Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dennybritz 3929 days ago
To add to that, even if a company is willing to sponsor a H1B visa there's no guarantee that would actually get one. It's lottery because there are too many applications. Without an advanced degree the chances are 40-50% I believe.

I agree that going to university in the US is easiest way, but it's also quite expensive. And there's no guarantee that you would get a visa after that. In fact, many of my friends were forced to go back to their country after finishing their full degree in the US because they couldn't get an H1B, and that includes those who went to highly-ranked universities.

IMO your best chance (besides marriage) may be to 1. Get an advanced degree and 2. Build a highly valuable skillset that US companies are looking for. App/Web development is great, but there are many people who can do that and you'd need to be extraordinary for any startup to go through the trouble of sponsoring an H1B. On the other side of this are PhDs who solve hard problems at big companies. These are more likely to get a visa (in fact, the US is very good at taking away all the best researchers from other countries ;))

1 comments

The chance without advanced degree is actually about 25% (it has been decreasing every year).