Moving to USA

hannah8998

Hello!

22 year old female here.
I've just received my green card and quite frankly I'm not sure what to do with it. I'm terrified at the thought of leaving Ireland, but I've recently been made redundant and feel like there's nothing here for me anymore.

All my work experience is retail related, so I won't have many job options over there, and I'll need a job a.s.a.p. or I'm going to be homeless.

Anyone have any tips or advice?

Thanks!

Hannah

Black Swan

Hi hannah,
Wish I could offer you some encouragement, but since the financial melt-down that occurred 2007-2008 in the States, retail has been hard hit, and only recovers during seasonal shopping times, the largest being November through December holidays. With only a retail background, if you took advantage of this holiday season to find work, you would run the risk of being laid-off come January.

Summer would not be a good time to seek retail employment in the States. This is when there is a surplus of high school and college students seeking work to off-set their expenses and student loans incurred during the 9-month academic year.

The US is in gradual recovery, but it's slow going, with some parts of the nation still experiencing double-digit unemployment, when during normal times it hovers about 5%. The biggest economy in the 50 state country is California, and high-tech is recovering quite well, but retail still suffers from double-digit unemployment, and several retail spaces have gone dark about shopping malls and strips, some chronically vacant for months, a few for years (e.g., the gone-out-of-business Card Shoppe in the UCI-University Centre Marketplace is prime retail space for 30,000 walk-by students, and has been vacant for over 4 years).

There are pockets of retail enterprise activity, but unless you knew someone on-the-ground in a nearby neighborhood, there is little chance that you would know where to go when crossing the pond from our homeland to the States. I do know of one large retail mall that has been an exception to the Great Recession rule, in that it is fully occupied by all the well known store chains, and teaming with customers, and that is the Spectrum in Irvine. Unfortunately, the cost-of-living in that city and the nearby cities is very high, consequently your retail pay will mostly go to some rich landlord in rent.

You might want to visit the United States forum of boards.ie, which is for folks wanting to emigrate to the US, as well as those already living there. The two mods of that forum (lil_lisa, silja) are made of gold, know the States well, and very helpful.

Good luck.

silja

*** Moving from USA Travel to USA (Living) for better answers ****

My main tip would be be prepared for the culture shock. Even with having visited and having friends/ family in the USA, it is soooo different living there than visiting.

InTheTrees

Well first thing is to decide on where you're going to move to.

There's obviously huge differences between different states.

Next I'd browse the craigslist for the specific area and see what jobs are being advertised.

And asking on this forum is a good start too.

pjsquigley

Hi, just wondering how did you get your green card? Have you family over there?

silja

pjsquigley wrote: »

Hi, just wondering how did you get your green card? Have you family over there?

Who?
In my case, I met an American online, he came to live with me in Ireland a few years, then we decided to move closer to his family.