we won on the green card lottry !
 

My wife and I got our 'green cards' via the immigrant lottery. My wife is a Polish national and was therefore eligible to enter the lottery.
We have a 16month old son who also has his green card.

We went over to the states (Orlando) to activate the card and have 1 year from that visit to move over to America.
My wife is pregnant (due end of October2003) so we are applying for a re-entry permit which will extend the time by 2 years during which we have to make the move.

My question is how is it best to go about finding work in Orlando .. are there any good job agencies which would help ?
I am well educated with degree in Psychology and postgraduate diplomas in Counselling Psychology and also Organizational Psychology. :lecture:
I also have experience in sales as I was a BUPA Healthcare Adviser for 2 years !


I know that healthcare is quite expensive in U.S. so finding a job which gives you private medical insurance is really a necessity.
How much would I be expected to pay per month to cover myself (40yrs old) , my wife (34yrs) and two young children on a comprehensive package ?

I'd be grateful if anyone could recommend any good job agencies in Orlando area .....

We are keen to make the move but want to go in with our eyes open and not have any unpleasant surprises :eek:

We plan to rent for the first year and hopefully things will pan out okay regarding jobs and building up a credit history, and then we plan to buy a property.

Thanks .. I'm off for a :beer:

Re: we won on the green card lottry !
 

If you want to stay in the psychology field or want your psychology qualifications to be recognized, please check the American Psychology Association website or the professional body for people working your speciality. It's highly likely that your psych qualifications will not be recognized in the US. It may be necessary to recertify (i.e. train/take courses) in order to remain in the same line of work.

You are quite right about the cost of private healthcare in the US. I think it is near impossible to give an estimate as to the monthly cost for a family of four, inc. 2 children.

I speak from personal experience. There are two adults in my family. Both of us can get health insurance from our employers. When we compared the plans, providers and costs I was surprised to find that a PPO* plan from the same provider was three times more expensive from my employer than my spouse's. I expect the plans were not identical in every way but pretty much the same.

* If you are not familiar with a PPO, now's a good time to start understanding the glossary for American healthcare. It'll make understanding healthplans a lot easier.



NC Penguin

<<snip>>

Re: we won on the green card lottry !
 

Congratulations first off, but I think your chances of a surprise-free transition are slim. Expect to take longer to build a credit history (there is advice within the pages of this forum).

I think you taste the good things about the States when you visit, but the tougher things not until you live here. This site is a great place for help.

Employment-wise, everything here is networking and word of mouth. Definitely get your credentials translated to here, but I think you will do best when you start making a good impression on people and they talk to each other.

Thanks for the advice .. but how would I get my credentials translated ?

I suppose finding employment is only realistic once we come over to U.S. ?

Our healthcare premiums are $511 per month for just my husband and myself. They went up this year by 19% and think it was a similar amount last year. Quality of care is excellent, but you pay for what you get.

heath care
 

We pay 350$ a month for a whole family but I believe that is subsidised by my employer, they are supposed to match it but who knows how much they really put in. Great level of care. But a new system where you have $2000 to spend on care and the next $1000 is a deducable after that it is 90/10, this works fine if you only need regular doctor visists and antibiotics etc. but will be very quickly spent if procedures are needed.

I think someone else suggested contacting the governing authority for your field in the United States. My expectation would be that there is little licensing - there seems only a cursory minimum in other fields required to obtain insurance.

For my company, the cost is $169 per person per month, which we split 50/50. The cost is dependent on the age / gender breakdown of the client.