Moving to Boston - Help appreciated

dlofnep

Hello my auld butterscotch biscuits, how are you all doing?

I have a conundrum if you will. I'm planning on moving to Boston next summer but I know little to none about what way to go about it. As it stands, I lived over in Michigan for 3 months but I had to come back due to the 90 day catch.

I want to go about this as legal as possible. I was thinking about applying for a J1 so that I could legally work there for a few months. Anywhere I've went, it required me to be in college to get one.

What sort of steps could someone take to actually be able to live there legally and work. If you have to leave after 90 days, how can anyone immigrate there? I know security has be tightened since 9/11 but I find this a near impossible task?

As you can see, I'm pretty clueless about all this and I don't want to put the wrong foot in. I liked America when I was there and I generally like the American people. I've spent 22 years living here and I'd like a change.

Any suggestions about how I would go about doing this right?

penexpers

Best way to legally live there is apply for a green card. J1 is a (temporary) option but I guess you're in your final year in college so you can't get a J1.

Rabies

penexpers wrote:

J1 is a (temporary) option but I guess you're in your final year in college so you can't get a J1.

You can get a J1 if your in your final year. I got it during the summer

por

dlofnep wrote:

Hello my auld butterscotch biscuits, how are you all doing?

I have a conundrum if you will. I'm planning on moving to Boston next summer but I know little to none about what way to go about it. As it stands, I lived over in Michigan for 3 months but I had to come back due to the 90 day catch.

I want to go about this as legal as possible. I was thinking about applying for a J1 so that I could legally work there for a few months. Anywhere I've went, it required me to be in college to get one.

What sort of steps could someone take to actually be able to live there legally and work. If you have to leave after 90 days, how can anyone immigrate there? I know security has be tightened since 9/11 but I find this a near impossible task?

As you can see, I'm pretty clueless about all this and I don't want to put the wrong foot in. I liked America when I was there and I generally like the American people. I've spent 22 years living here and I'd like a change.

Any suggestions about how I would go about doing this right?

You can try and get a H1B. It is a work permit, basically a company that wants to employ you can get you one, it's valid for 3 years and renewable for another 3. Once you get it you can also apply for a green card through the company you are working for, that takes 3 or 4 years. An awful lot of people went to the states in the late '90s on H1Bs, mainly people working in IT when the .com boom was on, feck all companies offering it these days however
Try the Diversity Visa Lottery aka the green card lottery, it happens every year, closing date is usually end Dec and takes about 18 months to process.

Another option is to marry a yank.....

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services website is probably your best source for info.

And Boston is a great city to move to.

penexpers

Rabies wrote:

You can get a J1 if your in your final year. I got it during the summer

You officially can't get a J1 if you're in your final year.

Bah

penexpers wrote:

You officially can't get a J1 if you're in your final year.

You can get it when you're going into your final year though... maybe that's what he meant?

David19

I think you can get a J1 in your final year if your returning to college to do postgrad stuff, you need proof from your college that you're going back.

dlofnep

por wrote:

You can try and get a H1B. It is a work permit, basically a company that wants to employ you can get you one, it's valid for 3 years and renewable for another 3. Once you get it you can also apply for a green card through the company you are working for, that takes 3 or 4 years. An awful lot of people went to the states in the late '90s on H1Bs, mainly people working in IT when the .com boom was on, feck all companies offering it these days however
Try the Diversity Visa Lottery aka the green card lottery, it happens every year, closing date is usually end Dec and takes about 18 months to process.

Another option is to marry a yank.....

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services website is probably your best source for info.

And Boston is a great city to move to.

Thanks for that and thanks to everyone else. Appreciated.

Bri

David19 wrote:

I think you can get a J1 in your final year if your returning to college to do postgrad stuff, you need proof from your college that you're going back.

Well that's pretty damn stupid. I couldn't get a J1 last year (in final year) - all I got offered was the stupid H2B thing tying you to a guaranteed wage. I was fully intending on doing a postgrad (as I am right now) but you don't get most (if not any) official offers until well into the summer. I got my Masters place in late August.
:rolleyes: