A possible H1 deal!

Another interesting email conversation from some one called 'swami@mclsystems.com' again. I had a weird message introducing as some 'Spirit Telecom' or 'Rishab Software' but since it figured out a mis-addressed email I wrote him back. After initial conversations it turned out to be some good job opportunity there. I would like to recall about this organization which 'proposed' to me a few years back over here. But then they were only wanting to lead the 'herd of cattle' in their offshored outfit but now seems an opportunity in their corporate office.

Perhaps interestingly I am also close to the process of tying my knot with my 'life partner' since the alliance search is coming to a close and the bride being from the temple-town of Srirangam. More after the engagement. Interestingly the bride shares my 'dream name' of 'Lavanya' as was the aspiration in 'The name Lavanya' section of my homepage. So a truly 'zillion dollar gift' thanks to everyone's wishes!

Just thought I would kick-start this motion and also hand-over the organization whereabouts to my 'Views and Reviews' for an (in-)formal background check. Who told that only organizations should do a background security check on the employees? It is the responsibility of a potential employee also to do a good if not exhaustively comprehensive to do a background check on the organization. After all security is everyone's responsibility and if we all collectively exercise diligently conscious security measures then most of the immigration frauds and bonded labor practice (that surfaces in middle east/Gulf) can be a thing of the past.

Some of my previous observations with regards to H1 are. I may not be perfectly correct and hence if you have some information or corrections please let me know the same and this would ensure others who read this can also be benefited.

1. The H1B is a non-immigrant work permit and hence people should discourage themselves with any obnoxious thought of 'migrating' to the 'land of immigrants'. People normally have this disparaging misconception. Whilst B1/B2 is a short visitor and tourist which organizations to use to impart training to the visiting employees, H1B makes one to work on specialty occupations. If the organization has presence in both the country there is another visa called L1 (Intra Company Transfers)
2. H1B ties you to a particular employer. You may not be able to immediately join another company unless your visa gets 'transferred' or the new 'potential employer' offers you to sponsor your visa. The advantages you can leverage here are that the new petition is exempt from the usual cap besides the fact when you are within the country the home-country consular processing may not be required.
3. What happens after the H1B visa completes? You ought to find a new employer who sponsors your visa or return to the home country to find another job. But at this point of time both the routes would be very potentially rewarding for you given the amount of rich experience you would have gained.
4. A few things: (1) Work in US is not a green pasture or bed of roses. Timelines are strict and stringent as the extremes of weather itself. Hence the kind of luxury we have in our offshore may not be helping out. (2) Technology is not compelling in US but the business needs and requirements are. So the technology should be increasingly seen as a tool of business-solutions enabler. (3) For commodities, US practices 'Use and Throw' and for workforce the country emphasizes the policy of 'Hire and Fire'. You ought to ensure that the thing is useful in order for the relationship to proceed. Period. (4) More systematic in records keeping. Thing of ad-hoc record management and corruption is the thing of past and an unknown entity in the land of immigrants.
5. When going for H1 visa the following things are needed to start with (1) The so-called training and visa fee needs to be paid by the employer. (2) Recently USCIS has also made clear that the employer is also obliged to pay a fraud-detection fee. There is another option called 'Premium Processing' of the petition which requires another 1000 bucks. This may be borne either by an organization or employee or shared by them. However if some one approaches you to sponsor your H1B visa but expecting security deposit and/or other fees it is  clear case of immigration fraud. So 'tip off' your country's law-enforcement authorities and also USCIS if possible with such emails and phone calls which would help a lot of people from being preyed upon by such demonic vultures.
   
   I have been observing a lot of organizations approaching me with H1 offer from February to May but placing demands for exorbitant deposit amounts. You may not like to be in 'soup' as described by Cheran in the starting of the movie 'Vetri Koti Kattu'.

So this is my brief update about my 'exploration' with an opportunity outside my home country. Stay Tuned! I would keep posted with more developments shortly.