SN1885DN04

Guys,

I am a 27 year old male currently living and working in the UK. For the past 5 years i have been looking into the possibility of trying to move to the USA.

I currently work for a Major oil and gas exploration company who has a lot of offices / employees in the US. I have worked with this company for 7 years gaining experience in mechanical maintenance, production operating and also control room operating. I am also currently studying towards a bachelors degree in engineering. I have attempted to contact fellow employees who are currently working in the USA but so far none have been able to help me.

I have tried applying for jobs and speaking to immigration experts but have had no luck. I am unsure if anyone will be able to offer me any advice but any help would be very much appreciated.

I am not willing to give up on my dream just yet.

Regards

Scott

penguinsix

Are you working directly for the oil company or a subcontractor? You might be eligible for a transfer to their US offices which would probably be the easiest.

SN1885DN04

Hi penguinsix. Yes i work directly for the oil company. I have contacted fellow employees who are US citizens and they all have said that i will require to work my way up in the company before a move like that could take place.

That is why i am currently educating myself and working towards a degree. I am hoping to complete this within 6 years but to be honest i was looking for a way to immigrate a bit quicker than that.

Thanks for your post and help.

Bob

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Pulask...ork_in_the_USA

Best bet is a company transfer for a L1 visa.

If the company isn't interested, then that's pretty much end of the road for now, until you work yourself into a position where they would be interested, or cut your losses and find another company with a presence in the US and repeat.

The degree will be of help with a H1B, but won't make much difference to a L1...and if you've already got 7 years experience, by the time you get the degree, you'd be able to use the experience in lieu anyway. Still worth getting though.

Good luck and welcome to BE...plenty of folks in the O&G field, mostly posting in the Houston threads

SN1885DN04

Hi Bob.

That is pretty much the conclusion i have come to regarding possibly swapping companies. I just cannot beleive how difficult a task this is. I wasnt naive enough to think it would be easy but at the moment it is seeming to be impossible.

Like i said in my first post i am not willing to give up just yet.

Thanks for your help very much appreciated.

LinkTen

A 'quick' way there if you have funds would be to study your degree full-time at a US university. It'll take 4 years however, and there are strict rules about working while a student (I believe it's only on campus, part time, after a year).

If the immigration reform goes ahead and Obama has his way, you'll be issued a green card at the end of your degree if you find an employer. If not, you'll have to find a H-1B sponsor to stay in the US, or another visa that you fall into.

Alternatively, keep at your job, and in another 5 years, you can apply for jobs in the US with the hope of getting a H-1B sponsor.

Weeze

I'll point Mr Weeze in this direction later. Otherwise, I'm sure one of the other oil folks will be here soon.

SN1885DN04

Hi Linkten,

Unfortunately moving to the US to study is not really an option for ma at this moment in time due to my personal situation.

I have attempted numerous times to apply for jobs in the USA but i do not even get the chance to send my CV as i am not a US citizen. At the moment i just feel like this is never going to happen no matter what i try. I will continue to battle on and am not willing to give up so easy.

Weeze Houston texas is one of my desired locations and i know there is a lot of oil and gas locations in the area. I was hoping to gain contacts through the forum that may possibly be able to help. Here's hoping.

Thanks again for all the help. I just really hope that this can one day happen for me.

henryh

Instead of talking to fellow colleagues who are already in the US, have you tried talking to your existing boss in the UK and explaining that transferring to the US is a long-term goal of yours, and what can he/she suggest to help you achieve the transfer?

jeffreyhy

Linked In would be a better bet.

Regards, JEff

SN1885DN04

Hi HenryH,

Yes i have spoken to my existing boss and to be honest he hasn't been much help. He basically told me that i would have to work my way up the compant ladder to achieve somthing like this and said that this could not be achieved in the short term.

For this reason i have taken it upon myself to try and gain contacts to try and quicken this process up. Like i said in my original post I am currently doing all i can to gain more qualifications and make myself more valuable to the company and hopefully somthing will happen for me.

I am just hoping there will be a solution that will help me make the move sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the advice.

