I had a management visa linked to opening a company in the US in 2010. It sucked, because the company was so successful we sold it (for a nice profit), then I became aware that the US basically treated me as an illegal immigrant 10 days after my job finished. This is normal there - you have no stability in the US as an immigrant worker unless you go the green card route, which was never something I wanted to do personally (as an AU/DE/NZ citizen).
My first question would be why do you want to go to the US as this is a more important question for figuring out an appropriate strategy.
IMHO, honestly there's not much point in going to the US these days. You can get superior access to capital in China, superior access to far cheaper western education in Australia, New Zealand or Europe, and equivalent earning potential jobs in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK.
I've wondered how this gap persists. It seems like UK companies would be competing in the same global market as the US firms. In many cases, the US companies have offices in the UK. Does Google's London office pay 30% less than Google's New York office?
Not really... I made marginally more in the US than UK but it wasn't a great deal. That said, I had a good gig in the UK. Worst case, it's not order-of-magnitude different, and besides: proximity to Europe and a culture of realistic holidaying makes up for it (and ... cheeky as it may be to say it ... co-working with people from around the world wins hands down on being stuck in an office 355 days a year with Americans).
There's a ton more variety in the US tech jobs. If you want to work in an interesting niche, such as computer vision, rendering, self-driving cars etc., I think US is the place to be. Not only there are many more positions, but they also pay decently (whereas in Europe if you want to do interesting stuff, you'll be making a third of what your Hadoop friends make).
Perhaps, though the only computer vision specialist I know personally works in Japan and is well paid, and the only rendering specialist I know (codes custom plugins and leads VFX teams on major global films like LOTR) is Australian, based in Australia, but frequently relocates on a project basis. You are right that continental Europe generally pays poorly, however this is not necessarily the case for highly specialist niche jobs and is offset by other benefits (eg. medical services are cheap or free, superior education for children is ~free, government social commitments to retirees/sick/young have real value, etc.). You can also live in mainland Europe and work remotely on a global gig... you don't get it if you don't ask!
I think parent commented is saying whatever aspect you're into you're likely to find renowned experts in the US, not that they are only in the US. It's a big country with a diversified industry, so by nature you'll find lots of opportunity. That does not mean you can't have experts elsewhere. You can find experts at something you only find in Russia or only India, but overall they are less diversified.
That said, work where you feel is best for you, given your capabilities.
Do you believe the part about access to capital in China for startups? I might have been barking up the wrong tree all this time :) (rejected by YC, not mature enough for 500 Startups)
Yes, I wouldn't be living in China if that weren't the case. I've been there on/off for 15 years, and IMHO it's very straightforward to get access to capital right now. Depending how much you want to raise, you may not even need to approach proper firms, but I have a database of them if you're interested. On the other hand, looking at Keveo, I am also assisting another startup in video edtech who you might be able to collaborate with. Send me an email.
My first question would be why do you want to go to the US as this is a more important question for figuring out an appropriate strategy.
IMHO, honestly there's not much point in going to the US these days. You can get superior access to capital in China, superior access to far cheaper western education in Australia, New Zealand or Europe, and equivalent earning potential jobs in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK.