I think SAS is a good field but I saw people not getting placed in 4-6 months after the training at consultancies. In SAS you have to know T-SQL,PL/SQL very well. Further if you can learn R programming,it will be helpful depending on projects. If you can learn java that is hottest in terms of getting jobs. Dont worry about competing with ppl from engineering background. I came across some of them and they werent good in programming. If you believe in yourself that you can code then java is good.

Regarding paperwork ,if u can get a project and survive there, definitely h1s wont be a problem.

Good luck..