₦airaland Forum

Check list of companies sponsoring H1B visa in the link below

http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/2014-H1B-Visa-Sponsor.aspx

I Google it. Use Google to get your way through the process.

H1B Visa for Nigerian

This is just to encourage more Nigerian engineer, scientist and IT workers to apply for H1B visa. Indians are making use of this heavily and Nigeria can also benefit more from it than they are doing now. The advantage Indians have is that they have a lot of people who have acquired training in and working in IT industry. I have met Nigerians from mobile telecoms and IT that have used this H1B opportunity in coming to and working in United States.

You will not have a lot to loose if you start the process because most of the steps you will need to take will be online. If you think you have some good skill in your area of IT or engineering or science try it. I am not saying you must be an inventor you only need some specialized skill, you do not need to be Steve Job or Elon Musk.

If you start the process of coming to US on H1B visa now, you may be able to stay and work legally in US in 2018 if the present administration in United States have not canceled the program by next year. The process for 2017 is almost concluded you may not be able to make it this year unless you have started the process earlier.

There are some benefit to individual and to Nigeria as a whole.
1. Personnel in US on average earn more than people working in Nigeria. And if you are on H1B visa the minimum employer must pay you legally will be better than a new graduate from US university.
2. By vacating your present work in Nigeria you will be making space for some others that are not employed at the moment or underemployed.
3. Environment, Roads, Health, Sanitation, Security, Housing and other facilities are much more developed in US compare to Nigeria
4. US experience will be useful when you come back to Nigeria or if you go to other places in the world.
5. Your children under the age of 18 will attend school free like most other children in US and in most cases they will be able to join school buses free.

The bad side
1. Your wife or your husband will not be able to work in the United state but your wife or husband can come with you.
2. Staying in the United States is much more expensive than Nigeria. What you spend in Nigeria on accommodation in Lagos annually is likely to be what you will be spending monthly in a city that is not very expensive in United states. But you are likely to earn better than what you are earning in Nigeria.
3. You will leave the environment you have known for the unknown environment with different culture.

The process
1. You will need to get employer that will petition for the visa on your behalf
2. The employer will need to petition for H1B visa on your behalf
3. The US govt will need to select you for H1B visa
4. You will need to apply and get your visa stamped on your passport
5. Come to US and either start the job the sponsor of your H1B have for you or you look for another H1B level job that another employer can give you.

The first two steps is the most difficult part of it. There is some possibility of been successful if you start the process, but you will not be successful on the process if you do not start. To get an employer please go online and search for employer that will sponsor you. Employer will normally look at your resume (CV) and in most cases interview you on phone before accepting to submit your application for the H1B visa to the United States government. The limit to the number of worker that can come to US annually based on the H1B is about 60000 globally. The number of application normally submitted by employer in recent year far outnumber the 60000. For this reason there is normally a kind of lottery to select the eventual H1B worker.
Your H1B employer will not be able to submit a petition for the visa for you till April 2018 but you will need to start the process of getting employer now. Search for employer based on your field.

Search the internet. I have met a few Nigerians that came to US based on the H1B. They all told me that they got the opportunity through internet. Through my search recently I got list of employers that are sponsoring the visa, you may google H1B visa sponsors. Select the employers among the sponsors that is applicable to your industry and get in contact with them by email and let them know you want a sponsor for H1B.

When contacting sponsor with your resume (CV), use US resume format. Prepare your resume in US format. You can get a lot of samples on this format on internet.

People have used this opportunity, Nigerians have used this opportunity, try it, it may work for you.

ayomaxwell:
Hello e-family. Please is there any member living in Missouri? I wish to connect so we can talk about jobs and other stuffs. I am presently in Jefferson City and there is no much stuff here.

I am in St Louis Missouri. I do not know very much about the state yet. It seems Jefferson city is far from St Louis.

I wish to openly show my appreciation to Jejelady and other nairalanders in Dallas. They really took care of me for a month that they accomodate me in Dallas. I thank Roodboy, Jehovahnissi and numerous others that I do not know their nairaland name.

Jejelady waited for me at airport till after midnight the day I arrived in Dallas. I experienced delay but she waited for me. She took me from Airport to where she bought food for me that night before she went to drop me where I will be staying, which she arranged for me. It is only God that can reward her for the way she has helped a lot of us that has crossed her part.

Jejelady and others really helped me with transport, advice, getting my SSN, getting my green card, going to church and getting job. You made my entry and settling in US very easy and comfortable. I pray that God will reward you in Jesus name.

I am out of Dallas for job reason after a month. I really miss nairalanders in Dallas. Thank you nairalander in Dallas and Jejelady.

felixfelix:
Can one track the status of once Green card processing with USCIS?

