Hacker News Reader

No idea what parent poster said (comment deleted), but if you want to work in the US, you can still try for an H1B visa. Your work experience and achievements can be used to demonstrate specialization in the field and serve as the equivalent of a college Bachelors degree. The quota was exhausted for this year, but assuming you are Australian you can shoot for an E3.

View on HN

FWIW, H1Bs have run out until October 2013.

Lachy is Australian though, and could almost qualify for the E3, which is a far better visa (I'm still on it seven years on) though it still needs employer sponsorship and some level of university education, which makes it less than suitable for his case.

The dynamics of the H1B run-out will be interesting for Australian tech workers if it means US companies can only hire Canadians (TN) and Australians (E3) for the next 16 months.

The substitute ratio for work experience to college years for H1-B is 3:1. It requires a 4 year degree, so you need 12 years to make the case for this.

But, the reason we are reading about this is likely so he can use it on an O1 application. He's seeded a few of these same stories.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com