Ask HN: Chances of immigrating to the US through a multinational company?

[Dejobism]

I live in France and will be visiting NYC and SF soon. On paper, these cities look like where I would really like to live. The tech scene is very interesting to me especially; I know Paris and don't want to live there long-term.

How are my chances of working for e.g. FAANG in Europe, then getting into the US on an L1 (?) visa, and then getting permanent residency then citizenship? What would the process and timeline look like? If anyone did this, I would be even more interested.

I ask because I read everywhere that the H1B lottery is a complete mess right now, and I don't feel confident taking my chances for 12% per year 3 times, even with a sponsor.

I work in AI (deep learning and related) and have some published co-authored papers, if that matters. I would probably aim for a research engineer or ML engineer position right now.

Thanks!

[kjellsbells]

First, not a lawyer. But you basically have a few paths. L1A or L1B, O visa. L1, you can work for your FrenchCo (eg, you get a job at Mistral) in France for a few years, then get transferred to the US to work for the US arm of the same FrenchCo.

Going from L1 to a greencard takes several years and is much easier if you come in on the management L1 rather than the specialist knowledge L1.

If you are a 'known' researcher, you might also be able to get here on an O visa which is for extraordinary talent. This is the visa that actors use to move to Hollywood for example, so the bar isn't as high as say needing a Nobel prize. But you need to show that you are well known in your field, eg press articles about you, papers, journals etc.

Another path might be to immigrate to Quebec, which IIRC controls its own immigration and would be especially interested in a French speaker with AI skills. Once you have Canadian residency you can dip back and forth to the US easily. I guess you could probably even get a TN visa to stay longer in the US.

All of this stuff takes years by the way. You gotta figure out if the glow of the NY tech scene will last the decade that it might take to achieve legal permanent status in the US. My journey from L1 to greencard took nearly ten years.

[Dejobism]

Thanks a lot! Questions:

- how soon did you get into the US during your journey? Was it a couple years in Europe, then immediately L1, then waiting 8 years for a green card? More like starting a job and moving 5 years later?

- do you expect the situation to change in the next couple years? the new election, current criticism of the H1B, apparently overdue reform of immigration due to border issues (?); I read that the Trump admin changed the H1B rules which made them closer to a lottery, maybe the process could change again?

- does Canadian _residency_ give you better chances of US job visas/residency? Do you need citizenship? I would be okay with staying a few years there if I find good jobs (or remote US jobs!)

- why is it harder to get a green card from the technical L1? how much harder? that's probably what I would be going for, unless I can find a job that includes both

- assuming that I manage to get respected in a field, but maybe not world-class researcher, does this help? in making companies more willing to sponsor me maybe? (I can probably co-publish more and get references if that's all it takes)

[kjellsbells]

Difficult to answer all these without a wall of text that will bore the other readers. DM me on LinkedIn? Address in HN bio.

[seabass-labrax]

This specific question isn't relevant to me, but please do be liberal with the walls of text. I can't count the number of times that I've found a thread through HN's search that is far more helpful than anything on the top pages of Google. Space online is cheap, and there's surely no better place for educational walls of text than here.

Plus, I am clearly not the only one who feels this way! https://xkcd.com/979/

[Dejobism]

Thank you, will do!

[kjellsbells]

Obligatory disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.

5 years in Europe (UK) for the same employer, then posted to the US subsidiary on a L visa. Couple of years on that, then adjustment of status to a green card. All told, about seven years in the US before a green card.

I don't expect the situation to change because of the election. Specifically because European countries are not the Central American nor Asian countries that give politicians pause. If you wanted to immigrate from India or Mexico, you would have an incredibly hard time no matter who is the next president.

If your aim is to get to North America and leave Europe: then Canada, and specifically Quebec for French speakers, may be an attractive option. The Canadians are going through their own wrangling about the effects of immigration on their society however. So I expect things to get harder. But Quebec is generally very keen on educated European French coming over. Again you might be looking at several years to complete the process.

