# Immigrating to usa with engineering degree



## fasthawk (Sep 16, 2011)

Hi everyone

This is my first time posting on this site, so if i break any unwritten rules about posting and what not let me know please.

Anyway to my reason for posting. I am looking to move to the usa from australia and work. From my own research which i conducted a while ago there are two avenues here. The first being you get a temporary visa which cannot be used to immigrate and only lasts for a few years, i think there might even be one specific for australian citizens, the E3 or H1B cant quite remember?

The alternative is a more permanent option of obtaining a visa which after a certain amount of time you can apply for a green card to get permanent residance, or apply for the DV lottery. (sorry i couldnt remember the name of the visa there is so many it gets confusing). 

Now just some background information on myself. I am currently studying chemical engineering at university here in australia, ill be 30 by the time i finish and i also have a wife and young son. Now as far as the engineering degree goes it is accredited in Australia and allows membership into the Engineers Australia organisation which in turn is apart of the washington accord. (for those who do not know what the washington accord is it is basically a group of countries who say engineering degrees are equivalent so a degree earned in one country that is accredited with its governing body is also accredited in another country that is apart of the accord). I also have 4 years work experiance with an engineering design consultancy firm, with an additional 2 years of manufacturing experiance.

So basically i am looking for some guidence and information from some people in the know. Specially what are my chances in applying for a visa to work in the usa, my preferance would be for something more permanent like a green card however it seems to me the only option for this would be the DV lottery. Now i would to bring my family with me so i guess this adds another variable to the problem in i would need a visa in which would qualify for my family to come as well. I think there is a visa that i can get which after having for a few years allows me to apply for a green card however i cant remember which visa this is.

Also wondering would having an engineering degree help at all with immigrating to the usa, and what would potential usa employers be like towards an engineer from overseas. I know some visas require sponsorship through employment to get as well.

So if anyone could give me some guidence on the best possible route for me to take, or if it is even possible that i would be able to obtain a green card etc it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Michael


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

Nothing is impossible.
Your statements about US visas are so convaluted you have me confused. Whatever you have done a couple of years ago - forget it!
Work your way through the stickies at the beginning of the forum. Fairly self explanatory. Then move to Welcome to Travel.State.Gov After that the bible of all US immigrants USCIS Home Page

You basically have a few options:
US employer sponsoring you based on qualifications and need
(a very tight niche and you will be tied to your specific position; but employer may be willing to sponsor Green card)
Non-US employer transfer internally
(limited stay but also the option of employer sponsored Green Card)
Investment
(depends on your spirit and your finances)
Diversity lottery
(a gamble and the winners get an application for a Green Card. Do you have the funds to be able to make the move and live for a year?)


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## fasthawk (Sep 16, 2011)

thanks twostep for your information the internet sites have been very helpful.

i was wondering if anyone could give me insight on employers thoughts on employing an engineer from overseas, would i be met with some resistance because i am Australian and not America etc.

Thanks


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

fasthawk said:


> thanks twostep for your information the internet sites have been very helpful.
> 
> i was wondering if anyone could give me insight on employers thoughts on employing an engineer from overseas, would i be met with some resistance because i am Australian and not America etc.
> 
> Thanks


You should know that the process to get authorization to hire a foreigner over someone already in the US with work permission is pretty onerous. Besides the usual paperwork nightmare, there is a hefty fee (which the employer doesn't get back if the application fails). In essence, the employer has to "prove" that they have tried to hire someone locally for the position and failed, and that the job applicant has some special quality or qualification that is unavailable locally.
Cheers,
Bev


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## stormgal (Sep 30, 2009)

fasthawk said:


> Also wondering would having an engineering degree help at all with immigrating to the usa, and what would potential usa employers be like towards an engineer from overseas. I know some visas require sponsorship through employment to get as well.
> 
> Michael


I think it definitely helps - I know of a few Australian engineers who recently moved here and were sponsored to work in the field of biotechnology. I know this doesn't help much, but just to let you know that it is possible and that the degrees are seen as equivalent.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

fasthawk said:


> thanks twostep for your information the internet sites have been very helpful.
> 
> i was wondering if anyone could give me insight on employers thoughts on employing an engineer from overseas, would i be met with some resistance because i am Australian and not America etc.
> 
> Thanks


What do you mean by resistance?

