Southern California

Hi,

I just found this site so I'm pretty excited. I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place so let me know if it should be seomwhere else!

Right now my husband and I are living in Calgary. We've seriously been discussing leaving Calgary for a whole bunch of reasons. Ever since we were young (and we didn't know each other) we've always wanted to live in California, not sure why but it's always been a dream for us. With recent things going on in our lives we're thinking about this a lot mroe seriously. I'm a British citizen (lived here for 11 years, moved with my family) and so I just applied for Canadian Citizenship yesterday. I want to get it so that we can put the wheels into motion for this move.

So now I have a few questions!
- What is the job situation like in Southern California? My husband is a Plumber and I'm working towards a Management degree (I will be finished soon) and have experience in all areas of Accounting and Admin. Work for me isn't that important though

- Is it easy to get a mortgage?

- What areas are good in Southern California? Right now we live in a south suburb of Calgary so we'd like something in an area like that. as well as close to the beach and within driving distance to Los Angeles

- Any tips for immigrating to the US?

Thanks in advance!
Laura

I think your husband is mostly out of luck in terms of work as it's very hard to get any kind of work status in the US without some kind of degree or diploma (I'm assuming he doesn't have one?)

If you have a college diploma plus 3 years experience (or university degree), then you may be able to get work status (some other postings on this board should give you more information)

The cost of real estate in southern California, especially where you'd like to be close to the beach and LA, is prohibitive. Like in the half million dollar range for a wee house. Just for kicks n giggles I just went to MLS.com and searched for Venice and there's nothing listed under $779,000!

Even if you go further afield, say San D, I don't see anything under $350,000, and god knows what state its in, or how big it is! (I don't know the area at all, I've visited once, a couple decades ago).

The current "housing crisis" in the US has hit SoCal about the hardest as anywhere in the country. So getting a mortgage is going to be difficult, unless you've got a substantial downpayment already saved.

However, as neither of you would currently qualify for any sort of visa, you're a long way off yet, if you'll be able to realise your dream at all. Immigrating to the US is not very easy, unless you are independently wealthy, or otherwise qualified.

I wouldn't say they don't qualify at all, plumbers are often self-employed subcontractors so he could start up a business in California and get an E-2 visa. E-2 spouses can get an EAD as well, it's just the problem with E-2 is (a) it's very complex to get and it's a non-immigrant visa and (b) because it's non-immigrant you can have problems with your kids if you have any because they can't work and they have no status when they turn 21.

And the obvious downside is if the business ever folds, you have to leave.

Doesn't the E2 require a substantial amount of money to show for investment?

That's what the regs say, "substantial" is open to interpretation though, people seem to be able to get it with investments as small as $50,000. You really need to talk to a decent immigration consultant who has handled them before because each application is unique.

The point is that to start your own business is always going to require some sort of investment, so it's not as if the money is being thrown away, it's still your money you're just investing it.

see, I'd call a $50,000 investment not only substantial, but prohibitive and not do-able.

but then I'm broke

Well, I consider it to be a fair amount of money too but if you're self-employed you should be earning at least that much a year as a plumber, so as a proportion of what you're earning it's not that big a deal. Short-term loan should do it.

But at the end of the day it depends on what USCIS think of the business plan using the SBA rules, $50,000 might be enough for certain people but not for others.

I was just talking to a guy the other day in fact who has E-2, he bought a travel agents in Florida and now he's leaving because the business has gone down the tubes with the recession.

Which is another problem - if the business doesn't work you have to leave.