9 years ago from Josh Tregenza, Designer
Hi All,
I'm currently a Designer based in Brisbane, Australia.
I'm working my way to getting myself to America, in particular Chicago. I thought I would ask the DN community about tips on find work in America, especially with the hurdle that I will need to get a job before leaving Australia to be able to live and work properly in America (Lots of visa necessities).
Any help would be great
Thanks in advance
Consider taking a vacation first and visit several US cities. Stay in hostels. Go to meetups. Network. Interview at a bunch of companies.
+1 to this. There is a huge diversity in culture that different U.S. cities provide, more so than I've experienced in other countries. You may find something that you didn't know you love.
I've found that the best approach to finding work is to be genuinely social without any ulterior motive. Email people with real questions or genuine compliments for their work. Those connections have lead to real friendships for me in the past, and in some cases real work as well.
A job hunting/networking vacation is definitely on the cards.
Hi Josh, I work at a midwestern startup that has sponsored visas for non-citizen employees in the past. Send me an email (sam@farmlogs.com) if you want to chat--we're looking for great designers to help us invent the data-driven future of agriculture.
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Josh — Research the E3 visa, make an exploratary trip over, meet a lot of people in a lot of places.
Join the so called "Green Card Lottery".
The US issues 50k Green Cards every year for diversity reasons. The chances you win are relatively small (like 0.5%) but the work involved is really low (just filling in one online form). At the same time you can go for other visas. Doesn't hurt to bet on two horses. The only website you have to keep an eye on is the below one, don't get involved in order scammy websites (don't trust anything not a .gov site around this matter):
Do you have a college degree?
I dropped out of college in Brisbane. Getting into America was a nightmare at first, until they gave me an O-1 Visa about 4 years ago.
I got one of those before they became the 'startup visa'.
I live in NYC.
I'm in a similar boat as you were, Pasquale. I do not have a college degree. Have been working as a designer for 3 years as a freelancer and in-house designer.
You might find these two articles useful.
I'd start to research H1B and L-1 visas, as you'll undoubtedly have to come up against one of these. Good luck!
L-1's are only for intracompany transfers. He needs to have a job at a company in Australia that wants to transfer him to a US based location.
Assuming he is Australian, the possibilities of getting a working visa are way easier (E3)
The e3 is definitely the visa that is easiest to get as an Australian
Here's a short response which should give you something to base your own research on.
There are two components (assuming that you will get a job offer before you move):
Finding an employer that is willing to bring you over - thus being unable to easily find talent locally.
Convincing the US government that you are special enough to get a visa.
I'll focus on item 2.
The main visas are H-1B and the O-1, the former is easier to get but can take a long time and only a patient employer would go for this one. The latter is much harder to get but it usually processed fast.
Either way you need to build a case and a paper trail of verifiable achievements such as working on successful products and getting recognition/awards for it.
You would need people of reputation to support your application in writing.
You would need to be able to point to online or print articles, featuring you and your work,
Being a published author or being invited to present your work at relevant conferences is also useful.
There may be other routes - but I jumped through the hoops above to get an O-1 Visa.
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