Britsimon
Super Moderator
I think that's a good move - I'm sure you will do well!
USA is worth to go or no
- Thread starter Princedriss
- Start date
I think that's a good move - I'm sure you will do well!
mreuselectee
Registered Users (C)
Even Sweden's princess Madelamarried to the guy f
rom US and left Sweden to live in New York, USA. And who are we?Even Sweden's princess Madelamarried to the guy f
Lol I think the Swedish princess is pretty comfy compared to us ordinary folk wherever she chooses to live
Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
I-134 - 16th July 2013
Bank Statements - 22nd July 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
Just to elaborate on this, I think the age factor is a major thing when it comes to the DV as I've seen with many real life cases.
Some elder people who are "settled" in their lives don't want the stress of packing up and moving and starting over however if they have young children or teenagers then they do consider it for their sake. To cite some examples as follows:
My cousin's husband's family got the DV about 10 years ago when they were very young and all of them moved to the USA in 2005 I think and he said to me that it was the best thing their father did for them because all of them achieved a better quality of life than Dubai (they were living in a small crubby apartment where all the foreign workers in Dubai live and today they have their own home in the USA) and all of them have decent jobs and pitch in towards the household expenses and keep whatever is left for themselves.
My father's cousin who I mentioned on another post was what I call a DV family. He applied for his sister circa 2003/2004 and she got selected and now lives in the US (this woman had never been to school or driven a car in her life and hardly spoke English and she's got a job there and drives). He then applied for himself circa 2005 and his family (I think he had 4 kids but his daughter was over 18 and was left out) and got selected and he himself didn't even have a high school diploma. He even returned to Tanzania after 10 years to test the waters here and realised he was better off in the USA so he went back. His kids are now all citizens and have basic jobs. Whoever else he filled out forms for also got selected; I mean this guy has REAL luck.
Point being is I think people with families or single people (like moi) are more keen on the DV for the future of their children and being 32, I'd say I've got 10 years of good hard work ahead of me before I can relax so I couldn't have asked for a better age to be able to go to the USA. By the time I decide to marry and have kids I know I'll have settled in properly into the USA and society there.
From another perspective being a businessman its always been about being on the edge and risking it all the way. After all what is there to lose?
To quote Gustav Graves (the villain from James Bond - Die Another Day) "its only by being on the edge that we know who we really are."
Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
I-134 - 16th July 2013
Bank Statements - 22nd July 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
ZukotheCat
Registered Users (C)
Good for her.
I'll be gone for a couple of weeks around 4 August, but only for my holiday
Princedriss
Registered Users (C)
I am 27 years old, my dream is to get a phd and some experince+ american citizenship, then get back to my country and open a small college that have a big ties with an american university !
I'm planning on a small print shop to keep myself busy and have a trading business to bid for government tenders/contracts in Tanzania as a foreign based organisation to supply things such as farm equipment, heavy lifting equipment, generators, hospital items etc. from the USA.
The good part is I have the connections here in Tanzania and would only need to register the US branch here to bid for these contracts and payments are all LC based so no credit and payment delay issues
First things first, lets get through the interview and get myself to the USA and settle in then business
Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
I-134 - 16th July 2013
Bank Statements - 22nd July 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
The good part is I have the connections here in Tanzania and would only need to register the US branch here to bid for these contracts and payments are all LC based so no credit and payment delay issues
First things first, lets get through the interview and get myself to the USA and settle in then business
Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
I-134 - 16th July 2013
Bank Statements - 22nd July 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
ZukotheCat
Registered Users (C)
Lol I think the Swedish princess is pretty comfy compared to us ordinary folk wherever she chooses to live
Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
I-134 - 16th July 2013
Bank Statements - 22nd July 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
sorry Momo when I said "Good for her" I mean good for the Swedish princess in my above post in this thread
I put the wrong quote of yours
Hi mates,I would be leaving michigan state 6 months or so after settling in the US,I hold a degree in economics and looking @ pursuing a career in finance. So my question is that where can I have conditions suitable in terms of career and also a not so expensive cost of living,thanks in advance.
Britsimon
Super Moderator
Well you can EITHER choose where to live based on following work in your line OR choose where you want to live and try to find work in that area. The first method is more successful - and easy if you are open minded about where to live, but if the area is important in some way then you should consider that. Either way, the salaries tend to match with living costs in the area so at least once you have a job the living costs are less important.
If you choose where you want to live, it might be based on what lifestyle you want to live. For example if you like beaches and sunshine, South Florida is good, cheapish and has good job prospects (espcially Miami/Fort Lauderdale). If you like outdoors countryside and snow skiing in the winter - how about somewhere in Colorado such as Denver. If you like cool cities, San Fran is great, San Diego is lovely, but California can be expensive and crowded. If you like hustle and bustle with lots of loud smart people, how about New York. And so on...
If the choice is driven by work opportunity that is an easier choice, but also consider whether you will like the place where you plan to live. You can obviously move later, but this is a good time to find somewhere you like and that will most likely become your long term home.
