USA Work Visa Types - All You Need To Know About Working In USA

From last few days I am getting lot of queries from readers on working in USA or job opportunities in USA. While most of the readers come from varied educational backgrounds, most of them have some common questions like:

How do I get to work in the USA/ United States Of America?

What do I need to do to get a job in USA?

What kind of visas are required to work in USA? and how can I get it?

Answers to all of these questions are actually available on the Department of Homeland Security USCIS website https://www.uscis.gov/  However, looking at the number of queries & curiosity I thought to publish all the relevant information I could gather in this blog post. Here it goes:

Working in the USA can be better understood if divided into three high level categories:
1. Temporary workers
2. Students who apply for employment when they are eligible
3. Permanent Workers

Now let us understand each of these categories in detail.

Temporary workers:

This is a category for Nonimmigrant workers to work temporarily in the USA. In order to apply you need a employer who can file a nonimmigrant petition on your behalf with USCIS.

The most popular/ widely used Nonimmigrant Classification for a Temporary Worker or in simple language the most popular/ widely used type of visas as mentioned on the USCIS website are:

H-1B Workers in a specialty occupation and the following sub-classifications:
H-1B1 - Free Trade Agreement workers in a specialty occupation from Chile and Singapore.
H-1B2 - Specialty occupations related to Department of Defense Cooperative Research and Development projects or Co-production projects.
H-1B3 - Fashion models of distinguished merit and ability.

L-1A Intracompany transferees in managerial or executive positions.
L-1BIntracompany transferees in positions utilizing specialized knowledge.

Source of this information is the USCIS website, please refer Temporary Nonimmigrant Workers for latest information/ updates.

Students who apply for employment when they are eligible

For full time students, there are two visa categories F and M. There are certain eligibility criterias for applying student visa in either F1 or M1 category. In their first academic year students with F1 visa may accept on campus employment subject to certain conditions and restrictions, however off campus employment is not allowed. After the first academic year, students on F-1 visa may engage in three types of off-campus employment. These are as given below:

• Curricular Practical Training (CPT)

• Optional Practical Training (OPT) (pre-completion or post-completion)

• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Optional Practical Training Extension (OPT)

Students on  M-1 visa may engage in practical training only after they have completed their studies.

Source of this information is USCIS website, please refer Students and Employment Page on USCIS Website for more details/ latest updates.

Permanent Workers

There are five different visa categories for immigrants. Some of these categories require your employer to obtain an approved labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Details are mentioned on the USCIS website are given below:

Source of this information is USCIS website, please refer Permanent Workers Page on USCIS Website for more details/ latest updates.

I hope you find this information helpful. If you are more than 18 years old you would also like to read this post How Much Money Would One Save In USA? and How To Get A Green Card?

Other blog posts of interest:

USA Visa Basics L1A L1B and H1B
How To Go Onsite?
Most Valuable Skill For Your Life
21 Important Things To Know If You are Traveling To USA For The First Time
How To Hunt For Job After Career Break
5 Secrets of Salary Negotiations

Growth vs Negative Attitude At Workplace

At workplace, how to avoid the negative attitude...

• If you an IT analyst:Don't just solve support cases/ tickets, learn to solve problems

• If you are a software developer: Don't just write code, learn to apply logic in more than one way

As a professional...

• Don't just learn to speak good english, but understand how, when and where to speak/ when not to speak

• Dont't just take notepad and pen to meetings but learn to take important meeting notes

• Don't just take meeting notes, but take action on the points noted

• Don't just assume, learn to identify the different between facts and opinions. If you assume you create an ass out of you and me: ass/u/me

• Don't just expect others to listen to you, develop good listening skills yourself. Wait for others to complete their sentences before you start speaking yourself

• Don't take others for granted. Everyone including your collegaues, boss, family members and friends have certain implicit expectations from you. While you may not be able to meet all expectations of everyone it is wise to atleast understand the implict expectations because the basics expectations are never spelled out explicitly

• Don't be inconsiderate about others. Apply commonsense and logic in your behavior. For example, at work, do not use meeting or conference rooms without booking explicitly. Do not overbook meeting rooms. Do not ask people to wait outside the meeting room if your meeting time is over. When you get into random quick discussions make sure that you are not distubring others by talking loudly or pulling their chairs or overcrowding the workplace. These are simple things but matter a lot.

