Finding American Companies for Overseas Work?

markjrubin asks: "After reading this article I became interested in looking for Web work in Europe. I have been put in contact with numerous European companies, but am running into troubles getting companies to sponsor work permits. While my skillset is strong enough to get most of the jobs, the firms that I have talked with are all hesitant to sponsor a work permit. I've been told that the quickest solution is to find an American company to send me to Europe on contract work, but I'm not sure where to start looking, as the majority of the job boards do not offer this search feature. What does the Slashdot community think? Is the right solution to look for an American company? I'd love to hear comments from other Slashdot members."

Japan?

I work here now, but I got my visa the old-fashoned way -- I married a Japanese national.

I do meet a few Americans here, and they are nearly all coming over to work on the same thing: wireless wireless wireless.

New Zealand

Not Europe, I know, but nice none the less.

Loads of work here, easy work permits, and employment agencies that actually seem to do their jobs. Best way is to just punt over and talk to a few people, though you can search with your skillset here [jobstuff.co.nz].

Give me a mail if you actually want to do it and I'll get you set up.

Dave :)

Before assuming a dual citizenship, think....

A lot of posts are talking about how you can be a citizen of Ireland or other countries, which then allow you to bounce all over the E.U.

I don't know for sure, but the thought is a bit scarey so it would pay to be sure. Find out this answer first, obviously.

Would becoming a citizen also make you eligible to be drafted into that country's military service?

Re:and vice versa

Actually the US funded the Germans before the rise of hitler. At the same time as the French were driving the them into facism. The French tried to milk every last drop out of their WWI victory, a war ended by the influx of fresh Americans. The nazis were not funded by Americans.

And the Americans had a major influence in the European theater. They were also the only country to hold out on carpet bombing.

While its fun to pretend the Americans are always bad, this is not real. You must learn to seperate joking from reality.

Re:Ireland

Work permit? How about citizenship? If one of your grandparents was born in Ireland, you are entitled to citizenship. See Your Right to Irish Citizenship [oasis.gov.ie].

This lets you live and work, without a work permit, in any member country of the European Economic Area (the EU + Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein).

A warning on the mention of "post-nuptial declaration" in these documents: apparently the law has been changed, and from 2003 will require 3 years' residence in Ireland for the PND to be valid (basically making it only a shorter term for naturalization). If you were married in 2000 or earlier you might get in under the wire if you hurry. However, as the spouse of a citizen of an EEA country, you are guaranteed a work permit anyway.

(US citizen by birth, Irish citizen by PND.)

Ireland seconded and a networking pointer

Hi there

I second the poster above who mentioned Ireland as a suitable location. Germany is also good, with a caveat (will get to that in a second).

Pretty much any EU country is a good choice as many employers are willing to give people a chance without formal technical qualifications. You may have those qualifications, so you may be in a stronger position compared to those going over without them.

The most important piece of advice I could offer would be to network, network, network in your area first. While the job boards are useful to get an idea of what kind of things employers are looking for, your chances of success drop as soon as the jobs are posted in comparison to what you could find on your own in your area. Locally, there is always going to be a smaller range of candidates competing for positions in your area than over the Internet.

Do you have any European languages other than English? If not, are you willing to learn? This will also increase your employability. Don't get me wrong, I know North Americans who have been able to get jobs in Europe without those other languages, but they've faced more of an uphill climb than multilingual candidates. Just keep in mind that companies are looking for well-rounded individuals who not only have the technical nous to do well but some degree of congeniality, openness and adaptability. Other languages, while not the only factor, are strongly indicative of a person's malleability.

Good luck and keep us posted! Your experiences will help others that follow you.

A gourmet choice

Hey did you think of applying for this [mcdonalds.com] company ?

Renowned American company, with business open anywhere in the world, you might even choose to work in Moscow or Peking if you like !

Actually you can search for them...

Hi, I have spent a lot of time searching for job on US search engines and read lots of these job descriptions and I have pretty good idea how to accomplish your task. A lot of companies have a strong problem to find someone willing to travel more than 100 miles from his home to work. So most search engines include the option of travel.

So, apply for a job at consultant type of company and emphasise you don't mind to travel 100% of time. Such companies as computer associates, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and other are constantly looking for this kind of employees.

You might not end up with constant employment at once place in europe, but you might work 6-24 months per project in single place and then move to further project at some other place in Europe or at other place in the world.

Re:New Zealand

I'm a kiwi web programmer/database guy, and have thought at the odd time of working in a different country for higher wages. Most likely Europe as my dad is british and thus I could get a british passport without much trouble.

But it generally comes down to, well, would I really want to live anywhere other than New Zealand ?

And I think that once the increased cost of living would probably outweigh the increased earnings, so that when I came back I'd probably be no better off.

Of course, yes, there are things that cost a shitload more than in the states, and importing stuff with the NZ Dollar the way it is (about 42 US cents) currently is expensive. But on the whole the benefits outweight the costs.

So. Yes. Come to New Zealand it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, great people, pretty well technologically connected, and tech jobs a plenty.

---
James Sleeman

Find an American company

No matter how good your skills are, European companies are not likely to sponsor a work permit. The best route is to find an american company that will send you over there.

Here's [budgettravel.com] some information about working in Europe. Hope you'll have some luck finding work over there.

If you are Irish...

If any of your parents or grandparents were born in Ireland, you are considered an Irish citizen, and can register for a passport at and Irish consulate or embassy.

Irish citizenship allows you to live and work in any EU member nation without any restriction. The United States does not recognize this as valid and you cannot travel into or out of the United States on the passport. It does not affect your American citizenship, unless you are a military officer or hold a policy-level federal position.