Yes you can track it. After making your payment for the green card, you can start checking by logging into https://elis.uscis.dhs.gov . It will be displaying "Your application/petition has been accepted and is pending review" some days after your payment. Later it will "change to card produced". You will get your card within 3 days of seeing card produced.

jagajaga79: Longest time memeber of the house as the DV 2014 come to an end our sucess will be increases every seconds.am now in Katy Houston texas.I need someone to help me with Resume my host is so buzz,please any help will be appreciated i just need a format and i will edit it with my information,madam jejelady please if there will be thanks giving please let us all be aware,for those that yet to jet out insha allah God will make the journey the peacefull one.One love to nairaland member.

Please visit myperfectresume.com and use it to prepare your CV. If you know how to use Microsoft word very well, you will just do it yourself but use their template. So that you will not need to pay.

I will be remembering you in my prayer. I believe God can turn this decision around. I urge every member of this forum to remember this family in prayer. "So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who shows mercy." Romans 9:16

diskindgod: It was exactly a week now that I went for my chat. I purposely delayed posting my experience because of the response I was expecting from the embassy.

Based on advice from NL members,we left all our items in the hotel except our docs which I packed in a big nylon bag. At the first security check, wife and my son were allowed and later ordered by the security to the hall while I was at the first point doing security check because of the nylon containing our docs I held. After the thorough check, I stepped outside to go to the main hall but couldn't sight my wife. I asked the security who gave people umbrellas and said she has been ordered in. His colleague apologised for that. As I entered the hall for other security check, I met my wife standing and about to be sent out for being overstayed by the security. I removed belt, got no B411 and we all entered the interview hall. While paying for three, wife was asked to go sit. Docs were well arranged and submitted as the officer said 'Thank you for being organised'. (Thanks to NL, where I got how to arrange docs, for this compliments). While the waiting lasted, I almost went 20times to carry my son from different corners he went playing and disturbing people.

No beeped at window 16(White lady). We went together while son was carried by wifey. Did finger prints and son(1yr 3months) also wanted to place his hands. When I saw he wanted to cry, I just allowed him place hands.

CO: Gd morning
Me: replied.
CO: are u xyz
Me: yes
CO: what is ur highest qualification
Me: answered.
CO: what year (couldn't hear well and begged she say it again 2times as son was pestering with noise abt to cry)
CO: Pls madam(my wife) go and sit far off with the child

I was left alone, she continued with me and later called my wife for her own chat while I also went to sit afar.

CO: what year and which university
Me: answered.
CO: where do you work
Me: Answered.
CO: As?
Me: Accountant
CO: When, where and at what age did u meet ur wife.
Me: Answered. Wifey: Answered.
CO: When did you propose to her
Me: Answered. Wifey: Answered.
CO: what is your child DOB
Me: Answered. Wifey: Answered
CO: When was the naming
Me: Answered. Wifey: Answered.
CO: what day of the week was it.
Me: Didn't answer and she jumped it. Wifey: Monday.
CO: How many people attended.
Me: Answered. Wife: Answered.
CO: When did you go to deliver
Me: 9am. Wifey: 4pm
CO: In the night
Wifey: Yes
CO: Which hospital did your wife deliver
Me: mission house, owned by a retired nurse. Wifey: Faith Mission
CO: Where were you when she left for hospital
Me: Office(DV Plc, we used to work from 8am till 9pm). Wifey: DV plc
CO: How did she get there
Me: she trekked to a junction from house and took bike. Wifey: By bike.
CO: What is the distance
Me: Less than 15mins. Wifey: Like 20mins
CO: What time did she deliver
Me: 11pm. Wifey: 11pm
CO: What time did u get there
Me: 9pm. Wifey: 8pm
CO: How many people were there when she delivered.
Me: The retired nurse, her daughter and husband. Wifey: Matron and a nurse.
CO: When was she discharged
Me: Next day. Wifey: Same
Co: Who came to visit her in the hospital
Me: mother in law. Wifey: same
CO: when did she arrive
Me: Next morning. Wifey: Same
CO: Who came to visit you the day you delivered
Wifey: Nobody
CO: Who came to visit your husband
Wifey: Nobody
CO: Who was with you in the hospital when you delivered.
Wifey: my husband.
CO: How many nurses are in the hospital
Wifey: I don't know
CO: is the matron owner of the mission house
Wifey: yes

After these two seperate interviews, I was denied visa on the grounds of inability to convince the CO of a bona fide spousal relationship.

Lessons:
1) For people yet to go for interview, pls prepare very very well as visa limit has been reached for the fiscal year hence embassy is looking for any loophole to deny applicants. DV visa no too dey again o.

2) People with babies should leave the babies playing and show them if the CO asks for them. A child will always be a child. They can distract and cause separate interviews if taken along to the CO.

3) Patners should not leave themselves irrespective of pressures from the embassy security.

