Should I move to the US: all about the pros and cons

In Soviet times, it was not easy to go to America. Among those who managed to get out - the poet Joseph Brodsky, the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and the future founder of Google, Sergey Brin. At the start of the 90s, tens of thousands of Russians received the status of political refugees. Mainly scientists and engineers who could not find work at home at that time, were leaving here. In 2000, the flow of immigrants from Russia has decreased. Now the number of Americans of Russian origin is about 3 million people. The Village I learned how to join them and why it is worth going to the United States at all.

Фото: Depositphotos

Learning

Choose a university is based on the ratings of the best educational institutions for the desired profession. For admission, you must fill out an application on the university website, write a motivation letter, attach a diploma translation to it (in addition to an apostille, an evaluation is required - this allows you to determine which American specialization is closer to your diploma). For admission, you must pass the TOEFL language proficiency test at a level of at least 70. After a positive response, the university introduces the future student into the system, which allows you to apply for a visa of the desired type.

A student visa gives you the opportunity to work only as an assistant teacher, but this position, as a rule, is occupied by American fellow students.

Tuition depends on the specialty and prestige of the university. Bachelor's degrees can cost 100 thousand dollars. In some universities, the cost of education may be 14 thousand dollars per semester - they are usually subsidized by the state. Master programs involve obtaining practical knowledge of the chosen specialty (the most well-known variety is MBA - Master of Business Administration). They tend to be more expensive - 50 – 100 thousand dollars a year. For the opportunity to become a physician will have to pay even more. They say that when signing a contract with the university, you can bargain.

Saying: “Will you make a discount, is there a crisis in Russia,” you can knock off some amount. In addition, you can get a grant for training. To do this, after admission, you need to contact the “Financial Aid” department: it is important not to miss the moment, since the university needs to distribute them within a certain period of time. There are also external grants from various organizations.

You can study in the United States and those who want to pursue a scientific career. “I study political science in the PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison,” says Anton Shirikov. - The program is designed for five to six years, its outcome should be a dissertation. I was engaged in political science in Russia, I defended my thesis a few years ago, so this was a logical continuation of my Russian academic career. ”

He began to choose programs last summer. He compiled a list of ten faculties, selecting the best postgraduate students and professors, and submitted applications (each costs about 100 dollars). To them it was necessary to attach an application with a research plan, a motivation letter or a resume, a sample of scientific work on approximately 20 pages, three recommendations and translations of diplomas. Here you also need to provide the results of the TOEFL or IELTS, as well as the GRE test, which includes an essay, tasks on the knowledge of logic and mathematics.

All documents need to have time to send until December, and the answers from universities begin to arrive in January.

“I was accepted into three universities, and a lot of painful hours were spent on choice,” recalls Shirikov. A large role in his choice was played by the size of the scholarship. On different programs, it can be 15 – 30 thousand dollars a year, in some cases, the university also helps with housing and insurance. “Given the standard of living, this is not very much,” explains Shirikov. “Funding is enough for one person to live without excesses, at best, for two people to live quite modestly.”

Now he rents an apartment in Madison for 830 dollars a month and admits that in New York this money would not be enough. Here, according to local residents, for a comfortable life you need about 3 thousand dollars a month.

Work

The average salary in the US is 2 360 dollars per month. But salaries can vary greatly by region and industry. For example, developers of IT products in Silicon Valley can receive 70 – 140 thousand dollars a year. At the same time, the cost of living there is also quite high: the prices for renting apartments in San Francisco start from 3 thousand dollars per month.

There are several types in the USA work visas. There is a type of visa H - for highly skilled workers. But in order to hire such a specialist from abroad, the company needs to prove that it could not find the right employee inside the country. According to the founder of the Pyrus startup Maxim Nalsky, this is not easy.

An executive at a San Francisco IT company with a staff at 500 complained to him that of the five petitions they filed to hire foreign programmers, the US government approved two, and it took him a year.

In addition, the number of H-visas is very limited, and the annual quota for them ends literally minutes after opening. According to Nalsky, it is somewhat easier to find work in large companies like Intel, which hire specialists from all over the world, or use the relocation program, being an employee of the Moscow office of a corporation. In the USA, L-type visas are provided for transferring managers of foreign companies to an American office.

In addition, you can try to win a residence permit, a Green Card, in a diversification lotterythat suits the us government. It annually draws 55 thousands of visas for citizens of countries with low emigration to the United States.

For example, the founder of the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, Mikhail Ivanov, moved to the United States in precisely this way. Green Card gives the right to work within the country on a par with its citizens.

Business

Registering a company in America costs about 100 dollars and takes one day. “To do this, you don’t even need to go anywhere - just send a request through a lawyer, and then register with the tax,” the company’s founder says Pyrus Maxim Nalsky. You can choose in which state to register the company. The state of Delaware is popular because of its convenient corporate law, there you only need to pay an annual fee of 400 dollars.

In general, the tax regime in each state is different: in California, for example, you will have to pay at least 800 dollars a year, even if the company does not earn anything.

After registering the company, you need to have a bank account for it, transfer the share capital and hire an accountant. Small companies are suitable and an accountant at an outsourcing, which once a year submits tax reports, says Nalsky. This specialist can also talk about the characteristics of hiring employees, which also differ from state to state. In addition, the company must have an official mailing address - it is worth checking it, since the tax inspectorate and other authorities send important messages by mail.

Фото: Depositphotos

For travels to the United States, an entrepreneur can use a type B visa, which is fairly easy to obtain. But at the same time she does not give the right to work inside the country - she will have to confine herself to business meetings.

The director general of the American representative office can be registered as a type L visa. It will also be possible to transfer a couple of managers from Russia, but the rest of the staff will have to be searched on the spot. Particular attention should be paid to marketing and sales managers - they should be at their best here, as there are twenty companies for each idea that are ready to implement it.

What are more pros or cons in this information? Will it scare away those who want to fulfill the American dream or, on the contrary, will it tell them where to lay the straw? Share your experience in the comments: who can move to the USA without fear, and who should not emigrate.

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