Ask HN: How did you migrate to the country you are living in now? - hippo8
======
skc
Gaborone, Botswana -> Johannesburg, South Africa.

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.

~~~
mchaver
Did you end up staying in South Africa or go somewhere else?

~~~
skc
Ended up staying and have been ever since :-)

------
fadiTe
Eritrea --> London,UK

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.

~~~
hippo8
You should do an AMA on reddit.

------
stingraycharles
I sold my business, started renting my furnished apartment, and took the
airplane to Cambodia. Did volunteering work for the first few months, and now
do small technical contract work -- around 10 hours of work a month pays for
all the bills. I live in a small villa that comes with a gardener and
security.

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!

------
zhte415
China: Applied for a job at a big name local company via the internet. Got
paperwork and Z visa (if anyone's thinking about China, this is a must, as
working illegally is taken much more seriously than in the past). The company
provided dormitory style accommodation.

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.

------
ottorobotto
Perth, Australia -> Berlin, Germany

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.

~~~
cfontes
Hey! I lived the past 2 years in Perth and just got back to Brazil. I love
that city...

But IT there kind of sucks, mostly mining companies.

------
jpatokal
Finished army service in Finland, the company I'd been working for opened an
office in Singapore, jumped at the chance to become its first engineer and not
see snow again for a while. Spent 8 years in Singapore and traveling around
the region (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, UAE, Saudi, Kuwait...), met
my wife, founded a startup, which flopped but led to a job offer from
Australia. We headed over on a work visa, applied for and received permanent
residence 2 years and a bit later [1], and I became a citizen last year.

[1] [http://gyrovague.com/2012/08/10/notarizing-your-
fingerprints...](http://gyrovague.com/2012/08/10/notarizing-your-fingerprints-
for-fun-and-profit/)

------
idlewords
Poland -> USA

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.

~~~
Flammy
Wow one is definitely out of your hands. Can you expand on the martial law
circumstances?

Does something like that always automatically lead to resident status?

~~~
mturmon
This must be referring to the 1981 declaration of martial law by Polish
General Jaruzelski, following pressure from the Solidarity trade union and
others. Due to Cold War politics, you can see the US might want to address
this by allowing Poles stay in the US.

~~~
schoen
A similar thing happened with the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Student_Protection_Act...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Student_Protection_Act_of_1992)

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.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy)

------
jimaek
Ukraine(Donetsk) -> Poland

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.

~~~
serg_chernata
Cheers, don't see too many Ukrainians on HN.

------
jypepin
France -> Canada, moved there when I was 15 years old with my parents and my
sister. Did high school and college there. We applied for perm resisdency
(equivalent of green card), got it in ~1 year (my dad was an investor so made
it fairly easy).

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.

------
Gys
Sint Maarten (Caribean island && country) -> Lisbon, Portugal

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.

------
hippo8
Thank you everyone for the replies. Some of the comments in here are just...
wow!

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.

------
sebnukem2
France -> USA

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.

------
neumino
France -> USA

Took part in a coding competition on HackerRank, did well, applied for a job,
did a few more interviews, flew to California :)

------
davezatch
Berlin, Germany: Took some savings from working back in the States, got here
on a 90-day tourist visa, found an apartment and got my first working visa
(without about 2 weeks to spare!, although you can extend a tourist visa here)
as an English teacher. Later transitioned into a full-time development job.

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.

------
hackerboos
Liverpool, UK -> Toronto, Canada

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.

------
drakonka
1) Saved up freelancing money to live here while looking for a job for 6
months to 1 year

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.

------
wpaladin
Tokyo, Japan: Applied for an opening I spotted on Linkedin. Interviewed via
skype over a few weeks. Got the job, got the standard engineer visa, and that
was it.

~~~
stoic
Had you already passed JLPT?

~~~
wpaladin
I had zero Japanese. Rudimentary even now.

------
dijit
Coventry/London, UK -> Malmo, Sweden

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:)

------
Finbarr
Scotland -> USA (SF Bay Area).

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.

------
yallahaline
I rented my place on Airbnb, packed my bag, went to a country I was interested
in, looked for a job there (luckily there was no need for a visa because I was
in Africa/Middle East and you always find a way around there), found one in a
few days (being a foreigner with skills help), and voilà. I didn't save any
money, I just looked for a job :)

------
k3oni
By plane :), even if some people seem to think we did swim across(sadly not
joking).

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.

------
stevekemp
Edinburgh, Scotland -> Helsinki, Finland.

