
Ask HN: Need a Life/Career Advise - bdhm
Hello HN,<p>Desperate and looking for an advice.<p>TL;DR; Have to move out of USA because of visa implications. Looking for a similar place in terms of lifestyle &#x2F; career opportunities (senior .net dev) and recommendations on what to start with.<p>Full story is in the comments (careful - long read with lots of emotions)
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bdhm
Originally from Eastern Europe, decent (IMO) senior full-stack .net developer,
got a chance to move to USA on a student visa which I did (young, from low-
income family so took the very first opportunity I saw, didn't like eastern
european lifestyle at all + at that time the situation there was very
intense). Was able to get employed and do what I love using kind of shady
workarounds but still it was something (I'm basically was working without
proper authorization).

Fast forward to now - tried to get employment based GC but looks like my
lawyers messed up and all that shady stuff became visible and now I have ~0
chances to pass an interview (already past my I140, was getting ready to file
AOS with new lawyers and they said that everything is not good). Was doing
60+h weeks for last 4 years (40h work/20h school) to maintain status, had to
support 3 families back at home (that got thru bankruptcy, cancer, divorces,
and much more stuff) while taking a huge pay cut (because of my situation) +
spent a lot on tuition and all for nothing. Haven't had vacation for 6 years
until last year when I was able to do a week-long trip to Florida and finally
see an ocean (still have a pretty active live though, just not much long
trips). I really love it here (living in IL) but I feel like this all been too
much and I've been holding my life off for too long. Was hoping to get my
papers and finally see all the places on my list but looks like it won't
happen, and I'm too tired to continue living without confidence in the next
day.

The worst thing is that I have to tell my fiancée about all this. Moving to
states was originally her dream and I feel like I've failed her. She's in the
even worse situation right now (we came together as students but because
situation back home got worse pretty quick we couldn't afford 2 person
studying and so she had to drop and now she is out of status). I feel like I
failed her… I know that she'll understand everything and I'm probably too
emotional right now (so sorry for any poor wording/grammar) but it still feels
bad inside.

I'm about to finish my study here and need to decide what to do next. The only
option I see is to move out of the country but haven't decided where (don't
see myself back in Eastern Europe). Every time I'm thinking about moving it
feels like I'm giving up (which I in fact do) and it sucks. Also, afaik, there
is no other place with such an amazing career opportunities for software
developer as states and this makes me feel even worse. But decision has to be
made...

I'd love to hear about experience of someone who have moved from states to
some other place and how they feel.

Also, what countries would you recommend that have similar combination of big
city/attractions/nature? Really enjoying living in suburbs within driving
distance from a big city with lots of events/concerts/shows and ability to get
to some beautiful parks/lakes/mountains within reasonable time/budget. Any
good places to start my search / job boards / company recommendations / HR
contact details are greatly appreciated.

Was thinking about Canada since I guess I have a not bad chances (honor
master's degree in CS, 7 years of experience, decent English) but I can't
really think clearly right now. I'd love to not have to go thru complicated
immigration process if possible.

So yes, if anyone of you can share any thoughts, story, advice, etc. that
would be really great.

P.S. I tried to rearrange paragraphs couple times but I'm too tired
(apparently news can hit you hard) so pardon me if it sounds out of order. I
just needed to share my story and I appreciate any piece of advice you guys
can share.

P.P.S sorry for long post, it turned out to be bigger than I expected

~~~
abhinuvpitale
Try looking for jobs on angel.co Loads of great startups looking for people
for hire in good positions.

You can also look for a job here itself, the hackernews job pages is great for
finding interesting startups.

I would recommend trying to find a startup based in Canada.

Other recommendation would be to find something in Canada with offices in US
too, so that you can switch back and forth if you wanted to.

~~~
bdhm
Yeah started monitoring those. Haven't find much .net startups yet but
definitely a place to start Thank you!

