Career and moving to New York

[NewYorkUltimateGoal]

Name changed of course - I fully appreciate this sounds insane so please keep an open mind. I'm from and live in England. I want to live in New York City or surrounding areas. I have travelled there multiple times and it has always been my goal since I was a child, every time I have been it just cemented it more, it's one ultimate goal of mine that has never faltered. I know visiting as a tourist and living there are different but hypothetically let's say I 100% know it's for me. I'm about to graduate with a BSc Hons in something reliable (think biology/medical but not that specifically) so can go on to pretty much ANY field of science study or choose from a wide range of entry level jobs now. I don't know what to do next. Athough I have really enjoyed my degree I don't have any idea what specific job I actually want to do, I'm suited to scientific or medical research and professional type work over 'customer' facing work but I basically just want to work my way up to decent job with a company that will sponsor me to move to NY. I am interested in academia in my science subject in the future possibly and there are constant developments in the area, especially in the US so that's good. I do have one child but by the time I have saved and got a decent footing in my career DC will be a teen or more likely an adult so not too worried about Visa implications of taking a young child with me (obviously if it could be sooner that would be amazing, if I didn't have to consider that I would look into postgraduate studies there, which is possibly still an option but obviously a lot harder). No partner or anyone to object to moving if I did take DC. No family here. WWYD? What careers and companies would you look into in this instance? I know someone who moved to New Jersey with Barclays but I'm not sure what job I would do with a company like that - perhaps data science? I feel like I've given myself a good base and looks like I will get a 1st in my degree which I am very happy with. I can basically do anything I want now, including GDL, grad medicine - I just don't know what I want other than I want to live there. Sorry if you live in NY and hate it , yes I have thought about health insurance etc, I have read so much on here and elsewhere about this, others considering it and changing their minds, info from expats and people born there. I just can't stop feeling how I feel, I know it's ridiculously idealistic. I can't really explain it properly. I've spent so much time thinking and there are just so many options, of course nothing is guaranteed but I would rather have this than have a dream job for example. I am genuinely prepared to work for years to get this. Anyone have any thoughts or has moved to NY themselves and can share their experience and how they did it? Thank you!

If you really want to guarantee moving to NYC, you should look in to graduate schools here. Maybe an MBA? It's very, very difficult to get a work visa. Most people I know who have transferred over are in Big 4 accounting or an investment bank. You might have some luck with Biotech or a fellowship at one of the big medical schools/hospitals like Mt. Sinai.

Why exactly is it you're so desperate to move to NY? I live here, and I do love it, but it's nothing like it's portrayed in the movies or on TV.

Thanks, my own university does offer an MBA so worth a look as I would get a discount! Like I said I'm 100% willing to work my way up and focus on this, mainly because I think it is fairer on my son to not go and study over there whilst he is so young but if I did get the opportunity I would definitely consider it, it's hard to even to know where to start looking! This probably sounds strange as it feels strange to try and explain it, but I don't know WHAT it is, I just know that I feel it. Everyone gets the holiday blues but when I leave there I feel different - like I'm leaving home, certainly not like when I've left other holidays or visits. I love the hustle and bustle, that really is my thing. I've been and stayed there and not done any of the touristy things and still loved it. I've never visited anywhere else where I've just felt comfortable, even when I had no idea what was going on! I don't even know how to explain it I just feel like I know which I do realise is idealistic.

You need to see it as a 10-year plan. Either carry on studying and hope for an O-1 visa as a highly qualified person. Or get some years working for a multinational in the UK under your belt and then apply for a transfer (obviously do your homework and make sure the company does actually have offices/plants where you want to go and does transfer people).

Despite being “the nation of immigrants” the US is one of the hardest countries to get into unless you have immediate family here (parents, adult children, siblings or spouse/fiancé). I am the wife of an American and that is by far the easiest visa path and family-based immigration accounts for the largest chunk of all immigration to the USA.

The H-1B visa, for example, which is one of more popular work visas, is capped at 65,000 per year. For a country of over 320 million people, that’s nothing. It’s massively oversubscribed and so it effectively becomes lottery whether you will be accepted or not. L-1 visas (company transfers) are not capped and the process is easier. There’s no guarantee that you will be able to stay permanently though. A work visa is often time-limited unless the company goes through the expensive and risky (on their part) process of applying for green cards for you. The risk for the employer is that once you have a green card (which has cost the company thousands in government and legal fees), you are a “free agent” and could quit your job and go and work elsewhere and there’s nothing they can do about it.

If you are looking to make it permanent, then you need to follow a visa path that has the possibility of leading to a green card. Not all of them do (E-2, for example).

