Moving to the USA: where to look for housing, work and how to improve your English

Before moving to the United States, you made plans for exactly what you would do and how to live. But these global strategies are often shattered by the little things newcomers don't think about or even don't know about. As Dmitry Danilin, a repairman of air conditioning systems in the company, admitted to us Home Alliance, after the move, he had many such little things, although he was preparing for life in America. But the most offensive was the adapter to an American outlet, Dmitry did not take it with him from Russia (he simply did not think in a series of more global thoughts), and on the very first day in the USA he laid out $ 11 for it in a nearby store (a lot of money for a newly arrived immigrant for such a trifle).

Photo: Shutterstock

An immigrant in a new country is like a child, except that he does not have parents who will feed, put to bed and take care of everything. He must provide for himself. How can this be done in a new environment and in new conditions? What to grab first and where to run?

In partnership with the company Home Alliance and with the help of her active employee Dmitry Danilin, we prepared an educational program on how to improve your life in the United States, talking about the nuances of finding housing and work, as well as improving the English language. We described the history of Dmitry's move and his path to success in our material.

Accomodation

This is one of the most important points, because you need to spend the night somewhere already on the first day of your life in America. It’s worth starting to look for housing or at least choosing an area before moving. If you know where you will work, then it is better to choose housing closer to the office - in the USA, public transport is not good everywhere, and you definitely won’t get your own car right away.

Where to look for housing

There are two options: online and offline.

Online search. The most popular online accommodation resources are Zillow.com, Apartments.com, Hotpads.com, Craigslist.com. Most relevant information is on Craigslist. There is also the widest selection of private housing.

Offline search. Oddly enough, not always all current housing can be viewed online, so if you are already in the US, go to the fields. Decide on the area, google apartment complexes and go to leasing offices. Often apartment complexes themselves place advertisements on the streets about the availability of affordable housing for rent.

Useful Tips

Explore Landlord Tenant Law. This is the law governing the relationship between the tenant and the landlord. Each city / county (county) has its own (google * city / county name * Landlord Tenant Law). In case of disputable situations, refer to this document and directly refer to it in your letters and conversations with the management / owner.

Read reviews on apartmentratings.com, Yelp and Google. Of course, you can't please everyone, but if several people write the same thing, it's worth considering.

All communication with the management / owner is only in writing. If you talked by phone or in person and agreed on something, write a letter on the results of the conversation, listing the main points of the conversation and asking for confirmation of the information. This is the norm of business communication in America. People try to have a written confirmation, in which case it would be easier to determine the person in charge and prove that the event / conversation took place.

Always look at the apartments you are going to rent before signing a contract. You must see what you are giving money for, so that later there will be no unpleasant surprises.

Look for housing close to work, kindergarten, or school. The road can really take up much of the time and effort.

Look at the ranking of the districts: how safe, clean, what contingent lives.

“When moving to the USA, I decided that I would live in California, it would be Los Angeles. I didn't even know where the Los Angeles border was yet. In general, I chose my first place across the street from Compton. Compton is a county in Los Angeles that is famous for its crime. And at one time it was even the most criminal area in the United States. I left there after 10 days, because simply walking there in the evening was dangerous,” says Dmitry, emphasizing that before looking for housing, or better yet, before moving to the USA, you need to carefully study the area in which you want to live.

So you've chosen your home. What's next?

First of all, you need to fulfill the requirements for the tenant.

Proof of income (income proof). Landlords want to be sure of your ability to pay. Therefore, they will require proof that you are employed, indicating your income level. This can be a letter from the manager, a copy of the offer, or a certificate from work.

If you don't work, the process of finding a place to live can get complicated. In this case, landlords ask for a statement of the state of your bank account. The money on the account should be enough for several months of paying for housing, how much exactly depends on the appetites of the landlords.

Credit history. Landlords are checking your credit history. If you have just arrived, then of course you do not have it yet. In large cities with a high level of immigrant inflow, this is treated calmly, and the same deposit acts as a guarantee of your solvency.

You can also resort to help from a friend. A friend who already lives in the US, has a credit history and can vouch for you is another way to reassure a wary landlord.

Photo: Shutterstock

Signing a contract and settling in

Read the contract carefully. Look under what conditions it can be terminated. All contracts are more or less standard, but if you have never seen it before, it is useful to study.

Before checking in, ask about moving out fees (payments upon check-out). Managers do not like this topic very much and will never start it themselves. But here, too, surprises can await you. Standard: you must leave the apartment in the same form as you check out it should be clean (after professional cleaning, as they like to say). Just vacuuming the carpet and wiping the shelves will not be enough. Most likely, you will have to either hire people for professional cleaning, or remove the amount from the deposit, and the management organizes everything.

Responsibly treat filling out the check list. It is given upon arrival. There you must enter all the faults and breakdowns in the apartment that you find. With this, you need to be very careful and thoroughly check everything, if you did not notice something and did not bring it there, upon eviction, the cost of fixing this problem may hang on you.

Work

The main thing here is to set priorities correctly and understand the real situation. Whatever position you leave at home, in the USA you are a new person and you will have to prove your professional suitability and competence from scratch.

