Moving to San Diego from Canada (Encinitas: apartment, rent, crime)

[riffman]

Hi I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and I'm planning on moving to San Diego sometime around January '09. I've vaguely researched the necessary steps to make this happen, and have a general idea of what it entails, legally. Something along the lines of filling out the forms and all for a green card, and having like 5 grand in my pocket.

I'm planning on going to school there, so I'll see if I can get accepted to a school prior to moving. My basic plan is to get the legal stuff done, get the cash in my hand, get accepted to a school, then go down there, stay in a hostel or with a friend until I get a job & an apartment. I'd be looking for a clerical job ideally, but if necessary I can just fall back on my experience as a kitchen cook.

So I'm looking for some advice & recommendations. I don't know which area to live in, that would be good for a 22-year old white dude, into [Eastern] spirituality, art/music, vegetarianism, going to school for computer programming, taking martial arts lessons, and commuting by public transit or bicycle (would prefer bicycle, as is I commute across Vancouver easily, perhaps a couple dozen kilometres). Just a piece of information, I'll be visiting Mission Bay frequently, but don't mind taking a longish trip. Any recommendations on which schools to check out? Any information regarding anything would really be appreciated, actually. Thanks.

Edit: I'd also probably be surfing regularly, mountain biking (is there any around there, even remotely?), taking Tai Chi & Wing Chun kung fu, going to some music shows, but not really getting into the night life much. Not looking for an expensive place to live, but hopefully something decent with some kind of nice view, in a nice neighbourhood or perhaps in a busier area.

[FashionD]

You probably would like Ocean Beach. It sounds perfect for you, actually. It's full of hippies and people that are just super chilled out. I think it's a little dirty of an area and there is some crime, but it has its nice parts and million dollar houses. Good food, good people, near the beach, and can have a pretty good price range as far as rent goes. You could find a job in OB too since there are tons of places there. There is even a hostel there while you're looking for apts.

There is the beach there and lots to do. There is no mountain biking around that area, but SD does have trails and mountain where you can bike - but they're a drive away.

Good luck!

[riffman]

Awesome, thanks!

Is there a sort of second choice of area you can recommend, just for research's sake? Also, what do you mean by Ocean Beach being dirty, and what kind of crime is prevalent there?
Do people surf at Ocean Beach? I'm looking at Google Maps of it, and it doesn't look like it has many waves. Is it more for novice surfers?
Also, what is the name/approximately how far away is the mountain/trails?

Thanks again.

[John_Galt]

I don't mean this to be off-topic from your original post, but as a fellow Canadian who has moved to San Diego - by way of the north east for several years - I'd want to make sure that you've really looked into what's required to gain permanent (or even semi-permanent) legal residence status in this country.

Ever since 9/11, the process has gotten a great deal more involved, and is actually very time consuming/expensive. I was lucky enough to have student visas, followed by work visas for my first several years in the US, before getting a Green Card through marriage. Even with several things working in my favor (working for a big company that had a legal team on retainer to deal with immigration issues) it was a complicated process and not an easy one.

Just be sure you've investigated this fully, so you are well prepared when the time comes. It is definitely more than just "filling out some forms".

Don't let that deter you, though - you're going to love it down here! I'm relatively new to the area, so I'll let others provide more color on places to live.

Re: Mountain biking - my brother in law is really into it, and it sounds like there are some decent trails that he drives to in 20-30 mins, and some really amazing mountain biking trails once you expand the drive to include an hour and a half drive.

Best of luck!
-JG

[riffman]

Hey John, thanks for your concern regarding the legality of my move to San Diego. I admit my intent sounded naive, but I figure that, yeah, it's going to be a long, painful, and convoluted process. But from the sound of it, it's going to be just short of impossible to be a professional citizen of the United States. Do you know of any particular thing I should be checking out in order to get the process started most efficiently? Thank you.