Britsimon
Super Moderator
This is a good site to check out - it allows you to check scores for things like housing, crime, employment, weather... all pretty good.
http://www.areavibes.com/san+francisco-ca/livability/
As for "cool" I find California is generally a nice place to be. LA is nice around the coast areas but those areas are expensive. Santa Barbara is a bit cheaper and nice lifestyle, but a smaller city than SF. San Diego as I mentioned is wonderful. You could also consider Portland Oregon (nice, and very cool, and rains less than Seattle).
At some point you will have to check the places out. Rent a car in San Fran or Portland and take a few days to drive down to San Diego - you are bound to find somewhere you like!
Just remember that if you choose a place and you move there to look for a job, the area might be very expensive. So you might find the cost of living while you look for work drains your savings at a faster rate than you expect. Be careful with that.
A good cost of living calculator is here:-
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/...alculator.aspx
And this thread had lots of good practical information
http://forums.immigration.com/showt...ck-from-Successful-DV-Selectees-In-USA-Please
http://www.areavibes.com/san+francisco-ca/livability/
As for "cool" I find California is generally a nice place to be. LA is nice around the coast areas but those areas are expensive. Santa Barbara is a bit cheaper and nice lifestyle, but a smaller city than SF. San Diego as I mentioned is wonderful. You could also consider Portland Oregon (nice, and very cool, and rains less than Seattle).
At some point you will have to check the places out. Rent a car in San Fran or Portland and take a few days to drive down to San Diego - you are bound to find somewhere you like!
Just remember that if you choose a place and you move there to look for a job, the area might be very expensive. So you might find the cost of living while you look for work drains your savings at a faster rate than you expect. Be careful with that.
A good cost of living calculator is here:-
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/...alculator.aspx
And this thread had lots of good practical information
http://forums.immigration.com/showt...ck-from-Successful-DV-Selectees-In-USA-Please
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Princedriss
Registered Users (C)
britismon i love ur links that u post here and the info too
Britsimon
Super Moderator
Glad you like them!
Here is another useful one. You can do quite a lot on this site such as research salaries for a particular type of job in a given area, search reviews of employers (reviews from past and current employees) , find jobs and so on.
www.glassdoor.com
OnTheGo
Registered Users (C)
I add another site for y'all that was recommended to me by a friend recently. She says that she used it extensively years ago to decide where to live:
http://www.city-data.com/
I accessed it recently and became addicted that night...superb mapping data!
http://www.city-data.com/
I accessed it recently and became addicted that night...superb mapping data!
Last edited by a moderator:
Britsimon
Super Moderator
OnTheGo
Registered Users (C)
Yeah, I've done some extensive research over the past few weeks (on & off), and that is partly due to my interest in real estate markets. I have to say that it appears housing (to buy and to rent) in the type of areas I would consider desirable in L.A. for example (modern, safe, quiet, nice outlook, either close to ocean or the hills) are similar in price to what you would pay in other expensive parts of the world. Or in other words...it takes a minimum of $500k for a tiny condo/apartment that is not even that modern or >$1Mio for anything larger. I could not imagine living right in the middle or in far away suburbs of the jungle of L.A. which my friend calls an "ant hill" (she considers SF to also be an ant hill - lol).
I think I should look into the concept of feng shui, as I seem to be quite sensitive to certain things when it comes to feeling at ease in a place...I've never pursued this concept but maybe I should.
On the topic of California - I am wondering why apparently many business owners (and people in general) seem to be leaving the state for their high taxes! (apparently many moving to Texas, unless that is just media hype and smart marketing tactics)
This whole topic of taxes and health insurance etc is something that preoccupies my mind! Especially since I can instantly compare to living in Australia!
You see, I expect to be self-employed by the time we moved to the States...but there are a few things that I feel are not very business friendly or fair in the USA. For instance, there is this self-employment tax (15.3% on the first $113700 of net income). This is the same as social security and medicare tax for those on salaries (where the employer would pay half). The insanity I think is that while you are trying to build up an income stream, they squeeze this out of your income, while I think I would not even see any benefits myself in case something happened (not unless we'd somehow lost our last shirt!). There is a 2.9% medicare tax contained in that 15.3%, while my understanding is that this does not give us any direct benefits, either ... as it's solely designed to help those aged 65 and over, and the disabled. Yet, we'd have to pay for a separate private health insurance on top of that to even have health cover!
Then there is state income tax (in places like California) plus federal income tax. Not even considering sales taxes and property taxes, which seem to be higher than in other states.
What I am saying is this: While I can imagine that living in California (the "dream" state) can be a real lifestyle (once you half way made it), there seem to be many obstacles, apart from high property prices.
In comparison, many places in Florida are quite cheap and there is no state income tax. However, property taxes are quite high I am being told and sales tax can vary from area to area...yep, we witnessed in first hand in (I believe it was) Fort Lauderdale..where one pharmacy had a different sales tax to the one one or two blocks away! (the price tags on the shelf did not even include nor display the sales tax...surprise at the cashier!)
Princedriss
Registered Users (C)
Tampa is a good city to be , isnt it !