A company located in NC wishes to hire me.

I am 25 years old, born and raised in Belgium, I graduated in a management school and have a 4 year experience in the IT field, which is what my job would be in the United States.

I would need to know the exhaustive procedure for the employer and myself to facilitate the process of immigration.

My girlfriend for 4 years is willing to move along. We plan on getting married soon, we want to make sure she would be granted a visa and work permit through marriage. She holds an academic degree in communication sciences.

We would both have $55,000+ to get started and settled in.

This is what I understood so far.. I'm guessing I will apply for a H1B visa.. by default, my spouse would be granted a H4 which would not allow her to work.. this is not an acceptable solution since we plan on moving to work and eventually invest.

I figured out it is sometimes possible for the spouse and children to get an equivalent (H1B) visa ? What is required to be both granted a work visa. If she's not granted the work visa, we won't be moving at all and will have to give up thinking about immigration.

I need some help from you specialists, I'm kind of lost in this immigration maze and vocabulary.

Thanks for any help
Sebastien

I don't think this is the right forum for you. This forum is intended for discussion of family-based visas which wouldn't apply to you since neither you nor your girlfriend are US citizens. I'm not very knowledgeable on H1B visas so I can't comment further, but maybe someone else here can help you.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for your answer..
I was aware this was not really the right forum but there's no work-related section.. I guess someone will be able to help.. I subscribed to many forums and try to get as much info as possible..

It would be wonderful if someone in the same situation stumbled upon my post

Regards

This forum is for family-based applications, so you are kind of in the wrong place, but I know something about H1-B since that was one of our options.

First of all - I'm not sure what you've read, but foreign spouses of H1-B workers are NOT eligible for H1-B through their spouse. (I am assuming your girlfriend is also from Belgium.) Unless she gets sponsored for H1-B from her own employer, she will only be eligible for an H4 visa. She should be aware that she will not be able to work while you are on H1-B, unless she gets H1-B of her own.

There was a very interesting article in the Washington Post last year about foreign spouses of H1-B workers. You may want to read it: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5100201377.html

I'm curious where you read that an H4 spouse can get an H1-B. From everything that I've read, H4 spouses would kill for an H1-B, but it's impossible unless they get it on their own.

As for you getting H1-B. You are in IT, so you would probably qualify. The issue for you right now is time. The H1-B visa has about a six-month window for applications. Applications start being accepted on April 1, and the visas start being handed out on Oct. 1. They are handed out until they are gone. According to our lawyer, in 2005 the last applicant for H1-B who got a visa applied for it around the second week in October. Note that this is probably anecdotal evidence, and as you may have seen on VJ, lawyers aren't always right.

However, it IS well-known that the H1-B visa is extremely competitive and there aren't that many of them made available each year. And unless you apply for it ASAP, there's a chance you might not get it, and you'll have to wait until next October. If you apply for it now, you will be able to work starting in October (no earlier, unfortunately). If you do not make it in this year, you will have to wait until October 2007.

I hope I don't sound too down on H1-B or discouraging about your chances...this can be a really great visa (a friend of my husband's came here on it and now has his green card), but also very difficult, especially if you have a foreign spouse. There are a lot of complications that can arise with H1-B and it's best to be prepared!

Let me know if you have any other questions, I might be able to help (my husband was very close to doing H1-B and we examined the process very closely).

Thanks for your response !!

It is definitely helpful and clear.. it'll be hard making it

I've read again the site and I figured out they were not mentionning what kind of H visa the spouse would get.. it was only specified she would get a H something visa

Thanks again

Admin can lock down this misplaced topic