How do you cope with living abroad?

Ruu_Old

Ah can't forget who I am, don't want to forget that now with so many cultures and nationalities.

eiretamicha

Gandhi wrote:

I would simplify that a lot. Something more like:

Immigration Status: Authorized for Permanent US Residency and Employment (DV-98)

(Replace DV-98 with whatever visa type he has). If he has residency through marriage, he should have a green card, right? If so, just put:

Immigration Status: Green Card Holder

Remember that most companies get absolutely spammed with resumes for any job openings, so they have either automated search engines, or interns screening resumes before they would get near anyone who knows anything about immigration law. They need to see easily recognizable words like "Green Card" or "Citizen" on a resume with lots of foreign education and experience.

Thank you for the advice. As soon as he gets his greencard, we'll modify the CV. But right now he only has his EAD. I sponsored him on a K-1 Fiance' visa, and we were married here in Florida. Unfortunately, he doesn't automatically get a greencard as soon as he's married. His greencard interview is on the 24th of this month, but we have a feeling that he may be on the FBI namecheck for quite a while. Everyone else that we've talked to (on visajourney.com) who is from the North seems to get stuck on that stuipd namecheck thing for months and months. So even when he passes the interview, he may not have his greencard for quite some time. Which doesn't really matter so much to us since we're moving back to Ireland anyway, but it would probably help him find a job faster if he had it.

Gandhi

Sorry to hear your husband is having such a tough time, Eire. Best advice is just to keep plugging away and don't let it get him down. In his position I would put:

Immigration Status: Legal Permanent Resident (K1)

...and stick the words "Green Card" in there the minute he has one.

Make sure he changes his profile on monster and the other job websites every few days (even just changing around "of"s and "then"s) as employers often restrict searches to profiles recently updated. If he is in a tech field, get his resume on dice.com as it is one of the few that seems more popular with employers than with job-seekers.

Also, keep an eye on large companies' own webpages, as at least one big tech company has stopped using monster etc. for recruiting. I just posted under the Green Card sticky with more details on that.

eiretamicha

Gandhi wrote:

Sorry to hear your husband is having such a tough time, Eire. Best advice is just to keep plugging away and don't let it get him down. In his position I would put:

Immigration Status: Legal Permanent Resident (K1)

...and stick the words "Green Card" in there the minute he has one.

Make sure he changes his profile on monster and the other job websites every few days (even just changing around "of"s and "then"s) as employers often restrict searches to profiles recently updated. If he is in a tech field, get his resume on dice.com as it is one of the few that seems more popular with employers than with job-seekers.

Also, keep an eye on large companies' own webpages, as at least one big tech company has stopped using monster etc. for recruiting. I just posted under the Green Card sticky with more details on that.

Thanks so much for your help!! I'm going to pass this information along to him.

r3nu4l

Okay, I've been living and working in England for two years now and only discovered boards.ie through a search for Irish forums in January. Now I've always known that I 'feel' Irish. I have a love for Ireland, the History, people and the language (even if I am cr*p at it ). Raglan Road brings a tear to my eye, that's the kind of guy I am...

So for boardsies who live abroad I ask, how much do you miss home? Do you have a long-term ambition to return to Ireland? Are you happy where you are but every so often fall into a melancholy desire to return home or sit in a quier pub with your mates and soak up the atmosphere?

For me, I miss home terribly, I love my job, very happy to be with my gf but there is that part of me, the really 'Irish' part, that wants to be at home, that misses that really undefinable 'craic' that you can have at home where self-deprecating humour is acknowledged as a bit of fun rather than cold fact and where you know how someone is going to react to something you have said even before they do

Of course, I miss family and friends and it's only a Ryanair flight away but there is still that gap and distance that is more than jsut geographical miles So how do you manage and cope? Does it bother you? Are you happy to have left Ireland or do you wish every day you were back home?

Me, as I've said day-to-day it's okay but if I stop and think long enough I'd probably cry (Sad but True...as Metallica might say), I heard a guy in Cambridge today playing 'the Sally Gardens' on guitar and it brought me home again for a few blessed mintues. I will return home someday and am working towards it but for now we face a few more years in England So over to you guys...

Ruu_Old

I wish I was still living in England, count yourself lucky you aren't 3,500 miles away as I am right now(home for a bit in November though). See my thread "How do you cope?"

r3nu4l

Wow that was a fast move! I knew I'd get the old 'count yourself lucky...' but home is where the heart is and England is certainly not where either mine or my gf's hearts lie. We both feel the same about living abroad! Linky to your abroady thready?

