How does this apply to "software engineers"? Do they have to call themselves something else in the state?
As far as I know there is no national accreditation body for the title in the US.
As far as I know there is no national accreditation body for the title in the US.
Heck, you can have a job title of Software Engineer without even having graduated college.
I'm not a PE but I still call myself a software engineer on everything except government forms. As far as the government's concerned I'm a programmer.
I don't think so. It's been a bit since I read up on Visa stuff (and I imagine it doesn't matter to you as an American citizen) but there are distinctions between programmer / software developer / etc.
1. (note the "software" in the list of exams offered) http://ncees.org/engineering/pe/