Please help me, i'm lost amongst all of the advice!!

Good morning/afternoon to anyone who might read this from an unusually sunny, hot Wales.

Guys I'm genuinely considering emmigrating to Florida, i just have the wife to crack now and we will be on our way. as mentioned in my profile, my father has already purchased a home in Florida and would like us to joinhm and my step mother. my father seems to think finding a job is a relatively simple formality however i consider it to be quite an arduous endeavour.

I am a qualified engineer with over 10 years industry experience in Energy managment and Oil and Gas.

If anyone could help me get my head around the job hunting I'd be very grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Ab Thabeth

Start for looking for your jobs on monster.com. also google Energy managment and Oil and Gas jobs in Florida and see what comes up. My husband has head hunters who pull his resume off monster on a regular basis.

Depending on where in Florida the house is it might be easy do to the oil rigs in the gulf of Mexico.

thank you very much, that is great info. I was reading up on sponsorship. I'll put my resume on monster straight away.

i really do appreciate your reply

What is your citizenship?
What visas do you have?
Is your father going to sponsor all 3 of you?

Hello abthab,

First of all since Engineering is a regulated profession, you must find out exactly what the steps are toward having your foreign degrees recognized, before you can exercise your profession in the USA or Canada. Then you must register in the State regulatory body which governs members of the profession in Florida. This is NOT always the easiest of tasks in many countries.

Once you've done that then your previous work experience and accomplishments become relevant, but failing to have your degrees recognized, you could (like so many other professionals) end up flipping hamburgers in a fast-food restaurant for near-slave wages.

Expatriating is not a simple task, and many people treat it with little more regard than moving to a new apartment across town. Do your homework, you need to check out so many different considerations:

Bureaucracy and government processes;
Differences in criminal and civil law;
Healtcare and medical insurance;
Education (if you have children);
Employment availability and Labor Laws;
Immigration requirements

just to name a few... the list goes on and on. You don't want to end up having committed yourself to a plan of action without first knowing everything you possibly can find out about the new country, only to find out you've made a very costly mistake that you can only correct by returning home much poorer, but the wiser.

Just remember immigrating to any other country is never easy and the old saying really rings true:

PEOPLE DON'T PLAN TO FAIL, THEY JUST FAIL TO PLAN.

Cheers,
James
Expat-blog Experts Team

People ignore the fact that the problem  immigrants face is not lack of qualifications or lack of jobs, it is actually finding an employer that is willing to sponsor you for a work visa. You mentioned that your father is here , are you coming here with an immigrant visa , if not I will tell you that the hurdles are much more than you anticipate. You will get job offers but as soon as employers find out that you are not employable due to your visa situation , they will withdraw them. What I did personally was that after failing to get a single sponsor, I told myself I am going there no matter what, I took an F1 visa and come, when I was here on F1 it was a tug of war to convince an employer to sponsor me and secure the so-called green card.I find it much easier to come to the US and then play your cards right rather than navigating the system Wales. It can be done , its not impossible, but I can't tell you its easy, even if your father is a US citizen to sponsor requires waiting. There is a lottery system for H1B and without an advanced degree the cap is reached in 5 days , even after you secure an employer to sponsor you if you don't get selected and the quota is reached , you are out. Goodluck in your endeavours , ask me any question.

Apologies for the delay everyone, thank you for the advice.

Taking on board your advice, the PLC I work for has two businesses in the Tampa area. Both Businesses are in Largo, is this a possible route? In all there are 31 companies that fall under the PLC throughout North America.

Do you think that if I apply to work at these places it may be possible to streamline the process?

Thank you in advance for your advice guys,

Ab

PS.is Tampa a nice area I've never been, I've always stayed in Orlando.

That being said you stand a much better chance of either an fresh H1B or intracompany transfer. You still have to convince them to do that for you but its much easier if your managers in your home country have a strong relationship with those in US. Florida I don't know it very much, I have only lived in New York, Chicago and Texas but among them all I recommend Texas, let me know if you have further questions.

Which part of Florida are you moving to?

You could sign up at job agencies at first, to get your foot in the door.

Hi marly79, any suggestions? I went through the while monster rigma role paid for more exposure etc but nothing has arisen.

Thank you for your response. Much appreciated.

It would depend on what part of the state you would be moving to.  Are you going to a big city or a small town? 

For quick work, I would suggest signing up with Adecco or a similar agency right away while you continue your own job search behind the scenes. 

Another great resource I would recommend is Glassdoor.com  (it is similar to Indeed.com)

You'll need a work visa,  but visit the proper U.S. government websites to get accurate information.  http://www.h1base.com/content/visas      In addition to Monster.com there is Indeed.com and Career.com and Careerbuilder.com
Good luck!

Thank you both for your advice,

well my father owns two properties in Dr Phillips, I'll likely be living there so effectively i'd be looking for work in Orlando or maybe Tampa.

I'm on Monster and Indeed in the UK but I'll try to set up a US profile and look into Glassdoor. I'm really excited about the prospect of living in the US but as I look into it the barriers that are in place preventing one from moving seem to get more complex. On a plus side reading posts regarding the inverse, US to UK emigration my situation seems much less bureaucratic ha.