“The first time I arrived, I woke up at 3-4 o’clock in the morning to go to work, and returned home around 9 pm. Just be prepared for it. Although I had my own stores in Russia, I was invited to a meeting with Sobyanin at the Transformation Forum. That is, I held a good position there, a good place. Having arrived here, I am building my name anew,” explained Dmitry.

This doesn’t mean you have to agree to work for pennies—many immigrants mistakenly take this approach. In fact, you can earn a good income from the start, the main thing is to choose the right field. But be prepared to work with your hands, drink coffee and give orders while other people are present.

“Many people come to the United States and take jobs that will only allow you to earn money to pay rent and buy food, but it won’t get you very far. You will be constantly working and wasting your time. For example, I spent a year working in unclear positions. I advise you to approach the choice of profession correctly,” Dima said.

Making the right choice of a profession in the USA that will allow you to earn good money, develop and have time for yourself or your family will help company guide Home Alliance "Catalog with professions and salaries in the USA"... In it, you will find real salaries in different positions, and also understand that an immigrant can earn up to 10 thousand dollars a month.

“So before coming, write to your friends in the USA, Google where you can work in the USA, what you will need for this and what steps you can take now, regardless of where you are,” advises Dmitry.

Home Alliance offers vacancies for technicians and repairers of various systems: air conditioning, heating, locksmith work, repair of household appliances, etc. Jobs are available in many US cities.

Home Alliance essentially invites you to build your own business. You will be given the necessary information and skills, and then you run your business yourself - the company transfers to you the orders it receives in the quantity that you are ready to accept, everything else is your concern and your income.

Photo: Shutterstock

In addition, you can look for work in the United States on the following resources:

Monster.com Is the largest job search site in the USA and the world. The resource base contains more than one million offers from employers and more than 150 million resumes. Advanced search allows you to search for vacancies not only by name and city, but also by skills and keywords. We advise you to use a trick and look for a job by the word Russian.

Craigslist Is one of the most popular email classified sites among Americans. It offers rental housing, various goods and services, dating, and work in the United States. Select the city you want, go to the "Work" section and enter your keywords.

Indeed is the leading job search site in the world. More than 180 of millions of unique users from 50 from different countries visit it every month. The greatest advantage of the resource is that it allows you to search for vacancies both on the site itself and on thousands of others.

CareerBuilder Is another largest job search site, one of the top three in the United States. Most of the Fortune 1000 companies, the prestigious list of the best US firms, are represented on the resource.

Careerjet Is a job search engine that provides access to millions of jobs posted on tens of thousands of websites around the world.

HelpDetected Is a specialized site for finding work in the United States from Russian-speaking employers. It offers work in the United States for Russians, there are a variety of vacancies - from drivers and nannies to web programmers and office managers.

Glassdoor — here they offer detailed information about companies that are looking for employees. This includes, among other things, salary, interview requirements, and current employees' opinions of the team atmosphere and company goals.

LinkedIn is rapidly becoming the main source of vacancies for those who are interested in specific requests in certain areas. After registering for it, you will immediately find vacancies that match your experience.

BAZAR.club — Russian-language message board in the USA. No registration is required to search - just enter the correct query and indicate the location.

In addition, there are still little-known but very effective job search sites. We have compiled list of 15 such resources.

English

If you are not at all comfortable with English, then it is better to start learning it even before moving to the USA. You need to master at least an elementary basis in order to answer questions at passport control and be able to order food in a cafe or buy food in a store.

This is where language learning apps come in handy, of which there are so many. This is especially convenient because your phone is always at hand, and you can devote every free minute to studying. We have compiled a list of 20 handy, effective and free apps to get you started.

Alternatively, you can use YouTube channels. We suggest you familiarize yourself with XNUMX versatile YouTube channels to help you learn English.

If you are fine with English (at least, you think so in your home country or during your tourist trips), then do not rush to relax. Chances are that the intricacies of American pronunciation after moving to the United States will repeatedly baffle you. Therefore, it makes sense to practice listening to the language. For this, there are also a lot of programs and sites. We have compiled a list of 22 online listening resources. There are different themes and levels, choose what interests you.

Dmitry Danilin advises watching a video analysis of films in English. There are those on YouTube. Their authors explain the vocabulary of the films and the situations in which certain phrases are used.

So, you can easily understand the interlocutor in the United States and can confidently express yourself on everyday topics. But as soon as the conversation gets to something deeper, do you start to hang up and think for a long time? This is a sign that you need to expand your vocabulary. And believe me, no matter what your level of English was at the time of your arrival in the United States, in order to speak like a native speaker, you will always miss some words. Therefore, in the US, you will have to learn a lot of new vocabulary. there is 15 powerful tricks on how to quickly learn English words... In addition, here you can also use modern technologies and download one of these 5 Free Apps to Learn English Words.

There is housing and work! What's next?

And then there is still a lot of work: opening a bank account, forming a credit history, obtaining health insurance, social security numbers, obtaining regional and city ID cards ... We will tell about all this in our next article on organizing life after moving to the United States.

Read also on ForumDaily:

How to find a promising job in the USA: a successful example of an immigrant from Russia

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