Moving to the US from the UK - IT Worker with no degree
Discussion
jeff m2 said:
GavinPearson said:
Moving to France, Spain, Gibraltar, Italy or Portugal would be far easier and less risky.
And a lot warmer
Hi all,
I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend has been offered to reorganise and run the admin department in their Florida for some years. The company has said they'd help with getting her out there and have even offered to buy a house and rent it out to us for a small cost.
My issue is even though my girlfriend should be able to get a visa I'm stuck if I can too. I've got a bsc degree in It management which I achieved a 2:1 in about two years ago. I've been working as a business analyst for a Hermes the courier service for 18 months so I'm wondering what my chances of getting a job and visa would be. Any help would be really appreciated!
I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend has been offered to reorganise and run the admin department in their Florida for some years. The company has said they'd help with getting her out there and have even offered to buy a house and rent it out to us for a small cost.
My issue is even though my girlfriend should be able to get a visa I'm stuck if I can too. I've got a bsc degree in It management which I achieved a 2:1 in about two years ago. I've been working as a business analyst for a Hermes the courier service for 18 months so I'm wondering what my chances of getting a job and visa would be. Any help would be really appreciated!
richatnort said:
Hi all,
I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend has been offered to reorganise and run the admin department in their Florida for some years. The company has said they'd help with getting her out there and have even offered to buy a house and rent it out to us for a small cost.
My issue is even though my girlfriend should be able to get a visa I'm stuck if I can too. I've got a bsc degree in It management which I achieved a 2:1 in about two years ago. I've been working as a business analyst for a Hermes the courier service for 18 months so I'm wondering what my chances of getting a job and visa would be. Any help would be really appreciated!
'Girlfriend' is the snag there, 'wife' wouldn't be a problem, by the sound of things she would get an L-1 visa which would entitle you to an L-2 through which you would be able to work there for as long as she is there under her L-1. I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend has been offered to reorganise and run the admin department in their Florida for some years. The company has said they'd help with getting her out there and have even offered to buy a house and rent it out to us for a small cost.
My issue is even though my girlfriend should be able to get a visa I'm stuck if I can too. I've got a bsc degree in It management which I achieved a 2:1 in about two years ago. I've been working as a business analyst for a Hermes the courier service for 18 months so I'm wondering what my chances of getting a job and visa would be. Any help would be really appreciated!
But as girlfriend but not wife I don't think you will get anything that allows you to work.
arfur said:
Barbados is safe as houses ... commenwealth
Very British in lots of ways
Cool, thanks for the advice.Very British in lots of ways
I've just seen some interesting roles in Gibraltar, will do some more research, wonder if I could hit gold and do some sort of stepping stone role where I find a company overseas somewhere like Gibraltar/Barbados that also has US offices. Do some time in the first location, move onto the US in the future maybe...
conanius said:
arfur said:
Barbados is safe as houses ... commenwealth
Very British in lots of ways
Cool, thanks for the advice.Very British in lots of ways
I've just seen some interesting roles in Gibraltar, will do some more research, wonder if I could hit gold and do some sort of stepping stone role where I find a company overseas somewhere like Gibraltar/Barbados that also has US offices. Do some time in the first location, move onto the US in the future maybe...
Gib is a dump unless you drink/smoke too much (In my opinion anyhow)
richatnort said:
Hi all,
I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend has been offered to reorganise and run the admin department in their Florida for some years. The company has said they'd help with getting her out there and have even offered to buy a house and rent it out to us for a small cost.
My issue is even though my girlfriend should be able to get a visa I'm stuck if I can too. I've got a bsc degree in It management which I achieved a 2:1 in about two years ago. I've been working as a business analyst for a Hermes the courier service for 18 months so I'm wondering what my chances of getting a job and visa would be. Any help would be really appreciated!
This company isn't based in Steeton, is it?I'm in a similar situation. My girlfriend has been offered to reorganise and run the admin department in their Florida for some years. The company has said they'd help with getting her out there and have even offered to buy a house and rent it out to us for a small cost.
My issue is even though my girlfriend should be able to get a visa I'm stuck if I can too. I've got a bsc degree in It management which I achieved a 2:1 in about two years ago. I've been working as a business analyst for a Hermes the courier service for 18 months so I'm wondering what my chances of getting a job and visa would be. Any help would be really appreciated!
richatnort said:
Nope Sheffield. Y you ask?
