Last year around this time, I met a lot of people who had worked in the US for some period of time. Speaking to them and knowing their experiences, I also wanted to work there. Now, the advantages/disadvantages of working in the US as a software developer is a different topic of discussion altogether. What seemed overwhelming to me in the beginning is the amount of information and uncertainty that came along my way during the visa process.
In the beginning it seems quite a daunting task as a newbie, when you hear that you can only work in the US if your visa is sponsored by a company. Besides, you need to file a H1B petition in time, otherwise the slots are filled up. There are only 65000 slots every year for H1B employees. So, lot of information, lot of planning required. It drives you crazy. You dont know where to start, what to do and how the whole process will go about.
Things got a little more complex as I was already working. So, in such cases there might come a point when you dont yet have your visa and probably you need to resign with your current firm so that you can join your US company on time, once you get the visa. There were lots of such open ended questions. I think I got lucky at times. I never knew about the 65,000 cap when I applied. I came to know about it when the cap was filled. I have friends who worked equally hard to crack the interviews and couldn't make it because of the visa cap. So having seen all this and having been through the process, I feel that this process can be planned much better, albeit with more information.
This series of posts is going to be directed in that direction. I will document all the steps that I feel should be taken to get a job in the US (right from the interviews) and to successfully convert the visa interviews.
