Working without a SSN
- Thread starter Zootfish
- Start date
You will need a SSN to work (legally). It shouldnt take too long to receive - probably about a month or so.
I disagree with what Praha says. It all depends on what kind of work you are looking for, and in what state. Some industries have been harder hit than others and have been slower to recover. Personally, I find that in IT there's lots of work once again and recruiting continues to grow, so there is definitely work in IT. The salaries might not yet be as high as they used to be before 2008, but the work is there.
I disagree with what Praha says. It all depends on what kind of work you are looking for, and in what state. Some industries have been harder hit than others and have been slower to recover. Personally, I find that in IT there's lots of work once again and recruiting continues to grow, so there is definitely work in IT. The salaries might not yet be as high as they used to be before 2008, but the work is there.
IT is holding but there is thousands of professions which are gone ..on this forum people talk only about IT/PROGRAMING and thats about it ...everything else is a bust ..but even the mighty IT is paid 1/3 LESS THEN JUST 5 YEARS AGO ....
what I' trying to say it simple ..mass corruption from highest levels of the gov to state gov all the way down to city levels ...across the nation ...salaries going down in real terms year after year ..prices going up year after year for no reason ....financial sector out of control ...unemployment stuck at 15% ....what else I can tell you to make you feel good about coming over ..seriously ??..I can't lie that much !!!!...sorry
hahah funny guy...what you just said in your comment explains why is this country going down ...ignorance bordering on outright stupidity ....well let me elaborate we DO have 30 millions unemployed + 80 million living below poverty line + 45 millions living on food stamps and lets calculate 2 million in prisons ...all in all approaching critical mass of population which has nothing to lose ...maybe they come over and camp at your house one day ..pretty soon ??...how long this country can sustain national debt which is more then its national product ???.... SS money is about to run about in less then 2 decades from now ...so HOW YOU GONNA GET YOUR PENSION A?...just ask yourself that ...THERE IS NO MONEY ANYMORE HERE FOR ANYONE ...think that ...for a moment
ok no worries ...I been here a while
advice i have for you is very simple
work only f0r cash in the begining if you can't land a ''professional job " that is ..because taxes you pay for any kind of ''casual'' job would kill you !!!..seriously you will pay very high taxes (about 30%)for any kind of job paying say 15-20 000 dollars year and then at the end of the tax year rest assured IRS would ask you to pay even more ...the lower the wages the more taxes you pay in this country ...rich here don't pay taxes at all !!!! keep that in mind
second thing ..don't fall for stocks/investment market scams and offers of investing your money so ''it would work for you ''...it sure way to lose everything !!!...
NEVER ''spend money to make money''..thats popular saying here in this country ..but its its just a scam intended to benefit lawyers and people who will invest your money for you ..usualy in such manner that you lose it and they win ..instead follow american system and SPEND SOMEONES ELSE MONEY TO MAKE MONEY FOR YOURSELF ..IF YOU can great both win but if you lose ..ITS SOMEONES ELSE MONEY
don't buy anything on credit !!!!.......especialy not a house or car(S)...property tax is a killer in this country and could put you out on the street one day just like that ...when you get sick or old and can't work anymore you won't be ale to pay it and the house is gone in a heart beat
change dollars as soon as you got them in euros or swiss francs or even canadian dollars ..never keep them in us banks but rather in accounts in europe or elswhere where you get higher interest on your savings ,you can keep some us dolalrs on hand on some us accounts ..but limited amounts only
also chose some other city/state NEW JERSEY is f..d up place to begin with
stick with those few advices and you will do alright
Praha, where do you get these advices from? Why would someone with a Green Card work for cash? just to avoid taxes, what about Social security, what would they do when the get older, what would they show as experience when the get a real job? Your advice is really bulshit and confusing people even more. You said not to buy car or house on credit? If you would be smart you would know about a thing called credit history, no new comer to US would have a credit history to buy a car, not saying a house, so I guess stop giving advice that don't even make sense. Do you really get taxed 30% or you are "rich" enough not to pay taxes as you said.?