Ruu_Old

I didn't move it for once. Here is the thread. Buying a house soon here, maybe that will make things easier.

r3nu4l

Must have been Karoma, he's really modding AH right now, must be drinking supermod juice Anyway, buying a house myself at the moment and as you say it might make things a bit easier. I;m in the process of the final wait for approval and the surveying starts next week while conveyancing is ongoing. Expensivve times my friend Nothing like a rapidly depleting bank balance to take your mind off missing home

Karoma

...thread moved to more precise, and appropriate forum. Ahem.

r3nu4l

Weird, Ruu just pointed out this thread to me after I posted a similar one in AH (which got move here [not by Ruu]).

Well I have my fiancee who is from Cahir, near Clonmel and I followed her to the UK and no matter how geographically close to Ireland it is it's still not home. I'm very lucky that there is a bar in Cambridge called the 'Earl of Beaconsfield' that is truly Irish owned and frequented by Irish people and it really does feel like home, so when I'm feeling particularly down I go there and immerse myself. Also there is a pub in Ilford (can't remember the name) that is truly Irish and that is great too.

Ruu, you enjoyed Dagenham!! :eek: My friends teach in Dagenham and it seems pretty rough! I guess I'm also lucky that three of my gf's friends from college also live in either London or High Wycombe and we meet every couple of months in London for dinner, drinks and a laugh. That said, I still thank God every time I land at home and I literally touch the ground with my hands [pope JPII stylee] every time I get off the plane at Dublin

So I cope by knowing that every four months I will be at home and can tuck into a cheese and Tayto sandwich and see my mates and my family. My gf is brilliant to me and knows how muh I miss home and I know she is the same so we help each other through. Thankfully we have friends here, that sai, maybe another London Boards beers would be good but since Mrs r3nu4l doesn't post on boards it may take some convincing for her to meet a bunch of weirdos with strange names in a strange pub

r3nu4l

Karoma wrote:

...thread moved to more precise, and appropriate forum. Ahem.

Told you..he's everywhere Are you mods on a special 'modding' diet that gives you lightining fast reactions? Anyway, delete this thread if you feel like it as I've posted in Ruu's thread. Didn't mean to duplicate, never even thought about the Abroad forum despite priding myself on posting in the right forum most of the time. Oh the shame

Tha Gopher

God I hate this rich oul country, back when the Irish were forced to gop abroad to make their fortunes, we had balls so we did. Sitting in pubs in London drinking our British dole money and moaning about those bastard Brits This generation missed out

Faith

I'm in Scotland and can't say I really miss Ireland at all. I miss my family and friends, yeah, but not really the country. Actually, no, to be more precise, I don't miss Cork City. We have a house down by Ventry in Kerry too and I miss that. I miss the amazing views, the beaches, the isolation, the peacefulness, the friendly people, being able to speak Irish if the mood takes me, the way it's so traditional and stereotypical and everything like that.

I thought once that I'd move back to Ireland, but now I see that there's really nothing there for me anymore. Most likely I'll move to the States eventually.

I guess I do get gripped by a desire to be in certain places at home every so often, but nearly everywhere there has a replica here. Although, English accents really annoy me...

Faith

MinesBIGSLUT wrote:

The other extremely difficult thing about moving around when you're an adult, to be honest, is making new friends. You'll make a bunch of mates, yes, but I personally believe it's EXTREMELY rare to make as close a friend as one you've had through childhood or teens.

Very, very true. I've been in Edinburgh for over a year now, and not one of my friends here comes even close to to my friends at home. I'm in college over here, so I've met loads of really nice people that I get on really well with, but there's not the ease that there is with my friends at home. The ones at home know pretty much everything about me, because they were there when events happened (or didn't happen), and we grew up together. That's what I find hardest about being away from home.

I went home for the summer, and quickly realised that I'd been romanticising Ireland in my head. Within weeks, I wanted to leave again. There's nothing there for me anymore, I feel. I just wish I could transport my family and friends over here.

r3nu4l

Faith wrote:

Although, English accents really annoy me...