I used to work for a company that had a similar M.O., based in West Yorks, with a US subsidiary in central FL. They were very underhand in some of their quite flagrant disregard of US immigration and employment regulations and used the provision of accommodation as a form of indentured servitude. As others have stated, not being married to the visa beneficiary leaves you out on a limb. Your only other real option is to persuade a US employer to sponsor an employment based visa petition (most commonly H1-B) on your behalf. It's not unheard of, but bloody difficult to accomplish from afar. You'd really need to be in the US and networking intensively to have anything like a serious punt.
There is a derivative B-2 visa that makes provision for cohabiting couples - it's a tricky one to organize and probably best attempted only with the counsel of a competent immigration attorney (because the case has to be very compelling). You are not permitted to work - but you are permitted to seek work and that is a lot more feasible if you are able to network, socialize, attend conventions, interviews, open-houses etc. Making applications from outside the US usually results in, "You sound ideal, when you have an EAD contact us again", and so the chicken and egg scenario is perpetuated. Physically being in front of a potential sponsor can change the dynamic potentially.
Finally, at risk of pissing on your parade, IT is not an underrepresented profession in FL or anywhere else in the US, so unless you have some particular expertise, this might be a real long-shot.
I don't want to be the 34th person raining on your parade but your plan is divorced from reality and will not succeed. At best you will come to America, spend a few months here and then get deported for working illegally and at worst you will starve in the streets.
The sort of job you want will require you to have permission to work already, and they check this electronically when you start: http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 Unless you have an advanced degree or a job already in hand with a company sponsoring your visa you can honestly forget it - unemployment is not shrinking in the US and why would a company employ you over a native who doesn't need a visa, especially for a job where there is going to be a large talent pool already?
Your wife is chronically sick and so you want to move to a country where there's no national health service or universal coverage and where medical treatment is more expensive than anywhere else by a factor of two? Are you being intentionally stupid or had you *really* just not thought that one through for more than 15 seconds?
If you want a warm climate somewhere this might actually work what about the various bits of Europe like Spain or Greece or southern France or Italy?
The sort of job you want will require you to have permission to work already, and they check this electronically when you start: http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 Unless you have an advanced degree or a job already in hand with a company sponsoring your visa you can honestly forget it - unemployment is not shrinking in the US and why would a company employ you over a native who doesn't need a visa, especially for a job where there is going to be a large talent pool already?
Your wife is chronically sick and so you want to move to a country where there's no national health service or universal coverage and where medical treatment is more expensive than anywhere else by a factor of two? Are you being intentionally stupid or had you *really* just not thought that one through for more than 15 seconds?
If you want a warm climate somewhere this might actually work what about the various bits of Europe like Spain or Greece or southern France or Italy?
Dr JonboyG said:
I don't want to be the 34th person raining on your parade but your plan is divorced from reality and will not succeed. At best you will come to America, spend a few months here and then get deported for working illegally and at worst you will starve in the streets.
The sort of job you want will require you to have permission to work already, and they check this electronically when you start: http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 Unless you have an advanced degree or a job already in hand with a company sponsoring your visa you can honestly forget it - unemployment is not shrinking in the US and why would a company employ you over a native who doesn't need a visa, especially for a job where there is going to be a large talent pool already?
Your wife is chronically sick and so you want to move to a country where there's no national health service or universal coverage and where medical treatment is more expensive than anywhere else by a factor of two? Are you being intentionally stupid or had you *really* just not thought that one through for more than 15 seconds?
If you want a warm climate somewhere this might actually work what about the various bits of Europe like Spain or Greece or southern France or Italy?
I'll try and take the post in the constructive manner intended...The sort of job you want will require you to have permission to work already, and they check this electronically when you start: http://www.uscis.gov/i-9 Unless you have an advanced degree or a job already in hand with a company sponsoring your visa you can honestly forget it - unemployment is not shrinking in the US and why would a company employ you over a native who doesn't need a visa, especially for a job where there is going to be a large talent pool already?
Your wife is chronically sick and so you want to move to a country where there's no national health service or universal coverage and where medical treatment is more expensive than anywhere else by a factor of two? Are you being intentionally stupid or had you *really* just not thought that one through for more than 15 seconds?
