What's your chance of getting a U.S. work visa? Find out with BorderScore

What's your chance of getting a U.S. work visa? Find out with BorderScore(score.teleborder.com)

136 points by jrichards27 11 years ago | 48 comments

largote 11 years ago |

For Software Engineers, citizens from these 4 countries can get work Visas other than an H1-B:

  Canada
  Mexico
  Singapore
  Chile

The first two on the TN Visa, and the latter two on the H1-B1 Visa, the cap has never been reached on either.

neumino 11 years ago | |

Australian can also get a E-3 visa, which is similar to a H1-B.

ecdavis 11 years ago | | |

The major differences are that the E-3 can be renewed indefinitely, but it is technically not dual-intent. The E-3 cap has also never been reached.

lazaroclapp 11 years ago | |

True, but keep in mind TN Visas are designed for temporary work. They need to be renewed every 3 years, even for the same employer, and offer no path towards permanent residence. So, they can be used for people doing a work exchange for a company that has branches in Canada/Mexico and the U.S., or as a bridge when the H1-B cap has been hit for the current/next year. They don't really substitute an H1-B in the mid/long term.

WildUtah 11 years ago | | |

"temporary work. They need to be renewed every 3 years, even for the same employer, and offer no path towards permanent residence."

But TNs are renewable infinitely. You did need to call yourself a systems analyst. Systems analyst was on the list of approved TN jobs but computer programmer was excluded, even though they're the same thing. I believe software engineer was recently added even though that is also the exact same thing as a computer programmer or systems analyst. The Dept of Labor has a dozen or more objectively indistinguishable words for programmer.

There is a route to permanent residence, of course. You can either just keep renewing or you can marry an American. You probably can't afford to retire in the Bay Area as a programmer anyway if your spouse isn't insisting so you might as well return home when you're done working. Canada and Mexico are nice places to go home to at the end of a career.

largote 11 years ago | | |

The H1-B also need to be renewed (even for the same employer), except it's on a 4 year period IIRC. Also, the TN can be renewed indefinitely, whereas the H1-B can only be renewed so many times before you're "forced" into a Green Card.

It can also be used, like you mentioned, as a bridge to start working immediately without having to wait for H1-B openings the be ready.

jheriko 11 years ago |

my personal chances seem to be about zero. at least without spending a lot of time, money and effort.

when i last applied it rapidly descended into a process that felt like bribery and moving goalposts.

that being said, i in no way blame america for making it hard for people of arab descent who spent any serious amount of time immersed in that culture. i would do the same. (i /assume/ that was the problem - i may well be wrong)

ukigumo 11 years ago | |

You reminded me of a story of a good fried on mine that kept getting "randomly" picked for extra screening every time he would go into the US. The fact that he's built like a rugby player and very clearly middle eastern probably helped.

One day, fairly fed up with the long journey and yet another selection he went "Relax guys, I'm only here because I write the software the you guys (TSA) use".

Moral of the story, if you are good enough, there's always a place for you.

xeromal 11 years ago | |

That's too bad man. :(

aurelifornia 11 years ago | | |

This is just so depressing.

Dewie 11 years ago | |

> that being said, i in no way blame america for making it hard for people of arab descent who spent any serious amount of time immersed in that culture. i would do the same.

You seem eager to kiss the hand that slaps you.

drglitch 11 years ago |

How accurate is this information, ultimately? i.e:

- Are lawyer fees counted in?

- Different advertising expenses for having public ads up for position as per requirement of H1B petition process?

- Internal HR costs (which run large for larger corps)?

- What's the ultimate revenue model?

tg3 11 years ago | |

- Yes, legal fees are counted - this includes government filing fees (you may be referring to PERM advertising, which is part of the Green Card process) - no - this is an experiment from the team at Teleborder.com, which is a complete global mobility platform

bluerobotcat 11 years ago |

I have a PhD in philosophy (with a dissertation on symbolic logic). When I was interviewing in the US, I was told repeatedly that it would impossible for me to get an H1B visa for an IT job because my degree is not in science or engineering. BorderScore doesn't seem to take this sort of thing into account, unless I'm missing something.

bluerobotcat 11 years ago | |

I got the following assessment:

    The short version is that you can start working in the U.S. within 6 weeks, and stay for at least 2 years with:
    - a 82% chance of success
    - $2,183.13/year cost to sponsor you

I suspect this is wrong.