Thank you to all green house members 2013 and 2014 threads. The bbm NL group is also appreciated. I remember how the monthly prayers & fasting contributed to my spiritual life. You guys are all wonderful. Names too numerous to mention.

I am writing this long input to the forum because I think it might be useful for somebody. I got some direction from these forum and other forums. Every US embassy have a lot in common but there are things unique in preparing for the US diversity immigrant visa interview in each embassy. Preparing for the interview and attending it in London is somehow different from attending it in other places mostly in terms of getting the police report or reports and the medical.

Police Report from Nigeria
I was in Nigeria in April, I used the opportunity to do the police report at Alagbon. The input from nairaland made it very smooth for me. My wife did not come to Nigeria that made her own a little different. She has to go to MET police office in London to get her fingerprint done. (Taking your fingerprint yourself or by someone that is not police is not acceptable to US embassy in london – this is stated on their website). The finger print done in London was sent to me in Lagos. I took it to Alagbon and they worked on it and generated the police report for my wife.

Police Report from UK
Getting police report in UK is by downloading a form from ACPO police website, filling the form, attaching your picture and proof of address and sending it to the address specified on the form.

Medical
I went for my medical in early August at Knightbridge doctors in central london. Part of the requirement is for you to bring in medical report from your GP (GP means general practitioner doctor in clinic that you normally use). We went with our medical reports. A doctor examined each of us. Their conclusion that day is that we take some vacination and that the medical report from my GP is not detailed enough. We have to go back to my GP to get more detailed medical report. We attempted taking our immunisation from other places before going back with more detailed medical report but not all the vaccination are available in places we visited. We could not get the detailed medical report till 10days after our initial medical examination. Our medical got almost too late to the embassy. I thank God that we made it.
Please note that you will need to book your medical with Knightbridge doctor about one month ahead of the time you want to attend the medical examination to get a place. They are the only one for the whole of UK. Also note that if you are not born in UK and grow up there it will be to your advantage to give at least 3 to 4 weeks between your medical examination and your visa interview. The reason been that your medical history might have some gaps unlike people born and bread in UK that have continuos medical history. This will enable you to get more time to go back and get more information from your GP if needed. I will also advise you take your vacination in the Knightbridge clinic because you might find some difficult to get outside the Knighbridge doctor.

The interview
I joined the queue outside the embassy by 7:15am for 8:00am appointement. We were admitted into the building about 7:45am. I was called to the counter where my documentation were compiled about 8:10am. Please note unlike Lagos where there is no need to bring proof of support, in London US embassy you need to bring proof of support. It was requested from me, I went with three. My bank accout showing some saving. This was rejected. The man asked me how much was on it. Immediately I mentioned it, he said no. I also went with two affidavit of support. When I gave him the first one he checked it and said that it is OK that I do not need the second. I do not know what the outcome would have been if I have not brought the proof of support. I will advice whoever is going to go with some saving or affidavit of support from friends in US.
I was directed to go and pay after the collection of the documentation.
We were called to the interview proper about 09:00am. We exchange greetings with the interviewer, we were asked to swear or affirm we did that and three question were asked from me.
a. What is your highest degree?
b. Where did you study?
c. What work are you doing?
My wife was asked if she has ever been removed from USA. We did not understand why the question was asked because my wife have never been to the US. She answered no and that she has never been there.
We were told that I am approving your visa. We were advised to collect it in about 10 working days time from the address we registered earlier. Our original documentation were returned to US including the CD for our xray and the police reports.
Please note that
a. It is advisable to go with the proof of your legal stay in UK. This was requested during the documentation part.
b. Register for the collection of your passport before you go for the visa interview. The printout of the registration will be needed during documentation.
c. If it is a cold day dress appropriately. You may spend up to an hour outside before you are admitted into the building.
d. Go with proof of support
I thank God for making everything to go smoothly. I thank this forum for information.

To God be the glory, my visa was approved this morning. I thank God and members of this house for help on requirements through postings on this forum. I will give details later.

Do not be worried about visa bulletin for Nigeria.

Please let nobody be discourage about the movement of the visa bulletin. My case number is about 18,000. Everybody that won will have opportunity of been interviewed. If you analyse the statistics at this link that westcodes gave us for last year 2013 the whole picture will be very clear. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmbWzexdyvIldEs1d3VWWnJoV1BZSTF0R0JGeVRSTFE&usp=drive_web#gid=7 DV cases judged in 2013, it's interesting.)

Note this: In Nigeria case for 2013 only 18 case numbers were greater than 20,000. All the other African country except few like Egypt and Congo are well distributed from 0 to about 100,000. What is happening in our own case this year is that almost everybody that won in Nigeria are having their case number less that 20,000. They are distributing the visa bulletin for Nigeria based on this. They already have rough figure of the number of people they are going to interview in Nigeria and they have known the number of people to be invited each month.

