1) Saved up freelancing money to live here while looking for a job for 6 months to 1 year
2) In the meantime work on getting Australian citizenship (at the time I was an Australian permanent resident, but Ukrainian by nationality), which would allow me to:
3) Apply for a working holiday visa to target country
4) During the above use flexibility of freelancing to spend a year at home learning to code and building up a game dev portfolio and blog
5) Start applying for work 1 week after arriving to target country
6) Apply for normal work and residency visa with employer's help after getting a job.
China: Applied for a job at a big name local company via the internet. Got paperwork and Z visa (if anyone's thinking about China, this is a must, as working illegally is taken much more seriously than in the past). The company provided dormitory style accommodation.
If you're thinking of China today (that was 10 years ago) and do technology, the easiest way would be to get a job with a well known Western company such as HP, IBM, etc big names as a regular Engineer or QA perhaps at a junior lead level (assuming not going in as more senior management, which in any case is usually internally picked). I'm absolutely sure anyone competent in a similar role with 3+ years' experience can get in AS LONG AS you can convince you'll be comfortable in a completely new culture and stay modest, and I've seen it done with experience that's not that relevant, simply because diversity and English skills are very much in need and appreciated most of the time (a minority of managers can get defensive). Chinese language not needed in most international companies.
I sold my business, started renting my furnished apartment, and took the airplane to Cambodia. Did volunteering work for the first few months, and now do small technical contract work -- around 10 hours of work a month pays for all the bills. I live in a small villa that comes with a gardener and security.
Aside from the lack of a real justice system and dealing with the government, it is actually a very welcome break. It makes you appreciate a lot of things in the "first world" that you might not see, and am looking forward to moving back to Europe in 2016!
I came initially on a 1 year working holiday visa.
Then got a 1 year work visa through an employer while I worked on my permanent resident application (spousal sponsorship).
PR was granted about 6 months after submission, and I got citizenship about 5 years later.
Don't spouse visas take over 12 months? I'm about the start the process of sponsoring my spouse and we are expecting it to take almost 2 years (we aren't living in Canada at the moment).
EDIT: well they do say "up to 16 months" at the Ottawa processing center. So I guess given the time you'd already spent in Canada 6 months isn't that wild.
I migrated from the USA to Canada last year on spousal sponsorship and the process end-to-end took ~7 months. I submitted the application while I still lived in the US and I was told that helps me as far as processing times. I'm sure a lot of factors come in to play, though.
I migrated from Belgium to Hong Kong.
It actually begun when I did my internship in China, after graduating I started looking for jobs in Hong Kong and one company offered me a working visa. 4 years later and I'm still there. (Although at another company)
Finished army service in Finland, the company I'd been working for opened an office in Singapore, jumped at the chance to become its first engineer and not see snow again for a while. Spent 8 years in Singapore and traveling around the region (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, UAE, Saudi, Kuwait...), met my wife, founded a startup, which flopped but led to a job offer from Australia. We headed over on a work visa, applied for and received permanent residence 2 years and a bit later [1], and I became a citizen last year.
Berlin, Germany: Took some savings from working back in the States, got here on a 90-day tourist visa, found an apartment and got my first working visa (without about 2 weeks to spare!, although you can extend a tourist visa here) as an English teacher. Later transitioned into a full-time development job.
Came here with my German girlfriend though, so I had a bit of help in terms of language, talking with bureaucracy, etc. But getting a visa (at least as an American!) was fairly straightforward and cheap, if occasionally slow and, well, bureaucratic.
I rented my place on Airbnb, packed my bag, went to a country I was interested in, looked for a job there (luckily there was no need for a visa because I was in Africa/Middle East and you always find a way around there), found one in a few days (being a foreigner with skills help), and voilà. I didn't save any money, I just looked for a job :)
By plane :), even if some people seem to think we did swim across(sadly not joking).
On a more serious note we didn't really plan on moving to another country but my wife was the lucky winner of one Diversity Visa(i added both of us to the program just for fun) and so we decided to move to the US and see how it is.
Moved from Romania to US and currently still in US after 9 years.
Tokyo, Japan: Applied for an opening I spotted on Linkedin. Interviewed via skype over a few weeks. Got the job, got the standard engineer visa, and that was it.
Got on a plane. No real hardship involved. Although the process of shipping some of our possessions was stressful, both packing them, culling them, and arranging the actual transport.
Most of the process was easy, thanks to my Finnish wife who helped me with paperwork, but moving from the UK to Europe is pretty trivial.
I gave my boss at the time an ultimatum to transfer me to Europe or I'd resign after requesting a transfer for over a year. I bought a 1-way plane ticket to Berlin that same day and left 6 weeks later.
I initially got a 1 year working holiday visa but eventually changed over to a working visa 18 months later (I spent last 9 months of that time trying to apply for a working visa, but was repeatedly turned back due to insufficient paperwork and handed a 3-month extension to my original visa each time). Getting a tech job here is incredibly easy, so you're generally better off waiting until you arrive and have the chance to network with people.
I've been here 2.5 years now and it's a pretty great place, but I'm planning to move to France next year to co-found a company.
