coldman

my name is Mark i work as a supermarket refrigeration engineer in the UK. i am looking for employment in the USA in the same industry.
i have been doing some research and from what i can figure out i need to apply for employment with companies who do H1-B sponsorship. Would i be correct in saying this?

would i have to complete any form of trade recognition assessment?


would it be ASHRAE that i would have to apply to for refrigerant handling licensing.
i lived in Australia for 4 years and had to complete there refrigerant handling and electrical licensing to work within the industry.

any advice would be very much appreciated thanks for reading my post.

kind regards
Mark

Bluegrass Lass

I can't answer your other questions, but I can answer this one. Yes, you will need H1-B sponsorship. Which means you need to find a US company willing to hire you and sponsor your visa. For further info on the H1-B process, if you haven't already done so, have a read of the wiki on the site.

Not trying to discourage you, but getting H1-Bs are not the easiest to come by, especially given the high unemployment rates in the US (and the world over at the mo).

Jerseygirl

Hi Mark...welcome to BE.

Take a read through this...if you can fit into one of these catagories you may have a chance of moving to the US.

penguinsix

I'm assuming you've dug down a bit into the details of the H-1B. It requires a university degree OR 12 years of work experience to qualify, and it has to be in an industry in which there is demand and a lack of available American workers.

So you know, conceptually, the idea behind it is a way to get software engineers, medical doctors, lawyers, professors, etc into the US so that they can take jobs that will create other jobs--a software engineer who develops a new program that will enhance the overall competitiveness of the US industry, a doctor who is working on a new drug for a pharmacy, etc.

Now, that's not always how it works in practice, but the 'big picture' idea is something along those lines. In reality it goes quite a bit further.

Assuming you have the work experience, you'll have to not only find an employer who wants to pay and extra $5,000-$10,000 to hire you (the cost of the visa) but also who can convince the immigration service that there are no suitable Americans for this position. I really don't know the specifics of the refrigeration industry to speak as to whether that is the case.

You might want to read through this piece here. Gives you a good overview of the process.

http://www.immihelp.com/visas/h1b/h1...uirements.html

fatbrit

I'm afraid your work skills would be highly unlikely to provide an immigration path for you to the USA.

christmasoompa

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Are you sure that your job would qualify for a H1B? Just that I was intrigued as I had no idea what a refrigeration engineer did, so just looked on Monster.com - I couldn't find any job postings where a degree was required? Don't forget that for a H1B, not only must you have a degree (or the equivalent experience), but that the job must demand a degree as well.

scrubbedexpat099

It is a trade, so would not qualify for H1b, EB3 but who would wait?