If you want a warm climate somewhere this might actually work what about the various bits of Europe like Spain or Greece or southern France or Italy?
I don't want to go into the deep dark details of my wife's health issues, but suffice to say there is no treatment, no medication, no cure. We qualify for no support here in the UK - to quote the DWP 'because she might get better one day' - so I struggle to see how having to pay for healthcare will make one shred of difference. The illness if you care enough is ME. I would imagine the 'worst' thing that could happen is a loading on the healthcare costs, and I'm not to worried about that. Every job that is appropriate for me states healthcare for family, so if we need to pay a top up on top of that, so be it.
I'm guessing there isn't a huge talent pool for the roles I'm interested in based on the responses I had from the speculative job applications I did previously. I was identified as one of the strongest candidates, and in their words I would have got to interview if I was locally based.
All that said, it is looking like I will need to find an alternate route out there, but this isn't something that I'm going to look at this thread's responses and give up on.
I'm going to investigate the european and British Overseas Territories options, and see where we can go from there.
If you're seriously serious I can recommend a couple of immigration lawyers - Frost Brown Todd in Louisville KY, and Leavy Frank and Delany in Bethesda, MD, both were great to work with. But it's not particularly cheap even if you do all the paperwork yourself - the govermnent raises their fees pretty regularly.
I really can't overstate how horrible healthcare costs are over here, even if you have insurance.
I really can't overstate how horrible healthcare costs are over here, even if you have insurance.
I'm seriously serious, but I'm not desperate to the point of wanting to get over at any cost in a matter of weeks. This is a huge transition and something we need to work through at a sensible pace.
It must be the right job, in a location that is right. Thats a huge ask, and we are aware there may be initial compromises that need to be made, equally, I don't want to get there 'at all costs'.
It must be the right job, in a location that is right. Thats a huge ask, and we are aware there may be initial compromises that need to be made, equally, I don't want to get there 'at all costs'.
conanius said:
I don't want to go into the deep dark details of my wife's health issues, but suffice to say there is no treatment, no medication, no cure. We qualify for no support here in the UK - to quote the DWP 'because she might get better one day' - so I struggle to see how having to pay for healthcare will make one shred of difference. The illness if you care enough is ME. I would imagine the 'worst' thing that could happen is a loading on the healthcare costs, and I'm not to worried about that. Every job that is appropriate for me states healthcare for family, so if we need to pay a top up on top of that, so be it.
Does the ACA carry provision for non immigrant overseas workers? If not then presumably the insurance carrier could still refuse to cover someone with a pre existing condition? Dr Johnboy does not exaggerate when he describes healthcare costs as horrible and if you cannot get full cover it's really not something that any sane person would consider. My wife required a small blood transfusion before Christmas. One unit of blood. $5200.
conanius said:
I would imagine the 'worst' thing that could happen is a loading on the healthcare costs, and I'm not to worried about that. Every job that is appropriate for me states healthcare for family, so if we need to pay a top up on top of that, so be it.
What is not necessarily obvious when somebody says "we'll pay for your healthcare" is that they'll pay perhaps 90% of a $1000 a month premium leaving you to pay the rest, then for that particular insurance policy you may be liable to shell out $3000 before the insurance puts anything in, then you might get 40% of each bill back, then you might have a maximum out of pocket cost of $6000 before the insurer pays for everything that they cover. And then you find out for condition after condition "we don't cover that".So that top up can add up to a fair amount of money.
It's worth understanding the costs in detail before taking this much further.
We could very easily fill this thread with US healthcare horror stories, but I'm not sure how relevant that would be for the OP. His partner has ME and that is a condition that isn't even recognized as a treatable illness by most US insurers - so pre-existing or otherwise, it wouldn't be covered, as they have no way of coding it - rather like S.A.D.
In no way am I trivializing the significance of ME, but as with ADHD not being taken so seriously in the UK - same applies to ME here, I think you may find.
In no way am I trivializing the significance of ME, but as with ADHD not being taken so seriously in the UK - same applies to ME here, I think you may find.
The British Army has some jobs here, maybe BAE as well. Check out British Defense companies with jobs in the Washington DC area. Not sure how a British civilian gets into the defense industry, but in the US you need a security clearance.
Don't move to Maryland or DC; Virginia is much better.
Don't move to Maryland or DC; Virginia is much better.
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