Mr Weeze

I work in oil and gas - I assume you are a CCRO?

Long and the short of it is that the company likely won't be looking to move you to the USA as an offshore operator. The GOM is increasingly moving to subsea too.

Areas that are MASSIVE for USA recruitment now are onshore jobs, and that would be in the supervision side.

I don't see an instant route. What I would recommend is to consider some of the following:

Other areas of operation in the world with your company - I can't think of a major that doesn't have an operation in the "hard to staff" areas of the world. These places need people, and they are always looking to transfer from either North Sea or the Gulf. Go there with a view to a supervision role. At that point you can then look to move to some sort of more shore/office-based role.

Look for either a supervision or a planning role on your current facility. You have to get the supervision experience before you even have a chance to be honest. Look for onshore co-ordination roles - think maybe an onshore liason role with a major project, or a turnaround.

Both of the above are realistically a 10 year plan. You have to have that unique operational knowledge to make this viable.

The engineering degree is a great move - what degree (I'm guessing Mechanical)? Will you be able to move to an onshore engineering support role? At that point, assuming you perform well, you're a decent shout for a transfer. The criteria for transfer differ between companies. The likes of BP & Shell will use a USA transfer for experience of international operations. A USA major will use it with a view to moving the person potentially permanently.

Moving to an onshore engineering role with a BEng could be a 3-5 year plan. You would offer a lot with your operational knowledge, and you would likely have to have 2 different onshore positions before you would be able to make the internal case for a transfer. I would look very favourably on someone with the offshore ops knowledge and having proved themselves past green engineer - a step you would realistically skip.

You may want to consider taking a year out of work following you BEng and doing a Petroleum Engineering Masters (Edinburgh or Imperial). At that point you would offer a pretty unique combination of experience.

Your best option is still to do it with your existing company though. I've looked at bringing in external candidates before, but at that point I'm wanting 20+ years in order to take the risk.

SN1885DN04

Mr Weeze,

First of all i would like to thank you very much for all of the information you have provided.

I am currently working as Control room operator/Production operator (with experience in mechanical maintenance) at an onshore gas refinery in Scotland. All of my oil and gas experience is based at an Onshore gas refinery and also a ship loading terminal. I am currently employed by Shell. I am working towards a bachelor's degree in engineering and will be looking to progress into the rotating equipment, static equipment or reliability engineering field.

I have been i contact with Shell employees from the USA and they have basically said exactly the same as yourself that as a production operator/ CRO that i will have no chance transferring through Shell.

I was just hoping that there may be a shorter term solution to allow me to make the move sooner rather than later. My estimated time to complete my degree is around 4 years so it is a long time to wait ( and that is not even including any experience required within an engineering role ).

Thanks again for all the information and if you have any other advice i would appreciate it very much.

Regards

Scott

Mr Weeze

No problem. Well I've never worked for Shell, but with what I know from other companies it's going to be the same.

The onshore experience may actually be more valuable in the USA - I don't know offhand what acreage Shell have taken in the domestic onshore unconventional plays, but I would be shocked if they don't have one. And operational reliability is going to be a huge thing with that. The Canadian oilsands project at Athabasca is a huge onshore operation for reliability too. I could see someone with little "engineering" time getting into that as a junior engineer on a transfer given all the other experience you have - I would much rather have someone like yourself as my junior engineer than someone with 2 years experience.

I'm guessing looking for an offshore role would mess with your studies, but you would be able to build up a bigger set of experiences.

Honestly, with what you've described, you're doing all the right things. If that's too long you can always try the specific oil and gas recruitment agencies, but I would be shocked if they found you anything other than Middle East or Africa work.

Or there is always match.com, at which point you could go work in the field once you're hitched to a yank. But I really recommend the former solution.

SN1885DN04

Ha ha i like your idea with match.com but im sure my other half at the moment would not be too impressed with that. Thanks again for all the information you have provided. I am going to continue building my experinces up and hopefully will get across the pond one day.

One last question could you recommend any good oil and gas recruitment agencies?

Thanks again.