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I think you will find that more and more companies are open to sponsoring
employee's H1-B visas. The labor shortage around Boston is severe and
employeers will go to great length's to find talented people.
Clearly, certain industries are more accepting of visa sponsorship than
others. (In translation/localization, it's commonplace.) Here are a few
negotiating tools that you might use to help companies overcome their fears
of H1-B visas:
* offer to pay for the visa yourself (the cost is around $1,800, including
legal fees)
* offer to "earn back" the cost of the visa over the 3-year period of the
H1-B; in other words, the company pays the visa expense but you earn back
$50 of that expense for every month that you stay with the company; if you
leave before the expiration of the visa, you owe the company whatever is
left ($50 x the number of months)
* offer to handle the paperwork and dealing with lawyers -- especially for
smaller companies, this may be the most important point
Your timing is good, too. On October 1, a new quota of visas will become
available. Your time to find a job is now, before the year's allotment is
used up.
If you would like referals to particular lawyers or companies, please
contact me off-list.
Regards,
Andres
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ForeignExchange Translations, Inc.
Multilingual Compliance Management
888.454.0787 http://www.fxtrans.com
