AmeriBrit

We are new to this game, so anything you can help us with will be greatly appreciated. We sent in our I-130 petition to the London Embassy and were sent confirmation that it was filed on Oct.19, we are wondering if anyone had a rough idea of how long it will take to A. Process the I-130 B. Receive the AOS, G-325A and process C. Approximetely when the interview should be. We had a proposed departure date of March 8th, is this a realistic date for all the paperwork to be processed?

The next set of question is pretty much all basic stuff.

We have found ourselves in a slightly awkward situation regarding insurance. We have been in contact with several insurance companies, and no one can offer us any insurance for the flight over to the United States. Does anyone know of any companies that can offer any insurance for the flight to the United States? As I was informed by a representative of one company that 'that any travel policy would be invalid as the policy did not initiate and terminate in the country of issue', is this true? We realise that once we actually get to the states we will need to purchase a health care policy. Does anyone know of any insurance companies which may specialise, or even offer any short term policies, and roughly the premiums, we are a 24 male and 20 female who are both non smokers, with no current medical conditions, we are looking for basic coverage, living in Central New York State, near Syracuse if any are familiar with the area. Any information will be useful.

As for driving...Does anyone know if it is legal to drive in New York state on a UK driving license, and if so, for what period of time is this acceptable?

Regarding employment. I have already been assessing the job market in CNY in relation to my field. I currently work for a Clinical Research Company. Fortunately a fairly large multi national pharmaceutical company is located in Syracuse (Bristol Myers and Squibb). Is anyone aware of any similar companies/recruitment agencies specializing in the scientific field? I'm aware of one, Aerotek Scientific. Does anyone have a rough estimate of what a University graduate in CNY should expect to earn? What is a good salary for CNY? Just a ball park figure per hour/month/year.

As we have stated previously we are fairly new to this. In fact this is our first post. I'm sure will be regular posters/readers. So, if anyone can be of assistance to any of the questions/queries posted, then we'd be extremely grateful, links or website addresses would be particularly appreciated.

Pulaski

Central New York is fairly bleak, especially in winter, and like most states you only realise how BIG America is when you realize how long it takes to get from where you are to the end of the state - in your case NYC or Buffalo.

Technically I think that your UK license is only good for 30 days in New York, but the driving test is embarrasingly easy, and you should be able to get a test date in a few days - back in 2001 I drove from just north of NYC (white Plains) to Herkimer (30 miles east of Syracuse) to take my test, and that was because I could get a date the following week rather then wait of 3-4 months that I would have had closer to NYC.

I hope that you aren't planning to arrive without getting a job as the US economy isn't exactly thriving right now, and the general reputation is that the north west of New York state is rust-belt central. My previous employer was based in Buffalo, and all I ever heard was how bad the local economy is, and that everyone seems to be looking for a way out. .... Mostly it seems, I later discovered, to move to North Carolina!

Good luck!

Pulaski

Bob

I used www.worldwideinsure.com to cover my shite when I moved over, mainly travel insurance with no fixed dates and destinations, so mainly backpackers, but also, didn't need to have a return, only one I found that did one way insurance, weren't bad. Though do check what your covered for as you might want to get extra cover on certain valuables...

As for anything else wouldn't have a clue....though I thought if you were a permanent res, you had 20 days to get a license? could be wrong, don't really know, but that's what someone else mentioned...

Ben

For NYstate the license time is 30 days as Pulaski stated. Each state has its own requirements.

You may find health insurance cover on the intro page to this site. I think BUPA do one for expats that should give you the coverage you want. Yes, as Pulaski said, you can get one way coverage. We got ours through a travel agents in the UK to cover us until we landed in the US. It was very inexpensive from what I remember but I couldn't tell you who we used because it was 6 years ago. Sorry

Also as Pulaski stated the US job market isn't that brilliant at the minute. However, there are a lot of drug companies around this area (North NJ, NY state etc) and as long as you are flexible and have what a company is looking for, you may get something. Once you have a job, get your greencard, you can then look for the company you actually want to work for. However, this is taking a number of years at the minute so be prepared to wait.

sanj2010

AmeriBrit

I have just made a similar move to Ithaca (not far from Syracuse) and we are both in the same field. Please feel free to PM me.

sanj2010