sweetestthing21

Hi all,

I just wondered if any one could give me some advice on the consequences of working illegally in the US?

I have a friend who is going over to New York in January and she fully intends to stay out there and find a job in an Irish bar... I've tried to make her see that it's not the brightest idea she's ever had but her heart is set on it and she won't listen to reason... The thing is I'm worried sick about her - for one how will she find somewhere decent to live when she has no rental history or references over there? And how will she find a job without a social security number? The thing I'm most worried about though, is what will happen to her in a year or two when she tries to leave the country & fly back home to the UK? Will she be deported and never allowed to return, or is there a certain amount of time that she'll be banned from entering the US again for?

My friend is also under the impression that if she finds an employer who will sponsor her then she may be able to claim permanent resident status and work legally, however, surely she would have to be able to offer some skill other than being able to cook Irish food in an Irish pub or cafe??

I'd appreciate any help or advice that anyone can offer, whether it's a horror story that I can tell her to convince her to just go for a holiday, or details of any Irish / British community centres in Manhattan, Queens or the Bronx that may be of help to her...

Thanks in advance!

Jemma

Silverdragon102

Looking at a ban from 3 years upwards if caught. Also currently not able to change status if she does find someone to employ her.

Just my opinion

Ray

Unless she marries an American ...

Rete

Hey in the NYC area (Bronx and lower Westchester County) is heavily populated with people just like your friend. They stay one or two years illegally and then hate it and decide to return home. The ones that stay own homes, businesses and are waiters, waitresses and bartenders and day laborers and have the support of the Catholic Church and the Aisling Community Center among others. The ACC is in Yonkers, NY if you want to contact them. They also provide immigration assistance to Irish immigrants.

What she is wanting to do is illegal and there is always a good chance that her agenda will be noted at the border and she will be denied entrance. If she makes it, she will always be looking over her shoulder for the next ICE raid. She will never get a social security number, as she is not qualified for one, and will work off the books and not pay taxes and the apartments in the Bronx and Westchester will not do a credit check mainly because a legal immigrant will rent a 2 or 3 bedroom apartment or house and then rent out rooms to the illegals.

If she does this and stays and returns to the UK or Ireland, after 180 days of illegal presence she will incur a ban of 3 to 5 years. After a year I believe it goes up to 10 years.

fatbrit

It's what the young and inexperienced do. There's little future in it (save marriage to a US citizen) and it'll probably mean she'll have a difficult time ever returning after she leaves. There is virtually no hope of securing residency through work in her plan, and by her planned actions she will further enforce this. But you have to learn these things yourself when you're young.

Naturalizer

I can't speak to the legal repercussions, but I can confirm--anecdotally--that the situation described by Rete holds for the Woodside/Sunnyside/Maspeth area of Queens as well, where I've had many a conversation (as my guiness belly will testify) with the staff in the plentiful Irish pubs. The community is entrenched enough that one can stake out a livelihood, but generally speaking those that go back to Ireland (if they haven't attained PR status) go back for good. Their immigration lobby is also very powerful (but their agenda frankly racist IMO, given that the same neighbourhoods abound with undocumented Mexicans, Pakistanis, Colombians and others in far greater need of immigration reform).

It's worth noting that what your friend is proposing bucks the trend, which in recent years has been for young Irish people to leave NYC for better opportunities back home (and because of increased enforcement here). The communities are actually shrinking, and the conversation in the pubs tends to revolve around who has just left. If your friend has her heart set on working in the states, why not try to get the training or education at home that gives her a decent shot at getting legitimate employment abroad? That way she can drink in the pubs here rather than working in them.

sweetestthing21

Thanks for the replies everyone. Rete, thanks for the suggestion to contact the Aisling Community Centre, I'll be sure to give her all the details.

Naturalizer, you're right, she should get the skills she needs to be able to work over there legally but she's heard so many stories from cousins and friends who've "had the time of their lives" working in the pubs and bars that she's got her heart set on it now. I think in New York in January reality will set in pretty quickly though!

So is there a good chance that she'll be able to rent a room off a legal PR in one of the Irish neighbourhoods, is that how it works?

Manc

doubt any law abiding person would want to aid and abet a criminal

but miracles happen.

dave2702

Absolutely no problem renting a room off a legal PR, when I've had to rent a room in a place no-one has ever asked for proof of my right to live in the country (such as SSN or Visa stuff)

JAJ

Hard to see the attraction of working illegally in the U.S. when she could legally live and work in up to 30 countries using her British passport.

Rete

I know but it is the mindset of the young it appears. My waitresses in the restaurant I frequent in my Irish neighborhood are all in their late teens or early 20's. They live and work here illegally for a few years and then return home. Two of them left this summer to return to Ireland as it didn't appear that they would be offered any type of immigration amnesty from the feds.

Trivia: There are six pubs in my neighborhood within a three block span. And all with Irish names.

meauxna

Beans and Brown Sauce discussion moved to the Trailer Park.
thank you.

lapin_windstar

Plenty of people move illegally to the US, and have a great time before either marrying a local or heading home with no major regrets. There's probably not a huge difference in job satisfaction between spending a decade in a pub in Queens illegally and spending a decade working in a pub in Walsall cash in hand.
Is that a joke? NYC (and the rest of the US) is full of people that wouldn't give two hoots about anyone's immigration status when it comes to the room. Landlords (sometimes) check credit, not passports. No-one on Craigslist is going to want to see a visa.

ian-mstm

No, they don't. They *enter and stay* in the US illegally... semantics perhaps, but an important concept differentiation.

Ian

lapin_windstar

Err...no...most people would understand "moving" to mean changing living in one place for living in another in this context. The VWP doesn't allow you to move here. You're being pedantic about something that isn't there.

dictionary.com:

move /muv/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[moov] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, moved, mov·ing, noun
–verb (used without object)
1. to pass from one place or position to another.
2. to go from one place of residence to another: They moved from Tennessee to Texas.