Team-BHP - H1B visa -Your Experience

Hi all,

I have been to US on B1 visa but never ever thought of going on H1B, now that I am planning to apply for one, I need our fellow Bhpians to throw some light on there prior experiences with there Employers and Consultants in US.
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.

Keep posting.
GD

You may get some info in this forum - see job discussion section

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or here
ImmigrationPortal Forums

Search for similar forums - there are some helpful ones.

I don't know your long term plans but nowadays going thru bodyshoppers is risky. If you are keen on going, better go thru an Indian IT company (I assume you're in IT) - they get H1B pretty easily - and then change employer in USA - which is much easier.

Just my 50p :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by satish_appasani (Post 377647)

Atleast in Hyd, people returning back from US are getting fatter pay packets compared to equally experianced people in India. I think it makes sense to go to US for few years and return back even if not for pay.

I agree, but my reason( partially) for going is because my wife wants to live in US for some time(2-3 yrs).

@sbasak, Thanks for that info.
Even I am not very keen to go thru consultants, but most Indian companies, Infy,TCS,CZT,MBT or for any other service comapny pays just half of the salary (India Salary) of a product Company( person with same Exp).

cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by greatDrive (Post 377689)

@sbasak, Thanks for that info.
Even I am not very keen to go thru consultants, but most Indian companies, Infy,TCS,CZT,MBT or for any other service comapny pays just half of the salary (India Salary) of a product Company( person with same Exp).

Agreed. In which case you could ditch the company after some time. ;) As sbasak has suggested. Avoid body-shoppers like the plague. Also be a bit careful. As the US economy is not doing too well, layoffs may not be too far in the future.

Visit Path2usa - H1 Visa, Green Card, Visitor Visa and Visitor Medical Insurance. These has useful discussions on almost all the body shoppers in the US. Rule of thumb can be avoid Inidan sponsors for H1B. Foreign Labor Certification can be useful. There are enough links in ImmigrationPortal Forums.

you are comparing indian IT services cmpanies with product, which makes me assume you are thinking of switching.

as far as i have seen, if you join a new company, there will be a delay before they get you processed (with all their employees in waiting, plus more competion for visa slots). I don't know your exp level, but if you join at a higher level (account manager etc), there are less chances of you being sent onsite. in all, it's not in ur hands whether you get visa and whether you are sent onsite.

if going to US is the only criteria, you need to be carefull in doing this. Also, bodyshoppers are advantageus to consultant in terms of $s, but risky too. and you may need to support urself once you reach there until you get a real job (or if you lose it).

for 2-3 years, I will suggest getting into IT services companies and clearly explain that you are looking for an onsite opportunity. and in return they may expect some offshore presence from you even before you start.

I know a few people who came to the US through placement agencies, and ended up with good jobs. But the downside of it,is that very often, they don't get the right amount of money for the job.Especially as Indians, we are under-paid. I'm not too sure about the IT sector, but I'm pretty sure there are many other areas where Indians are under-paid,and the whole headache of working on a H-1 is something I'd recommend to stay away from. Many cases have been reported,where employees have been brought to the US through agencies, and they actually were not placed anywhere. They ran out of money, and many of them went out of status,becoming illegal immigrants ( and thats something no one would want to become !! )
Also,there's a huge element of uncertainity in this country.Just going by the current trend,huge lay-offs have been happening all over the country.In fact,the Co i work for laid off 135 employees just 3 weeks ago,and the reason was that the direction of work was shifting to different areas. Lots of Indians were affected,and 1 guy stands the chance of being deported back to India,since the Co cancelled his H1-B.He's been here for over 7 years,and this is his fate.
I dont mean to discourage anyone,but just a pointer that life is not the best,in the US. I've been here almost 5 yrs, my brother's been here 8 years, and we'r still stuck in this phase where we dont know what'll happen tomorrow.
I would recommend thinking about this seriously, and then making a decision.

thanks @kutlee.

Nitin,
Thanks for that info, I think everybody knows about the downside of going in another country where actually you can end up nowhere if you are really unlucky.

I started this tread as I wanted to people come out of some names of placement Agencies and Bodyshoppers which are good and Bad.
That way we may help people who are planning to apply for H1 thru those agencies, I am sure there may be a lot of people in this forum who would have used their placement services and would have some good and some bitter experiences.

My real Brother went to US 8 yrs back thru a placement Consultantwith 60 K pacakge, is now a GC holder owning a house Santa clara, Cali having a package of 142K. so there are people who have got fare share even when they initially used these Consulting Agencies as a ladder to climb up.

So folks who have been to US(or have came back) have any names/experiences to share, please do share.

Didn't the H1-B quota run out in few hours this year? The H1-B rules have been becoming tougher and tougher and fees raising every often.

While the big companies can still easily get them and afford them, the smaller companies are given intense scrutiny. This was apparently to check the fraudulent misuse by smaller companies. But it has done nothing to prevent the misuse by bigger companies.

It is still safer to go through bigger companies, their lawyers can defend any malpractice by the company. If you try through smaller companies, the chances of rejection are much higher.

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.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samurai (Post 537563)

It is still safer to go through bigger companies, their lawyers can defend any malpractice by the company. If you try through smaller companies, the chances of rejection are much higher.

actually, bigger companies are on the radar of anti-offshoring lobby, because these are the ones which actually send a job offshore.

smaller body shoppers bring their employees to US, but the job stays in US, and they pay all taxes to US, hence less criticized.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k (Post 538534)

smaller body shoppers bring their employees to US, but the job stays in US, and they pay all taxes to US, hence less criticized.

I have personally filled and applied for H1-B for myself and couple of others, we didn't have HR staff. So I am familiar with all the hoops the H1-B employers are asked to jump through. Most of these hoops are big employer friendly. The big companies get business express benefit, even a very junior employee of a big company can skip the personal interview, but even CEO or MD of smaller companies can't escape it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k (Post 538534)

actually, bigger companies are on the radar of anti-offshoring lobby, because these are the ones which actually send a job offshore.

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