linkedin and were recommended by people in his network. I'd suggest you husband uses his connections and network on linkedin to put out feelers too.

He needs to be an employee...but depending on the contract, length of being a contractor etc, might find he is a de-facto employee. Might take more effort.

Either way, it's a long term thing to work towards, rather than a quick process, but good luck!

Are you both Indians? If not ,well, your chances are lower than average.
Prevailing thinking among US middle management is: Indians = best corporate slaves.
It is not hard to get H1B in US even today, since US Corps. hire H1B for no other reason than getting a person to work for them on any conditions for as long as that person doesn't have a Green card.
If you are truly unique specialist (brilliant quant programmer), finding employment in Tri-state area would not be hard. H1B cost is negligible in that case.
Otherwise the focus of the management when it comes to IT staffing is : hire Indians or outsource to India.

Can you please provide sufficient examples to demonstrate that this is, in fact, the "prevailing thinking"? Otherwise, your comment is simply a platitude... and an offensive one at that!


Your penchant for absolute statements is amusing. Your comment is, quite simply, not true. If this is the extent of your knowledge, I suggest you read more and post less.

Ian

My thoughts on this are that you can get pretty much anything you want, if you want it badly enough. You just can't get everything due to lack of time.

Research and find out what specialist skills the companies in your line of work are crying out for, then work hard to get them, however long it takes.

From the time I decided I wanted to come to the US to the time I got here took about 10 years. I also had to go back to uni to get a masters late on.

All that time and I've been here 2 years and I'm contemplating whether I want to stay or not. Go figure!!

The problem is that by the time you get those skills the world may have moved on - technological advances can make today skills obsolete very quickly, especially when there is a significant shortfall in available skill labour.

True, but you can make adjustments as you go along. Keep up with the business. Go to trade events. Network etc. Then pray for a bit of luck too.

... Agreed, 100%, I have a job that didn't exist when I got my degree, but I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills .... twice!, to get my current job, but reading and training is a continuous requirement to keep my knowledge current.

Wow you guys are so kind and willing to help, I am really grateful to you all.

HarryTheSpider - Thank you for your detailed, step by step explanation, that was so helpful. I showed it to my husband, he is in a specialist role already and it is not something a colleague can just come in and pick up without a period of training, but he is only a contractor for the company he is working for, although it is a US company. We are just hoping that thy might have a vacancy for someone like him over in an office in the States, but we will see. I guess if they don't, he could try and work for another international / US company in London that has an established intra transfer scheme, and see what happens. Thanks again!

Pulaski - you are exactly right, my husband is only hoping to advance his career if we go to the States, not just to get any odd job (well, even if he wanted to, they wouldn't exactly offer him a visa to be a pizza deivery guy I don't think....)


Ian - thank you for your kind wishes. I can sort of understand why people get defensive cos I can imagine people really hoping to achieve their dreams and just don't want to hear anything else. But my husband and I both know that it's really hard to go to the States, and we know we are not at that stage in life where we can say, we are well established and have a certain career status, so our chance of making it to the States really depend on us finding the right work / pathway. Thank you again for your honesty and advice.

We are just waiting now to see what my husband's boss has to say about his email (er, hopefully not "you are fired"!), whatever will be will be

After I posted I realised that there are now more replies (goes to show I'm not an IT person....)

Jerseygirl - sounds like your hubby is in a position to ask for what he wants career wise, for us it will be sliiiiiiiiiiiightly more tricky!

Bob - "de facto employee"....never heard of it but sounds hopeful I think a slow process is what I fear, as the family members I have over there are aging and their caring needs are increasing, but I understand that we need to be prepared to be more realistic.

mohctep - nope we are not Indians.....

dek - oh no! Why??

I came out here on my own and am just starting to miss some people now. I probably just need a trip back to remember the reasons I left in the first place.

I see. Well for me, my home is where my family is. Although I will definitely miss things and most of all people if we move out of London.

What family do you have in Washington DC?