You have arrived in USA....... Now what?

cson

Sorted the J1 finally today. Looking 90% likely we'll be hitting Chi-town (Chicago). Now the fun stuff starts....

(1) Accomodation
(2) Job
(3) Bank account, Social Security number etc

3 Questions for the J1 veterans;
Can you sort these out beforehand?
Any reccommendations on the job type/accomodation?
Any other advice?

Thankies!

cson

Hogzy

the first 2 can be done before hand but you have to get ur social security number in the US....

try
www.craigslist.org for your accomodation

In relation to jobs its fairly hard to organise a job while in Ireland and you would be very lucky to organise one! Craigslist would be good for that too but there wouldnt be much advertising at the moment for summer jobs! More and more ads will be appearing around Easter so dont panic if you havent found anything, i went to santa barbara last year with nothing organised and eveything worked out perfect...

Chardee MacDennis

you wont be able to open a bank account without a SSN as well! takes about 3 weeks to get SSN, just make sure you go down to sort it in your first few days.

check out j1jobs.com, look for hotels/restaurants in the area and call them. also check out University of Chicago for accomodation and jobs!

cson

So we'll be doing sfa for the first 3 weeks then?!

Chardee MacDennis

some places may still hire you, but if you're working for a chain there is no way - you may not even be able to hand in an application without your SSN. i would say try get the job organised before you go as it is so much easier to explain the visa over the phone rather than to a manager in a store!

but generally the first few weeks will be going out and getting to know the city!

cooperguy

I didnt need a social security number when I opened a bank account over there. Just a passport.

Id just like to recommend doing a good bit of work on getting accommodation before you go. You dont want to end up homeless (like I did for a week!) because you cant find anything when you get there and you dont want to arrive over and discover that your house is miles from everything! Finally if you can avoid it dont pay all your rent up front for the summer. It is really your only bargaining chip with your landlord. If anything goes wrong he wont exactly be in a hurry to fix it if he already has the 3 months money off you!

cson

On the nightshift as well I see

Cheers, yeah accomodation would be one of the major things I'd say, we'd really prefer not to have to trawl through the place looking for a gaff, even without the money it'd cost to stay in a hostel until you found somewhere, the comfort of arriving in the city and having a roof (and bed fingers crossed) over our heads already would be worth the effort!