Working in the states?
Hi!
Me and a couple of friends are planning to look for jobs in the states. I'm doing it just to try something new and get a more exiting life. I am sick of making 90k a year to only afford a 140 square feet apartment, and we only have 2 months a year with sun here in Norway :P
So i have a couple of questions.
How hard is it to get a work permit with our line of work?
I have registered on a lot of job searching sites, but i am wondering if there is a 3d related job site for the states? Most of the sites i have tried is very messy.
How is it with expenses down there? i know much is cheap but i also hear stuff like health insurance and the like is very expensive?
Any other things i should look into before i jump into anything?
Me and a couple of friends are planning to look for jobs in the states. I'm doing it just to try something new and get a more exiting life. I am sick of making 90k a year to only afford a 140 square feet apartment, and we only have 2 months a year with sun here in Norway :P
So i have a couple of questions.
How hard is it to get a work permit with our line of work?
I have registered on a lot of job searching sites, but i am wondering if there is a 3d related job site for the states? Most of the sites i have tried is very messy.
How is it with expenses down there? i know much is cheap but i also hear stuff like health insurance and the like is very expensive?
Any other things i should look into before i jump into anything?
Replies
Not 100% just what i've heard, had some family who moved from England to canada and it took them almost 10 years to finally get out there
I personally wouldn't leave Europe to work in the States unless the employer was very stable and the pay particularly high; in this part of the world you have healthcare and employment rights. If you became unemployed over there whilst on a work visa, you could end up with literally 48 hours to pack your shit and return to Norway (at your own cost) - although you do usually get more time than that in reality.
join the US army, 2 years and you get your citizenship.
But for adventure, try China, India, Vietnam, maybe Singapore. Otherwise there's Canada, UK, etc. I guess the "adventure" there would be quite similar - diffierent customs and different forms of bureaucracy you have to deal with.
So the biggest thing will probably be to find somewhere with high enough demand where you could realistically get employment and some type of work visa or residence, and I honestly don't know where (or even if) there is a place like that. Are there any industry hotspots in the world?
I know in New Zealand (and maybe by extension Australia) you can get a visa with about 3 years of past employment in the field, with places like Weta Digital having large teams and lots of influence. Unfortunately most other places in the world don't rank the industry high enough to be on any type of 'high demand' or 'critical jobs' list.
There are nice places though that, while not having a large industry presence, are pretty easy to get residence in (Uruguay for example), and your prospects increase almost anywhere if you are planning on starting a business. I know Singapore has been big with business growth recently, it's apparently easy to get something started there, Chile as well. If you have a steady stream of income that is not job dependent, Malaysia has a program that pretty much lets you stay up to ten years; it can be nice over there. There are many little things like that, so it's best to find a place your interested in and see all the options (you mention the US, and as a citizen of the US it's probably the one country I know least about entering!).
If you're mainly looking for adventure and you have the flexibility, you can always backpack about! There are lots of programs like couchsurf, helpx, wwoof, workaway, hostels that could free up some of the travel expense if you decide to backpack around (many countries let you stay for up to 90 days as a tourist, although I don't know specifically for Norway).
Insurance is part of you employee benefits package - I've never really noticed it as a big expense.
This might be a good site to compare expenses Numbeo cost of living comparison
Canada would be easier to get to and it would probably be a weather improvement for you.
it's pretty easy. There's tons of agreements between countries like Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland which are not in the EU proper but which have very close cultural and economic ties. There's a few forms you may have to fill out but apart from that it's fairly easy to get employment in the EU if you're a citizen of these countries. Much easier than seeking employment in e.g. Canada, US, Australia, etc.
If you are from one of these countries you can even transfer social services like unemployment status, medical insurance status, accumulated pension years, etc. between them and the EU.
First you NEED a sponsor, a company that is willing to pay your relocation and your work permit, immigration WONT let you do it by yourself. Another thing is, you will only have 3 years of this work permit and you will have to renew it. If you get laid off, bye bye US, you will have to come back.
If you are married, your wife wont be able to work, u wont be able to vote, and NO, u cant travel outside US unless you want to comeback to Norway and then go back to US again, because you will have to stamp your passport in order to come back.
Also, after 6 years, your sponsor will have to do a Greencard for you in order u can stay.
I actually talked to my boss yesterday about wanting to try something new, and instead of me quitting he wanted to try get me relocated for a year to one of our us offices to try that experience. I know some within the company that have done that already and i don't think that would be a problem.
Im open for all places though, but the states has been a dream since i first started studying to become a 3d artist and i love that place!
I was recently in LA, NY, San fran and vegas on vacation and i'm going back in june a couple of weeks because everything is awesome over there.