Hi KP people and james, sorry if this is an out of topic thread.
So i live in southeast asia continent and i got this racing instructor job in vegas, they want to interview me in person but the interview is just a formalization.
My question is :
Can i enter the country with a tourist visa and when i get the job can i change my status to work visa without going back to my home country?
Do NOT do this. I was naive enough to think it would be fine several years ago. Got myself deported and banned for 5 years.
Im trying to be as clean as i can. I mean if i go to the us embassy right now, i dont have a legal document yet that im employed by the company.
What to do now?
Go as a tourist, but have everything in place to be a tourist. Do not tell immigration you’re coming for an interview or to look for work. You have to be a tourist through and through.
The entry form you fill out before landing has (or at least used to have) a specific place to sign that you’re not seeking employment etc.
It’s tricky. For sure go as a tourist and do the interview but then I’d head home afterwards and let the company get you the correct visa so you can re-enter legally.
If you’re worried about cracking under questioning then get a visa before you travel, if you have a visa in your passport they don’t ask you a thing.
Honestly it’s not worth doing anything even slightly risky - even now 20 years on I can’t enter US on an Esta, I have to get a visa
Yeah i kinda had that thought too for some reason. Doing some touristy stuff first. Go to interview, got the job. But the scary part is when im about to apply the work visa meaning there’s slight chance that i will getting caught by entering the country just to get a job.
As far as I know from my own experience looking down a similar road, though that was 20 years ago it maybe relaxed a bit but I doubt it.
The correct way to go about it would be to attend the interview either as a tourist or with a visa then go back home and apply for the green card (residency and employment).
The company you’re going to work for has to show immigration folks that they’ve advertised locally for x months then nationwide for x months and not been able to find a suitable candidate. It’s super tedious - I gave up in the end.
Has the company offering you the position investigated with INS to get you a green card? It’s on them to do so not on you, unless you have a relative who can sponsor you
Lemme dm you Richard.
The only paperwork that i have is a letter from the company for me to attend the interview. But will the us embassy approve my tourist visa?
Pretty sure you will need them to sponsor you to get work permit or whatever.
Can i apply work visa by myself if they dont want to sponsor me?
Everything you need to know is here, you’d need to pluck through all the different visa eligibility details and see if any fit your circumstances
Thank you so much Richard 
First congratulations!
Second, yeah Richard helped you avoid a big mistake. US immigration don’t take kindly to working under a tourist visa waiver and you could find yourself locked out. Getting into the US legit can be a process. As an Irishman married to a US citizen at the time, it still took two years of documents and other malarky for me to get permanent resident status here.
Actually, I think this is great. If the forums become a place for people to find work in karting or other forms of racing, that’s a really positive thing. It’s on topic in the sense that when people come to karting they often think only of being a driver as “profession”… when really there are lots of cool opportunities to work in the sport.
!!!
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Yes! And some other things as well like photography etc. it’s all related.
Amen to that! My step mom came from the Philippines and my dad always talked about how hard it was
Thank you james. Yess indeed its very hard to enter The US legally. I tried any possible legal ways to stay in the country back in 2016. I even tried to join the army but fam against it. 
And now have the opportunity to go back to The US legally its very challenging and yet still holding that so called american dream.
Yeah im following what richard says.
My boss the chief instructor is from Philippines too. He also told me from his side of story how hard it is. I can relate to that.
Having been a person who came (and since left) the US on a work visa, I can provide some insight.
So the US does allow you to enter on a tourist visa (visa waiver program or b1b2) for an interview but you have to have some sturdy evidence that you’ll be leaving, like a return flight, a job to return to, real estate etc. I’m pretty sure most people just say they are on vacation, but thats risky if you can’t take the pressure (or you’re bringing a helmet and race suit for example).
After the interview, you will have to leave the country. It’s very difficult (might not even be allowed) to move from a visitor visa or a work visa in country.
Then you’ll have the work visa, and I’m not even sure which one a driving coach would qualify under. It’s a relatively high bar to qualify for an O type visa (individual with extraordinary ability or achievement) and I don’t think it’d qualify for a H1B (usually requires a degree or equivalent experience) or an L (intracompany transfer). An additional thought, if you are planning to then go for permanent residency (green card) only some work visas allow that. O does not. You can also go straight to an employment based green card, but the bar is quite high.
As an additional complication H1b has an annual quota and if you miss the quota you wait to next year.
Are the potential employers aware of the hoops they’ll have to jump through? I’ve come across many job offers (not mine but friends and family) where the employer just assumes people can turn up at work and baulk when they realize they probably need an immigration lawyer to get through all the applications.
Secondary note, it’s easier to get into Canada and has many of the same benefits 
