thanghuu wrote:
Thanks Morgan15 & Wilch.
There's actually a special US visa class for Australian called E3 visa, so I don't have to go through the H1B process. A friend of mine on E3 (sponsored by Amazon) told me that it took him only 2 weeks to obtain, and there's no queue since the visa cap is way higher than the number of applicants.
From what I've gathered, it is more difficult to get UK work visa in the UK than the US E3 visa.
One caveat. I'm Canadian and we have a similar visa. Unfortunately, recruiters in the US are not very good at making distinctions between Canadians/Australians and the rest of the non-citizens. Facebook, for example, does not hire internationals for their MBA roles currently & made it plenty clear to me that you're either American or you're ineligible. I ran into a small handful of recruiters that wanted to interview me but rescinded the interviews because I'm not American. I explained to them about the Canadian TN visa and received no response.
The two perks of having access to these other visas are that (1) if a company hires you and you draw the short straw in the H1B lottery, you have a backup plan and (2) if you know the hiring manager and s/he likes you, they can talk to HR for you and find workarounds.
With that said, I felt like there are plenty enough companies/roles out there that doesn't require citizenship that this shouldn't be an issue. Also, if you're gunning for consulting, it wouldn't matter where you're from. If you're qualified, you'll get hired.