A friend of mine sent me a mail last day. His friend is interested in moving to USA to work as a software engineer. He sent me 10 questions:

1. What is the cost of living in USA? I heard it depends on area, but could you tell me (approx.) how much it will be in some of possible areas?Would like to know the average expenditure per month also average salary for an IT professional?
2. Like here in India we have IT/software hubs like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Noida, Chennai, what are the places in USA I can target for my job hunting?
3. What is the tax I have to pay there? Some people say it is 50%, some say it is 30%….. Also do I have to pay tax in India too?
4. I am having exp. Around 5 year in c++, how much salary I can expect in normal companies (not very high pay masters like Microsoft)?
5. Which is the best way to go there, is it thro’ consultancies or direct? I have no idea about what will terms and conditions of the consultancies. Could you tell me what and all I have to consider or keep in mind while negotiating with them? Are there any free consultancies to sponsor H1?
6. How is working in US different from that in India (work environment)?
7. Any description about public life there and things to be taken care..
8. Any other tips and tricks?
9. I am also searching it in the internet, do you have any good links that I can refer for general info?
10. This is not the last question, but very important one for me, do you mind if I ask some of these kind of questions (may be very stupid) in future?

My answers:

1.Cost of living – The main components are rent and food (assuming your company pays for ur health insurance). Rent can vary anywhere from $450 to $1500 (or more) for a single bedroom/single bathroom apartment depending on the city and specific location in the city. If you are single, the best option is to take a 2 bed/2 bath apartment and share with another person. I can give you a general idea of the rent ranges : In Minneapolis, a good 1 bed/bath will cost approx $600-$800 in sub-urbs or $1000 – $1200 in downtown. In Seattle, the cost would be $700-$950 in sub-urbs and $1100-$1400 in downtown. In New Jersey and California, even suburbs can be very costly like $1400 for a 1bed/bath. If you live close to where you work, you wouldnt need a car. But the best bet is to get car and live in a sub-urb. If you cook, the food and other groceries would be surely less than $400 per month (i should say it would be around $200).If you eat outside it will be much higher (it is not very healthy either). To round up, you would spend around $1500 to $2000 dollars a month to live comfortably and $1000 if you are stingy (or live with roommates). The upper limit always depends on the person, ofcourse.
To give a general idea, $800 (rent) + $100 (utilities – electricity, water, garbage, sewer) + $300 (food) + $250 (car payment) + $50(phone bill) + $100 (car insurance) + $100 (gasoline) + $200 (fun – movies, dinner, other crap – optional) + $100 (buy stuff you like – optional). So there you are. If you get $4000 in your hand after tax, you save 50% of your salary, which is good and that is what you should aim for. You can get an idea of the rent in different cities from http://www.rent.com or http://www.craigslist.org.

2.The main IT hubs are California, New Jersey, Texas and NewYork (not necessarily in that order). Then there are cities like Seattle, Minneapolis,Chicago etc. As a matter of fact there are IT companies in major cities of most states (even North Dakota) . California, NewJersey and NewYork are very expensive in terms of cost of living.

3.The tax you pay varies from state to state (there are different components in the tax cut). There are a few tax exemptions but not much. In general it would be around 33% but it could be higher depending on your salary, location and situation (single vs having dependents etc).

4.The salary will always depend on many criterias like your previous experience and domain, your previous companies (brand name), how well you know your stuff, your ability to negotiate your salary, general market conditions, the availability of people with your skill set, whether you are a consultant or a inhouse developer, the location of your work (costlier places == higher salaries) etc etc. On the average a “good” C++ developer with 5 years of exp should get $75,000 + benefits + paid vacation per annum in a moderately expensive place. For costlier places you should be getting $80,000 – $90,000 per annum. For paymasters this would increase by $10,000 to $20,000. I would recommend going for an average salary in a company that gives stable employment as opposed to a high paying company where you could get laid off any day. The reason being that you really cannot afford to live here without a job (unless you have many years of savings, but that would diminish rapidly too).

5.The best way to come here is through direct hire but that is next to impossible (unless you are a well known geek in India). The reason for this is that if a company in US hires you, they really would want to bring you there straight away. Unless you already have a H1 this would not be possible. For H1 visas there is an annual cap which opens in April and gets filled within a month or two. So you should really start you paperwork atleast a couple of months before the cap for that year opens. Assuming that your potential employer applies for your H1 and gets it approved (3-4 months), you should go to the US Consulate and get your visa stamped and you can start working in US from the October of that year. So your employer has to wait for about a year to bring you aboard. Not many would be willing to do that unless they want you very very badly. Consultancies are the easy option but could cause you a lot of headache. There are good consultancies and bad ones. Dont depend on your luck in choosing one, always go for a consultancy for which somebody dependable can give you a reference. A good consultancy can be a better option than a permanent employer especially if you are looking for Green card processing and stuff. Another sneaky option is to get your current employer in India to process your H1 and wait till they send you onsite and then find a job here and change jobs (you can change jobs even if you are on H1, it is called a H1 transfer). Some consultancies charge you money for the H1, but I would recommend not to trust those people. They usually dont cheat you of that money, but it is almost always a headache to get it back. Moreover you are tied with them until you get it back. Some people just take it as a security deposit because some people after coming to US on H1 would immediately change jobs when they get a better offer. This would cause the consultancy to lose money (they shell out approx $3000 for your H1 plus approx $800 for your plane fare, some provide initial accomodation too). Some would make you sign bonds for a year or 6 months (which is ok if they pay decent salary). As a rule of thumb, stay away from consultancies which ask for money or bond. Also, keep away from people who says they will train you and find a job for you if you pay them money.

