Possible gap year in America

Hi all
I'm considering asking a uni to defer my (unconditional, so no worries about results day) place and moving to America for a year to stay with some friends. I just wanted to look into the practicalities of it, and am having some trouble finding info.
What I would want to do, is get a job here to pay for flights and a couple of months' outgoings, move out there for 6 months to a year, and get a job to pay the rest of my way there. However, I'm a bit confused as to how to go about all this and need some advice.
I think I need a Temporary Workers visa for this - do I need to go to London for an interview? Anything else I would need? And do I need to definitely have a job to go to out there before I fly out? I was just planning on seeing what was available when I got out there :confused:

Any help on anything to do with this would be much appreciated.

Reply 1

danni_bella

17

Acaila

Hi all
I'm considering asking a uni to defer my (unconditional, so no worries about results day) place and moving to America for a year to stay with some friends. I just wanted to look into the practicalities of it, and am having some trouble finding info.
What I would want to do, is get a job here to pay for flights and a couple of months' outgoings, move out there for 6 months to a year, and get a job to pay the rest of my way there. However, I'm a bit confused as to how to go about all this and need some advice.
I think I need a Temporary Workers visa for this - do I need to go to London for an interview? Anything else I would need? And do I need to definitely have a job to go to out there before I fly out? I was just planning on seeing what was available when I got out there :confused:

Any help on anything to do with this would be much appreciated.

Oh wow!

Cool, good on you for going ahead with this, I think if you ever did go abroad - keep us up to date for the rest of us here at :tsr:

Hmm, jobs. I hear summer camps offer accomodation AND pay, so you wouldn't have to worry about either when you're over there... however I have no idea about how many hours you'd have to work, it might be lots :redface:

I friend from my old high school did it, and she had a great time, plus they paid for her board and lodgings. She only had to fork out the $ for the plane flight over there (tho from Australia, so slightly more exp lol!).

Alternatively you could do that for a bit, and get another job later? What kind of job were you looking for?

Hope I've helped somewhat :redface:

DB_x

Reply 2

katiesado

1

where do your friends live? you'd be able to pay some rent and support yourself with a bit of frugality doing just about anything be it working at as a waitress or in a store and these types of jobs aren't hard to get. however if you're trying to do something that requires more education/experience that might be more complicated. why don't you just call the embassy? I don't know if you need to do an interview, I never have for any of my visas. immigration (albeit temporary) is currently a bitch in america for the time being. good luck.

Reply 3

transient

there are a lot of temporay exchange programs... but getting the work visa itself is a bit of a hassel, especially for such a long period of time. My understanding is that if you have a job lined up, it's no problem as the employer is doing most of the paper work. I know from experience a US citizen can only work in britain for six months.. and they have to be a full time university student. Your best bet is to go through a program like BUNAC (bunac.org). I don't think gap year students are eligible...but it would be a good place to start.

Reply 4

Howard

5

Acaila

Hi all
I'm considering asking a uni to defer my (unconditional, so no worries about results day) place and moving to America for a year to stay with some friends. I just wanted to look into the practicalities of it, and am having some trouble finding info.
What I would want to do, is get a job here to pay for flights and a couple of months' outgoings, move out there for 6 months to a year, and get a job to pay the rest of my way there. However, I'm a bit confused as to how to go about all this and need some advice.
I think I need a Temporary Workers visa for this - do I need to go to London for an interview? Anything else I would need? And do I need to definitely have a job to go to out there before I fly out? I was just planning on seeing what was available when I got out there :confused:

Any help on anything to do with this would be much appreciated.

You'll find it extremely difficult to get official permission to work in the US.

Reply 5

Howard

5

transient

there are a lot of temporay exchange programs... but getting the work visa itself is a bit of a hassel, especially for such a long period of time. My understanding is that if you have a job lined up, it's no problem as the employer is doing most of the paper work. I know from experience a US citizen can only work in britain for six months.. and they have to be a full time university student. Your best bet is to go through a program like BUNAC (bunac.org). I don't think gap year students are eligible...but it would be a good place to start.

But getting a job lined up is in itself a hassle. The employer must prove that he has made strenuous efforts over an extended period to recruit in the US and can't find anybody to take on the position. Therefore, unless you have very special skills that aren't readily available stateside it'd be difficult. It's just too much hassle for most US employers to recruit from overseas.

Reply 6

Leonie

it's pretty hard to do...i'm looking into it too at the moment. Been emailing companies (with no replies as yet). To get a job you need to get a company to sponsor you for a work visa. but they can only employ a foreign 'alien' (as we're called!! nice!) if there are no suitable US applicants. Also, i heard it's illegal to go out there and look for a job, so you'd need to set one up before you go out there. Also, our normal visas only cover us for 90 days (3 months) so you can't just go out there for 6 months as far as i know.

Saying all that, it's not impossible to find a job, a friend of mine managed it a few years ago by going out there for a hol and applying for a job, got an interview and they decided to sponsor her. so maybe it's not illegal to look for work, just what i heard from someone...worth checking out.

Best to look on us embassy website for london office which has lots of info on visas and steps to take.

Good luck, and let me know how u get on!!!

Reply 7

NMiller5a

1

You wouldn't be able to support yourself here unless you're living in some crappy small-town, which in that case I'd wonder why you're coming here to begin with. Minimum wage is a little bit more than £2.50 and the average earnings for waitresses including tips (Americans tip 20-25%) is probably around £5 to £7.

I don't know how you would line up a job out of the country. Unless you have special skills it would be quite hard. This isn't Europe - most college-bound foreigners that have jobs in the service industry here happen to be enrolled in an American university at the same time.

Once again, it will be just about impossible for you to support yourself and pay for airfare on unskilled American wages. However, since the dollar has fallen considerably in value, your pound will go farther - I think it's about $2:£1 now. That's a good thing - everything will seem cheaper to you.

Possible gap year in America

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