Previously I was also told that the waiting period could easily be up to 9 months.

untog 11 years ago | |

I was in the same situation and ended up still getting one as six years of work experience counted as equivalent to a degree, or something along those lines.

I'd try the service to see if it takes that into account but I deleted my LinkedIn account a long time ago.

jy1 11 years ago | |

They ask for a LI profile don't they?

bluerobotcat 11 years ago | | |

That's true. At the time I was a fresh graduate so they wouldn't have been able to tell from my LinkedIn profile though. I requested a report and I will post an update here when I get it.

goyalankit 11 years ago |

Is it safe? Do you store the data?

discordance 11 years ago | |

I would like a follow up on this as there is no privacy statement on your site.

utunga 11 years ago | | |

This might be relevant if people were asked to oAuth approve something to get there report - but they only asked for my LinkedIn profile which means anything they got from there is public info already.

Bit suprised by that to be honest.. if this goes viral they just lost the opportunity to get a ton of oAuth Authorizations to LinkedIn which could have been v useful to them down the line for further data scraping (I would imagine).

The fact that they didn't suggests that they have their heads on the right side of your privacy concerns.

pranade 11 years ago |

Super helpful analysis, both from an employer perspective and for the employee -- we need more transparency on this

nwenzel 11 years ago |

This is actually helpful on the employer side too. Makes initial conversations with potential hires easier because we both get a sense of whether it's worth investing more time into something that may not even be a possibility.

haosdent 11 years ago |

I am a Chinese. My linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/haosdent . But it seems hard to get a H1B visa at this time....

nsnick 11 years ago |

Why does this take 24 hours?

mattmanser 11 years ago | |

I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and guess it's an MVP where they manually assess your skills.

Also, this is a YC company and it looks like this is a pivot or alternatively they're trying to find more candidates for clients, who then pay them a fee to sort out the visa?

jrichards27 11 years ago | | |

That's somewhat correct, although we have a bunch of stuff on the back-end that we're not quite ready to talk about yet :)

Not a pivot, just an experiment to see how people respond. Give it a whirl and let us/me know!

nwenzel 11 years ago | |

How does 24 hours and no cost compare to the time and cost without this utility?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3dYS7PcAG4 (nsfw-language: Louis CK bit)

yousifa 11 years ago |

Hopefully more people find out about this to bring in more talent

Dewie 11 years ago | |

Maybe if a lot of talent moves from where I am to the US, I can negotiate higher prices where I already am. Sounds like a plan. :)

christyho 11 years ago |

This is, simply, awesome!

wahsd 11 years ago |

Or, in other words, how much will you deprive your own society of and contribute to American society, assuring our domination and your society's dependence and subjugation.

throwaway344 11 years ago | |

Human beings are not property of their governments. They have a right to live, and move to a place that they choose. Brain drain might be a problem, but the correct approach is to make the drained country a better place to live, not to prohibit escape.

wahsd 11 years ago | | |

I didn't say government, I said society.

It's sad that people don't realize that or value the contributions they could make to their societies, to lift their cultures and countries, instead of compounding ever more advantages. It's brain drain. It's rather supremacist in nature too and not unlike colonialism.

jafaku 11 years ago | |

I'm not planning on going to America because a) I'm more interested in seeing other places (sorry) and b) It's impossible anyway. But let me tell you something: When I leave, I won't be depriving "my own society" (whatever that means) of anything, because that's how much value I can produce here, with all the corruption and bureaucratic obstacles.

wahsd 11 years ago | | |

And it will remain so because all those who could possibly affect change are taking the easy road to America and compounding our returns and advantages.

nraynaud 11 years ago | |

Frankly I'm only thinking about moving to the US because my girlfriend is American. She has a lot of debt from her studies and she works in education, and education pays a lot mainly in the US. Basically she needs to rip some other students off to pay her debt, it's a pyramid (I hope she doesn't red this).

But I'm not attached to my country, the country I was born in is an accident, they are conservative and short sighted, I don't care leaving (albeit, I don't think the US is really the best place to live).

fennecfoxen 11 years ago | |

That worked so well for people behind the Iron Curtain.

stupidcar 11 years ago | |

Ehhhh, my society's pretty lame anyway.