[tsk1979]

Try L-1
You get Per/DM of around 50$ + house + Car (Most MNCs do this)
You get your salary in India.
50$ a day with house and car provided can give you a life of luxury in the US. Food is cheeeep.
Your salary in India is almost entire savings.
So you come back to india with lots of savings even if you don't save anything from your daily allowance.

If you want H1... Well it depends on what you do. Are you a SAP guy? If so its easy. I know quite a few people in bodyshopping business.
You will make a lot of money(50-60$/hour) out of which your sponsor will take around 10-15% rest is all yours.
If you are a good experienced guy you can take home(pre tax) around 120K, but many people take home 40-50K(Pre tax) and frankly speaking, are paupers are compared to the living standards we guys enjoy in India.

L-1 also has another advantage
1. If you go on L-1A you can apply for green card in a year(you need to be a manager for that)
2. Your wife can get a L2 in 2-3 months time and work there. So thats additional 15$ minimum income/hour apart from your Per-DM

She can also study on L-2 visa.

[rev_hard]

[quote=Samurai;537563]Didn't the H1-B quota run out in few hours this year? [quote=Samurai;537563]

absolutely. my case was randomly chosen through draw .

Originally Posted by Samurai

Rev_hard, congrats on your approval. Must be an exciting time for you. Do you have an interview date yet, or your company has business express approval? I didn't have much time to think during my first time, I was told on Friday that my H1 was approved, Monday I left for Chennai, Tuesday morning had my interview, same night left for US.

that was one quick decision i must say. lol. thanks by the way. i am excited but nerves are on fire! counting too many sheep these days.. interview is this week itself. towards the latter half. is there anything you could share from your experience perhaps. i've been to australia on student visa for 2 years. melbourne was a unique place and experience .

i'm hoping miami is half as nice. not kidding.

may i pm some q's? pretty please.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by Samurai

So what, with access to army of lawyers anything is possible.

Yup, I was probably referring to long term direction US might be looking at.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by rev_hard

that was one quick decision i must say. lol.

I don't deserve any credit, that's how TCS taskmasters ran the process.

Originally Posted by rev_hard

interview is this week itself. towards the latter half. is there anything you could share from your experience perhaps.
...
may i pm some q's? pretty please.

You can but my interview experience of H1/L1 was between 93-2001, all before 9/11. After that only B1 interviews, which was always a breeze.

You can get more current/relevant answers from recent attendees.

[tsk1979]

L-1 interview is similar to H1 interviews. The only thing is since the paperwork is done, its a formality in most cases.
But still you have to convince the guy that you are an "expert".
For example a girl in front of me and my wife just said "I am a software engineer" and blanked out. Her L-1 got rejected which is an extremely rare thing.
So say something. Talk about some technology and throw in a couple of tech words. For example I am a SAP deployment expert.
Do not say "I am a software engineer"

Its quite easy. Imagine if you were going to israel. They will get someone from your domain and that guy will interview you to assess that you are an expert and really needed. Imaging a technical interview for a visa

[mithun]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Most body-shoppers are cheats! I burned my fingers badly around 9 years ago.
I suggest you go the IT company route, even if it takes longer

Actually Body-Shopping is the old form of the slavery in a new avatar !

[extreme_torque]

Question to IT guys....

I am a c/c++, pl/sql and unix scripting guy. I want to move into SAP domain, what would be the best way to go about it considering I already have 2 years of IT experience and I have never worked in SAP.

[kuttapan]

Get SAP certified, if you have the MOOLAH.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by greatDrive

I have not heard good things about bodyshoppers, It will be helpful if people around here can write about consutants to aviod and names which have good reputaions in this bussiness.

guy help him with some consultant company names please, thats what he is asking for !!

Good one:

Black list / Avoid list:

Sorry bro though iam per say in The "IT" industry not very helpful with onsite info

[tsk1979]

Most people who did not get a good deal did not read the contract.
Its not 500 pages, its usually 3-4 pages.
They jump thinking 60$/hour wooot, but they forget to read the fine print, "Due to expenses in filing for your green card, H1B etc., and training, for 2 years after the 3 months training period you will be getting a salary of 40K/year and not the billing amount. For first three months you will be given an apartment and a stipend of 750$ a month".
I know people who are willing to do just anything , sign anywhere just to get to the "promised land". So I would not call the body shoppers cheats, I would call such people "stupid".
Read your contract fellows, whether its a domestic job or foreign.
If you don't like the contract negotiate.
If you can negotiate with the salary, you can negotiate on other things too.
Also do not apply for a job where you are just one of the crowd. If you are good, have experience, these "body shoppers" are willing to make changes in contract.
You have to be innovative to survive.

[rev_hard]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

guy help him with some consultant company names please, thats what he is asking for !!

yup, thats what i asked in the first place

Originally Posted by tsk1979

You have to be innovative to survive.

Thanks, thats the plan atleast uptil now.

