Your best bet for getting hired to work in the U.S. right now is to try to get a job with a British firm that does IT workin the U.S. or needs someone for IT in the U.S. I’d say your chances are pretty slim getting hired by a U.S. company. However, you might get an IT job with an outsourcing firm, if you move to Malaysia!
Robin
Robin is right. I just wanted to add, before people hate me even more, that i never planned it this way, it just happened. It really used to be a lot more computer programming jobs here than people to fill them, until 2 things happened: the colleges started churning out programmers, and the recession hit. It’s more complex than that, but in short, the IT revolution is over. Now we’re fighting to keep the jobs here… a lot of programming jobs are going away to India and other countries (another fascinating and ironic thing, but too complicated to explain in this post).
Right now may not be the best time to come to the US, unless you’re in a field where they really need people. Medicine, maybe. Mostly people will see you as competition, the government sees you as a threat, and the whole situation of the country right now is not very pleasant. This current government changed a lof of stuff, not all of it for the good. There’s a lot more fear and paranoia than there used to be, the whole legal situation is uncertain, and the mood is dark. It should get better, in 5 years or so.
But if you really want to come live in the USA now, you need to get yourself hired by an American company, or by some foreign company that has offices in the US. This is the most important part of the battle.
Hi Marko,
Sorry this is so long…
I’m a US citizen and my husband is from Scotland. He emmigrated to the US on an H1B because spousal sponsorship is very slow these days. He is in IT but he has a great deal of experienve and training in IT security. This is apparently one area of IT that still is lacking here in the US.
He used a headhunter from the US to find his position (she will not likely do it again…big headache for her) and his company (big insurance company) held the position for him for the long 9 months it took for the H1B to be approved.
We had moved from the UK to the US expecting that the paperwork would be done within 6 months (according to INS) but the long delay caused him to be in the US beyond the allowed 90 days - this made him an illegal alien. In order to legally get his H1B visa we had to fly back to London, submit the paperwork and wait. There was no guarantee that it would go through but we got it after a nerve racking 14 days and several thousand dollars traveling and lodging fees.
With an H1B you get 3 years and the company can only request 2 consecutive H1Bs per person at least as of last December. My husband is on his second H1B and we are still going through the spousal sponsorship. We had a major problem with our first immigration attorney which caused a huge delay so we had to start all over again. Once the paperwork is received by INS and approved, it is now taking an average of 14 months to get an immigration interview where they decide if you can stay.
If married to a US citizen for less than 2 years, you get a temporary Green Card (Permanant Resident Status) and you have to re-interview. After 2 years of marriage you get a green card good for 10 years.
I would not attempt immigrating to the US without an immigration attorney specializing in US immigration. If you need one, I have a pretty good one in Connecticut. The average cost of using an attorney is $2000 and the filing fees have cost us about $700 so far - the fees just went up $50 a form.
So no, the process is not easy - one of the most stressful things we’ve ever encountered. But for family reasons, it’s been worth it. However, if you’re looking at higher wages, we’ve worked it out that although my husband is making approximately $20,000 more in his job, the additional “hidden” taxes pretty much eat that difference up. Car insurance is very high here; college tuition for our teenage daughter will cost us $50,000-$150,000; housing prices are very high (better in the South Eastern US but rising); health insurance is outrageous; and you get a lot less time off for holiday (2 to 4 weeks max!); you’ll need a car unless you’re in a big city - very poor public transportation compared to UK (but the driving test for your license is A LOT easier here).
PROS - Better weather; better food; BIG country to explore; crazy americans; cheaper clothing; cheaper food; vastly diverse terrain and climates to choose from; vastly diverse people from corner to corner with lots of wacky american accents; cheaper gas even now; a lot of nice people…AND the home of Chiff & Fipple and our beloved leader, Dale.
We are still waiting for our immigration interview date. 
Anyday now…
If you have any questions, feel free to PM and I’ll do my best to answer.
Peace,
Fran
PS - The US used to have a lottery for UK citizens to get Green Card. I don’t know if they still do. You might want to check into that. I have a couple of friends who came her that way several years ago.
Hmm. I can’t actually speak for US policies (since I have a US passport) but it’s ridiculously easy to get a work permit in Canada. I work in Toronto with folks from the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Bahrain, Lebanon, Israel, New Zealand, Australia . . . none of us had any trouble. Oh, except for the Israeli; she had like non-certified non-official phony translations of all her documents. So it took her a while, but the rest of us had no trouble.
That said, two of these folks have spouses/sig-others in the IT business. They’ve both told me that it is impossible to get a good IT job here in Ontario. That may be different for other parts of Canada (there may very well be more IT stuff in Vancouver, for example), but in this province . . . whooooo. One of the guys is temping and he staples paper. The other found a really entry-level Microsoft job answering helpline calls (shoot me now). One of these guys has an Irish passport like you, the other a UK passport, and neither of them had trouble getting work visas.
Canada’s border is quite loose, in other words, but the job situation here isn’t wonderful for IT.
I hope that helps. I don’t mean to be Mr. Negativo.
Stuart
Hello:
I think the situation to find an IT job in the US is rotten althouth things seems to be turning for the better. As a lot of people have said, you’re better off being hired by a company in Europe with offices in the US or Canada and move. If you really want to move, do not get discouraged, it can be done, a lot of people have done it, but just be prepared for the long road ahead.
Even though IT jobs have slowed down, things have started to upswing and hopefully will be better for '05, so if you do not mind getting more experience and waiting a bit, you might have a better chance of find a an IT job. i cannot speak for Canada, but currently the hot areas are either education (Teaching), Government, and Health (There are shortages of nurses all over the US).
Good Luck!
Luis
(US Citizen since 1917)
I’m working for an Indian outsourcing firm at the moment! i wanted them to send me back to India but no luck, they want me to work in Dublin instead (which im fairly keen not to do).
Thanks for all the advice, I’ll now know not to expect a job in IT if we move to the States. With my level of experience (practically none) i’d be hard pushed to get a job over here, let alone somewhere i’d need a work permit for. Thats the reason im in the UK in the first place, couldnt find a graduate IT job at home.