22 year old irish man looking to move to NYC, looking for advice (New York: rent)

[bigmove1012]

I'm looking for advice on moving to New York City, I'm a 22 year old Irishman who's looking to start a new life. The area where I come from has become extremely quite with much of the young people including my friends having immigrated, so there is nothing really keeping me here at the minute. Work is very scarce and I'm only getting the odd day here and there, mainly during summer time.

I said I'd post on this forum looking for advice on a few things and to see if its truly feasible thing to do. In the last few weeks I've been emailing Irish companies and bars in NYC with the hope of getting work. I got an email the other day from an Irish construction company that would be willing to take me on for the summer months, kind of a trial run to see how I get on. Then If i get the appropriate visa , they would consider taking me on full time

my first question is how would I go about doing that,( aside form green card lottery) the work I would be doing would be manual labour, would it possible that I would be eligible for a visa if i got the company to sponsor me?

Also where are the Irish neighbourhoods of the city? and is there any first generation Irish or is it all second and third generation irish that live there? Is there much GAA clubs throughout the city or are they concentrated in irish areas alone

how much is average rent in the irish areas in the city? and finally what are the main downsides to staying on illegally, is it true that you can't open a bank account and a driving lis?

Does anyone reading this know if they figure of 50,000 undocumented irish in the city is an accurate figure ?

thanks,

Id appreciate if ye could help me out