I see you are already in California. wow. i'm no tech guy, just that i did my mba from an american university. didnt work immediately after post-grad. now i have been given another chance. i've met a couple of guys who claim they are consultants only for management positions. should i be more wary of such claims?

regards

[Zappo]

Ummm... I have a question. On the face of it L1 looks more advantagious to me than the H1. Your spouse on dependant visa gets to work there. Also, for those looking for a permanent settlement a green card is a more ready bet. And yet the clamour almost always seems to be for the H1. So what is the advantage of H1? Is there something in it that makes people to fall all over themselves to catch hold of an H1 visa? Why not L1?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by rev_hard

yup, thats what i asked in the first place





Thanks, thats the plan atleast uptil now.

I see you are already in California. wow. i'm no tech guy, just that i did my mba from an american university. didnt work immediately after post-grad. now i have been given another chance. i've met a couple of guys who claim they are consultants only for management positions. should i be more wary of such claims?

regards

Look at the contract.
1. If you are not desperate, try finding a job in India itself. Go for a MNC, need not be big MNC, a small setup will do. Then go via the L1 or H1B route. Simpler and you don't get burnt
2. Stay away from any contract which tells you to pay something upfront
3. Many contracts will be like this
1. First 3 months training you get house+rental car+stipend(700-1500/month)
2. After that for X amount of time you get a salary
3. After that X is finished you get billed by the hour with a Y percentage(10-15%) of your hourly billing going to your company.

This is the most common format. The training period thing you can't do much about, so thats like a tough life, the X amount where you get just salary and no hourly billing, thats what you negotiate as the salary during that time is low.

The X time may be 2-3 years long. So read that.
You can negotiate much better if you have experience.
An MBA with 4 years of consulting experience in India? You can have consultants sign for moon and sun along with stars. A fresher? Welcome to a life of struggle and 3 people in one room living.

Many people I know got a rude rude shock when they could not enjoy a lifestyle which was half as good as what they had in India. The only thing in USofA you can do better is your car. You will have a better car in lesser time, apart from that the kind of lifestyle we guys enjoy in India(except the power cuts of course) is like those of retired superstars of Beverly hills.

If today somebody offers me a job in Calif for H1b, I am not taking it unless they offer 110K+.
If you are single, to have a "life" in california and not just exists you need atleast 70K pretax, and if you are married you need 120K/household, add 10-15K for each kid.

Originally Posted by Zappo

Ummm... I have a question. On the face of it L1 looks more advantagious to me than the H1. Your spouse on dependant visa gets to work there. Also, for those looking for a permanent settlement a green card is a more ready bet. And yet the clamour almost always seems to be for the H1. So what is the advantage of H1? Is there something in it that makes people to fall all over themselves to catch hold of an H1 visa? Why not L1?

Ok its something like this.
Green card easy thing is on L1-A Visa. Thats tough tough tough. Very rarely will someone send you on a L1-A Visa.
So most people come on ordinary L1.
So for somebody who wants to stay in US for 1-2 years, get salary in India, L1 is a better bet.
H1 means you get salary and you have to manage everything on your own. A good thing if you earn 100K or so in Bay area, and a bad thing otherwise.

H1B is a more permanent way of coming to USA. For somebody who wants to come here and settle, H1B is a better route.

Then there is another thing attached, most companies send on a B1 visa, there are very few job which require transfers for 6 months or so(L1ish stuff).

So if you are in a MNC which has a good base in USA you can easily come on L1, opportunities abound, but for most indian companies who rent you out, this option is out.

Many people in companies like HCL/TCS/Wipro etc., came on the "Rent an engineer cheap" route. They got something like 100-120$/day.
So they rented a 3 bedroom apartment(6-10 people) and returned to India with $$. Many people prefer this, earn in USA for 6 months, live on the floor without a bed, and spend in India.

Then there are people who want to go to USA at any cost, they went to consultants, and signed on contracts which said "All your bases belong to us" and are currently existing here.

Then there are type three people, which I call the smartest.
They worked in India during 90s early 2000, took 6-7 years of experience, became valuable, joined a MNC and took a intra company transfer. Know such people in Microsoft, Yahoo etc., They life comfortable lives, and "live" here not exist.

So if you want to settle in USA, take option three. If you want test the waters, or want that "International experience" for better rewards back home, take L1 route.

One fact remains though, if you have USA experience, you can demand a better pay packet. Now it depends on you what sort of USA experience you want.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Ummm... I have a question. On the face of it L1 looks more advantagious to me than the H1. Your spouse on dependant visa gets to work there. Also, for those looking for a permanent settlement a green card is a more ready bet. And yet the clamour almost always seems to be for the H1. So what is the advantage of H1? Is there something in it that makes people to fall all over themselves to catch hold of an H1 visa? Why not L1?

I would like to know if L1 tied to a company? I mean, if I get L1 thru' a company and if I quit the company, will L1 become invalid?

[Zappo]

Hmmm... ok got it. But then you know when you go through one of those TCS/Wipro types they follow a different pattern. Whether it is H1 or L1, they make you resign from the india operations. Then they make you join their US arm (which one paper is treated as a different company). And then you are sent on long term assignment to US.

No salaries in India you see?

In such a case I fail to see any difference between H1 or L1, except for that "spouse can work" advantage of L1.