I would personally be posting this on a US HR careers website or their equivalent of the CIPD. They know their own local market and system the best. Most of the contributors here do not live and work in the USA or are US Citizens. You need to ask your new people in your new country.

Hi Lin,

I work in the UK and I am responsible for our Texas office. You may have already checked out SHRM website.

Depending on where in the US you have moved too there are a number of local federal sites that you can gain employment law details. Some of these sites also have local employment law seminars / workshop that you can attend too. Texas Workforce Commission is one that I use, however it will depend on the State you are working in.

I have not got my SHRM qualification, however I use a number of sites to help me out and have got a grasp on how to handle situation through transferrable skills gained in UK

Good Luck if you have any further questions feel free to contact me.

thanks
Claire

Hi Lin

My sister moved to the US about a year ago and has just been through a very similar situation.
She has a BSc in Analytical Science and a MSc in Environmental Protection but was finding that as her qualifications did not map over exactly to similar programmers in the US, employers were not recognising her achievements and her application was not progressed.
She went to a local career guidance clinic who advised that she should go through a process to have her degree and masters evaluated against the US equivalent, which took some time but once she got that confirmation, she added that detail to her CV (resume!) when applying for roles and ultimately secured a job. Her situation probably took a bit longer than usual as she had to obtain her green card, which she ultimately did.

The below link is also pretty useful in relation to qualifications, evaluations and working in the US:
www.enic-naric.net/usa.aspx

From my experience, I am a HR Manager in Dublin and I previously had HR responsibility for our office in Portland, Oregon. I joined the SHRM (like a US CIPD) and found them to be really helpful on a day to day basis. They also run training seminars and careers clinics too, so definitely worth looking into that as well.

Finally, congratulations on your move and best wishes in your job search!

Fionnuala.