[John_Galt]

It sounded like you were looking to go to school in the area. If you can get accepted to a local school in the area first, and have them work on getting you an F-1 student visa, this will easily be your quickest and most painless path to living down here legally. The trick is you'd need to decide on a school and get accpeted in advance of your move.

Additionally, you could try to find a job down here, from someone who would be willing to sponsor you for what is known as an H1-B work visa. Unfortunately, this would typically have to be a rather large corporation and would have to be a job you'd be expected to stay at for a while, as the application process is a bit expensive for the sponsoring company. This path can be time consuming, and is actually fairly competitive, as the US only issues a certain number of work visas every year.

Finally, the Green Card process is the worst beast of all to deal with. Unless you are being sponsored by a company (which is unlikely, unless you've worked with them for a long time under an H1-B visa), or are married to a US Citizen, or are a minor getting sponsored by a US Citizen family member, this process is a real challenge. The US issues very few green cards every year under people who don't qualify for one of the above.

There are certainly people who are more knowledgable about this than me - I can only speak from the limited amount I picked up over my last 10 years in this country going through all of the above. But like I said, the quickest and easiest path would be to apply to a US school, and get a student visa.

Good luck, and stick with it.. San Diego is a great place to live!

-JG

[riffman]

Thanks again, John. I was reading a bit about the F-1 student visa today, and yeah it seems like the most reasonable path to go. Do you know if I'll also need a work visa if I work part-time while going to school? Also, would I be able to get a student visa if I intend on going to a community college? Well, that would be first, to get some prerequisites, then onto college for a bachelors, then a masters at university. I'd get the prerequisites here in Vancouver, and actually I'm trying to do a bit of that in the time before I go there, but I really just want to move to San Diego a.s.a.p. and start going to school and working there. I'll sincerely do whatever it takes to do this. Hmm, maybe I can do that thing where you get a female friend to legally marry you for the sake of getting a green card. I'm pretty good looking so that might not be hard, heh heh... Half-kidding about that.

[FashionD]

I'm not a big surfer, but I know there are parts of OB (Sunset Cliffs) where local surfers go and love it there. I've even seen fights over waves before there!

OB has a dog beach (infamous for being a bit dirty-owners don't seem to pick up there dog poo as much there as other beaches) and parts where dogs can't go.

By dirty, I just mean that it doesn't have super clean streets or trees everywhere. There is a large homeless population and there is some crime. Mostly though car theft or burglary. Check out San Diego's Police Department website for stats.

You might also like Pacific Beach, which is a heavy beach college town. A little more expensive and the crowd seems to be around 22 years old. Lots to do, tons of bars...but super crowded all the time and only one real way to drive out of the city.

If you want to go further north (by about 25 miles) I'd recommend Encinitas or Leucadia or Cardiff. More family-oriented, but super relaxed beach areas. It's considered North County San Diego.

Check out Mission Trails. Those are the closest mountains (inland about 15 miles?). I hike them all the time and my boyfriend mtn bikes them.

[riffman]

Pacific Beach sounds pretty good too, I am 22 years old myself. But, I don't really go with most of what 22-year olds (or at least the "college crowd") are into: Heavy drinking, drugs, sleeping around, being obnoxious, you know. But I can tolerate them if they aren't like hollering on the streets all the time or something.

Speaking of going farther north, areas like Encinitas and so on, how are the beaches/surfing around those places? I suppose my few main concerns are just affordable housing, not too much trouble, close to the water (hopefully), and just not a crummy place to live. Oh, also a place without much late-night noise, like yelling drunks and so on. That stuff really bugs me. Granted there's always traffic and some conversations, but it's those reckless party people that I'm concerned about.

I've been checking out the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, and the Mission Trails look really nice.

[howahowa]

Hey riffman,
Have you moved to San Diego? How was your experience moving there. And any tips/ advice you could give to us? I am in BC and looking to move to San Diego. Would love to know your thoughts bro. Thanks!