What Do I Have To Do To Better My Chances For An Internship?

It is now too late to find a sponsor for a H1B visa in 2014. What are my chances to find a VC funded startup to sponsor a trainee/internship J-1 visa for me?

• I am a Swiss currently working in strategy and technology consultancy in Switzerland. I hold a Master degree from EPFL (Switzerland) and studied one year abroad at Carnegie Mellon University. I previously interned at Microsoft and IBM. My goal is to immigrate to the US and work in a business dev or product management position in a leading startup (alternatively, work as an analyst for a VC). While my girlfriend is American, I'd rather wait for the marriage option. I've just decided to move to San Francisco and I'm realizing I'm arriving too late for the H1B season! What are the likelihood of finding a leading startup to sponsor a J-1 visa? (Note: I plan on moving to the USA with a tourist visa to network my way through such startups)

• Answer:

  It is most certainly too late for H-1B this year. If you're interested in working in 2015, you'll need to find a company willing to sponsor you and submit the paperwork within the first week of April 2015. If you're lucky and you win the H-1B lottery, you'll be able to work beginning October 2015. J-1 visas are for exchange students going to school in USA. You cannot work with this visa.