How high are the chances to get hired from a Studio from another country when being self taught?

Iqualizierer

Hello everyone!,

As an example:

You are an Environment Artist and you live somewhere in Europe and you want to work at an other AAA Studio lets take as an example a AAA Studio in the US or in Canada you have accomplished the AAA quality of your Artwork and you already have Industry experience in an other AAA company. You are completely self taught which means you didn't studied in that area how high are the chances that you get hired from that Studio and get a VISA in that country?

Iv'e heard that if you didnt studied Game Art its nearly impossible to get hired from an another company outside of your home country but is that true?

I would really appreciate an answer thank you so much in advance!
I hope you had awesome holidays!

Biomag

You have to check with the visa laws in the USA and Canada. I think @PixelMasher said it took him 10 years of work experience to be able to move from Canada to the US? 

Keep in mind these days you might get a chance to work overseas working from home as a freelancer or stuff like that. Moving there is going to be difficult though. If you have the quality they need they and they can't find a better suited candidate that doesn't have to go through the visa process the studio will be probably willing to take the additional costs and work to get you a visa. It will be a disadvantage though when applying.

Meloncov

This is an oversimplification, but generally speaking it's almost impossible to get a visa for a junior level position regardless of whether you have a degree. You might be able to get a visa for a mid-level position with a degree, and without a degree you can probably only get a visa for senior level positions. But, again, that's a vast oversimplification, there are a ton of factors in play that vary case by case.

However, it's another matter entirely if it's a different country that doesn't require a visa. Someone from the EU should be able to work in a different EU country without any issues.

Zi0

Meloncov said:

However, it's another matter entirely if it's a different country that doesn't require a visa. Someone from the EU should be able to work in a different EU country without any issues.

This is very true, I know people from the EU who were able to find jobs/internships in Spain, Czech republic and Sweden with no issues.
If you want to go from EU to North America, this will be impossible as a junior.

PixelMasher

as a junior it is going to be very hard to get a visa to work abroad. companies bascially have to prove there is no viable local talent of a similar level to the government to secure you one. and in most countries there is a plethora of junior level artists in the local industry. 

for the most part is an outdated gatekeeper mindset by governments, not studios that you will be dealing with. In my case since I didnt have  a degree, 3 years of work experience is equal to 1 year of school ( even though in reality its the opposite lol) so after 12 years in the industry I finally had the equivalent experience as someone with a degree in the governments eyes hahah.  

however with remote work, you dont normally need a work visa at all, and many smaller to medium sized studios are adopting this model as it allows them to steal talent from larger studios who are more ingrained with having talent onsite. It is only going to get more common as time goes on for people to be able to work globally if studios want to remain compeditive in their recruiting process. for example, right now I work for Counterplay games, its based in the US but I work as a independant contractor up here in canada and dont have to deal with visa issues at all.