22 year old irish man looking to move to NYC, looking for advice

bigmove1012

It's my first post in boards.ie, I'm a 22 year old man looking to move to New York City for work, I've emailed a few Irish companies with the home of getting work. Initially I would be going over on a 3 month holiday visa to see how I'd get on.

Im looking to start a new life., very little work at the minute and I'm living at home, most of friends have left the place already with the majority gone to OZ.

Im wondering can anyone give me there experience of NYC and what are the main Irish communites within the city, and is there any particular irish companies/bars that hire Irish people

Im also wondering what is the process for becoming a permenant resident, If a company was willing to sponsor me could I extend my visa and eventually apply

cheers lads

silja

In the current economy, few US companies will hire foreigners when they can get Americans with the same skills just as cheap. What skills do you have that would make a company pay the $5000+ for a visa?

Also, remember that you cannot work or live in the USA on ESTA/the VWP (you could go over on that program fir interviews though). So likely your best option for moving to the US is the greencard lottery.

iusedtoknow

You can't go over in the hope of finding work, at least legally. The 3 month visit is non transferrable to any other visa type. You cannot work on this and you cannot look for work on this. The purpose of the visa waiver is for vacation only.

Unfortunately, you have limited options. Any visas have to be sponsored by someone in the US (you can't "self sponsor" like a working holiday visa in Oz), and these visas cost many 1000's, part of the process is to prove that no american can do the job. Frankly...bar tenders are 2 a penny, especially in NY.

have you recently finished college? if so you may be able to get the J1 visa
if not, you next best hope is the visa lottery program (there is a sticky link for this in the United States Forum)

The other visa categories are H1B - specialized workers, cost a load of money
L1 - inter company transfer, a load of money and a lot of work to prove that no american can do the job

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer on it, but it sounds like the visa lottery is your best bet

InTheTrees

iusedtoknow wrote: »

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer on it, but it sounds like the visa lottery is your best bet

The lottery isn't so bad is it? The huge advantage is that you start off as full Permanent Resident.

iusedtoknow

InTheTrees wrote: »

The lottery isn't so bad is it? The huge advantage is that you start off as full Permanent Resident.

The chances of winning are pretty low, that is the down side

Dave1442397

I lived in the Woodlawn section of The Bronx many years ago, but it is still a very Irish community, and the kind of place where you might be able to work illegally. That won't help you on the road to legal status, though.

You have almost no chance of convincing an American company to sponsor you, unless you have some extremely valuable skills that they can't easily find here. The company I work for uses a lot of contractors, but even with that they figured out they can have four or five offshore contractors in India for what it cost them to pay for an H1B visa for one contractor at our location. They have not been renewing contracts for on-site workers.

Your best bet is the visa lottery. That's how I got my green card back in 1987.

bigmove1012

Cheers for getting back to me ,

I was in college had to drop out I couldn't pay the fees, so I've been just living at home getting the odd days work here and there. if I was going over all I would be able to do is construction or bar work off the books.

With regards the company sponsoring me , If I could get work for three months with an Irish construction company and if I could contribute some of the money required and if they could say I had a specific trade that was of benefit to them, would that make me eligible for it.

They estimate that there is still up to 50,000 undocumented Irish in the city today, is it true that if your illegal you cant open a bank account and have a driving liscense , that would make things harder but there is absolutely nothing happening at home at the minute.

Id nearly go out for three months and give it a shot, If I entered for the visa lottery, and If i did get it i wouldnt be eligible untill 2016?
Ive heard of people getting married just so they can stay on aswell

iusedtoknow

No one here is going to recommend you break the law.
Also..you cannot contribute to the visa fee. It all has to come from the company, and not to be rude - but there are more than enough american constructions workers/legal immigrants to fill these sort of roles

Here are the consequences if you overstay intentionally

No drivers license
no medical insurance - you break your leg and you are looking at around 30000 bill. My wife is a doctor here, and has showed me the billing system they use. An appendix operation is around the 100000 mark including bed, doctors fees, drugs etc.
no bank account - no bank cards - America is primarily a card society.
Not able to get back home if you need as if you do leave, you will never be let back in the country without a visa, and you're unlikely to get a visa if you overstay.
No security. Because you're illegal, your work (if you got any) could fire you on a whim, if you don't get paid you can't exactly go to the union etc about it.
You have to keep yourself out of trouble - anything involving the cops could very quickly escalate into being imprisoned and deported.

