The Ultimate Guide To Get Your Job In The USA

Important notice before reading this post. Nothing in this article is intended for legal advice; all information is for educational purposes only.

As a foreigner, you’ll need a U.S. work visa to live and work in the USA. Here is a step-by-step guide to getting your job and work visa in the USA.

How to get a work visa

To get a U.S. work visa, you’ll need to find a job at a US-based company willing to sponsor you for a work visa. Except if you fall into those exceptions:

• you are an American citizen;
• you hold a green card;
• you hold an EAD (Employment Authorization Document);
• you won the EDV Green Card lottery and will get the green card;
• one of your parent(s), spouse, child(s), or sibling(s)) is an American citizen or green card holder and is willing to sponsor you;
• your spouse got a non-immigrant visa such as H1B, E1, E2, J1, L1, or A2, and on the one, you can be added as a dependent and ask for work authorization then;
• you are a journalist, or you work for an independent production company and are sent to the U.S.A. by your current company;
• you are employed by a company at a management or expertise level and are sent to the U.S.A. by your current company;
• you have an extraordinary ability in the arts or athletics and want to work as an independent contractor;
• you have an extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and want to work as an independent contractor;
• you create your own company;
• you invest $800k+ in a business that will benefit the U.S. economy and create jobs.

If you fall into one of the four first exceptions above, you do not need visa sponsorship, and our career advice below does not apply to you. We recommend that you use general job boards such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or LinkedIn and their career advice sections to find a job.

If you fall into one of the other exceptions above, you might be able to get a work visa or work authorization without needing any visa sponsorship from a U.S.-based employer. In that case, we recommend you contact a lawyer in immigration law who will be able to help you with that.

If you do not fall under one of the exceptions above, you may need visa sponsorship from a U.S.-based employer. Our career guide below can help you!

Why is it so difficult to get a visa sponsorship

Here lies the big catch-22 for international professionals: Your future U.S.-based employer must sponsor you for a work visa. And here comes the issue.

Most common difficulties

Have you heard this from U.S. employers yet?

Or have you been unable to connect with employers and get their reply?

This last situation is a little bit more challenging, as you have no idea where the issue comes from:

• Is it because you need visa sponsorship?
• Or because of a lack of experience?
• Or because of your resume or cover letter?

It can be all of them!!

Here is why

The biggest mistake you can make is to apply for all job openings you see everywhere. Because 25% of 10% is not much, you should find the perfect opportunity before applying. You may now wonder how and where to find the ideal opportunities. Luckily, we have provided you with excellent solutions in this article that will save you tons of time in your job search. So you can focus on building your application for the perfect opportunities.

Now that you know the why, let’s explore the steps to getting a job in the USA that will grant you a work visa.

Steps to get a job and a work visa for the USA

As your future U.S.-based employer must sponsor you for a work visa, the first step is to find your sponsor employer. You can do this through a listed open job or by using three (3) other strategies we will discuss in this article. Let’s start with the open jobs at sponsor companies.

Where to find jobs open for visa sponsorship

As per the figures above, we recommend you focus on the job openings at companies that are open for visa sponsorship in your field (the 10% companies). This will prevent you from hearing “Come back to us when you have a work authorization” or “We do not offer visa sponsorship.”

The “Do It Yourself” Way

To find those jobs, you need to:

1. find the companies that are open for visa sponsorship for people like you
2. find the job openings at those companies that perfectly match your profile (education, certificate, experience, skills, achievements).

All petitions are filed yearly in open data on the U.S. Department of Labor website. You will need to merge the petitions per company. Then, you’ll need to filter on companies that hired and sponsored people like you every year in the last three years by taking into account the visa denial rate, the willful violator flag, and the type of visa they sponsored (H-1B Transfer, H-1B1, E-3 or H-1B New).

Then, for each of those companies, search if they have current job openings that fit your profile (education, certificate, experience, skills, achievements) and that do not state “we do not offer sponsorship.”

