Average programmer salary in California

[nikoneko]

Haha

So, your plan is to come to a country with substantial unemployment and attempt to get a green card and find a job in a competitive technical field with no formal education in that field? Sorry to bust your bubble, but that's a pretty poor plan.

I am an immigrant Working as an iOS developer without college degree and making 50 bucks an hour.

 

[VPrime]

If you can afford it, try and take a trip down to the bay area.. Not so much to find a job, but to see the market first hand and make contacts.

My brother and I (programmers, have our own start up here in Canada) went to san francisco to see family in February.
While on the BART (train/subway system) we were just having a conversation about programming and security.
Well it just so happened one of the guys a seat infront of us over heard our conversation and was very interested in what we do and wanted to talk about getting us to work for him.

Any ways my point is not that jobs are everywhere and you can just go there and expect a job fall in your lap. But that opportunities are there, you just have to take the initiative to try and do something about it.