Hackathons/Coding Competitions are not the best way to "get noticed." The best way is to actually make something meaningful and then get that in front of someo

Hackathons/Coding Competitions are not the best way to "get noticed." The best way is to actually make something meaningful and then get that in front of someone with hiring authority. You will have to work for that second part of the equation -- it doesn't happen automatically. Six months is certainly enough time to do it but every day you should expect to build stuff and show it to people. Startups (typically) won't be super-receptive to providing relocation assistance packages or dealing with getting you a work-capable visa in the US. The larger tech companies have more experience with these. (Incidentally, many of them have Indian branches and it may be easier to an internal lateral transfer than being hired from where you are.) Incidentally: there exist at least a few Indian product companies which would actually be good to work for, like Visual Website Optimizer.