look social security is bankrupt so you not gonna get money out of it ...so paying into bankrupt thinkg is waste of money ..especialy if you have low wages
about taxes..well what do you think how much are the taxes in the usa ..there is a state and federal taxes ..for NJ it would come to 25-27% from your pay check easily
i been living in this country 8 +years now ..woked for big companies and had casual jobs but alo used to run my owm business
when i was running my own business i had a contact with peoplefrom all walks of life and professions ..and i did not hesitate to ask ..i don't belive in myths an dfairy tales ..i already have seen one system destroyed in mycountry back in the 80s ..the fall of communism so i don't trust anything anymore on face value ..if someone tells me its good I check it even more ..if I see lots of peopledoing the same thing its sure thing for me not to follow their suit and dod the same
for example 6 years ago I had opportunity to buy a house with small downpayment and on a first look a very good deal monthly rent ..but i declined ..because i sensed its some sort of a bank scam ...my friend did it and lost more then 100 000 dollars and last year he lost the house too due to foreclosure .....millions of people lost homes in the very same way ...you all know what i talk about
about me paying taxes ...yes i paid a lot of taxes when i worked like crazy (at one point i had 3 jobs !!)
..but when i was running my own business i had a good accountant and he made all kinds of financial acrobatics to declare total loss in most of my business deals ..all within a law of course and cut my tax bil by 70% !..yes that much !....so i asked around and since i can do it like that on such smal scale and limited resources I had at the time I was wondering what could someone with lots of money do with some big business ??...
and I talked to some of mu customers ( very rich people)..and I found out that they ALMOST PAY NO TAXES AT ALL !!!..BEST OF ALL THEY GOT THE TAXPAYERS MONEY TO START BUSINESSES OF ALl KINDS USING LAW LOOPHOLES AND CONNECTIONS within banks and finacial instiutions !..and they ship out all the profits to some other countries ...
since begining
what I'm trying to tell you about credit history and such is very simple ...credit history is just a tool to get your money ..nothin much and nothing less and to saddle you with debt wich you will have to re -pay many times over and in the case of you loosing your job and don't have the income to pay back those debts you will lose your house and your car and god knows what ..I'm smart and I keept the money in the bank in Europe using strong dollar to buy foreing currencies when I could in the past and now coverting those monies back into weak dollar which gives me a return of 20-27% floating interest for the last 2 YEARS ALONE .....without any risk !!! or investing it in stock exchange !
..so I think credit history is just a scam !!..period ..not even gonna discuss that anymore ...you do what you think is right and fight to have your credit rating high but I'M SURE ONE DAY ITS NOT GONNA MATTER and its not gonna help you in any sense so its just wasting your effort in the thing which is ultimately just a tool for some other people to take more money from you on the long run
..so I think credit history is just a scam !!..period ..not even gonna discuss that anymore ...you do what you think is right and fight to have your credit rating high but I'M SURE ONE DAY ITS NOT GONNA MATTER and its not gonna help you in any sense so its just wasting your effort in the thing which is ultimately just a tool for some other people to take more money from you on the long run
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all my ''advices'' and comments about current economical affairs in this country I tried myself and are from my own experience or experineced by people i know ...most of them immigrants to this country
just one more thing I want to say ..last year while this forum still in the previous format one of my first posts was regarding a BANK OF AMERICA SCAM ..in other words BoA has/had a computer system which follows accounts of ''poor ''people ..or people who have not much money on their accounts ....so when they use their cards to do some purchase BoA would withold charges for a few weks and would not show them in chronological order ..so basicly customers would be lured into a trap to think they have more money then they actually have and spend even more going down in debt and had to repay the bank late and overdraft fees (70 dollars per day !-usual period was at least a week !=490 dollars debt acrued on average per customer like that).....lots of people on this forum ..actually all of them who responded to that post of mine attacked me like idiots ..almost like they work for BoA themselfs ...well these days BoA admitted to have used such system to steal from the customers and in due process almost quarter of its profit as a bank came from OVERCHARGING CUSTOMERS LATE AND OVER DRAFT FEES FOR DECADES..all in all about 2 billion dollars per year !!!...actualy less then 15% of those banks funds where used to finace any start up businesses and to make profit out if it ..all the rest profit is acrued trough a scam I just described or by endless malversation on sub prime home loans or wall street insiders short selling of junk bonds from this banks portofolio.....