Note however that you ARE fully subject to any and all European taxes (which are HIGH). Depending on circumstances, you may also be liable for US taxes. Consult a lawyer or CPA who specializes in these matters. It may be very also be difficult to move quanities of cash to and from countries.

This page should refer you to the embassay or consulate you need.

http://www.goireland.com/low/visitorsguide/iremb as sies.html

Re:and vice versa

No no no no no. You don't understand. The American going to Europe to work cause he can't find Web work in his home country isn't an opportunistic economic migrant leech, he's an adventurer spreading prosperity and capitalism. The European in the same situation who would like to work in the US is an invader, threatening job security and mom and apple pie, and should be given lip service and treated like crap.

Work in the UK.

I can sympathise with you about the hassle of finding a sponsor, been there, done that. Usually, it's because of ignorance about the visa system, or greed. So let's spell the rules out for the UK:

If you have an IT degree, or any degree with 1 years IT experience, and the job appears on the shortage occupation list (i.e. almost anything in IT), then the work permit is automatic, and takes about 2 weeks to be issued. The employer can fill out the application themselves, and it doesn't cost them anything. Check out www.workpermits.gov.uk for full details.

I've found that most UK IT recruitment consultants are ignorant of the rules and take some convincing. I even had one consultant who didn't believe me, and so she checked with the immigration consultant firm they usually used. The immigration consultant, the greedy bastard, told her I was lying, and that it was so hard to do that they needed to be involved and it would cost about a thousand pounds. Needless to say, I was no longer considered for the job.

The key, obviously, is to find a good recruitment consultant, one that knows about the rules, and is used to convincing employers to sponsor people. After too many bastards, I may have found a good one in www.abbeywood.com, time will tell, but certainly they're open to sponsoring visas. In general avoid the really small outfits, they're just cowboys out to rip people off. Some of the big internatioanl recruiters should also be used to dealing with visas.

If you are approaching companies directly, try the big international firms, they're used to dealing with permits. Otherwise, be prepared to tell them about how easy it is. I do this by emailing them a completed application form, just to show how easy it is, and give them the phone number of the work permit people to ring and ask verify.

Of course, as some people have already mentioned, if you have English or Irish grandparents, or your spouse has, then you're in like Flynn. The UK will give you a 4 year residency permit, allowing you to work there, and after 4 years, you can claim permenant residency.

The number one IT job search site in the UK is www.jobserve.com, if it's not there, it's not available.

Good luck!

Consulting might work for you

Go look for big consulting companies
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Accenture
KPMG
Arthur Andersen
Arthur D. Little
They all have offices in Europe. Other than that, look for European Companies with an American Presence (Brokat, Trintech, Intershop, ...) or go with the big guys (IBM, the evil Empire, HP, Sun, ...). I am sure you will find something ...

Worked for me.

I spent almost a year in Germany during 1999 and 2000 working for an American company. Find a company that has a strong international presence. The easiest engineering positions to find are for professional services type jobs -- where the engineer is needed on-site at the customer, even when the customer is in another country.

However, this requires strong language skills in the country of your choice. Of course a number of my colleagues were able to work in Great Britain and Australia where language was not a problem.

Good luck! Working in Europe is a truly wonderful experience.

--brian

Been there done that

I used to work for a UK company as an overseas worker. Getting your papers sorted is v. tough. The British Overseas Labour Service is very backwards and they do take their time. The whole system is simply designed to discourage from endavours such as yours and mine. Once you're done with OLS then you have to battle the Home Office. You see getting a work permit doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna get the visa! So you apply to Home Office and you wait some more. If you're lucky you'll get through and will be permitted to work there for one to three years. During that time you can't change employment or even positions within the same company. If you're laid off you have to go through the entire process once again with a different company. All that paperwork you've been fighting for so fiercely is declared void the moment you or your employer decide to end the employment agreement. It doesn't matter if you apply to a British or an American company. They know all too well just how hard getting a work permit can get. I was lucky enough that my employer wanted me so badly that they pursued the matter for eons before the OLS finally gave in and granted us the work permit. The law in the EU essantially states that an overseas employee may only be granted a work permit if and only if there is no suitable candidate within the entire EU(!) being able and willing to fill the position in question. Proving this means that the employer must publish the job advert in a EU-wide newspaper/magazine, interview all candidates yourself including and then state the reason for selecting yourself over and above every other candidate. Also it's not enough to say that you're the best of the bunch. Your prospective employer must explain why nobody else was suitable for the job. What it means is that usually only highly specialised positions stand a chance of being filled by foreigners. Forget it if you're a sysadmin or a run of the mill codemonkey.

If you don't feel like going through this kind of trauma and humiliation go to another [cic.gc.ca] country which actually has a real immigration policy. You can apply even if you don't have a job lined up beforehand. And yes it's quite a bit different from the US of A.

Hope this helps.

Wrong

You're not correct. I've been through the process and it is not nearly as easy as you project. With solid experience and an enthusiastic company I still got my work permit refused first time round. The process is long, uncertain and daunting. It was easier for a couple of years 1998, 1999 but according to many people I keep in touch with OLS is hardening up again. You could have been one of the very few lucky ones whose applications seem to have been stamped approved right away due to a clerical error but that's an exception rather than a rule. See my post below about just how tough it can get for a UK employer to hire an overseas worker.

Man...

It's only a few hours after the Supreme Court [cnn.com] struck down the use of medicinal marijuana, and people are already fleeing to Europe???

You wouldn't be looking for work in Amsterdam, would you? :-)