If your aim is NYC/SF or bust, then going via Canada is an option, but it's not an especially great one, because while you are doing all this stuff with moving and visas and housing etc, the clock is ticking. You might be talking 10-15 years from departing CDG to holding a US green card.

L1 is an interesting visa class because the management version L-1A doesn't (or didn't: IANAL) require your employer to prove to the US authorities that no US national exists to do your job (aka "labor certification"). The specialist knowledge L-1B does. And it is not an easy thing to prove. I strongly suggest that you spend time working at your European employer in a well-documented management capacity before filing for L-1A prior to your posting to the US. You can mutate L-1B into L-1A, but it is very hard.

Re: O visa, there are no guarantees or hard rules of what the US authorities will accept, but more evidence, from peers in your industry, helps. If you think about someone like Mustafa Suleyman, he didn't go the PhD and academic prizes/paper route, but I guarantee that Google/MSFT's lawyers could easily get him an O visa based on his position in the industry. That said, O visas are commonly used for academics that get poached from Europe by deep-pocketed US universities.

This page: https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/options-f... is a helpful summary.

[oumua_don17]

I work for a FAANG in London and we have cross geo teams in US (California mainly, some in WA). Anyone interested in relocating to the US teams needs to work for at least a year in the UK office before they are eligible to move to US on L1B if engineer or L1A if management role.

More often than not chances of moving to US after working at a FAANG in Europe should be possible unless your company doesn't support relocations; it's better to be upfront in the interviewing stage if you want to do that.

I have never aimed for PR in US so can't speak to that; I may want to move to California only for the weather and the higher salary but my wife likes the UK weather ;-)

[Dejobism]

Very interesting, thanks.

> I work for a FAANG in London and we have cross geo teams in US (California mainly, some in WA). Anyone interested in relocating to the US teams needs to work for at least a year in the UK office before they are eligible to move to US on L1B if engineer or L1A if management role.

Is there selection in your case? Do you need to be some level of indispensable for your team, or have a very good track record already to be considered? Or is it something more relaxed where you get to move if you're considered good and hard-working?

> More often than not chances of moving to US after working at a FAANG in Europe should be possible unless your company doesn't support relocations; it's better to be upfront in the interviewing stage if you want to do that.

I am guessing that there is a tactical way to do that without telling them that I just want the job for the relocation opportunities?

Because working at a FAANG would be great for me, I'm interested in the job, but I also really care about the relocation. Not sure how to say this.

[oumua_don17]

>> Is there selection in your case? Do you need to be some level of indispensable for your team ...

Nothing of the sort really, at least in the teams/org I work in. As long as you are performing to expectations i.e good and hardworking as you put it, it's just a matter of letting your manager know and the rest is taken care of.

>> I am guessing that there is a tactical way to do that without telling them that

You can always ask during the interview stage about relocation opportunities, how these are handled and how easy/hard it is to relocate. More often than not, the manager/HR will be transparent about it. If the manager/HR is curious as to why, you can always say that you would like to experience working in the US; nothing wrong in that.

[Dejobism]

That's really encouraging, thanks a lot.

[katzinsky]

I think you should really ask why you want to be here. The "tech scene" is really all online. I've lived in "tech hubs" and it's not what it looks like from the outside.

Unless you plan on being homeless (which is complicated and very hard even if you're not an immigrant, I know from experience) the high salaries are not going to make up for the high cost of living (especially in SF or NYC) and that would be assuming you had a professional job here (which you don't otherwise you'd have a visa.)

If you're just looking for urban culture there's nothing the US has that France doesn't other than a lot of stuff that's been on television. Maybe take a vacation to Marseille. I always wanted to go there when I was a teenager.

[Dejobism]

Also would like to know how I should present this to the local company. Can I tell them "I want to work for you but I'm aiming to get US residency", and ask them if they would commit to that? Or do I need to work for a year or two and _then_ ask for it?