Living in USA

Black Swan

lil_lisa wrote: »

How long have you been over?

Left Dub when 18 and now 22 nearing completion of a 4 year degree at USC.

avalon68

lonestargirl wrote: »

My explanation of when it does and doesn't apply was pretty rough, maybe it won't have to appy to you. Do you have your visa yet, it should say on it?

I havent received it yet but it will probably apply as I will be funded by a US government agency. I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I'm getting ahead of myself a bit anyway - I might be delighted to be coming home after a few years there

CathalMc

Doing a PhD in UCLA in Los Angeles, 4th year in West LA, between Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Bel Air. I absolutely love it here, will be making every effort to stay.

And I have almost no animosity towards Blue Lagoon whatsoever. I'll bring on the smack talk again when UCLA has a competent team.

spideog7

lil_lisa wrote: »

How did you manage getting a job? Did you have any difficulty getting the visa? I'm on the same one!

I got my job through IAESTE and my employer sponsored my visa, they offered to renew it for me for next year, but I'm hoping to get the new J1 myself to give me some more flexibility, the work I'm doing isn't really what I want to be at.

I'm not sure if I can get the new one while I'm on this one though, still waiting for the Embassy to get back to me.

I'm pretty sure I'm not subject to the 2 year rule, it specifically says on my DS form that I'm not, but I've been told that even if it says that on the form, that's not a guarantee.

Apparently they will tell you if you send them copies of all your forms.

You should mail copies of your DS-2019/IAP-66 forms and a request for an advisory opinion to:
U.S. Department of State
CA/VO/L/W, Visa Services
2401 E Street, NW, (SA-1)
Washington, DC 20522-0106

ToniTuddle

To the people on the J1 Internship Visa....
Can you only get that once?

I was considering deferring my college course and going on that internship for a year. But if I can only get it once, it might be better to wait until I am finished my studies. Then more likely to get a good job and have an employer sponsor me after that internship year would be up!!

EDIT: Also I never heard anything before about that going home for 2 years rule! :eek:

spideog7

ToniTuddle wrote: »

To the people on the J1 Internship Visa....
Can you only get that once?

According to this yes you can get it more than once. But bear in mind it is only a 5 year agreement and this is year 2. AFAIK uptake has been very slow so it may well be scrapped after the 5 years.

EDIT:

The IWT Pilot Program will be conducted under the existing Intern category of the Exchange Visitor Program.....

Citizens of Ireland traveling to the United States to participate in the IWT Pilot Program will do so under the Department’s existing Intern category regulations (22 CFR 62.22), and applicable sponsor program rules, with the exception of participant placement. The Form DS-2019 issued to an IWT participant should reflect this information in the Subject/Field Code Remarks Box which will print on the Form (e.g. IWT Pilot participant).

Also since I'm posing here and I'm reading about it, an interesting point to note is that this is (as has been mentioned in previous posts) just a variation on the existing J1 internship visa.

So for example I'm here on a J1 internship visa, I had to arrange the job prior to getting here and have my employer fill out a DS7002 Training Plan Form ('DS' forms are US Department of State forms) my DS2019 (work authorisation) was not valid without this DS7002 and I had to show both of them to get my visa (at the embassy and at immigration).

This "new" agreement allows Irish students and recent graduates to travel here without having a specific DS7002 filled out prior to leaving, which means you have 1-month to find an employer who will fill out this form for you, and it also means you can leave that employer and find another one (I believe), right now I cannot do that since my visa and my DS7002 are tied together.

In reality it's not a huge breakthrough but it certainly makes getting a job easier (still not easy) since you would be here in person to talk to potential employers and for interviews. It kind of pre-empts the people who talk about coming over on a Visa Waiver and search for an employer to sponsor them and then returning to go through to the paperwork.

This is my take on it don't blame me if any information here is misleading or inaccurate

ToniTuddle

spideog7 wrote: »

According to this yes you can get it more than once. But bear in mind it is only a 5 year agreement and this is year 2. AFAIK uptake has been very slow so it may well be scrapped after the 5 years.