• Don't be afraid of sharing or taking additional responsibility. By doing the same work over and over again you are limiting yourself to the same position/ level. Remember that in your professional life you will grow only when you work hard and show that you are ready to go to the next level

Cribbing about problems at workplace is a common practice these days. Talking about the problems at work is fine, seeking advise is also fine. Sometime this is required to destress yourself. However, understand that irrespective of the job role that you perform, work pressure will always be present. It may just vary a bit with your job/ role or be present in a different form or shape. But it is always there. Overall one should have a open mindset to treat problems as challenges and focus on solving the problems rather than finding problems in the solutions.

If you are a working professional you may also love to read Secrets Of Doing A Little More Everyday

Other blog posts of interest:

How Much Would IT Professional Save In USA
USA Visa Basics L1A L1B and H1B
How To Go Onsite?
Most Valuable Skill For Your Life
21 Important Things To Know If You are Traveling To USA For The First Time
How To Hunt For Job After Career Break
5 Secrets of Salary Negotiations

Secrets Of Doing A Little More Everyday

How to do more everyday?

Block a golden hour for yourself

Everyday dedicate one hour as a golden hour for yourself. This should be your personal time. Generally the time after your wake up is the best time to reserve for yourself. Utilize this time to nourish your mind and body. You may choose to go for a walk or read a book, you may opt to exercise or listen to a motivational video, you may choose to jog or just meditate/ indulge in yoga. Focus on what you like and practice it everyday.

Block your outlook calendar for personal time

At work, if you get lot of meetings invites and feel that you dont have personal time to concentrate on your own work then you need to block out sometime for yourself. One simple way to do this is to block certain time on your own outlook calendar. If you do so then the people sending you meeting invite will see that time as 'busy' and hence save you some precious time.

Email Management

Are you receiving hundreds of emails everyday and don't know how to manage them?
One of the most important things is to follow 23 Email Etiquette Rules All Professionals Should Know. Some other important tips are:
(a) Act on every email when you read it for the first time. Try not to open an email more than once. For example, when you first open an email you can choose to delete it or forward it to someone for action or reply to it and close it. Keeping it pending for some other time means that you will again invest lot of time and energy on the same email.
(b) Do not distract yourself by reading emails every now and then. Turn off that pop up that shows up everytime a new email arrives. Dedicate a fix time for reading and responding to emails. Keep an email hour or schedule for yourself.

Avoid distractions

Do you have people/ your staff/ colleagues/ stakeholders walk over to your desk and ask you for two minutes of precious time? These are distractions unless it is a really serious matter or serious escalation. Use this tip: When someone asks you for two minutes tell them that you are super busy right now and if they approach you at a later time then instead of two minutes you can give them ten minutes. Believe me, fifty percent of the people will not approach you at a later time.

Avoid unnecessary breaks

Dont take too many breaks or avoid unnecessary breaks. With every break you tend to lose continuity of work and/ or thought process. While some breaks are really important to keep you fresh but too many breaks can have adverse effect. Also avoid back to back meetings. If you have one meeitng after another then you may tend to lose focus and may forget important outcomes or actions if you have not taken meeting notes properly.

Your Smart Phone is only as smart as you are

Are you just using your smart phone for basic apps like Whatsapp or Emails?
If this is the case you are not using Smart features of your phone. A smart phone behaves smart only if you use it for making your life simpler and better. For example, you can use Aggregator apps like Flipboard and offline reading apps like Pocket. You can also use apps for keeping up pace with the industry, for example, apps for Mckinsey, Gartner and HBR are very useful.


If you more than 18 years old you may also like to read 17 Tips To Act Smart At Workplace