Relocating to Alaska with no Job? (employment, housing, vehicle)

[pittsflyer]

Yep, as the licencing and bonding requirements soften up there will be some room for competition. I dont think the contractors up here even know how to make money in a competitive enviornment so it will be like shooting ducks in a bucket if you can get some commercial real estate paid for up here. You can even save up for and buy the real estate from afar.


The last thing you want to be doing is renting or leasing anything here from anyone.

Originally Posted by eok

Move to the lower 48 states first, to earn a living and save money. Become an official permanent resident of the USA. Move to Alaska when you have a lot of money saved. Don't even look for a job in Alaska, but find a way to make money as an entrepreneur.

A fiance visa is the easiest way to move to the USA, if you're single. It might be interesting to start at a tourist spot visited by a lot of Americans. A key issue is how well you get along with people. If you're more of a loner, it might be better to start by finding a way to earn a lot of money in your home country, then using that money to qualify for some type of visa that involves money.

[War Beagle]

Originally Posted by RookieAlaskan

oh ok, thanks frostnip. And skipper, Yes I'm British, I'm from Newcastle, I have a Geordie accent

Well, the girls won't be able to understand your accent but they will probably still find it sexy.

[GnomadAK]

Some of the grandkids have a UK grandfather, his son calls his accent "Geordie whale".

[riceme]

Originally Posted by War Beagle

Well, the girls won't be able to understand your accent but they will probably still find it sexy.

Ehhh, speak for yourself. British accent is definitely not my thing. Southern accent? Now we're talkin!

[RookieAlaskan]

I got told about an article where somebody relocated from the UK to Alaska with nothing but $2000. is this true or are people making this up?

[AKStafford]

Originally Posted by RookieAlaskan

I got told about an article where somebody relocated from the UK to Alaska with nothing but $2000. is this true or are people making this up?

Are you asking about the immigration cost?
You could show up in Anchorage with $2,000 in your pocket. But hotel rooms would eat that up fast. Any apartment for rent would want first month/last month/deposit, so it wouldn't cover that.
I think it's best to not believe everything your hear...

[RookieAlaskan]

haha, I thought it wouldn't be true. No its not the immigration cost. I don't believe everything I hear, I just got curious when I got told so thought id ask. I know Anchorage is more expensive than Fairbanks but no, from what I heard, he moved to the south somewhere to live off the grid. but apparently made it all happen, getting over there, finding a place a cabin to live, all for that $2000. I didn't think it was real, but by, it would be great if it was.

[6.7traveler]

It could be real. I moved from Colorado to Alaska with approx $2000 and another paycheck coming in on the trip up from last job. I think we spent about $1000 of it just coming up the highway. We rented a rustic dry cabin outside of Fairbanks complete with sled dogs for $250 a month, no deposit or lease. Also, my wife had a job offer waiting as an RN. Still things were tight at first, I don't recommend it to sane people.

We also did the same thing a few summers back in homer with approx $3500 but no job lined up. By the time you got the job, went through orientation, and finally got the first paycheck things were down to the double digits in the bank account. Too close for comfort. Also rental housing was extremely tight down there in summer and it was challenging to get a place to rent.

I would have never tried this if my wife wasn't in a specialized medical field where it's pretty easy to get a job. And even then, it was real close and we got lucky. Now we've been up here permenantly for a year and a half and finally are moving on up in the world.

So yeah, you could theoretically move here with only $2000. You better find a cheap dry cabin and a job right away though before you're down at the soup kitchen. An acceptable job in fairbanks is begging in front of the walmart/lowes on the johansen expressway, the highest paying and most coveted spot for begging in town . Everytime I'm there, someone has a sign up and is getting money handed to them from multiple cars. I'm sure those people didn't move up with tens of thousands of dollars. The more creative your sign, the more money you seem to get. It would be interesting to interview some of these people and see what they make on an average day.

[Metlakatla]

I think it could be done...people used to do that sort of thing in SE pretty often, actually. But I never knew of one who was a citizen of a foreign country. I don't think that's so easy -- despite a lot of misconceptions people seem to have that were probably sparked by the student visa workers, we can't hire you so easily if you're not eligible to work in the U.S., and a lot of us aren't interested in enabling illegal immigration.

[Frostnip]

Yeah, I don't think it's impossible, but it'd be foolish to do without a job lined up so you know when your funds will re-up. But it's a pretty close margin unless you're extraordinarily charming or skilled, lol.