Think that link is broken? Clicked it and nothing happens.
Well I will have an ordinary degree in about 2 and half years.
Everyone is telling me to stay here for the extra year and get an honours degree.
But if I wanted in on this internship I would need to go to the US after the ordinary degree then so!
So many terms and conditions at times >.<

lil_lisa

I'm on the J-1 Internship visa because it was the only option. For the IWT programme USIT wanted to keep me out of the country for 90 days straight between my summer J-1 and a new one, actually they wouldn't give me the internship visa either on that 'rule' but when I went to Sayit (the same day btw) they couldnt give me the IWT but they organised the Internship J-1 visa within two weeks. I was back in the country just under a month!

spideog7

Fixed that link.

lil_lisa wrote: »

I'm on the J-1 Internship visa because it was the only option. For the IWT programme USIT wanted to keep me out of the country for 90 days straight between my summer J-1 and a new one, actually they wouldn't give me the internship visa either on that 'rule' but when I went to Sayit (the same day btw) they couldnt give me the IWT but they organised the Internship J-1 visa within two weeks. I was back in the country just under a month!

Interestingly enough I checked into this recently and the official word I got (from the Embassy in Dublin) was that I don't have to go home at all I can go directly from my current internship visa to the new IWT visa, I just have to go to the US Embassy in Canada for the interview and to issue it!

lil_lisa

Don't you have to be within a year of graduating to get the IWT visa? And the internship visa is a year long, or did you get it for a shorter period?

Black Swan

CathalMc wrote: »

And I have almost no animosity towards Blue Lagoon whatsoever. I'll bring on the smack talk again when UCLA has a competent team.

And I'll see ye over on the American Football forum next season when we paint the Bruin our Trojan colours (just like this season).:cool:

Reindeer

Irish and American parents here as well. However, I am not the kid Lagoon is - I've been travelin' between our countries(and many others) since 1970. Ended up in college in the US in San Luis Obispo, with a masters from Stanford in Engineering. I have lived near Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Cruz(my brother currently resides there), San Jose, Palo Alto, Newport Beach, and San Luis Obispo, CA. Grew tired of California quickly after graduation when it started to go downhill in the late 90's and got a Field Engineering job in Texas that had me traveling throughout the country. I have been to all the States save Alaska, Iowa, The Dakotas, and Maine. Outside of California I have lived in Seattle WA, Austin TX, Dallas TX, San Antonio TX, Phoenix Arizona, Memphis TN, St Louis Missouri, Honolulu Hawaii, Juarrez Mexico, Tokyo Japan, Munchen W. Germany, Birmingham UK, and Dublin, Ireland - what a hole! - and I've been to Birmingham!

My brother was born in Hawaii. I am currently retired and spend much of my time traveling. While in the US, I spend most of my time in Texas and Kentucky - my two favorite states. Right now I am chilling with some buds in Seattle, though. Next month it is off to Korea to meet with another bud, and Japan to do the same, and then a return to Europe for another tour to regain my sanity after a few weeks in Asia and see what property I can find in Provence, or thereabouts.

spideog7

lil_lisa wrote: »

Don't you have to be within a year of graduating to get the IWT visa? And the internship visa is a year long, or did you get it for a shorter period?

Actually the J1 internship can be up to 18months but it depends on how long your contract is for. I started in June but my graduation wasn't until August, so I have 2 months in between

lil_lisa

Reindeer wrote: »

I have lived near Yosemite National Park, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Cruz(my brother currently resides there), San Jose, Palo Alto, Newport Beach, and San Luis Obispo, CA. Grew tired of California quickly after graduation when it started to go downhill in the late 90's and got a Field Engineering job in Texas that had me traveling throughout the country. I have been to all the States save Alaska, Iowa, The Dakotas, and Maine. Outside of California I have lived in Seattle WA, Austin TX, Dallas TX, San Antonio TX, Phoenix Arizona, Memphis TN, St Louis Missouri, Honolulu Hawaii, Juarrez Mexico, Tokyo Japan, Munchen W. Germany, Birmingham UK, and Dublin, Ireland - what a hole! - and I've been to Birmingham!

