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.
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.
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!
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 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.
[1] http://gyrovague.com/2012/08/10/notarizing-your-fingerprints...
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?
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.
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.
I opened a company and send all my invoices from the company's name. I lose money on all the taxes but its worth it. As long as I make enough money I can stay in the country and in the future apply for permanent residence and citizenship.
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.
A your ago, crossing the Atlantic in about four weeks with a sailing boat. I actually had many problems cancelling my residency there because they could not believe I was leaving on a boat. The rules required a one way plane ticket. Its an island ! Good we left...
And because I have a EC passport I can just walk up to the local municipality and get residency.
I asked this question, because I want to move to Canada, and seeing what some of you have gone through to get to migrate to another country, makes me realise how fortunate I am, and that I have no excuses if I don’t migrate to the country I really want to be in.
Thanks everyone.
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.
Took part in a coding competition on HackerRank, did well, applied for a job, did a few more interviews, flew to California :)
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.
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.
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.
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:)
I finished up a CS degree in Scotland and then applied for several engineer jobs in CA. I interviewed via Skype and got made a job offer (Groupon). Accepted offer and applied for the H1-B visa, and was extremely lucky that the visas didn't run out immediately that year (2011).
The visa process was very straightforward and the interview ultimately felt like a rubber stamping exercise (total anticlimax). It took about 5 months for the visa to become valid, though, so I spent that summer hanging around researching CA on Google maps and wikipedia. Packed up 5 suitcases and got on a plane from Glasgow -> Philadelphia -> SF, having never set foot in CA before.
Hired a car and drove around looking for apartments. Ultimately settled in San Mateo as I had figured out on Google maps it was about half way between Palo Alto (where I was working) and SF (where I anticipated I would want to spend quite a bit of time). Have been here ever since and no plans to move away.
Also made the mistake of shipping some items from Scotland which didn't arrive until 6 months after I did - would not recommend trying that.
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 looked for an internship in the Bay, found one thanks to my school network, and worked as SQL developer for a year. The job was ok, but it gave me the opportunity to apply to universities in the Bay (they like candidates with startup experiences).
I now have a CS degree from the US which basically makes it much easier to get a US visa, well until yesterday:
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/08/17/judge-i....
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.
Parent flee the Vietnam fall out, grandfather from my father side died from friendly fire (USA), we supposely got a free ticket to USA if we can flee.
Parent ran from Vietnam, jump around, during Cambodia I was born, they went many places, thai/kham/lao and then Phillipines where my parent and I immigrated to the USA.
edit:
I posted on HN somewhere their stories fleeing. There were a few encounters where they could have died but got lucky. It's pretty neat and crazy. In general, America is a great country I'm glad, they worked hard and got my sister and I to college.
Came to US as grad student, stayed, worked, ran out of 6 yr H1B, moved to Canada, worked, started company (flopped), consulting moved back to US, worked, started company (ongoing), consulting.
I get itch to change countries/cities every 10 years or so. Also I want to collect residencies and citizenships. Now thinking of moving to another country most probably Japan, New Zealand, or Australia or settle down for good in Vancouver BC Canada.
Post-soviet Ukraine did not have very many prospects, just like much of the rest of Europe. My mom left when I was about 7 to start a better life for us in America. Took her about 7 years to make that a reality and see me again for the first time since. I am forever thankful to her for the sacrifice she made for both of us. I am now in my mid twenties, college educated and married, chasing the American dream.
Got my first job in the USA fresh out of college, based on a recommendation from my high school programming friend that got his job here first. He got to finals of ACM programming competition in USA, and got hired almost on the spot.
Finally got my GC after 8 years of H1B & 3 more years of I-485. I think I'm quite lucky to be able to keep having jobs & maintained my H1B status during ups & downs of US economy.
While I love Canada, I really miss the Bay Area, where I lived the longest. But I made a mess of and failed to get my GC and now I won't ever get to live there no more. Been on a downward spiral lately.. but it's been great when it was going good. I was a software developer with minimal on the job training, btw, no degrees of any sort, sadly.
The removal van comes tomorrow, my flight to Copenhagen is booked for Monday morning. I have a short term let organised.
if it's not too personal, what's your plans for Denmark? :)
Came here with my first startup, got my green card quite easy and fast considering all the horror stories (got it 14 months after arriving) and I'm increasingly considering to apply for US citizenship in a few years, but that'll mean I'll lose my Dutch passport (NL does not allow dual citizenship). Tough choice.
Moved to London, met Japanese girlfriend, moved to Japan because we didn't love London that much, married, working for a a startup in Tokyo.
I wouldn't mind to go back sometime to South-West Europe, specially if we have kids.
I finished uni in Austalia and moved here to Paraguay a few years ago for a sea change. My father's family are here so I was not absolutely lost. I loved learning a new culture and language.
Founded a company and got selected for a startup accelerator in Amsterdam. Later, wife got a job in SF and we moved here.
Boring, I know. Thanks to common borders.
My 6 years of learning German (in public schools) didn't help much. I'm learning now everyday, for more than a year, and I still cannot understand my doctor and my neighbors.
As a fallback you just smile a lot and hope for the best.
So much better here. Unlimited Internet 1GB Fiber to the house!