6. Work environment – Unless you work for a desi company in US (like Wipro, Infosys) you would be having a 8 hour job. Americans like to come in early and leave early so generally it would a 8 to 5 job. But software engineers might have to work some additional hours depending on your project schedule but the good thing is that you get paid for overtime. Americans almost never work on the weekends. They are extermely professional in the work place and they usually prefer to keep work at office and not mix with their personal life. This means that people who work together for many years might not know each others’ spouses or would never have visited each others’ homes. In a sentence, work and personal life are not mixed. Apart from that, conditions can vary from company to company just like in India. There are employee friendly companies and money hungry companies. Your work would always be appreciated if you do things well. There is less office politics (but it is there).

7.Life in USA – I could go on forever on this, but I would try to keep it short.

• People are very nice and polite to each other even though they may not know or like each other. It is like – give respect and take respect. You will be surprised when complete strangers greet you like you bosom buddies. The atmosphere is generally cheerful.
• They are very protective of their personal life and privacy.
• Americans like to enjoy life to the hilt. Examples of things they enjoy are hiking, bike riding, camping, parties, long distance running, building something (almost everybody has pet projects), flying, sailing, fishing etc.
• Life here can get very lonely unless you have some indian friends or you are married.
• Everybody has a car so it is highly recommended you get one too because visiting friends, going to work, going to a movie or in short going anywhere can be very difficult and troublesome if you dont have a car.
• People wont call you late in the night (usually after 8 – 9 pm) and they expect the same (except under emergencies).
• There is a custom of calling a person in advance and letting him know before going to their house.
• It is very bad to ask how much one makes, how much one pays as mortgage etc.
• Honking without a real good reason is considered very rude.
• You really wont lose your virginity if you dont want to. Infact, if you are a guy, you really have to try hard.
• Americans are far more self-reliant than the average Indian. They like to do most of the stuff themselves (like repairing broken stuff, painting the house, hiking).
• You can get sued for the most innocent folly.
• You are in seriously deep shit if you ever break the law and get caught.
• Americans are generally honest. A lot of practices in this country works on the belief that people are honest.
• Most people obey traffic rules. Yeah true… I am not kidding.
• There are lots of libraries in every cities and they are free. So if you love books, this is one thing you will love about being here.

In short, life in USA should be good if have a decent job and have friends and/or family here and you dont break the law.
8.Tips and Tricks

• First step should be to find a trustworthy consultant who has direct clients. Remember both are important – trustworthiness and having clients.
• Have all required docs ready – your degree certificates, marklists, previous employment related papers, birth certificate, passport etc etc.
• Read about H1 visa interview in websites and mailing lists. If you are going to Chennai Consulate, the visa interview can be a little tough compared to other consulates.
• Search in Dice and Monster, upload your resume there. Get good resume samples and modify your resume accordingly. (By good resume I dont mean flashy ones)
• Never ever try to mess with US authorities. Any dishonesty can land you in trouble and you may never be able to set foot in US.
• In stark contrast to Indian authorities, you can explain a bad/error situation (for eg. why you dont have previous employer’s relieving letter) to immigration authorities and they would understand it.
• Dont aim at GC processing right away. Be patient. Get a stable job, make sure you would want to stay with that employer for atleast 5 years (and that the employer would want you for 5 years) before starting GC processing. Consultants would like you to start GC processing immediately because then you wont be able to quit them (actually you can quit, but you will have to start the processing all over again with the next employer).
• I really dont like saying this, but having a lot of “keywords” in your resume helps. For e.g. C#, XML, ASP.NET, Java/J2EE, Hibernate, JUnit/NUnit, Javascript, SQL Server/Oracle. Even if you know only a little bit about it, you can put them in your resume because consultants search by these keywords. Make no mistake, your resume matters. Be sure to prepare well for the interview though.
• Dont take consulting assignments less than 6 months if you have a choice (unless there is no need to relocate). Short term assignments would typically be a pain considering the relocation (breaking current rental lease, finding new apartment, changing licence if you are moving out of state, not to mention moving all your furniture by yourself).
• Never ever do stuff that affects your credit rating.
• Always have cash backup for emergencies. Dont count on friends/co-workers to pull you out of financial emergencies.
• Use Craigslist for getting apartments/roommates/used cars/furniture etc (beware of frauds though).
• Dont buy a new car. Neither buy one which is older than 6-7 years. Buy one which is 2-4 years old. Best bets are Toyota Corolla/Camry or Honda Civic/Accord.
• Always make sure you have health insurance.
• Winters can be a little rough, so if you have the luxury to chose a state, go for the warmer ones. Snow looks beautiful only from a distance.

9.Links -

• http://www.immihelp.com

• http://www.murthy.com/h1bstvi.html

• http://www.path2usa.com/immigration/h1bcorner/H1b_interviewquestions.htm

• http://www.going2usa.com/employment/workvisa.html

• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=H1b+visa&btnG=Google+Search

• http://groups.google.com/group/misc.immigration.usa

10.Feel free to ask.

P.S. There is a follow-up post to this one. You can read it here.

Disclaimer and other crap :

The words above are from my personal experience but may or may not be accurate since it is just my point of view. You should take the responsibility upon yourself if you believe it or act based on it. You have no right to point the finger at me if you are in deep shit by following any of my advice or believing any of the things I said. You choose, you suffer.