GunnersGold

I’m on holiday in New York right now. I love the east Village, where I’m staying with a bunch of cool friends (near St Mark’s, which is awesome). I like it so much I have decided I might just live here. I’m thinking about staying for a year first, and renting a flat, then if I like it, I will consider staying longer and buy a flat. But the prices seem crazy!! I know it’s not really straightforward to get a green card so I was wondering if anyone could offer advice. How do I go about applying? I have no close relatives in the USA but my dad lectured here in the 1980’s. He used to have a lifetime working visa, which was almost like a green card I think. Is there an office I should go to apply and how long does it take? I’m currently unemployed but have a degree in media studies and have worked for almost a year at a major theatre company in London as a communications officer and can get references to support the application. I’m 28 BTW (and single if any gals fancy hookin up lol).

Wonderin how hard it would be to get a similar job in New York, and whether the pay would be okay. I’m aiming to earn a minimum of 40k dollars or more per year (beer and smokes are not cheap here lol). Alternatively, I might be interested in doing bar work at first. Is it easy to pick up bar work in the east or west Village or SOHO? Maybe cash in hand?

Also, when I was a student I was arrested for the tiniest amount of weed. It was a stupid mistake and less than a gram and it didn’t even belong to me (it belonged to a friend), but in the end it turned out that I was fined a small amount. That was over ten years ago so no big deal. Would that affect my chances of getting a green card? Do I need to declare it?
Very excited about coming to NYC, but realize that there are lots of things to sort out first. Any advice will be helpful guys. Chill.

Elvira

Read the Wiki and the Stickies........... please...

another bloody yank

I see no issues here. Sounds like a great plan! Your Dad's having lectured here in the '80's will open all kinds of doors, it's just the sort of thing the officials look for when handing out visas.

Awesome! See you in NYC!

Duncan Roberts

I wouldn't be, unless you mean as a vacation. The drug thing should be simple to answer because you would already have had to deal with it since you already entered the US.

agentred

Must... Resist... Urge to write the kind of post which the moderator will delete anyway..... so difficult...

helwardman

GunnersGold

Thanks for that. I appreciate your advice. It was a simple thing, less than a gram as I said, and over 10 years ago. Appreciate any sensible answer. Cheers!

TracyTN

Oh, I'll bite (what the heck - feeling charitable today!).

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Pulask...ork_in_the_USA

Titchski

Wirelessly posted (SAMSUNG-SGH-I617/1.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.6))

Amount means nothing! The US takes a very very dim view of drug convictions no matter how innocuous they may seem to you.

Duncan Roberts

So you made sure that you weren't going to violate immigration rules before you flew over this time? If you did it seems odd you would ask if it would be a problem because you would already know the answer and since you are already in the US the answer would have been no problem at all.

That is a completely separate issue to the almost 0 chance of you qualifying for a visa to actually be able to live and work here.

GunnersGold

Thanks for your reply. I had no problem coming into JFK airport, filled out 2 forms, the guy just took one look at my UK passport and I was in, no prob. Correct me if im wrong but as far as I know we have a special relationship with the USA which means that we support each other in things like war and intelligence and we are allowed more access to green cards than say Mexicans or French. Or am I completely wrong? I know there are loads of Brits living in NY the pub was full of them for the City game. Sir Alex was there too believe it or not. The special relationship is alive and well, I hope!!

caleyjag

Bloody hell. I'm just waiting for the next post to be along the lines of "and we let all these bloody assylum seekers in here, yet a decent hardworking tax payer who wants to make a go of it can't get a visa".

agentred

I'm afraid you are completely wrong. Listen, honestly, you have zero chance of moving to NYC right now. You don't need a greencard, you need one of the many immigrant/non-immigrant visas. Unfortunately, you don't qualify for one.

Here are your options (ranked in order of most likely to succeed):
1. Invest several hundred thousand dollars in a Big Balla Visa
2. Marry a USC, get a K-1 Visa
3. Sign up for a masters degree at NYU, get a J visa (but you need to show you have enough money to pay tuition fees and living expenses, think $60k+)
4. Start working for the British offices of an American firm, transfer across after a year on an L-1 visa.
5. Find a company in the city willing to offer you a 'highly specialised' job, i.e. it makes use of your degree. The company will then apply for an H1 visa, but they have to offer you above market wage and pay several thousand dollars in lawyer/application fees.

Until you can do one of those, you have zero, zilch, de nada, ne pas rein, NULL chances of moving to the states full time. No ifs, no buts, don't waste your time thinking otherwise.

So if you're still serious, points 1, 3 and 4 are achievable goals you can start working for/saving towards. It'll take a couple years at least, but St Marks Place isn't going anywhere.

Duncan Roberts

Yes, completely and utterly.

So you answered yes to the question "Have you ever been arrested for an offense or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance...etc" on the ESTA application and it wasn't flagged and when you did the same thing on arrival it wasn't questioned?

Ray

Please .... its just an super obvious wind up ....