A student visa to study here is very costly (you have to prove you have enough savings to cover the tuition and your living costs) could give you a few years to “try before you buy”. For a student visa, however, you have to demonstrate that you will return home at the end of your course. It’s not a dual-intent visa (a visa for a time-limited stay but with the option to change status once here). People do change status in student visas if their circumstances change but that cannot be the intent at the time of application.

I would apply to graduate school in NY and be maybe try to get a visa after you graduate (very difficult). An MBA from your own university won’t really help you get to NY. Try to work for a multinational or a US company with offices in the U.K.

This is really not a hiring time in the US, especially of nationals from overseas. A lot of Brits and other Europeans have gone back to their country of origin recently. I agree getting a job in a US firm that has offices here in the US or getting an academic post is probably your best route.

Why didn't you do this before you had a child, OP? That makes everything so much harder, doesn't it? You'd have to factor in bigger accommodation and childcare, too.

Thank you for the advice everyone, will take it all into account. @HollowTalk I had my son before I was even 16, had no idea what I wanted in life then. As mentioned, am happy to work towards moving once he is older and to not necessarily have to take him with me.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ask that in such an interrogatory way! I was just thinking there might have been reasons that you chose then that would still apply now. You're very brave having a child so young - that must have been very tough. I hope you do manage to do it - it was always a dream of mine too - I still wish I'd done it. Good luck!

No problem @HollowTalk and thank you! It’s been extremely hard but also extremely worth it :)

I moved from the UK to the NYC and stayed for 15 years before moving back. I went on an L1 and then got a green card and eventually became a citizen. My advice: get a job with a multinational company and get a transfer.

A lot of big pharma are based on the east coast so they might be good companies to start looking at

I think graduate school is going to be easiest - getting into a company and then transferring is much less direct.

The fees always look horrendous but there are lots of scholarship type things which seem to be possible to get from the UK. Having had a kid so young could be to your advantage here (I say this because I know two teens from the uk who got good financial assistance because they came from deprived areas in the Uk, despite being screamingly middle class). And then you borrow the rest, which if you are going into big pharma or tech you should be able to pay back alright.

DH was once offered a job in NY. Between us ( I was working for a multinational company in the UK ) we could have done but did not 1) because I like living in the UK - not great reason if your ambition is NY ) 2) DCs' schooling would have been disrupted and then if they wanted to go to university in the UK ( they did ) then overseas fees etc. )

I think what you need to think about is what skills etc you could have which are not readily available in the US and maybe then work backwards from that - although over years even that may not work. I do not mean to be depressing about this but why would they give you a green card when they have US citizens who can do the same thing. Not saying for one moment you could not do those jobs but I think you need something unique which a US company thinks - Ah we need her. Again - I do not mean to sound downbeat just I think a bit realistic.

Not sure just doing an MBA will get you rights to work in the US. But check & might be expensive

Anyway - I hope you do not take this post amiss , just if that is your goal , be very very clear what will get you the right to work there. Whether that is a big company here ( but even so if a multinational company they may have people who can do the same who are US citizens. ) Or you have a specific skill which will make you a person they want - Dh worked for a US company & he said it was a specific skill they did not have which gave him the job offer. But these can be very niche.

I really hope you get there but my posts are just to give you some realism about how hard it might be. If others have easier answers or people working in the US think I am wrong - take those opinions - Just one view

Best wishes @NewYorkUltimateGoal - I hope you do it.
💐

There’s no guarantee the OP would be able to land a job afterwards in the US upon gaining an MBA there. There are an awful lot of MBA grads in the US. It’s a very expensive gamble to take.

Lots of multinationals want their staff to have international experience and encourage them to move to other ‘markets’, and have schemes to facilitate this. Many of the roles could be done by a local, but isn’t a barrier in many instances. In the advertising industry, for instance, it’s fairly common for bods with only 5-10 years experience and nothing especially unique about them to transfer.

@EastLondonObserver - I did say take other opinions :) What a lovely counterpost to mine - I hope @NewYorkUltimateGoal you have read @EastLondonObserver post

If you want to move, then I would add a language to your science degree, and apply for jobs as a translator or in analysis in international banking.

Obvious languages would be Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Russian, Arabic.

We are currently in the process of transferring (inter company transfer) to NYC from London, as mentioned above its relatively common, in some industries, however one thing to consider is it’s really expensive here. My DH is senior and gets paid well and we are used to the cost of living in London, but it’s so much more expensive here, for everything except maybe the subway fare.
This will be a short term thing for us, a couple of years maybe, it’s for the life experience, but we won’t save any money.
We are happy to have the chance to do this, but our initial thoughts that we would be financially better off as well, are not proving to be the case.