Dave Said:

What are my chances of working in the USA?

We Answered:

If you work for a MMC (multinational corporation) who has offices in the United States then you may be eligble for an L1 visa, the information regarding this will be the first link below.

If you are not eligble or your company is not willing to transfer you then your only real option is to look for U.S. based-companies who will sponsor you for an H1B (Temporary workers) visa. This is a difficult task for anyone who resides outside of the U.S. to do as the majority of companies are not willing to spend the time nor money to sponsor said person but there is nothing to stop you from trying i.e. sending off resumes, making phone calls, sending emails etc.

Either way you will need a sponsor to file the initial paperwork before you can even apply for a visa.

The downside to the H1B is that it is an oversubscribed category, meaning that every year there are more applicants than there are visas available, last year the entire quota of H1's went on the first day of them becoming available. The second downside is that the deadline for H1 application is April for an October start and since you have not found a company you would be looking to file for April 2009, for an October 2009 start.

In regards to your girlfriend, unfortunately if you managed to get your company to transfer you or you were successful in gaining an H1B then your girlfriend would not be eligible for a derivative L2 or H4 visa - you would have to be married for her to be eligble to move with you. This leads me to third downside of the H1/H4 combination, if you managed to get an H1 and you were married and she got the H4, then she would not be allowed to work on this visa - this is the H1/H4 hell and why it is such a shoddy visa for families.

As it stands now, the only way she would be able to move with is to obtain an H1, J1 or L1 visa on her own merits but the only problem with that, is that due to the nature of these visas, the applicant usually as know say in where they relocate to, they move to where the job is based.

Below are some links, but I would give the L1 a serious look as this is by far the better visa in my opinion.