Immigration to the USA without a college degree?

Question

Emigration and immigration

Is it possible to move to the USA without a diploma, on an O1 visa? Having 2 years of experience in Data science in the direction of finance and consulting.

Answer 1

https://habr.com/ru/post/449202/
People who do not have US citizenship or residency must obtain a special visa, the H1B, to work in that country. It is sponsored by the employer - he needs to prepare a package of documents and pay various fees.
For an employee, everything is fine here - the company pays for everything, it is very convenient. There are even specialized sites, such as the MyVisaJobs resource, with the help of which you can find companies that are most active in inviting workers on an H1B visa.
But there is one drawback - not everyone who has received an offer from an American company will be able to immediately come to work.
H1B visas are subject to quotas that change annually. For example, the quota for the current fiscal year 2019 is only 65,000 visas. At the same time, 199 thousand applications for its receipt were submitted last year. There are many more applicants than visas issued, so a lottery is held among applicants. It turns out that in recent years the chance to win it is 1 out of three.
In addition, obtaining a visa and paying all fees costs the employer at least $10,000, in addition to paying salaries. So you have to be a very valuable asset for the company to be so stressed and still risk not seeing the employee in the country because of losing the H1B lottery .
Some large US companies with offices in other countries circumvent the restrictions of H1B visas with the help of L visas. There are different subtypes of such a visa - one of them is for transfers of top managers, and the other is for the transportation of talented employees (special knowledge worker) to the USA
Usually, in order to be able to move to the United States without any quotas and lotteries, an employee must work in a foreign office for at least a year.
Companies such as Google, Facebook, and Dropbox transport talent under this scheme. For example, there is a common scheme in which an employee works for some time in an office in Dublin, Ireland, and only then moves to San Francisco.
The disadvantages of this option are clear -you need to be a valuable person in order to interest not a simple small startup, but a company with offices in different countries. Then you will have to work in one country for quite a long time, and only then move to the second (USA) . For families, this can be difficult.
O1
visa This type of visa is for people with "extraordinary abilities" in their niches. Previously, it was more used by people of creative professions and athletes, but later it was increasingly used by IT professionals and entrepreneurs.
In order to determine the degree of exclusivity and extraordinaryness of the applicant, several points were developed for which he needs to provide evidence. So, here's what you need to get an O1 visa:
professional awards and prizes;
membership in professional associations that accept extraordinary specialists (and not everyone who can pay a membership fee);
victories in professional competitions;
participation as a jury member in professional competitions (clear authority for evaluating the work of other professionals);
mentions in the media (descriptions of projects, interviews) and own publications in specialized or scientific journals;
a significant position in a large company;
any additional evidence is also accepted.
It is clear that in order to obtain this visa, you really need to be a strong specialist and meet at least a few criteria from the list above.. The disadvantages of a visa include the difficulty of obtaining it, the need to have an employer on whose behalf a petition will be submitted for its consideration, and the inability to then easily change jobs - you can only be employed by the company that filed the petition with the migration service.
The main plus is that it is given for 3 years, there are no quotas or other restrictions for its holders.

Answer 2

No.
Happy to allow the immigration of qualified employees.
Nobody needs the unqualified. And the USA is no exception.
Hypothetically, if some firm in the US really needs you.... But I guess not until you become qualified enough for them.