Moving to the US
Hello fellow expats...
I'm sure there's at LEAST one other person on here who has been in this situation: move overseas, fall in love with another expat, and have to choose whose country you're going to go to when your time in the foreign-to-both country is up. Someone else has done this, right?!
In my situation, my boyfriend is from the US and I'm from Australia. We met in Japan, where I'm still employed and he's staying for a while between jobs to keep me company. He will most likely be starting a job in the States in January, and I'm contracted here until March, at which time I'm planning on moving to be with him. Saying "Yes" to the question of whether to move to there was easy. And then I went "Oooooh crap... now I have a LOT of things to try to sort out." Which is a little daunting.
I'm currently scouring the internet for job opportunities, which will hopefully get things rolling on the visa front. Hopefully I have things in the correct order there. And I'm trying to work out exactly what I need to do to make this move go, well, properly.
I have a few questions for any of you who have moved to the US.
Are there any websites in particular that you found helpful in finding a job? I'm looking through Monster.com and Foreignborn.com at the moment, as well as company websites I've found along the way.
From what I understand, to get a visa, I need an offer of employment. Right? Visa wise, I've considered that I may need things along the lines of police background checks from Australia, but I'm wondering if there are any other things I really need to consider and get organised while I'm home over Christmas.
When I (hopefully) actually get to the States, I'll have to go about registering as an alien, organising a bank account, health insurance, drivers license... what else should I be looking at?
I hope I don't come across as having made the "wheee! Let's go to America!" decision too flippantly. I know it's going to be a challenging move, and I'm hoping that planning this far ahead is going to help save a lot of headaches further down the track.
Any advice, tips, or tales of your own experience would be very helpful, and much appreciated. At the very least, thank you for reading. :)
I'm sure there's at LEAST one other person on here who has been in this situation: move overseas, fall in love with another expat, and have to choose whose country you're going to go to when your time in the foreign-to-both country is up. Someone else has done this, right?!
In my situation, my boyfriend is from the US and I'm from Australia. We met in Japan, where I'm still employed and he's staying for a while between jobs to keep me company. He will most likely be starting a job in the States in January, and I'm contracted here until March, at which time I'm planning on moving to be with him. Saying "Yes" to the question of whether to move to there was easy. And then I went "Oooooh crap... now I have a LOT of things to try to sort out." Which is a little daunting.
I'm currently scouring the internet for job opportunities, which will hopefully get things rolling on the visa front. Hopefully I have things in the correct order there. And I'm trying to work out exactly what I need to do to make this move go, well, properly.
I have a few questions for any of you who have moved to the US.
Are there any websites in particular that you found helpful in finding a job? I'm looking through Monster.com and Foreignborn.com at the moment, as well as company websites I've found along the way.
From what I understand, to get a visa, I need an offer of employment. Right? Visa wise, I've considered that I may need things along the lines of police background checks from Australia, but I'm wondering if there are any other things I really need to consider and get organised while I'm home over Christmas.
When I (hopefully) actually get to the States, I'll have to go about registering as an alien, organising a bank account, health insurance, drivers license... what else should I be looking at?
I hope I don't come across as having made the "wheee! Let's go to America!" decision too flippantly. I know it's going to be a challenging move, and I'm hoping that planning this far ahead is going to help save a lot of headaches further down the track.
Any advice, tips, or tales of your own experience would be very helpful, and much appreciated. At the very least, thank you for reading. :)