Aye, neither do I, which is why I haven't bothered. Those in the UK are in a better stead to keep up with it as it should have been easy on the box news for them....

Spoke to my wife last night about Australia and it seems that she thinks it'll be too hot, she doesn't like spiders in the UK so the bigger ones in Oz will be a no no..... and then there's the snakes thing.

Also I think she'll miss the winter weather around christmas time, although I think sitting on a beach while everyone is p*ssing about trying to get everywhere on snow is more of an nicer idea.

You seen when it snows on a few centimetres in the UK everythink comes to a halt, the buses, the schools close, the council grit the roads at the wrong time, the foot paths are slippy as hell, but we have to still go to work.

In the US, you guys get on with it and most things are fine.

So I think we we go to the US next year, is she is hell bent on the US then I think that'll be it.

cliffhanger79

Just be aware next year may not be an option if you haven't found a employer willing to go the H1b route. Also can't file until April with an Oct start and that is if you are lucky to get a H1b

You think they don't have heat, extremely large insects, and snakes in the US? You are in for a big shock!

It's lucky rattlesnakes aren't native to Oregon! Oh, wait....

He seems to think that snow doesn't cause everything to grind to a halt.

Just like the UK, if you're not used to it, nor equipped for it (roughly the lower half of the US, excluding the mountain states) it will cause things to grind to a halt. And even if you ARE equipped for it, a foot or more of snow will cause most cities to slow down to a crawl, and schools to close. If it doesn't, another foot of snow a week later certainly will!

Things grind to a halt here when it rains.

So that'll be me then. Except my skills aren't rare or niche - I'm a landscape architect (no that doesn't mean I'm a gardener). I just found an employer who was tired of crappy US employees in a City where not many people want to move to (or already have those skills), and thought it was worth sponsoring a foreigner. I don't know how many EB3's are approved each year, but the visa must be come in handy for some employers, despite the waiting time for processing. The OP's experience sounded pretty niche to me. Just needs to find a patient employer with a few $ to burn. Won't be easy.

So you went where the work was, which makes sense. The OP, on the other hand, is apparently trying to find a house or neighborhood first and work back from there.

In fact I looked at all the areas which supported engineering in my line of work and Portland seemed to be the nicer place.

Anyway it doesn't matter where we live as long as I can get my foot in the door and stay for a few years then I can alway up jump and move somewhere else in the country as long as it wasn't too far from work.

Good news though, my current recruitment consultant works with a few forging companies in the US, one in Detriot, one near Chicago and the other near Buffalo by the falls, and he asked me if I would want to work in the US.

He said that my current qualifications are at degree level so no problems there and two of the companies are run by a guy from Liverpool and a guy from Wolverhampton and they have taken on people before from the UK, he stated that one person from the UK is worth 3 people in the states.

I guess they have a shortage of skilled people in that sector anyway as I know a few forging companies here have customers in the US, so I guess they just need the skill and expertise to set them to be made back in the states.

I know it'll take months for the ball to get rolling, but its nice to know a start has been made somewhere.

Whats Detriot like?

cliffhanger79

Oh, booming.

Is it a nice place to live or would the outskirts be better??

cliffhanger79

You cannot be for real.

Well I don't know Detroit so???

Oh, it's a riot.