Just because 50000 are undocumented, doesn't mean you have to join them. It is illegal, and gives the Irish a bad name and makes it harder for people trying to do it right.

It really just isn't worth it.

silja

**** Boards.ie does not condone, support, advise or otherwise assist in illegal endeavors., and that includes illlegal immigration to other countries. That part of the discussion ends NOW. If you wish to discuss legal avenues, then you may continue posting. ********

bigmove1012

thats fare enough. I wasn't saying that I was going to move illegally, just trying to find out was there anyway I could get a visa

InTheTrees

bigmove1012 wrote: »

thats fare enough. I wasn't saying that I was going to move illegally, just trying to find out was there anyway I could get a visa

The thing is that if you were there illegally and anything happened at all, even so much as a parking ticket, you may find you'd lose any chance of taking part in the lottery.

Canada is much easier for work visas isnt it? They cant get enough people to work in the oil fields.

rockonollie

bigmove1012 wrote: »

thats fare enough. I wasn't saying that I was going to move illegally, just trying to find out was there anyway I could get a visa

bigmove1012 wrote: »

if I was going over all I would be able to do is construction or bar work off the books.

Illegal

bigmove1012 wrote: »

With regards the company sponsoring me , If I could get work for three months with an Irish construction company and if I could contribute some of the money required

Illegal

bigmove1012 wrote: »

Ive heard of people getting married just so they can stay on aswell

Illegal

As has been pointed out by the Mod, there's plenty of folks here that can advise you on legal ways of moving to the US. But you won't get advise on illegal methods.

Greencard lottery, completing college and J-1 or taking employment with a company in Ireland with operations in the US and eventually transferring to a US location are really the only options open, unless you have immediate relatives that are US citizens that you haven't told us about.

Not trying to dash dreams, but the days of jumping on the boat and moving to the US are long gone.

ProudDUB

OP, you need to put the idea out of your head of just showing up and looking for work. Not only is it illegal, your life would be incredibly difficult, in ways that I don't think that you are thinking through. There are all kinds of things that you take for granted being able to do here, you can not there, or can only do so with great difficulty, if you are there illegally.

As hard as your life may seem now, it would be far harder in the US. You also can never come home to Ireland again, as you'll be refused entry if you try to re enter the US. So if someone here gets sick or married or dies, you can't ever come home for it. Think about that for a minute.

Ok, lecture over. There is a chain of Irish pubs in the US called Fado. They occasionally hire Irish people (living in Ireland) to work in their pubs & they take care of all the legal paperwork. Do a search on here for topics about them, as it comes up from time to time.

Other than that, your only other option (apart from the green card lottery) is to go back to college, go over on the one year J1 visa and try to find a company that would want to take you on full time and pay all the legal fees. Or get a job with a company with US office and transfer over. But you are talking long term life and career planning there. There is no short term fix.

On the 3 month holiday thing, it is unlikely you would even be let in for 3 months. You just tick too many of the boxes for someone who would go there on holiday and would try to stay on illegally - young, no job here, no career that you have just finished studying for, no qualifications, no house here that you rent or own, no spouse or kids that you would come home for. You have no concrete ties to Ireland, that would bring you back here after a holiday. I am not saying that to have a go at you. I am just pointing out that you would raise a lot of red flags with the immigration police and they would probably deny you entry.

You would also need to be able to show that you have adequate funds to support yourself during your 3 month "holiday" in the US, so that you won't need to look for work under the table while you are there. Given what you have told us about your personal circumstances, that could be a problem for you.

DaraghMAC

This forum can be so uptight you would swear we are British sometimes!!!!!! Good luck with your move!!

iusedtoknow

DaraghMAC wrote: »

This forum can be so uptight you would swear we are British sometimes!!!!!! Good luck with your move!!

the "Ah Shure, t'will be fine" attitude does this guy no favours.

All of us that live here in the US (legally) have gone through hoops to get here, if it really were as easy as the OP hoped, then there would be many thousands more arriving here every day. The reality is, there are more than enough construction workers and bar tenders here in the US. They are not needed.