The Quick & Efficient Way

We have already done this work for you. Our job openings are at companies currently open for visa sponsorship for the concerned open job. The type of visa they sponsored, the willful violator flag, and the visa denial rate are considered. We even have more accurate data as some sponsor employers post their jobs directly on our website. See our visa jobs!

This will save you tons of time and effort. You can see at one glance if there are visa jobs available.

If you do not find any jobs, please complete your profile fully to ensure we calculate all your eligible visas.

How my project is feasible & what strategy should I use

Position Targeting

Now that you know where to find visa job openings, Do I have any chance?

To answer this question, you must ask yourself:

• Can I practice my profession or the profession I want in the USA? – What position(s) should I target?
• Is there any visa and job (I qualify for) suitable to my expectations? – What are the terms and conditions of the job and visa related to (I qualify for)?

Let’s dive into this and answer all those questions!

1. Translate your current job title into English or the job title you want.
2. Search on USponsorMe and see what jobs you have in return.
3. Read the job description and make sure the position is the right fit for you.
4. See what you should verify below.

Want To Know What Job Title(s) You Should Target?

If you are flexible or open to any jobs, don’t think you can fill all the jobs you see on USponsorMe. Tell us more about yourself to help us determine what position(s) you can pretend for. It will automatically and instantly calculate the visa(s) you qualify for and for what position(s) / job fields. Once done, I recommend you go through what you should verify below.

No Job Found?

If there is no job, try with other job title keywords and your skills keywords.

If you still do not see any jobs, you might fall into one of those possibilities below. Your current occupation or the one you want might:

• It does not exist in the USA.

How to know: Unfortunately, if you do not find any jobs on USponsorMe and indeed.com, the position does not exist.

For example, France’s “notaire” profession does not exist in the USA. However, the French “notaire” responsibilities are split into several occupations in the USA, such as Title Insurance Agent, Escrow Officer at a title company, or Estate Attorney.

Solutions: you will need to find out how your job duties, tasks, and responsibilities are handled in the USA and define the closest position(s) that allow(s) you to transfer your skills.

• Not open for visa sponsorship.

How to know: If you do not find any jobs on USponsorMe but find some on Indeed.com, foreign nationals are not needed for this position, and visa sponsorship is, unfortunately, not an option.

Example: You are a political writer in France, and even if this job exists in the USA, you cannot be a political writer in the USA if you are not fluent in American English and have no knowledge of U.S. politics.

Solutions: You will need to find out what the closest position(s) open for visa sponsorship is that best matches your skills, job duties, tasks, and responsibilities.

If you still don’t find any, your last option is to search for jobs on USponsorMe that don’t require experience, skills, or education.

What you should verify

You should verify if your current occupation or the one you want:

• Require equivalence, a certificate, license, or diploma in the USA for you to practice.

How to know: here is a list of concerned occupations (list non-exhaustive): Lawyer, Attorney, Pharmacist, Nurse, Registered Nurse, Physical Therapist, Real Estate Agent, Physician, Medical Technologist, Occupational Therapist, Pathologist, Chiropractor, Dentist, Optometrist, Podiatrist, Veterinarian, Surgeon, All other medical occupations.

Solutions: you must pass all the required exams as a student (under an F1 or M1 visa) through a work practice/internship trainee program (under a J1 visa), or whatever other eligible visa you can get. Or you can define the closest position(s) that allow(s) you to transfer your skills and does not require any diploma, license, certificate, or equivalence. If you still do not find any, your last option would be to search for jobs that do not require experience, skills, or education on USponsorMe.

• Match your profile.

How to know: if you see a red word displayed on the job on USponsorMe, it means it’s a skill the employer requires that is missing in your USponsorMe resume. If you do have this skill, add it to your USponsorMe resume! If you do not, your profile does not match the job.

