Table Of ContentLiving & Working in
America
Thank you for buying one of our books. We hope you'll enjoy it and
that it will help you to enjoy your time in America, for however long
you're intending to stay there.
We always try to ensure our books are up to date, but contact details
seem to change so quickly that it can be very hard to keep up with
them. If you do have any problems contacting any of the organisations
listed in the book please get in touch, and either we or the author will
do what we can to help. And if you do find correct contact details that
differ from those in the book, please let us know so that we can put it
right when we reprint.
Please do also give us your feedback so we can go on making books
that you want to read. If there's anything you particularly liked about
this book - or you have suggestions about how it could be improved in
the future - email us on
If you want to know how —
Getting a Job in America
How to find the right employment opportunities and contacts
Getting into America
The immigration guide to finding a new life in the USA
Getting a Job Abroad
The handbook for the international jobseeker: where the jobs are, how
to get them
Getting into Canada
How to make a successful application for permanent residence
Getting a Job in Canada
Find the right job and secure a great new lifestyle
Send for a free copy of the latest catalogue to:
How To Books
Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road
Begbroke, Oxford, 0X5 1RX, United Kingdom
email:
Living & Working in
America
The complete guide to a successful
short or long-term stay
6th edition
STEVE MILLS
howtobooks
Published by How To Content,
A division of How To Books Ltd,
Spring Hill House, Spring Hill Road,
Begbroke, Oxford 0X5 1RX. United Kingdom.
Tel: (01865) 375794. Fax: (01865) 379162.
email:
Contents
Preface to the sixth edition 9
1 Considering the USA 13
Why consider going to the USA? 13
There's something for everyone in America 15
Have you ever thought.? 15
No relatives in the USA? 16
Listing your interests in the USA 17
What kind of visit do you want? 18
Geting maried 20
Further thoughts on staying with friends or relatives 20
Family reunions 21
Trip of a lifetime? 2
Being in the USA for New Year 23
Alternative destinations 24
Canada 25
Other overseas oportunities 27
2 What's it like in the USA? 29
Geting rid of misconceptions 29
The USA: discovering people and places 30
The weather 34
Where to stay 36
Where to live 4
Fod and drink 53
Entertainment 57
Dres sense 58
Cultural expectations 59
Shoping 64
Lawyers and legal fes 70
Health care 71
AIDS 73
The US telephone system 74
5
6 Living & Working in America
What to read on the USA 78
3 Preparations at home 89
The house 89
Shiping posesions to the USA 97
Customs and Excise 101
4 Visas and immigration 103
A society of immigrants 103
Tourist, long-stay visitor or immigrant 105
Geting a visa 108
Non-immigrant visas 14
'Indefinite'visas 18
Immigrant visas 18
Overstaying 12
Alien registration 123
Expections - yours and theirs 123
Encountering the Hispanic American Southwest 125
5 Geting to the USA 127
By sea 127
By air 127
Information update: information overload 132
What are your neds? 132
Destinations 13
Travel protection 134
Single parent family trips 135
New York City 135
Washington DC and Baltimore MD 137
Some other gateway cities 137
Fly-drive package or independent travel? 138
Tips for the journey 138
Summary 14
America at the click of a mouse 144
6 Traveling about 151
Why travel? 151
Traveling by car 151
Car hire 152
Taking the car to the USA 157
Contents 7
Buying a car in the USA 158
Repairs and maintenance 161
Petrol 161
Car insurance 163
Licences 163
Words of warning 165
Trafic regulations and road safety 165
Alternatives to driving 172
Time zones 183
Traveling with the kids 184
Disabled visitors to the USA 187
Emergency planning 187
7 Finding work 189
Staying in the USA for fun 189
The business culture in the USA 191
Work prospects in the US economy 194
Work: preliminary considerations 198
Job hunting 19
Applying for a job 212
Commuting as an option 219
Investing in the USA 222
Work and the information highway 226
8 Money maters 28
Cash 28
Personal cheques 228
Credit cards 29
Debit cards 230
Banks 230
Savings and loan associations ('thrifts') 230
Mortgages 231
Pension plans 232
Health insurance 232
Taxation 234
9 The children and their education 238
The US education system 239
A beginner's guide to US schools 241
Private education 244
8 Living & Working in America
Growing up in the USA 245
Going to colege 247
10 Opportunities for young people and teachers 254
Short-term opportunities 254
Summer camps 25
Au pairing 258
Student internships 260
Working in Washington DC 262
Applying for summer jobs 264
Further opportunities for students 267
Postgraduate degres 269
Funding graduate study in the USA 272
Postgraduate scholarships 274
Opportunities for teachers 276
Gap year opportunities 279
1 Staying or returning 280
Remaining in the USA 280
Coming back to the USA 282
Returning home 285
US English 287
Glosary 289
Statutory public holidays 300
Consulates in the USA 301
State tourist ofices 302
More useful addreses 306
Further reading 308
Weights and measures 310
Index 31
Preface
to the sixth edition
WELCOME
This book, like its companion volumes dealing with US jobs and visas,
is for anyone who has ever thought about spending some time in the
United States. Millions of Europeans have settled in the United States,
but today modern communications make it possible for millions more
to cross the Atlantic for business or merely for pleasure. The choice is
no longer between emigration and the trip of a lifetime. Millions now
visit the USA for a period longer than their annual holiday but without
ever settling down there. This book is therefore for anyone who has
ever thought of living or working in the USA for anything from a few
weeks to many years. It is particularly geared to those who would like
to experience the USA for more than just a few days' holiday, though
even weekend visitors will find much here to inform them about what is
available in the USA.
What follows results from living and working backwards and
forwards across the Atlantic for the last 30 years, travelling from
coast to coast by plane, hitching, driving a van, by hired car, and even
at times on foot. It's the result of visiting some 30 different states and
living for years in and around the federal capital as much as of
teaching American history, cultural geography and landscape studies
to Britons and Americans at Keele University and the University of
Maryland, not forgetting advising those applying to study abroad.
I've entered the USA by plane, by car, and on foot, on three totally
different kinds of visa, crossing sometimes alone, sometimes with
family, on holiday and on business. So this book is a little bit of what
has become American within me, even while I live and write in the
UK.
I hope you will find the lessons of my own experience enable you,
the reader, to enjoy your own visits to the USA with just a little more
emphasis on the fun and a little less on the hassle for having been that
little more prepared than I ever was. Friends and colleagues have
often said that I should pass on my experiences: so here they are. With
9
