Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the response. How 'good' to you have to be to get a H1B? Aren't there restrictions along the lines of 'there must be no American available who can do the job'? I guess my question really is: Is the H1B for really talented programmers or anyone who does a good job?

View on HN

H1B is for anyone who can convince the company they are interviewing with (you don't need to be a rockstar, ninja, herokai or anything like that. You just need to be honest, reasonably good and hard-working), that it is worth sponsoring that person. Typically if the company has interviewed 2-3 local folks with no success and you wow them, they will gladly sponsor your H1B . Bigger companies can do it much easier than smaller ones.

That is how I got my H1b.

Excellent, thanks for the advice. Do you know whether it's more likely to get a visa with a larger company (Google, Microsoft etc.) or a startup?

A bigger company (with fancy lawyers) will have an easy time sponsoring someone's H1B than a startup. But I have seen startups sponsor H1Bs as well. If the startup is well funded, has traction and is a 'real' company, then I don't think they will have any issues sponsoring for a H1B.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com