Example: You are a cook in India and know how to cook Indian food. You find a cook job on USponsorMe, but this job requires you to speak French and know the European cooking method. Unfortunately, this means this job does not match your profile.

Solutions: target positions with your skills and exclude positions with skills you do not have using the advanced filters on USponsorMe. In our example above, you must filter out jobs on two mandatory skills: “French” and “European,” which allow(s) you to filter out all jobs that require skills you do not have. It would help if you also filter jobs based on the mandatory skill, “Indian,” which allows you to filter all jobs that require skills you have. If you no longer find jobs, your last option is to search for jobs that do not need experience, skills, or education on USponsorMe.

Recommendations: In addition to the hard skills matching (languages, technical skills, methods, etc.), we recommend you narrow your search as much as you can on your experience level and industry if applicable. If you do not have any experience or a few, you should filter on “entry-level” to only get positions that do not require you to know. Conversely, if you have significant experience, you should filter on ‘senior level” because a company that does not want a senior won’t consider your application as they expect you to ask for more than their budget. If your profile is oriented to a specific industry, you should filter on this industry. On the contrary, if your profile can match multiple industries except for specific ones, you should filter out those. You have all those advanced filters you can use on USponsorMe to allow you to be very precise on the job matching.

• Combined with a visa, you do qualify.

How to know: On each job on USponsorMe, you will see the visa you will be sponsored for if you are hired. If you do not see the visa and job for the ones you qualify for, tell us more about yourself. It will automatically and instantly calculate those and display this information on the job.

Example: You see a software engineer job combined with an H-1B visa. However, you do not qualify for the H-1B as you do not have a bachelor’s degree or significant experience in software development.

Solutions: Filter on the visa you qualify for and use the filters on USponsorMe to search for jobs in the job field you qualify for. If you no longer find jobs, your last option is to search for jobs that do not require experience, skills, or education on USponsorMe.

• Fit your expectations.

How to know: Here is the list of your preferences: desired duration in the USA, desired start/departure date, desired salary, if your spouse needs work authorization, desired location, desired company size, desired job type (contract, full-time, part-time, internship/traineeship), your maximum budget. Some preferences may be deal-breakers for you; those are your expectations. You will see that information on each job.

Example: you plan to move to the United States with your family (spouse and children), so you’ll need to have a decent salary to cover the expenses of your three bedrooms, the school’s tuition for your children, and the food you will put on the table for all of you. A job in Chicago, IL, caught your interest. You calculate a 6k monthly minimum cash compensation salary for this location. However, the job offers a salary below the minimum cash compensation wage you can accept. It means the job does not fit your expectations, unfortunately.

Solutions: filter out all jobs that do not fit your expectations.

Conclusion

Please note that you might go back and forth through those three possibilities until you find a suitable position. For example, if you are a “Notaire” and find out you can be an estate attorney in the USA, But to become an Estate Attorney, you must pass a license in the USA and do not want to. You discover you can be a legal assistant to the estate attorney without a permit, etc.

Once you have found ideal jobs by adjusting your filters on USponsorMe, you have your chance! I recommend you save your search and set up a job alert to be notified when we have new jobs for you. You can also save the jobs you select to find them quickly when you return. Those will appear in your tab, “My Jobs.”

We know that position targeting can be challenging, depending on your expertise. If you struggle to follow our instructions below, we offer to do it for you: order an Eligibility Check Verification. In addition, we will set up your job alert so you’ll be notified of ideal jobs that pass all the criteria defined above!

Strategy for permanent immigration

If you plan to move to the United States permanently, you may be tempted to filter on jobs that offer EB or H-1B visas (that leads to a Green Card, the permanent residency). The thing is, you might not have any jobs combined with those visas, and here is why:

If you have a budget of 40k+ to pay for the visa fees, it might work for an EB visa (you see jobs). If you are in a specialty occupation and your industry is experiencing a labor shortage, it may work for an H1B visa (you see jobs). Otherwise, employers rarely sponsor the EB or the H-1B (for non-cap-exempt companies) to someone who has never worked for them (especially if you are not a U.S. master’s graduate or Chilean / Singaporean with an H-1B or have to go through the PERM process with the EB)! The only reason this happens (you see jobs) is because you are a “Painite” (extremely rare gemstone) in your job field.