If your case number is high continue to prepare. Find out what you can do in US in terms of career and prepare for it. You will surely be interviewed before the end of September. If you look at the case of 2013 there is no body from Nigeria (based on the statistics in the link) with case number 19xxx that was interviewed earlier than August. Everybody in 19xxx in Lagos were interviewed in August and September.

Our high case number will be to our advantage based on the way this forum is helping with information. Those that will go to US early will be able to help us with information on how to Travel, settle and find jobs and career.

General Advice Number 1

I have never been to US but I presently leave and work in UK and I am hoping to relocate to US after my interview. I wish to advice anyone who can not drive now and above 18 traveling to stay in US to learn driving before coming to US. Even if you can not make it to the stage of passing drive test before leaving Nigeria. It is very expensive learning to drive in all these advance countries. You will still pay to learn to drive in US even if you know how to drive in Nigeria but if you know how to drive in Nigeria before coming you will spend less on learning how to drive. In UK you pay about 20pounds for each hour you learn driving with driving instructor (Most people that knows how to drive spend more than 10 hours to learn to obtain their driving licence). For safety reasons they are not careless about giving out driving licence, testing people for driving licence is much more thorough

phatzyka: Hello house, how was your weekend? Concerning Seye4God's write up. Is it that one will be disqualifed when the person has a baby before the person was selected in May? I had my son this year March and my selection was this year March and we have sent the forms in June this year. Looking forward to your quick response.

No. One will not be disqualified because he has a baby. Seye was disqualified because he had the twins before he played the lottery initially without filling the name of the twins in the lottery. If he has filled in the name of the twins in the lottery he would not have been disqualified. If he had the twins after playing the lottery he would not have been disqualified. You are not allowed to put in new name except you gave birth after the lottery or you got married after playing the lottery.

Zeleez: Plz advise me on dis for those that already in US n those that hv idea of world education service, my VISA has bn approved plannin to cross over soon. Plz am a bachellor of Engineering Degree holder in Electrical Engineering and Electronic from one of the Nigerian universities, i plan sendin my transcript to WES for evaluation so that i can continue wit my masters dia but i heard engineering is not selling in US, i plan to change n start from d beginnin wit any medical course like nursing, plz do i stil need to send my transcript to WES for evaluation since i am changin from engineerin to medical line.
Again am i to send both O level (waec) result together wit my university degree plz hw can i do dis

Please consider it very well before you discard a degree you spent more than 5 years to acquire. It is not true that Engineering is not selling in US now. Obama specifically mention it during is 2nd term inauguration address of his desire to be able to retain every postgraduate engineer coming to US from outside US to study after their graduation. You study Electrical Engineering that means you must have taken a lot of courses in mathematics, programing, electronics etc. You only need to pray for God's favour. You will be successful in postgraduate programme in any university in the world (if you really studied and passed all your courses in Nigeria University). I also studied Electrical/Electronics in Nigeria. I have worked in Nigeria, in UK and Middle East. Nigeria Engineer are not usually second class engineer when they have opportunity to compete with others.

You may go into other survival job (rough jobs)to complete your postgraduate program in Engineering. You will surely make it in US. Software developer on average earn better than medical doctors. As a graduate of Electrical engineering you need only God's favour and a very small training to be an outstanding software engineer because you understand both the software and hardware aspect of any computer and electronics system. Send your transcript to WES. When you get to US apply for job you can do as Engineer and pray for God's favour. You may need to do menial job for some time but you will soon get engineers job.

Try and locate and make friends with engineers wherever you go settle. You have got the basic to make it as an engineer anywhere in the world. People can say you have studied outdated engineering in Nigeria, but you have got the basic. No matter how fast any engineering school is updating their curriculum it is outdated by the time their Graduates are out because engineering is changing fast most especially electronics and computer technology.

You will spend less effort to become a postgraduate well employed engineer than starting a career in Nursing. I will advise think of Software Engineering. Many Indians are going to US, UK and Canada every year to work as Software Engineer. You have got the potential, you have outstanding brain to study and complete engineering degree in Nigeria.

I wish you the best and God's favour.

westcodes: Incase anyone is interested;

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmbWzexdyvIldEs1d3VWWnJoV1BZSTF0R0JGeVRSTFE&usp=drive_web#gid=7

DV cases judged in 2013, it's interesting.

The statistics is very detailed. From the statistics I am able to see why the case that are current each month are not equal. The distribution of case number is not linear. In the statistics only 18 cases are above case number greater than 20000 out of 2483 cases handled in Lagos.
I could see that about one third of cases in Lagos were refused in 2013.

Please do you know what ready means in the table?

For the people like Ernestleon and others based outside Nigeria, Please how did you handle your Police Report and Birth Certificate from Nigeria. I presently leave in UK. I know general answer to this question. Please I want specific answer from people that have passed through the process of getting it outside Nigeria?

I wish everybody attending their interview tomorrow good success.