I know that the day my visa is up, I'll be out of here (unless my Green Card gets through before then). The reality is, it's difficult to get here legally. He asked for advice, and he got it.

whitey1

I know a few Irish who are illegal and in the post 9/11 world it has become almost impossible for them to operate the way they used to

If you are posting here, I assume you have no mates or family out here-if you were illegal without that minimal support group it would be very difficult to find work, accommodation etc

Whoever mentioned the Fado Pubs-that was a good recommendation. I have met a bunch of people who came out for them, and seemed to be having a blast.

Are you a footballer/hurler/rugby player...some teams bring players out for the Summer, but you are NOT legally entitled to work while you are here.

Also-don't set your eyes just on NY-don't discount Boston-much easier to get around and somewhat less expensive

sashafierce

This post has been deleted.

bigmove1012

I appreciate the responses lads, I understand where ye r coming from when ye talk about the difficulties that an illegal would face and Im well aware of that, I ve got an email back from a construction company offering me to come over for the summer and see how i get on. im thinking of not going untill next summer and im looking into the possibility of enrolling in a local college to do a certificate in architectural technology, i would try and get the company to sponsor me to stay on then,

cena

bigmove1012 wrote: »

I appreciate the responses lads, I understand where ye r coming from when ye talk about the difficulties that an illegal would face and Im well aware of that, I ve got an email back from a construction company offering me to come over for the summer and see how i get on. im thinking of not going untill next summer and im looking into the possibility of enrolling in a local college to do a certificate in architectural technology, i would try and get the company to sponsor me to stay on then,

So college in the states or here

bigmove1012

here, its just a one year course , level 5 cert

yeyeye

I'd say Canada or the gulf countries (UAE,Qatar,Bahrain,Saudi etc) are the only places you'll get decent pay at the moment

MagicMarker

You're not going to get any company to sponsor you with a one year college cert.

Basically, for you to get a permanent job you need to be able to do a job that very few Americans can do.

bigmove1012

how much does it cost to get sponsored

iusedtoknow

2500-10000 depending on the visa. This is just the application fee , this does not cost the immigration lawyers fees. This alone can add another 2000 to the cost as there is a lot of paperwork that goes into applications

And you cannot pay for it or contribute - it all has to come from the person sponsoring the visa.

For my relocation including visa fees (incl lawyers + moving expenses (incl scouting trips) + other services came to around 24000.

Yes, I did some research into the H1b for my ex, you need a degree, or relevent experience, like twelve years if memory serves correctly, to be eligible.

iusedtoknow

Deleted User wrote: »

Yes, I did some research into the H1b for my ex, you need a degree, or relevent experience, like twelve years if memory serves correctly, to be eligible.

yep - they peg a 3 year degree to being 12 years experience.

ProudDUB

MagicMarker wrote: »

You're not going to get any company to sponsor you with a one year college cert.

Basically, for you to get a permanent job you need to be able to do a job that very few Americans can do.

Yep. Sponsoring someone for a visa is very expensive. It can cost up to $5000-10,000 per applicant. It involves a lot of paperwork and legal fees. The cost is largely determined by whether or not the company have their own in house legal department that handles employee immigration visa applications, or if they have to hire immigration attorneys to handle the application. Companies are generally only willing to go to all that trouble and expense for employees who bring a lot to the table and/or have skills and qualifications that are in short supply in the US.

They often also have to prove that there are no US citizens available, to do the work that they are sponsoring you for a visa for. Even if you did a full four year degree course in architecture here, you would have your work cut for you. There are plenty of fully qualified architects in America.

sarahgrif93

Look into the H2-B visa... you would qualify for that

FISMA.

bigmove1012,
Did you go to university/college in Ireland? I believe you can come out for a year on a (J1) visa having just about any degree within a year of graduation.

Unless, you have a specific, in demand skillset, like computer science, it is doubtful you would be able to stay after a year.

NYC is ridiculously expensive. You will find it very difficult to get a job that would earn enough to pay the rent within reasonable commuting distance.

If you give us an idea of your skills-set, maybe we could better help.

Raymond Darcy

As of January this year, New York has started a municipal ID card program.

Mr E

Sorry folks, I've had to delete a recruitment spam post (and the subsequent replies).