3 ms·

I'm not an expert, but I have spent the last 5 years trying to help a friend get an H1B. He was able to get a student visa and earn his undergrand and master's

I'm not an expert, but I have spent the last 5 years trying to help a friend get an H1B. He was able to get a student visa and earn his undergrand and master's engineering degrees in the U.S. But he graduated as the economy fell and couldn't get a job for the life of him. From what he's told me, it's near impossible unless you have an inside connection with someone at a very big company such as Intel. The cost is roughly 30-40k to get an H1B and the competition is so tough, you better have your PhD and a 4.0 GPA to be competitive. One caveat is that a company has to show that they couldn't simply hire someone from the U.S. and that in order to get the skillset they need from someone, they needed to get it overseas. This is tough, especially for a startup. Again, I'm not expert, but from close experience with a good friend (who is now stuck back in Venezula btw) it's tough as hell :(

h1throwaway 16y ago
can you elaborate the 30-40k little bit. From what i know fees including premium processing are less than 3k and if you include 2k for attorney thats 5k.
- bdclimber14 16y ago
  I wish I could, but from what I've been told the company usually pays around that to get an H1B... :/
  - d__space 16y ago
    Um, no they don't. I am in the Bay Area with a startup on an H1B, and the fee for filing my application with the USCIS was close to $500. Expedited processing costs another $1000.
deskamess 16y ago
With lawyer fees and immigration fees, the application itself would come to about 5K. Your salary would need to be equal to or greater than what the Department Of Labor says is the average for your job title in your workplace location. The bigger issue for a startup will be showing proof of revenue via tax returns, etc, and answering questions about viable US candidates. I am not sure if seed funding will be acceptable as proof of revenue - those type of questions are best answered by an immigration lawyer.

h1throwaway 16y ago

can you elaborate the 30-40k little bit. From what i know fees including premium processing are less than 3k and if you include 2k for attorney thats 5k.

bdclimber14 16y ago
I wish I could, but from what I've been told the company usually pays around that to get an H1B... :/
- d__space 16y ago
  Um, no they don't. I am in the Bay Area with a startup on an H1B, and the fee for filing my application with the USCIS was close to $500. Expedited processing costs another $1000.

deskamess 16y ago

With lawyer fees and immigration fees, the application itself would come to about 5K. Your salary would need to be equal to or greater than what the Department Of Labor says is the average for your job title in your workplace location. The bigger issue for a startup will be showing proof of revenue via tax returns, etc, and answering questions about viable US candidates. I am not sure if seed funding will be acceptable as proof of revenue - those type of questions are best answered by an immigration lawyer.