Moving from Ireland to US - is it realistic?

Post Reply New Topic

That would mean dealing with more stress as you are forcing yourself to accommodate, at least it would for me. Your milage may vary.

I understand in today's employment world things may have changed but in my day; for a company to hire you, they would need to apply for a work visa. There is a quota allotment and this also takes time and costs the company. If you already have the work visa then you would be more attractive to the company.

Are you a specialist? I talked to a fly fishing instructor last year and he was on a coaching visa, this allows him to work as an instructor.

The only reason or my thinking for the student visa, is it is the easiest and would give you time to sort out a work visa, you would have access to lodging, and could find out if you liked it here. Some people get student visa then disappear when the time runs out by risking deportation. Not a recommendation but something you could look research. A student visa may hurt your application for work visa.

Is it realistic? I don't know. Is it a good idea? I don't think so. Then again, I hate it here, so I'm probably not the one to talk to about the positives. I would recommend New Zealand - it's a beautiful place, and they handled COVID-19 very, very well. Plus, they have kakapos.

If you've got your heart set on America, though, I think it's worth noting that you can still move south if the elevation is high enough - here in Arizona, places like Prescott and Flagstaff, while more rural, get snow regularly during the winters. In some areas along the mountains, there's more than enough snow to build armies of snowmen. Don't come to the "Valley" (Phoenix, Tuscon, Peoria, Mesa, etc), though. It feels like I live in an oven on the sun during summer.

Iceland is also pretty cool, but their language is a nightmare (to me, at least), and immigration there is apparently pretty difficult. Women's rights there are, as far as I know, the best in the world.

Australia is apparently good, too, but I personally don't think I can deal with their wildlife, and I love animals. Someday, I'll befriend a cassowary... someday. I mean, I've already befriended an emu, but that one was pretty tame to begin with. That being said, I have heard that wildlife isn't much of a concern if you remain aware and aren't in a rural area.

I'm not sure how to feel about Canada. All I know is that apparently Canadians are all super polite, and the biggest political issue they have there (again, only that I'm aware of) is their past and present treatment of Indigenous people. While troubling for sure, it's not necessarily something you'd have to worry about in your life. Again, not an expert.

Switzerland has fantastic public utilities from what I hear, but everything is expensive and taxes are high. I think wages are higher, too, though, so living there won't be as proportionately costly as visiting. Last I checked, their politics looked a bit messy, but still worlds better than American politics in most - if not all - areas. Besides, the last time I checked was, like, 2016, and I had to dig to find anything truly worrying.

Either way, good luck!

I don't why you are getting so much negativity from Americans. I would most certainly pick America over Switzerland to give an example of one place somebody thought to be a better choice. Trust me you don't want to live in Switzerland as a foreigner.

TBH, a better place to ask about this would be Reddit. I for one have no idea what your chances are for obtaining a visa, with one exception, which is that I am aware there are a lot of foreigners, typically Europeans, who work at resorts like at the seashore or Wisconsin Dells or I suppose Lake of the Ozarks, however I have no idea what that sort of visa is called but it would be a good starting place.

More importantly you might want to ask yourself why it might be easier to achieve independence that way than in Ireland, but I can sort of see why you might think that. Getting in with some roommates somewhere in the US might be worth a go.

And remember:

Outside of major metropolitan areas, you MUST have a car to survive in the United States.

In your first message, you wrote:

and then in a subsequent message, you wrote:


Why the difference? Why do you need to be pickier in Ireland than you think you would need to be here in the U.S.A.?

Even IN most major metropolitan areas here in the U.S.A., cars are a must, except in a few, like NYC, that have exceptionally good public transportation.

California is not really at risk of falling to the ocean. That's a popular myth.

California is very much at risk for major earthquakes, floods, avalanches, and wildfires.