[lhl]

Terminal degrees are pretty overrated if your goal is to build products or even to learn to develop/become a technical badass.

While getting credentials is a tried and true path for getting a visa, it's still dependent on getting a job offer - certainly in the US, most startups would rather look for exceptional ability/experience over a degree.

If you're really motivated, it's fairly easy to draw up a list of skills that you want to gain/learn focused on development. Then like b6 suggests, participate in some community projects that you are interested and start building up a strong public Github presence/history. If you were willing to dedicate 10yrs to get a PhD and spent that time on this type of personal development path, I think you would be much better off if you're goal is in skills acquisition/actually making stuff. Of course, this depends strongly on your internal drive/discipline and perhaps a bit on your penchant for autodidactism (personally, I think those are acquired skills, but they're rather foundational/catch-22 ones).

In the meantime you should be able to use elance/odesk to gain contracting experience/pay the bills once you're functional.

As you level up, you'll get a better idea of what exactly you want to do and get a better perspective on things.