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Hi everyone! My name is Alessandro, I’m 21 and come from a little village in the North of Italy. As in the title, I’m writing this post because I need your help: I want to move to the USA and start a new life there.
Over the last year I’ve been working and saving money and by the time I’ll have dropped my job (which I plan to do by the end of May/beginning of June since I wanna leave during summer) I’ll have around 15k euros on my bank account (around $18k according to actual change).
With that said here comes the thing: my wish is to live on the West Coast (California is definitely my favorite destination) and more specifically in the Bay Area but my doubt is whether I can make it or not with my strting budget. I googled a bit and read some previous posts on this forum and of course SF is already off the list as one of the most expensive cities in the whole region (maybe even in the whole country) so I was kind of focusing on the suburbs like Berkeley, Oakland, San Rafael or Richmond, where life costs seem to be lower and more affordable and yet the districts look pretty nice and not rough.
I’m open to any advice though for if I couldn’t make it to live at least 3 months (theoretically without incomes) in the Bay Area I would reasonably look for another place (again possibly on the West Coast/Caifornia).
As far as my job experience is concerned, I graduated in 2016 in foreign languages ( I can speak Italian, English, Spanish and German if that may help you recommend me something) and since then I worked as a waiter for one season, then as a translator at international events and over the last 12 months as a receptionist (both front and back-office) at a internationally-recognized structure which is both campsite and spa-hotel.
The accomodation type is no big deal for me as I've got no problems living with other people as well as on my own.
I’d be really thankful if any of you could give me any advice on where I shoud move with my budget and if there's any specific city or place that I could kinda adapt good to.
Thank you very much for reading till here and hopefully for replying.
You might try the outer burbs like Berkeley, Santa Clara or Palo Alto where there are a lot of students and where finding a shared rental to maximize savings are easier to come across. It would also of course be a great way to network for jobs and create a social circle too.
Sorry to tell you, but you cannot simply move to the US because you want to.
You can get a short-term visitor visa, but you cannot stay. You cannot work or attend school on a visitor visa. You can come over to visit on the ESTA program, but if you overstay--by even 1 hour--you can never use ESTA again.
Reading your qualifications, there is no company that will sponsor you now for a job on the H1-b visa; you have no in-demand skills or advanced college degrees; you do not have the money (starting at about $50k) for attending a US college; and unless you have a close relative in the US, you will not qualify for a family reunification visa.
Suggest you get a degree in Italy, preferably a Masters degree in a STEM subject, and apply to US companies to see if they will sponsor you.
I took a look at ESTA program and it actually looks pretty interesting as well as the H1-b visa (which I wasn't aware of btw).
I didn't actually plan on attending any US college but I didn't think it would cost so much to start off with one though.
Anyways, I'll analyze more in detail the whole short-term visa thing, a short-timed experience might be a good start to understand how things work overseas.
1. Worker visa (H1-B, agricultural worker, etc., the latter of which is only temporary)
2. Student visa
3. You have a relative living in the US willing to sponsor you
4. Special status, such as a refugee
You might try the outer burbs like Berkeley, Santa Clara or Palo Alto where there are a lot of students and where finding a shared rental to maximize savings are easier to come across. It would also of course be a great way to network for jobs and create a social circle too.
Thank you for your reply.
I've read multiple times about those places (I mean Santa Clara and Palo Alto) while roaming through the Bay Area posts but I haven't looked for anything in those areas yet, I will for sure though.
What I particularly like about these suburbs is that, as you said, they are all scholastic quarters where there's a lot of young people to get in touch with.
I'll see, hopefully I find something interesting about those places!
1. Worker visa (H1-B, agricultural worker, etc., the latter of which is only temporary)
2. Student visa
3. You have a relative living in the US willing to sponsor you
4. Special status, such as a refugee
Apparently the only way for me to get to the US is by obtaining a worker visa.
I've seen on the governmental site that there are plenty of different visas according to what you mean to do, so I guess I'll be reading a lot over the next few days to understand if there is a specific category I could apply to.
If you're even just half-way decent looking, you should have no problems finding eligible American women willing to marry you! Have you looked into mail-order American brides?
Just marry some American, tell her you will eventually move back to Italy with her (even if you won't) and apply for a green card, problem solved.
And pardon me for making a judgement on your life desires, but I just did a Google map search of your location, and I have no idea why you would want to move from there!
And pardon me for making a judgement on your life desires, but I just did a Google map search of your location, and I have no idea why you would want to move from there!
I would pack my bag to leave America for such place!!
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