perhaps off topic : UK lad looking for advice/info for working in USA AfterEffects/compositing work

[Mark Suszko]

If you had The Mill or Ardman on your CV, I’d say many folks would give you a shot. You are in a tricky area concerning tax liabilities as well as immigration status, and your best bet is to ask a solicitor there or a lawyer here to look up the statutes first. Maybe even a CPA.

What you do in the underground economy “off the books” is your own business, but the big bucks jobs, jobs that can be used for references for more jobs, are going to come with an audit trail for state and federal taxes and benefits and you don’t want to mess things up for you OR the business that wants your skills by getting them audited or you expelled for visa violations, so I’d pay the money for good legal advice first.

[Mike Cohen]

You need to get a company interested in you, offer you a job, then they have to help you get an H1 visa, which is a 3 year work permit. It costs good money for an immigration attorney, and a company needs to justify that similar talent is not available domestically.

[Monica F.p.williams]

Hi Chris,
It is difficult,
I went trough the all process (I am from Rome , Italy) .
It took me 8 years and 4 Lawyers to get finally a Green Card.
The only suggestion that I can give you is to get a very good and honest (?) Immigration lawyer that will tell you if you have any chance.
Here’ s the email for my Lawyer Victoria Ferrara: artandlaw@earthlink.net
She is amazing and HONEST!!!!
Ciao
Good Luck
Monica

Monica F.P.williams
crocodile editing

[Tony]

Find a beautiful lonely american girl who loves you (at least for two years) and then both of you get married and the rest is history.

Tony Salgado

[Ron Lindeboom]

Thanks Tony, I damned near spit up my coffee laughing when I read this one.

:o)

Ron Lindeboom

[Tim Wilson]

My wife works in an office that does immigration law, and I agree that having a lawyer is a crucial step. Best to have one local to your target area, because you’re going to have make a lot of visits to their office. (Most work on flat fees, so don’t worry: they have an incentive to work as efficiently as possible.)

Also good advice: best to have a job before you settle here, as an employer is the single most important hurdle for the immigration folks in the US — they want to know that you can pay your own way.

Okay, it helps not to have a criminal record in your home country, but you can work around that if you have a job much more easily than you can work around having no criminal record but no job.

So you’re quite right that the “US office” approach is going to be by far the easiest one.

Good luck!

Tim

[Christian Glawe]

Britney Spears and Pam Anderson are currently available, from what I understand….

[Chris Forrester]

LMAO thxs 😛

[Chris Forrester]

Thank you all for your insight into this process. I have learnt alot I had no idea about needing a lawyer but it seems this is one part that is very important in the process, especially in your choice of lawyer.

Im hoping to start pitching myself towards some of the larger post houses in London for the time being with the hope of some support from them and a better portfolio. I am planning a visit to the USA hopefully in April, so I might do a little digging around see if I can find some “bits” out from there end.

Thanks for the post Monica, and the reality check 🙂 it sure is a long process and best I know that now from others experiences, im glad it worked out for yourself 8years is a long time.

Thanks again all on the insightful thread…and the funnies 😛 you all got my sense of humour thats for sure lol

Seems this will be the start of along process 😛

Regards
Chris

[David Roth weiss]

[Tim Wilson] “(Most work on flat fees, so don’t worry: they have an incentive to work as efficiently as possible.)”

Hey Tim,

I suggest you tell your wife’s firm about my theory on flat rate billing. :):):)

DRW