Hee hee, try listening to my colelagues Essex accent all day. Drives me mad

"Was ya? Oh is ya? Yea we was going there an' all. Aw, tha's great darlin', yea, see ya tomorrow" Aaarrgh!:mad:

Ruu_Old

r3nu4l wrote:

Hee hee, try listening to my colelagues Essex accent all day. Drives me mad

"Was ya? Oh is ya? Yea we was going there an' all. Aw, tha's great darlin', yea, see ya tomorrow" Aaarrgh!:mad:

"Awigh' daahhhlin!" I think its amusing. Sometimes I automatically switch into London mode when I go over there, "ello lavely!" Did you ever go to the Shannon (i think thats the name of it), its in 7 Kings? What a hole!:)


Faith, come* to lovely Illinois.



*if you want to be bored out of yer mind.

r3nu4l

Ruu wrote:

"Awigh' daahhhlin!" I think its amusing.

I fink i's jus' the way they mangal the grammar, know, wha' I mean? I's well out of order mate, well out of order, no mistake!

Mind you, being a Dub you think I'd be used to hearing the language mangled

Never been to the Shannon as I don't go to Ilford that often, can't remember the name of the pub we do go to, it's near the mainline train station, same side of the road as the station and it's very friendly. First time I went in there I recognised one of the barmen from the SU bar in Maynooth Good to see a friendly welcoming face (welcoming the cash we were putting behind the bar more like )

Faith

Ruu wrote:

Faith, come* to lovely Illinois.

I was thinking more along the lines of California or New York. They seem like the most interesting states!

If I make it to the US, I'll pop over to Illinois and say hey .

The Sweeper

Threads merged. Can we stay out of the slagging of accents? Cheers.

galwaydude

It was a tough adjustment for me and my wife. I spent from march until the middle of september not able to work. I am now legally allowed to work so i started a new job 2 weeks ago here in boston close to fenway park. Just waiting for my greencard to arrive now and then nomore US immigration for close to 2 years.

Now that i am working things are an awful lot better. We can actually afford things now. The last 6 months basically wiped out any savings we had.

FatherTed

Hey Ruu, what kind of town do you live in now? Is it a small town or a larger city?

I moved to the NY/CT area 14 years ago. I was lucky I worked for a company whose headquarters were just outside NYC so I was transferred from their office in Galway. For the first two and a half years they paid for me to go back and do some work in the Galway office every 3-4 months(on average 2 weeks at a time) so my transition was easy. But then they shut down the Galway office and shortly after I qualified for a Green Card which meant I was no longer tied to the company and I was able to explore other oppertunities.

I love living in this area, I am about 45 minutes from NYC, yet in 15 minutes the other direction, I can be up in the farms of Connecticut. I was never really much into the Irish scene in the Bronx or Woodside and I think this also helped my with my transition. Funnily enough, my local Stop'n Shop(Grocery chain) for the last 4-5 years has a small Irish section, but rarely do I buy any of that stuff.

Ruu_Old

Well the University of Illinois is located here so, lots of students from Chicago and further. That means most of the year the population is around 150,000 (100,000 being students). That would be big compared to the little town of Oldcastle, Co.Meath. The last few days have been a bit mad, we just purchased a house and I am over the moon about it, very excited.

galwaydude

congrats ruu, no wonder you are excited. CONGRATS

Fatherted, ct is a wonderful place to live. I would move down in a heartbeat as house prices are cheaper down for one thing. I cannot drive so that avenue is closed until i am comfortable driving here. My wife hates been my personal driver!!!!!!

What part of CT, my wifes sister lives in Middletown. We prob visit one weekend every month or so.

FatherTed

Congrats on the house Ruu!

gd, I live in Norwalk, work in Greenwich(12 miles to work). CT is nice but lower Fairfield County is very expensive.

Black Swan

Staying in touch through boards.ie helps.

AbusesToilets

I hear what y'all are saying about missing home.I moved over to the US in '04 and joined the army.You want to talk about culture shock!:D I'm going to be moving again quite soon,most likely abroad,so i'm getting ready to say goodbye to my home all over again.That said,being in the army has enabled me to make the sort of close friendships i only had previously with my mates from school.I guess something to do with rolling around naked on gravel getting sprayed with cold water can form strong bonds.
I do find myself missing the ease of meeting up with friends.Like another poster said,Dublins great for walking around.Where i'm at you're SOL if you don't have a car.And i'm always a bit homesick when there's a bit game on.That's one thing i've found that tends to bring Irish people together in one place.I know i'll happily travel quite far to match a match.Or play a sport also.