so if you are smart you can do your own research and find out a pattern of behaviour of the so called ''big businesses ''in this country ....
for instance this is the example how the system works ..steve jobs ..founder of the aplle com decide he needed cash ..so one they he just printed 600 MILLION DOLLARS IN STOCKS with the backing of washingotn politicians and brought down stocks of his own company from 35 dollars to little over 10 dollars in space of weeks ....he should be in jail doing hard time because he in efect stole almost a billion dollars from its investors but guess what ?????..NOTHING !!!..he never faced any kind of inquest ..like that stuff nevr even happened ..investors ended up loosing the money in millions but who cares right ....etc
there is a millions of such stories from this ''land of opportunity ''..do your research ...!!! thats the last advice i will give you
just one more thing I want to say ..last year while this forum still in the previous format one of my first posts was regarding a BANK OF AMERICA SCAM ..in other words BoA has/had a computer system which follows accounts of ''poor ''people ..or people who have not much money on their accounts ....so when they use their cards to do some purchase BoA would withold charges for a few weks and would not show them in chronological order ..so basicly customers would be lured into a trap to think they have more money then they actually have and spend even more going down in debt and had to repay the bank late and overdraft fees (70 dollars per day !-usual period was at least a week !=490 dollars debt acrued on average per customer like that).....lots of people on this forum ..actually all of them who responded to that post of mine attacked me like idiots ..almost like they work for BoA themselfs ...well these days BoA admitted to have used such system to steal from the customers and in due process almost quarter of its profit as a bank came from OVERCHARGING CUSTOMERS LATE AND OVER DRAFT FEES FOR DECADES..all in all about 2 billion dollars per year !!!...actualy less then 15% of those banks funds where used to finace any start up businesses and to make profit out if it ..all the rest profit is acrued trough a scam I just described or by endless malversation on sub prime home loans or wall street insiders short selling of junk bonds from this banks portofolio.....
so if you are smart you can do your own research and find out a pattern of behaviour of the so called ''big businesses ''in this country ....
for instance this is the example how the system works ..steve jobs ..founder of the aplle com decide he needed cash ..so one they he just printed 600 MILLION DOLLARS IN STOCKS with the backing of washingotn politicians and brought down stocks of his own company from 35 dollars to little over 10 dollars in space of weeks ....he should be in jail doing hard time because he in efect stole almost a billion dollars from its investors but guess what ?????..NOTHING !!!..he never faced any kind of inquest ..like that stuff nevr even happened ..investors ended up loosing the money in millions but who cares right ....etc
there is a millions of such stories from this ''land of opportunity ''..do your research ...!!! thats the last advice i will give you
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we can talk about US all day but the bottom line is simple ,MONEY IS GONE and it won't be around for very long time so evryone comming over thinking its a party time ...well you gonna be unpleasntly surprised
just one interesting story ..so you can get the feeling of the ''good old days ''
I bought a house in 2004 for 5% DOWNPAYMENT ....my monthly motgage was ajusted rate of 800+dollars first 5 years ..I immidiately took another mortgage for 58 000 DOLLARS ..and got hte cash on my bank account ..then ..I took equity of over 340 000 dollars on the house !!..all cash on my account ...and all that for mere 22.000 dollars downpayment ..so all in all I was ''making ''100 000 dollars per year just by applaying for morgages and loans using my house (which i did not even pay in full) as collateral !!!..HOW CRAZY WAS THAT .. well i took the money and invested back in my country ...in US I declared bankrupcy and returned the house to the bank (foreclosure )..''my ''house today is worth maybe 1/3 of the value that i ''paid'' for it when i took the mortgage ...just my ''american dream ''....in my first 6 years in this coutry i ''cleaned'' around 1/2 million cash ...today thats impossible ..sorry folks
well..the only thing i did to that extent is buying computers/laptops and returning them back to the shop after 3+ weeks ..in my first 3 years in the USA i bought more then 3 dozen of laptops ..I tried them for a month and then few days before the 30 days waranty is up i will return them back for refund and go to the other shop and buy another one which i would also return ..and so on and on ..so i saved couple of thousands dollars by NOT BUYING A COMPUTER at all..but i always had top of the line stuff..
