ols-london

Just wondered whether anyone has managed to find work in the US from the UK recently or whether everyone is transferring / getting married??

I only ask because the jobs I have applied for I have either got not response or been told that they wouldn't be spending the time and money on a VISA atm...

Jerseygirl

Unfortunately that sounds about right. Ask yourself why should a US employer employ you when it costs them thousands of $ just for a visa...then they have to wait months and months before you get said visa...when they can employ a US citizen at no extra cost and he/she can start immediately? Plus you have virtually no experience to speak of.

You were given advice in your previous thread. See moving to the US as a long term goal...a decade or more. Get experience and try to position yourself in a company who has offices in the US. To get a job move to the US you have to have special skills that the employer cannot find here.

ols-london

Yeah advice is solid and I'm working on it! its definately a long term goal I was just fishing for success stories/interested to see!

I understand why we're inconvient to sponser and employ and wonder why anyone actually bothers!

Jerseygirl

OK to answer your question...we transferred with my husband's company. He was a partner of a large international company.

GeoffM

I did dabble in a bit of job hunting, though I probably only actually applied for half a dozen job adverts. Most didn't reply, though one or two did. I had more luck with agencies and contacts through LinkedIn where I had expressions of interest - until they found I needed a visa. Even when I had an independent visa in progress, they still didn't really want to know until I had that visa in my hand.

elop

The 2 companies that I've been interviewing with in the US actually found me on LinkedIn. I tried applying to a couple more roles directly myself but nothing came out of them.

You need to provide something which they don't already have. Perhaps a point of view which US citizens don't have, or a skillset which is rare - obviously they will be investing a lot of resources and taking risks to employ anyone who isn't reasonably local, so you need to prove to them that you are worth the hassle/investment.

Mark_25_UK

companies do not want to know if you dont already have the VISA.

the quickest way to get here from my experience is the L1 Visa or marriage to US Citizen.

elop

depends what you want to do - job sector, expertise.

Obviously KFC isn't going to sponsor anyone to serve fries, but not too many people would move there just to serve fries - if they were they wouldn't get a VISA anyway.

Wibblypig

Exactly!!

We moved out here last Sept for my husband to start work in October on an H1B visa. He found the job by chance through LinkedIn. It's a very specialised job in I.T. that not many people in the world are qualified to his standard so it was pretty straight forward. He didn't meet anyone from his company until his first day of work

Michael

There are 65,000 H1-B visas available annually and prior to the economic collapse, as of April 1 of each year (the first day that applications are accepted), the quota for those visas were oversubscribed by two to three fold.

Over the past couple of years, the same 65,000 H1-B visas were available annually but the quota wasn't filled until late December.

This should tell you something. Prior to the economic collapse, there were plenty of jobs available but not enough Americans with the qualification to fill those jobs so companies searched worldwide for talent to fill the jobs. At that time, it wasn't that difficult for foreigners with a speciality skill set (primarily high tech) to get job offers from American companies but the chance of getting a visa was pretty low since so many companies were applying for those 65,000 visas.

Today, US companies have not returned to the boom period that was previously occurring so they are finding enough local talent. Only after searching the US and not finding the correct talent to fill a job will they even consider hiring someone from abroad. So in today's market, you need to have a speciality talent that very few others have to get a job offer from an American company.

markwm

You'll need to search for businesses that will sponsor a visa and then only if you have a specialist skill that is in short supply. If, for instance, you are in IT, search on dice.com and filter on visa. If you do find anything you may find that they won't be interested unless you are available for interview in the US. You'd have to be prepared to come out and spend some time with no guarantee that it would work out.

You'll need a degree or experience that is the equivalent of a degree and be prepared to get references that detail the work you have been doing going back years. I was able to get refs going back nearly 20 years but it was hard work and quite frustrating.

Good luck.

LillyRobeson

My route was quite different but maybe a possibility depending on your field. I will be going to the US to work for an international organisation. Lots of them have their HQs or offices in the US - UN, UNICEF, World Bank, IMF, UNDP, UNFPA to name but a few. You could perhaps try and find work with them?

Emmas

Hi There,

We worked in the USA in 2008/9 but were transferred back to the UK when the economy went south.

We basically have been looking for ways to get back ever since. My husband has started a new job and there is a great chance of him being transferred to the USA in 6 months time... however it took 2-3 years of looking to find this role.

We registered with lots and lots of international job agencies in the UK and told them that we were looking for a move abroad, preferably to the USA. I think that we were really really lucky.

We also spent a lot of time on linked in connecting with people to see what is out there and who was hiring in our field. We made a trip over to the USA last May to meet up with people face to face, and even had a couple of interviews.

It does take time, and we had accepted the fact that it may never happen, and just when we had given up, something came up.

There are things you can do to help yourself of course these are just a few of the things we did. I hope it helps to at least give you a positive outlook that it can happen even in this economy.

Read up on all the info you can too, I found that helped me greatly; all the stuff on here and the different visa's that are available. It certainly helped me to know where to focus my time/resources too.

Em x

ols-london

Thanks! Thats really useful. I'm a surveyor / construction manager so most of the skills I have are transferable with adjustments for local regulations etc.

I hope things turn out well for you aswell!

Ollie

Jerseygirl

Unfortunately construction in the US has virtually come to a standstill. There are plenty of empty units/buildings just waiting to be occupied.