The year is 2001. I'm fresh out of varsity with a computer science degree and I'm stuck doing copywriting work for an ad agency because there is no semblance of an IT industry in Botswana (still isn't)
I answer a software developer ad in a popular South African newspaper (for some odd reason we used to get them in Botswana too) but slyly leave out my current residential status.
I get an email requesting me to come for an interview in TWO DAYS.
I beg my folks for some cash, hop on a plane and attend the interview, which goes well. The guy interviewing me then says, well, when would you be able to start if we offered you the job. At this point I take a huge gulp and explain that I would have to wait until I get a work permit, which would require the company to submit a substantial amount of paperwork to the department of home affairs, along with processing fees etc etc.
It's only at this point that the interviewer looks flabbergasted that I had flown in from another country just to interview for an entry level position.
Anywho, for whatever strange reason (I suspect they were impressed with my commitment) they went along with it and I was only able to join them some 8 months later after all the paper work was processed.
Applied under the Federal Skilled Workers program once I passed the threshold of required points. I always wanted to live in Canada because of the better standard of living and wages.
It also cleared up my wife's visa status - we were at the mercy of the UK Home Office whether my wife could stay in the country. If I lost my job when we applied to renew her visa she would have had to leave. Canada cleared up all that uncertainty as we are now permanent residents here.
Canada has one of the most generous immigration programs in the world. Check it out.
I am still waiting my first experience on a plane. I haven't been on a plane yet. crossing the border to neighbouring country took me about five days on my own. few hours on the day but mostly on the night as you can imagine there are security on the border.crossing the sahara desert, the mediterranean sea and finally to UK. currently working as software developer.
France -> Canada, moved there when I was 15 years old with my parents and my sister. Did high school and college there.
We applied for perm resisdency (equivalent of green card), got it in ~1 year (my dad was an investor so made it fairly easy).
Canada -> USA, went to SF for a coding bootcamp and got a job once done. Got my Canadian citizenship by then, so came in with a TN, then applied for H1B and now doing green card.
Contracted for a US company in France, went to the US for the 2 weeks to train the American team on the project I was working on, stayed 2 more months because of the work needed, the American team ended up hiring me and payed for my green card.
Came on a six-month tourist visa, got locked out of return trip due to an ill-timed declaration of martial law back home. Silver lining was automatically receiving US resident status.
This must be referring to the 1981 declaration of martial law by Polish General Jaruzelski, following pressure from the Solidarity trade union and others. Due to Cold War politics, you can see the US might want to address this by allowing Poles stay in the US.
In this case the automatic permanent resident status was created by a specific law; it wasn't a consequence of general legal principles.
The U.S. government does offer a relatively automatic asylum when people experience or fear certain kinds of persecution abroad, but the determination is supposed to be very individual and fact-intensive.
There was an exception to the detailed factual inquiry for Cubans: generally any Cuban who made it to the U.S. -- evading the U.S. Coast Guard, which was trying to prevent people from taking advantage of the policy -- would be given permanent resident status.
The blanket residency grant was a political move by Reagan.
The circumstances were that most of Poland had joined an independent trade union, which is awkward for a Communist country that is theoretically run by the working class. You can wikipedia 'martial law in poland' and get all the context.
Edinburgh, Scotland -> Zurich, Switzerland
Applied for software development contracts in Zurich. Flew over for an interview. Got the contract. Said I wanted 12 months. Got that too. Quit my permanent job. Took the plane. Still here nearly 5 years later.
Girlfriend accepted a place in Lund university, so I applied for a job.
Since I'm a citizen of the EU, I have right of residence and in any other EU country; as such I don't need a VISA to live or work in another EU country.
The company I was hired by put me in one of their apartments while I found one of my own, so I moved. Later I got a social security number from the local tax agency (Sketterverket) and the rest is history:)
72 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 151 ms ] thread2) In the meantime work on getting Australian citizenship (at the time I was an Australian permanent resident, but Ukrainian by nationality), which would allow me to:
3) Apply for a working holiday visa to target country
4) During the above use flexibility of freelancing to spend a year at home learning to code and building up a game dev portfolio and blog
5) Start applying for work 1 week after arriving to target country
6) Apply for normal work and residency visa with employer's help after getting a job.
If you're thinking of China today (that was 10 years ago) and do technology, the easiest way would be to get a job with a well known Western company such as HP, IBM, etc big names as a regular Engineer or QA perhaps at a junior lead level (assuming not going in as more senior management, which in any case is usually internally picked). I'm absolutely sure anyone competent in a similar role with 3+ years' experience can get in AS LONG AS you can convince you'll be comfortable in a completely new culture and stay modest, and I've seen it done with experience that's not that relevant, simply because diversity and English skills are very much in need and appreciated most of the time (a minority of managers can get defensive). Chinese language not needed in most international companies.
I could deal with that if i would be interested in China,chinese language etc.
Aside from the lack of a real justice system and dealing with the government, it is actually a very welcome break. It makes you appreciate a lot of things in the "first world" that you might not see, and am looking forward to moving back to Europe in 2016!
I came initially on a 1 year working holiday visa. Then got a 1 year work visa through an employer while I worked on my permanent resident application (spousal sponsorship).