But you should know that you can accumulate multiple visas. To do that, you’ll need to be extra careful because, in some conditions with some visas, you can not switch to other visas without a strong waiver request. Again, the types of positions you qualify for are related to the visa you qualify for. You will need to draft a career plan. We offer 30 minutes of career planning coaching with the Eligibility Check Verification. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you are interested.

Now that you have set up your job alert with your desired job(s), the next step is to craft a strong resume and cover letter.

American ATS-friendly resume and cover letter

Your Resume

90% of sponsor companies use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which is software that filters the resume and only shows the recruiters the ones that better match the job. And 75% of candidates’ applications are filtered out by the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and are never seen by a recruiter.

More than 100 million people look for jobs in the USA every year. Twenty percent of jobs are posted online, and 75 percent of candidates apply online. For each job ad, the company receives an average of 250 applications. That’s why the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) exists: to help process all those applications and filter out irrelevant candidates who do not qualify.

It would be best if you had a resume that will allow you to:

1. appear in the top 10 candidates
2. land interviews

Your resume should meet the American standard, be ATS-friendly on the form and content, and be result-oriented. Your USponsorMe resume meets the American standard, is ATS-friendly on the form, and is formatted following your experience level and industry. You can download it anytime from here. By crafting your USponsorMe resume, you can use our 400+ pre-written phrases, all result-oriented samples that look professional.

For your resume to be ATS-friendly in content, you should ensure it meets all the requirements of your desired job(s). We also call this “keywords-optimized”. On each USponsorMe job, if you see your skills in red. This means your USponsorMe resume is not ATS-friendly in terms of content for the job concerned. Add those missing skills to your USponsorMe resume, which will be ATS-friendly! Return to your saved search and see to ensure your resume is ready. None of your skills should appear in red.

We also offer a manual resume review service, included in all USponsorMe+ plans, to ensure your American resume is ready.

Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter should connect the dots between your resume and the job. It’s a great way to:

• express your interest in the company,
• explain what you are looking for and how you can help them,
• and your interest in learning the required skills missing in your resume (the ones in red).

We offer a cover letter e-course and examples adapted to the U.S. market in all USponsorMe+ plans.

And beyond

Note that your LinkedIn profile must align with your resume and cover letter. You need to copy and paste your resume content to your LinkedIn profile and write your bio/summary with your interest in terms of company, industry, job duties, and skills you want to learn (from your cover letter).

Also, ensure that nothing wrong appears on Google search results when you type your full name. On the contrary, if you have relevant work achievements that appear on Google Search, that is awesome!

Now that you have set up your job alert with your desired job(s) and have your resume, cover letter, and other materials ready, the next step is to apply and follow up.

Apply for jobs & follow up with recruiters

Application

This is true that you must adjust your resume and cover letter for each job you apply to. However, this should not take more than 5 minutes.

For that, I would recommend you have one resume with everything on it (even if it’s more than the number of pages recommended), and one cover letter that expresses your interest in the industries and types of companies you are interested in, and the skills you want to learn. Then, for each job you wish to apply for, you need to:

• remove the parts on your resume and cover letter that are not relevant to the job till you get back to the number of pages recommended,
• and update your resume title with the job title; that’s all!

You are now ready to apply; let’s do it!

Recruiters Followup

After you apply for a job, we strongly recommend you follow up with the recruiter by email:

• 3 days after,
• and again 7 days after your first follow-up email.

For that, on each job you applied for here, you’ll see a button “Message Recruiters.” Click it to get the recruiter’s contact info, such as full name, title, LinkedIn profile, and email. Send him/her your follow-up email! We provide follow-up email templates in all USponsorMe+ plans.

