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21 February 2006

What I'm wondering is this ... →[More:]There was this article in today's NY Times about people moving to the US from the Far East. (you might have to register with the NYT but it's free and they don't spam you.)

Before my b/f died last year, we were looking into ways I could move to the US. Short of marrying him (which we hadn't discounted), it was absolutely impossible. Yet I'm a well-educated, fairly well-off person with no criminal record or any history of political activity that might render me undesirable. If I'd sold my home here, I'd have had a healthy wodge of cash to bring into the US with me.

But unless I could show that I'd been offered a job no American could do (unlikely in Ohio, where there's not much work), there was absolutely no possibility of my being able to work in the US.

"last July, Maria Shin came to the United States for her first visit, carrying a pocket translator, a laptop and a map on which she had marked out the best American schools with sizable Asian populations."

If I'd given even the tiniest hint upon arrival in the US that I hoped some day to live there, I know I'd have been turned away. I saw it happen to people in line ahead of me - twice!

So how have these families been able to immigrate when the rules are so damn strict? Especially where the husbands, in some cases, are continuing to work in the Far East. I'm wondering if there's some loophole I missed.

post by: essexjan at: 14:45 | 4 comments

I've known quite a few Europeans and Australians and NZers etc. who've settled here. What worked for them was not throwing themselves on the open job market -- but on having employer connections. In other words, building relationships with employers who were willing to vouch for the fact that they had unique skills that an American couldn't offer. Sometimes those unique skills have everything to do with being multilingual, or understanding different cultures.

I think the tricky bit is that you have to spend some time here first in order to build those kinds of professional relationships. Most of the people I know who did this started out as young people, here on temporary student visas, or as contract/temp workers in global companies. So they established some connections first and then used them to stay.

posted by Miko 21 February | 15:11

My experience has been (1) political refugees (2) (and quite common among those in the East) sponsorship by a church -- this happened a lot in Minnesota where the Lutheran church somehow assisted in the immigration of thousands of Hmong in the late 70s and 80s and Somalis in the 90s.

And finally (3) a very difficult lottery system.

It was amazing when I was completing the paperwork with my ex (a kiwi) how long it was going to take for him to be able to work. Luckily for me, he absconded before the big day.

Those poor Somali immigrants. They look mighty cold in burkas in -30 in December.

posted by Lola_G 21 February | 15:21

I'm not much help to you, essexjan: I got married. Quite a few people I work with - science techs and the like, not researchers, who get in via the work route - just came here for a brief time while they were waiting on the lottery system to work in their favor.

posted by gaspode 21 February | 15:47

My plan to move to the US was to be with George, he was the reason I wanted to leave the UK. Now he's gone, I'm not looking to immigrate, but it struck me as odd and contrary to my understanding of how the US immigration system works that someone could visit the country for the first time in July and be settled and working within six months.

posted by essexjan 21 February | 17:15

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