The answer is fairly simple - what do you bring to the table that would not only convince a US employer that you are the best candidate for the job. And that is not enough. He has to jump through the job sponsoring hoops which are time consuming and not inexpensive. 

You did not go into any details as far as your seven years of experience go.


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## fasthawk (Sep 16, 2011)

thanks for the reply stormgal, it is nice to see it has been done before and some confirmation that the degrees are equivalent it is always good to hear about people who have actually done it, rather than read it is possible.

twostep, to clarify what i meant by resistance i was talking along the lines of what employers are like employing foreigners that are currently living within the usa that have the right to work there. For example i know here in Australia, especially in smaller towns that employers are often cautious of hiring someone from overseas, often because of language barrier that can be encounted, and sometimes the training they have can sometimes not be up to scratch or outdated. An example, When i was working as a fitter/machinist, one of the tradesmen i worked with told me about an Indian that he had previously worked with at a machining company. He said the guy had the same qualifications as everyone here in Australia has, however his methods were really outdated. Now not to say that everyone from a different country is like that, or what i was told was entirely true for all i know the guy i worked with just didn’t like this bloke, but yeah i was wondering if there is a certain mentality like that in the usa if someone gains their qualifications elsewhere. Clearly sponsorship is quite a tough gig especially since the employer will incur a cost to hire a foreign worker and also display they have looked for a local to fill the position, especially with everything that is going on at present with the Global financial crisis. I was talking more along the lines for if i did manage a green card (through the DV lottery or something for arguments sake) and then just started applying for jobs would the getting a job equally as tough.
Twostep as far as my work experience, i worked as a design draftsman for a civil engineering company for 4 years. I did a bit of everything while i was there. It was a consultancy firm which manly dealt with land subdivisions; however we were not limited to this by any means. I was involved in most aspects of the subdivision including some project supervision with the engineers in charge, however my main duties were drafting plans and designing some of the smaller parts of the subdivision (obviously with guidance from the engineers), i also went over and did some work with the surveyors as an assistant, however this was not very often on top of this i guess was also the office *****, doing things like printing, copying plans, trimming them emptying bins the usual stuff when you’re at the bottom. From that i decided i wanted to something a bit more hands on so i started a fitter/machinist apprenticeship. Now im not sure if in the states if there have something similar to this but basically a fitter/machinist is a mechanical engineering tradesmen if you want to make it sound a bit more glorified. I was part of a maintenance team that kept our factory machines running. If something wasn’t working, or had broken we fixed it, if a new part needed to be made for a machine on a lathe, mill surface grinder etc, we made it. I could also write alot about this but i hope the brief description I’ve given would be enough.

I also have a question for any working as an engineer in the states. How did you go with the difference between units, changing from working in metric to imperial.

And also thanks for all the replies I’m finding them all very helpful, and sorry about the long post again i try to keep them short.


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

Without some real experience under your belt it will be very unlikely for a US employer to consider you. We agree on that. Play the diversity lottery. Have your wife do it. Use the official site only and make sure your entries are correct and use new pictures every year. Save monaey like there is no tomorrow. Have your wife work on job skills. Network, network, network. Reach out to each and every professional organization you can find. Join blogs, open profiles on Xing and LinkedIn. Try to get on with an Australian company with subsidiaries in the US. Get a decent resume put together. PM me with it if you want to. You are a couple of posts short. but they will come.
Why do you want to immigrate to the US? What do you know about life here? What do you expect to be better for you and your family? What does your wife have to say about this?


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