My View
I have read everything on this thread and i think its quite negative and strong. I dont intend to disagree with the picture praha and others are painting at all. What i can say though is that am hoping to win this year(may 1st 2012), and i generally believe that life always has two sides. it has both good and bad. And in all essence i believe that they are those who have got the american dream all good for them. But there are also those who haven't found things so good for them.I have grown up in africa and for us everything is a challenge that you go through and if you fail someone else will be there to collect. I certainly beleive that there are alot of green card winners who will actually make it and will have good stories after so many years. So yes things might be bad but that only means things are good for some other people. You cannot have loosers without winners and some people will make it, and also some people will struggle. But all in all i wish everyone success and i just encourage everyone who has won and those who will win to go for it. You only win if you try to win but you also loose only if you try to win. There is really nothing to loose in trying
I have read everything on this thread and i think its quite negative and strong. I dont intend to disagree with the picture praha and others are painting at all. What i can say though is that am hoping to win this year(may 1st 2012), and i generally believe that life always has two sides. it has both good and bad. And in all essence i believe that they are those who have got the american dream all good for them. But there are also those who haven't found things so good for them.I have grown up in africa and for us everything is a challenge that you go through and if you fail someone else will be there to collect. I certainly beleive that there are alot of green card winners who will actually make it and will have good stories after so many years. So yes things might be bad but that only means things are good for some other people. You cannot have loosers without winners and some people will make it, and also some people will struggle. But all in all i wish everyone success and i just encourage everyone who has won and those who will win to go for it. You only win if you try to win but you also loose only if you try to win. There is really nothing to loose in trying
agree..all I'm saying is WATCH YOU MONEY AND DON'T EXPECT ANYTHING ..because its not gonna happen anyway ..try to balance your experiance from your country and recognize the same set up here ..all that you hate in your country is HERE and working against you ..
you will need maybe to bribe someone to give you job ..thats happening ..dont panic ..no darama in that ..this is the society where verything works like that ..if there is opportunity there is someone making money on it
same thing goes to everything here ..you need to establish contacts ..same like in your country only here you don't now anybody nor anyone knows you so its gonna be 100x tougher ...remember here there is saying ..ITS NOT WHAT YOU KNOW BUT WHO YOU KNOW ..you will see that there is a lot of people here working very prominent jobs and getting good salaries but they DON'T ACTUALLY DO IT GOOD AT ALL or they suck at work but they had god connection so they got the job
you have to understand that this country had a good run of almost 30 years of economic growth which came to end in 2007-2008 ..and for very long time now economy will go down ..so there is a lot of negative side effects in society and all the bad things are coming up ...this country is rife with corruption for example ..politicians especially on local and state levels are corrupt same as any politicians say in Uganda..they take brabes in millions ..in Florida where i live almost all prominet politicians on the city level (miami ) and all the way to governor of the state are either criminals under some sort of investigation or convicted fellons alltogether ..other states are pretty much the same ...so watch out ...and stay clear
one more advice for anyone comming from eastern europe ..check interest rates on savings account back in your respective countries and if you can.. keep sending money (us dollars or us dollars checks from salaries )..back home sa fast as you can ..I can tell you that me and my wife manage to save at least 2000-3000 dollars every year like that because in my country in europe i have bank account which has a high interest on SAVINGS IN DOLLARS ..around 4.5% per year for checking and 7.2% for long term savings (12 months minimum )..so i send my pay checks back home to be cashed in instead of cashing them in USA ...i know sounds tricky but its actually very simple ..and i do have acces to that money because i have credit card from my country which works here in the US too
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