

Ask HN: Am I hireable? - alll

So I came to the states when I was barely 11 and long story short,my family and I over stayed our tourist visa. Forward to now, I'm a 22 y.o. senior in college in my last semester completing a graphic design degree and a minor in the honors program (business and liberal arts ). I have taught my self  HTML, CSS, jquery, some PHP, wordpress, etc. I have also made freelance websites and had an internship in NYC over the  summer (junior front developer). I also read and listen to everything about the web development industry, I really try to stay up to date.<p>&#62; Now that school is almost is almost done, I have no idea what the future holds for me. I would love to work in a start up, but because of missing paper work I can't legally work as a full or part time employee, I would only be able to work with a 1099 (contractor) and without any solution in sight (unless I get married).<p>So do you guys think I that anyone in the industry would hire me? If not, is there anything that I should focus on learning next? Right now I'm in the process of learning codeigniter, backbone.js and ruby<p>PS: my family pays taxes
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rajdesai225
Hmmm...Interesting post. Typically - I would say something that is illegal is
illegal but in your case you were a minor so couldn’t really hold it against
you. In my opinion - you have two options:

Option 1: Apply to a company on international grounds and ask them to sponsor
you on H1-B Visa. (Very-Very Difficult)

Option 2: Apply to a MS program as an international student and get your visa
status changed to Student Visa. Upon your graduation - you will have work
permit to get a job in US and then your job will apply for H1-B Visa. (You
should consult a lawyer)

In any case, you will be in limbo for a long time.

Third and most expensive and unlikely option is that you can invest one
million dollars in a start-up that creates a minimum of 10 fulltime US Jobs
and you automatically get US Citizenship :)

Of course - you have already identified 4th Option of finding a spouse here
who is already a citizen of US :)

Anyway - Good Luck!

~~~
alll
I've talked to many lawyers... there is no way to do it since the visa is also
expired and I'm already in the states. So options 1+2 are out the door. So is
#3... and as for #4, I don't believe I can since you need a SS, otherwise I
would of done it.

Thanks for the suggestions tho

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topherreynoso
unreal, no matter what your stance is on how people should enter this country,
i think we should all agree that if you've been here 10+ years, paid taxes,
and have no criminal record, citizenship should be automatic. my father
immigrated to the states with his parents when he was 4, they came and were
granted legal residency but it took nearly 50 years for him to finally get
citizenship and not for lack of trying. it was a proud day when we went down
to LA and watched him go through the ceremony and swearing in to become a
citizen but it just made me so upset that it took so long. what's crazier is
that he was a police officer for nearly 10 years, was a small business owner
(which made him a millionaire) and created 15 jobs in California, never went a
year after 18 without paying taxes, and went through the citizenship process
five times before they finally granted it (the previous four times he was just
told "we'll call you when we're ready to make you a citizen"). for a country
that was founded because of taxation without representation, it's pretty
backwards the way we treat tax paying "visitors". i know none of this helps
you but i was in need of a rant on the subject. :)

~~~
alll
Definitely helps. Good morale booster

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steventruong
I know someone exactly in the same boat as you (i.e. not legal status and
needs to get married if they want to stay and be hired legally). He does
things through 1099s as well. There are seriously legal repercussions and as a
result, he can't be legally employed. Been programming for a really long time
and even has his CS degree. Unfortunately the best he can do is contract work.

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redguava
Are you good?

If yes, then you're very hireable.

If no, then practice, learn and get better.

The rest doesn't matter as much.

~~~
molsongolden
Agreed. You might have trouble getting a job with GloboCorp but you should
have no problem finding work with small businesses. If you are great at what
you do and can create value for their business then people will be scrambling
to pay you in whatever way possible.

~~~
alll
Good point on the scrambling, never saw it that way.

I have a passion for learning everything around the industry, I have been
commended for my work ethics and design skills regularly by peers and
professors.

I don't know what else I should focus on

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rajdesai225
Oh...and I forgot to mention one more option is to join US Army and earn your
citizenship through honorable service :)

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petervandijck
I would focus on iOS.

If you can get reasonably good at that (and you should be able to), people
will pay you.

~~~
alll
I really wish I could, the only problem is that I have to save for a mac
(hackintosh maybe?), but since I have no way of getting a legit job, its gonna
be hard to get enough for the apple tax