Wow talk about travelling!

spideog7 wrote: »

Actually the J1 internship can be up to 18months but it depends on how long your contract is for. I started in June but my graduation wasn't until August, so I have 2 months in between

I'm going to move this topic to another thread and discuss it! Probably in the independent travel section.

eirestar

I've been living and working in NYC for 3.5 years now. My parents moved to Washington DC about 11 years ago for my dad's job. He eventually got a green card through his employer, and since I was under 21 at the time, I automatically got one too.

lil_lisa

Well that's pretty handy. Was your father working for an American company in Ireland?

Manic Moran

San Jose, California here.

Or at least that's my official home of record. Currently working abroad. Moved to the US exactly a decade ago, and have been converted/infected into believing in guns, babes in bikinis, and V8 engines (Hey, those are guy things, no?). Unfortunately, Central California coast isn't great for the first two, even the third is getting expensive.

Lived in San Francisco for a few years until my Iraqi jaunt, and moved to SJ after that. Should be back in San Jose in a couple of months. SF's a nice town, but truthfully, other than occasionally going for a pint down the pub or hitting Chinatown restaurants, I never really went into the city. San Jose's not exactly filled with 'character', but there are worse places to live.

We'll see what I get up to when I get back home. If I've a job waiting, great, if not, I'll think of something. Strongly considering CHP. Money's not bad, especially for pilots.

NTM

lil_lisa

How dense is San Jose as a city? What are the parks around it like?

Manic Moran

Parks? Can't say I've ever really gone looking for one. What would I want with a park?

It's not really dense. Certainly not megalopolis dense, you can walk outside, look up,and see sky, not buildings. On the other hand, it's very sprawling. Much of the Bay Area is just a bunch of suburban towns which have merged into each other.

However, it doesn't take much driving to get out into the countryside. Either go South to the Santa Cruz mountains, or go up I-280 past Palo Alto, you'll have plenty of green within fifteen miles or so.

NTM

Black Swan

lil_lisa wrote: »

How dense is San Jose as a city? What are the parks around it like?

In population density, San Jose ranks 64th in the US, with 1,764 persons per square km. See link: http://www.demographia.com/db-us90city100kdens.htm

Here's an interesting link on world population densities for comparison purposes:
http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/popdensity.htm

InTheTrees

I lived in Santa Cruz for 10 before moving up to Seattle 10 years ago.

I used to commute over the mountains from Santa cruz to Silicon Valley on the notorious Highway17 for 5 years.

Not a lot to reccomend San Jose, it has a nice easy airport you can use as an alternative to SFO. Los Gatos is nice and some of the communities along the foothills.

InTheTrees

Manic Moran wrote: »

Parks? Can't say I've ever really gone looking for one. What would I want with a park?

I cant really think of any City Parks in the whole bay area...

Urban parks in the us tend to be places for the homeless to go drink. Thats why god invented SUV's. SO you can drive someplace to go for a walk.

lil_lisa

The reason I ask is because San Jose is surrounded by parks as far as I can remember, and along the West Coast I love the parks!

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

Here's an interesting link on world population densities for comparison purposes:
http://geography.about.com/od/popula...popdensity.htm

Wow, I never realised how empty Australia is. No wonder they're handing out visas!

Black Swan

InTheTrees wrote: »

Urban parks in the us tend to be places for the homeless to go drink.

Sadly, this occurs in many of the older urban park areas of the US, but there is still quite a bit of diversity by design; i.e., some of the suburban areas in the US are unlike the old cities. For example, we lived for a couple years in Irvine, OC of Southern California, which is a planned suburban community, with extensive mini-parks, bike and jogging trails, etc., throughout the city, which are policed in such a way as to discourage the public drunken behaviour you referenced. It's also one of the safest cities in the US, with no gangs, and where you can go for a walk at 3AM if you cannot sleep without worry.

InTheTrees

lil_lisa wrote: »

The reason I ask is because San Jose is surrounded by parks as far as I can remember, and along the West Coast I love the parks!



Wow, I never realised how empty Australia is. No wonder they're handing out visas!

Oh yes, I know what you mean. I imistook you to mean kind of inner city stephens green types of parks.

The california state parks and the national parks are excellent. and yes, San Jose is surrounded by them. A lot of the beaches along the coast are designated state parks for instance.

I think a lot of the western US is like that, the distances are greater and there's more "empty space" between cities.