Greener Pastures: Entry into North America/Europe Industry

[Garlick]

Here's my background:

1. I presently reside in India and am studying an external undergraduate management course offered by the best finance college in the UK - Will graduate in 3 years.

2. I started my own small investment firm where I manage some family portfolios and also am bidding for contracts on Vumero and Elance/Odesk etc. I also run some financial modelling and basic programming/math classes for some high schoolers. I'm also heading an investment society at a local institute and am also working on some finance-related research papers.

3. I've already started going through the extremely useful recommended reading list in this site along with interesting textbooks for MFE like Shreve stochastic calc. etc.

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I would like to move over to North America (or Europe) - hopefully by next year. But find it difficult for the following reasons -

1. Visa points system seems to favor only those with experience and degrees. Despite my external course allowing me to move freely, it would still take 2.5 more years to complete the degree.

2. I'm unable to get any appropriate work exp., I'm attempting to fulfill it by running my own business.

3. I was thinking of entering through the investor/entrepreneur visa programs but the minimum investment requirements seem to be too high.

4. Many of the financial services firms seem to be unwilling to sponsor visas to Aliens from outer space

5. I'm not willing to spend too much by enrolling for undergraduate studies in Canada. So transfer is out of question. I'm in the process of attempting to save adequate amounts for Masters/Phd later.

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Here are some of my questions.

1, Do you know any firm or a list of firms that would be willing to sponsor foreign nationals (India in particular) ? I'm willing to work in any investment management/financial modelling/investment research related role. I'm not too concerned about the pay or size.

2. Do you have any suggestions/ideas for me ?

 

[Shantanu Kumar]

1. All big investment banks have internship program where they mention they can arrange visa for RIGHT candidate.
Then again competition is very intense for such banks. At least you can give it a try. But I think you need to do a bit of research and good preparation in case you finally make through the shortlisting.
2. Try to get admission in some graduate course in those places?

 

[Garlick]

1. All big investment banks have internship program where they mention they can arrange visa for RIGHT candidate.
Then again competition is very intense for such banks. At least you can give it a try. But I think you need to do a bit of research and good preparation in case you finally make through the shortlisting.
2. Try to get admission in some graduate course in those places?

1. I was aware of that and definitely plan to try. But I'm not too very optimistic about it due to excessive competition. I was thinking I might have a better chance at MM or smaller investment firms. Do you happen to know any that do sponsor visas ?

2. In my bucket list. But I still have 2.5 years to go before I complete my undergrad. Since I'm doing a distance course, I'm planning to gain work exp. alongside the course. I also have the aim of immigrating to N.A./Eurozone ASAP.