you guys are stupid or what? how're you gonna maintain your F1 if you don't even know simple things about the status. He will ofcourse sponsor your h1, if approved he will take money out of your salary and let you stay on f1. F1s can also apply for h1s, but better if you're in opt. this is my guess.. there is no other way how they can make f1 work directly... and ofcourse computer related degrees are helpful, but you will be doing some repeated , small project work, for a short duration of time at a time. So they usually train you to work with an application for few weeks /months.. anyone who has a bachelor's degree can handle that...