PR was granted about 6 months after submission, and I got citizenship about 5 years later.
EDIT: well they do say "up to 16 months" at the Ottawa processing center. So I guess given the time you'd already spent in Canada 6 months isn't that wild.
[1] http://gyrovague.com/2012/08/10/notarizing-your-fingerprints...
Came here with my German girlfriend though, so I had a bit of help in terms of language, talking with bureaucracy, etc. But getting a visa (at least as an American!) was fairly straightforward and cheap, if occasionally slow and, well, bureaucratic.
Been here about 4 1/2 years now and love it.
On a more serious note we didn't really plan on moving to another country but my wife was the lucky winner of one Diversity Visa(i added both of us to the program just for fun) and so we decided to move to the US and see how it is.
Moved from Romania to US and currently still in US after 9 years.
Got on a plane. No real hardship involved. Although the process of shipping some of our possessions was stressful, both packing them, culling them, and arranging the actual transport.
Most of the process was easy, thanks to my Finnish wife who helped me with paperwork, but moving from the UK to Europe is pretty trivial.
I gave my boss at the time an ultimatum to transfer me to Europe or I'd resign after requesting a transfer for over a year. I bought a 1-way plane ticket to Berlin that same day and left 6 weeks later.
I initially got a 1 year working holiday visa but eventually changed over to a working visa 18 months later (I spent last 9 months of that time trying to apply for a working visa, but was repeatedly turned back due to insufficient paperwork and handed a 3-month extension to my original visa each time). Getting a tech job here is incredibly easy, so you're generally better off waiting until you arrive and have the chance to network with people.
I've been here 2.5 years now and it's a pretty great place, but I'm planning to move to France next year to co-found a company.
But IT there kind of sucks, mostly mining companies.
The year is 2001. I'm fresh out of varsity with a computer science degree and I'm stuck doing copywriting work for an ad agency because there is no semblance of an IT industry in Botswana (still isn't)
I answer a software developer ad in a popular South African newspaper (for some odd reason we used to get them in Botswana too) but slyly leave out my current residential status.
I get an email requesting me to come for an interview in TWO DAYS.
I beg my folks for some cash, hop on a plane and attend the interview, which goes well. The guy interviewing me then says, well, when would you be able to start if we offered you the job. At this point I take a huge gulp and explain that I would have to wait until I get a work permit, which would require the company to submit a substantial amount of paperwork to the department of home affairs, along with processing fees etc etc.
It's only at this point that the interviewer looks flabbergasted that I had flown in from another country just to interview for an entry level position.
Anywho, for whatever strange reason (I suspect they were impressed with my commitment) they went along with it and I was only able to join them some 8 months later after all the paper work was processed.
The company shut down a year later.
Applied under the Federal Skilled Workers program once I passed the threshold of required points. I always wanted to live in Canada because of the better standard of living and wages.
It also cleared up my wife's visa status - we were at the mercy of the UK Home Office whether my wife could stay in the country. If I lost my job when we applied to renew her visa she would have had to leave. Canada cleared up all that uncertainty as we are now permanent residents here.
Canada has one of the most generous immigration programs in the world. Check it out.
I am still waiting my first experience on a plane. I haven't been on a plane yet. crossing the border to neighbouring country took me about five days on my own. few hours on the day but mostly on the night as you can imagine there are security on the border.crossing the sahara desert, the mediterranean sea and finally to UK. currently working as software developer.
So much better here. Unlimited Internet 1GB Fiber to the house!
Took part in a coding competition on HackerRank, did well, applied for a job, did a few more interviews, flew to California :)
Canada -> USA, went to SF for a coding bootcamp and got a job once done. Got my Canadian citizenship by then, so came in with a TN, then applied for H1B and now doing green card.
Contracted for a US company in France, went to the US for the 2 weeks to train the American team on the project I was working on, stayed 2 more months because of the work needed, the American team ended up hiring me and payed for my green card.
Came on a six-month tourist visa, got locked out of return trip due to an ill-timed declaration of martial law back home. Silver lining was automatically receiving US resident status.
Does something like that always automatically lead to resident status?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Student_Protection_Act...
In this case the automatic permanent resident status was created by a specific law; it wasn't a consequence of general legal principles.
The U.S. government does offer a relatively automatic asylum when people experience or fear certain kinds of persecution abroad, but the determination is supposed to be very individual and fact-intensive.
There was an exception to the detailed factual inquiry for Cubans: generally any Cuban who made it to the U.S. -- evading the U.S. Coast Guard, which was trying to prevent people from taking advantage of the policy -- would be given permanent resident status.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy
The circumstances were that most of Poland had joined an independent trade union, which is awkward for a Communist country that is theoretically run by the working class. You can wikipedia 'martial law in poland' and get all the context.
Girlfriend accepted a place in Lund university, so I applied for a job.
Since I'm a citizen of the EU, I have right of residence and in any other EU country; as such I don't need a VISA to live or work in another EU country.
The company I was hired by put me in one of their apartments while I found one of my own, so I moved. Later I got a social security number from the local tax agency (Sketterverket) and the rest is history:)