The 3 other job search strategies you should use

In addition to job application, here are three other job search strategies you can use:

• Be visible to sponsor employers – you polish your USponsorMe profile to be visible to sponsor employers
• Spontaneous Application – you send your application to recruiters at sponsor companies with no current open jobs
• Through Your Network – you ask your network for introductions / you are recommended by someone you know

Be Visible

By being on LinkedIn, you won’t be visible to U.S. employers who search for people like you on LinkedIn (by typing skills, job title, etc.) if you do not live in the USA because your target location on LinkedIn is not a location in the U.S.A. The only way a recruiter can find your profile on LinkedIn is by typing your name. This will be following an application or an introduction from your network.

Now, for you to be visible by U.S. sponsor employers who search for people like you (by typing skills, job title, etc.), it’s not on LinkedIn, but on a specific website where they can find international candidates open for a U.S. opportunity and ready to be relocated in the U.S.A. This specific website is called USponsorMe.

Our candidates’ database is searchable. As you do to find jobs, we do the same to find your profile on the other side. This means that with your USponsorMe resume, you also have the benefits of being visible to our sponsor-hiring employers who are searching for international candidates.

As your LinkedIn, make sure your USponsorMe resume is fully completed here and contains all your skills, experience, education, and achievements for the position you target. Our system will tell you if your USponsorMe needs improvements and what improvements it needs.

Spontaneous Application

Remember that 80% of open jobs in the USA are never posted on job boards. In addition to applying to open jobs, I recommend that you send spontaneous applications to companies that used to hire and sponsor people like you every year. The advantage is that you have no direct competitors at all!

Here is how to do it:

• Search for companies that used to hire and sponsor people like you every year for the visa you qualify for.
• For each company, search for internal contacts: HR / Talent Acquisition Specialist / Recruiter OR your decision maker.
• Send an email to those with your cover letter in the body of your email and your resume attached to your email.
• Follow up at least 2 times with your contact.

Through Your Network

I will discuss the importance of networking in the US and how to take advantage of one’s own network.

Even if you think you don’t have any network in the USA currently, please read the post on how to use your network. It happens a lot with my clients when I say “network.” Each time, they all tell me they don’t have one in the USA. Each time we go through the exercise, some get great opportunities with this strategy. Let’s give it a try before jumping to a conclusion!

Networking starts with a mindset and an intention to discover, explore, and be open to what you may encounter. It’s about helping others and helping yourself. Furthermore, it’s not about reaching as many strangers as possible, even if they are in your contacts. This is almost as ineffective as applying directly to a job posting that doesn’t fit you. Networking is about meeting people you do know who can both vouch for your past performance and will recommend you to others. So, it’s not only about the people who know you personally; it’s also about the people you know who can refer you to what matters. They might even be able to help you secure an interview for an open job in the USA for foreigners.

Without a doubt, one of the most effective and underutilized methods of obtaining employment is personal networking. The network is a critical factor, especially in American culture.

When you find a job you want to apply for or a sponsor company you wish to send your unsolicited application to, I would recommend you check first:

• if you have a direct or second-degree HR, DM, or LH contact at this company. And if yes, contact the person (if direct contact) or ask for an introduction (if second contact).
• if a decision maker (DM) in your field at this company went to the same school or worked at the same company/location/Department/Project as you. It’s even better if this person has a second-level connection with you. And if yes, contact the person (if direct contact) or ask for an introduction (if second contact).

A good way to accelerate your network building is to meet people physically at meetups, events, conferences, fairs, etc. Again, you’ll need to target the right events as you target your job or company. The best would be an event about your industry/vertical for international people or people from your country/culture/language.

Your goal is to learn about the company’s biggest challenges in your field. By demonstrating that you can help, you’ll be introduced to HR and invited to proceed further in the recruitment process.