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.

------
nicolasehrhardt
France -> USA. Like many qualified French guys in the bay area I got a degree
from a top tier French school and did not want to work for finance, consulting
or aerospace (or other giant companies).

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...](https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/08/17/judge-
invalidates-component-foreign-student-work-program).

------
pards
I migrated from Australia to Canada.

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.

~~~
kspaans
Don't spouse visas take over 12 months? I'm about the start the process of
sponsoring my spouse and we are expecting it to take almost 2 years (we aren't
living in Canada at the moment).

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.

~~~
rubiquity
I migrated from the USA to Canada last year on spousal sponsorship and the
process end-to-end took ~7 months. I submitted the application while I still
lived in the US and I was told that helps me as far as processing times. I'm
sure a lot of factors come in to play, though.

------
woutr_be
I migrated from Belgium to Hong Kong. It actually begun when I did my
internship in China, after graduating I started looking for jobs in Hong Kong
and one company offered me a working visa. 4 years later and I'm still there.
(Although at another company)

------
digitalzombie
Cambodia to USA (southern california)

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.

------
akg_67
India -> Texas, USA -> Ontario, Canada -> Seattle, USA -> TBD among Japan,
Vancouver BC Canada, New Zealand, Australia

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.

------
serg_chernata
Kiev, Ukraine -> Connecticut, USA

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.

------
mudiarto
Indonesia -> USA

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.

------
0x0or0x0
India -> US. Tried and tested route of M.S, H1-b -> wait in line for 7 years
and get G.C. The only thing missing is "Profit".

~~~
golgappi
Not anymore. H1B lottery is useless now.

------
noComment
Hungary -> Canada -> US -> Canada

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.

------
Symbiote
Almost UK to Denmark.

The removal van comes tomorrow, my flight to Copenhagen is booked for Monday
morning. I have a short term let organised.

~~~
dijit
Copenhagen airport is decent. I live across the bridge in Malmo, Sweden.

if it's not too personal, what's your plans for Denmark? :)

------
melvinmt
Netherlands -> USA

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.

~~~
jgh
Which green card did you get, if you don't mind me asking?

~~~
melvinmt
Just the regular I-485? I'm not sure if there's more than one green card.

~~~
jgh
There are different classifications, EB1, EB2, EB3, EB5, etc.. I'm wondering
what you used as the founder of a startup (and who your lawyer was if it
wasn't EB1 or EB5)

~~~
melvinmt
Ah, EB1.

------
planetjones
Edinburgh, Scotland -> Zurich, Switzerland Applied for software development
contracts in Zurich. Flew over for an interview. Got the contract. Said I
wanted 12 months. Got that too. Quit my permanent job. Took the plane. Still
here nearly 5 years later.

------
6t6t6
Catalonia -> London -> Tokyo.

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.

------
paulvs
Brisbane, Australia -> Asunción, Paraguay

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.

------
mostlylurking
Beirut -> Dubai (Sponsored By Local Company 4 Years) -> Beijing (Applied for
Big Name Western Multinational 6 Years) -> Vancouver (Immigrated Under Federal
Skilled Workers Program) Kudos Canada

------
chozero
Tenerife, Spain -> Amsterdam -> SF, California.

Founded a company and got selected for a startup accelerator in Amsterdam.
Later, wife got a job in SF and we moved here.

------
TheCams
A recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn with a job offer. The interview went well
and I got the position, so I quit my previous job and moved to the UK.

------
malditojavi
Spain > Belgium Came to work for a Belgium co, now working for a USA co
working on remote still form Belgium. 3 years of this already.

------
odiroot
Warsaw, Poland -> Berlin, Germany. Took a direct express train.

Boring, I know. Thanks to common borders.

~~~
klibertp
What about the language? I get it that it's not a problem at all at work, but
did you have to learn some German for a normal, day to day living? How long
did it take you to learn enough to feel comfortable there?

~~~
odiroot
Language is a considerable problem. You basically need it for the post office,
your bank, your landlord, ISPs etc.

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.

------
verystealthy
São Paulo, Brazil --> Chicago, IL, USA on a intra-company transferee visa
(L1).

~~~
verystealthy
And, to expand on that, applying for my EB.

------
malux85
New Zealand -> London

So much better here. Unlimited Internet 1GB Fiber to the house!

~~~
antillean
hyperoptic?

~~~
dijit
they're the only company to do 1G unmetered I think. :D

