LeeWillo

Hi All,
We are English living in Australia and fancying another change to the USA. My question right now is, what is the general leave entitlement given by employers? Currently I get 5 weeks paid leave, and can pretty much take any time off unpaid outside of that as long as it is reasonable. What do you USA based employed people get? I hear it is generally not much?

RICH

You heard right. Swapsies?

After one year working for my company I got 2 weeks off. After 5 years I got another week. In fairness I did get 3 days off when my Mum died recently, plus another day as the funeral was out of State.

LeeWillo

Thanks Rich, that's not great. I like my holidays! The main appeal to the US for me is the opportunity to go skiing on a weekend in Tahoe. If I can only use the weekend (and not Friday & Monday) that sort of loses that appeal to me! What about school teachers, do they get holidays off like they do in the UK (my wife is a teacher) so off the top of my head, 2 weeks at christmas, 2 weeks April/May, 6 weeks July/August, 1 week October?

scrubbedexpat091

It will vary depending on your employer. I have had anything from no annual vacation to having 10 days a year.

The 10 days a year was at a union job, it was based on how long you were employed, under 1 year 0 days, 1-4 years 5 days, 5-10 years 10 days, 11+ years 15 days which was the max.

scrubbedexpat091

Teaching will vary depending on how the local school is doing their school year, some break up the vacation time into smaller but more frequent vacations, and some are still traditional, with a week off in the spring, 2 weeks at Christmas, and Mid June to the first week of September off.

Teachers will get better time off then the average person will, but the wages can really suck in a lot of places.

penguinsix

It is extremely difficult for a non-US citizen to get a job as a teacher in the USA. Do you have a visa lined up for yourself? It's extremely difficult for basically everyone to get a visa unless you fall into some very narrow categories.

Leave varies, but generally it is two weeks and most Americans don't even take that much time off.

LeeWillo

I don't get why people want to spend there life working! I work to live not live to work.
We've sought advice from an agent and we are both on the list of required skills. To be honest though my wife probably wouldn't work anyway due to babies and all that.

N1cky

What list of required skills? Getting a visa to live in the US doesn't work like that. Have you read Pulaskis way? Sticky at the top of the forum. Do you fit any of the requirements?

scrubbedexpat091

A good chunk of people dont make enough money to go anywhere, or can't afford to take the time off and rather have their vacation time paid out at the end of the year (if the state your in permits that.) as a sort of bonus.

LeeWillo

The visa situation is not the question. We have been researching visa opportunities for months and have sought professional advice who have said we should, but they can never guarantee that we can get a visa. But to be honest if I am going to come to America to spend even more time at work I probably won't bother.

Michael

Vacation is going to depend a lot on the industry and/or area. In the Silicon Valley, typical is 10-25 days vacation per year after the first year depending on the company. The following is a list of some of the Silicon Valley companies.

http://www.riverbed.com/docs/Article...acestoWork.pdf

old.sparkles

Just being female (that is nosey) - why don't people get much vacation time? Are there other days off, or shutdowns? Sick days or similar for emergencies?

LeeWillo

Thanks for the info Michael but none of those are my profession. I won't rule a move out just yet I'll do some more research see if I can come up with anything.
And old.sparkles if you are wondering, Australia was my dream, America is the wife's, so part of the deal is we'll try and give it a go if we get an opportunity!

christmasoompa

I know you weren't asking about visas, but as a quantity surveyor and teacher it would be unusual to qualify for a US employment based visa, so do you have one in mind?

Because the US is so tough for most people to get in to, it just tends to be the first question that gets asked!

Good luck with it.

mikelincs

As has been suggested, firstly check out whether you can get a visa by looking at the 'read me's' in the US immi forum, and Pulaskis ways in the Wiki. If you do fit a category, and far more difficult, can get an employer to sposor you for a visa with all that that entails in time and cost for the company, then start worrying about vacation times.