GandK

Hi all fellow Scandinavians!

I was wondering if there are any young recent graduates amongst you who could share your experiences with entering the US with a K1-visa, being jobless, and how you cope with the transitional period in the US before you get a job? I and my fiancé are applying for a K1-visa and it looks like it might be approved by the end of this year or early 2015. I've recently graduated with a Master's degree and I don't see myself applying for any jobs in Europe before I enter the US with my visa in hand, as I fly back and forth to see him on a tourist visa as much as I can before we (hopefully) get approved. The problem is I have not been able to build up any safety net, financially, and it does feel scary to enter into marriage and in a completely different country with little work experience and no money. Although I know my fiancé will take care of me until I find a job, it's a scary thought. I was wondering if anyone of you are in the same situation and if you could share some of your experiences, offer any success stories or some reassuring words?

I'd appreciate it very much Going through this process is a very lonely thing, I've realized, especially with very little support from your family.

Thank you

I was like you. I came here in 2012 out of college with a master in engineering degree from Denmark. I had zero work experience prior and with almost no saving and my wife was going back to school, so we had almost no income. I just kept putting charges on my danish credit card, my debt was growing more and more and it was very stressful and frustrating at that time.

But my in-law are the kindest people in the world. They took us in and let us stay with them for months while I was looking for a job. I don't think we would have made it without their support.

Fortunately, I found a good job relatively quickly (4-5 months after I got greencard). It's a scary thought but you just have to believe in yourself and your qualification. The economy seems to be relatively better now with more hiring. But when it comes to job hunting, all I can say is it's all about luck. Looking back, I have no idea how I got hired. In engineering, most company prefers to hire college graduates from "ABET" accredited schools but my supervisor and I just clicked during the interview

So, the key here is family, family and family support :-)

What is your current credit score?

I would wait until your score is above 700 before applying for a new credit card. Getting rejected could impact your credit score.

i believe finding a job is not that hard in America .

Ok. Anything else?

I understand your confusion. The way I read it for the circumstances of meeting, they want information, I interpret this as statement how you met. For the last personal meeting, they want evidence, this is documentary evidence.

In our case, we met almost 3 years before we filed for K-1, the evidences that we submitted with our 129F packet only spanned back to the two years period before we filed our 129F. (Photos, passport stamps, airline boarding pass etc) but we did write a paragraph or so about how we first met and how our relationship developed. No RFE.

I got notification of an RFE being sent out on May 8 and May 13, 2013, and I just received the hard copy RFE in the mail on May 17, 2013. The RFE is asking to submit information regarding the circumstances under which the petitioner and beneficiary met to establish the relationship. Also, the RFE is asking to submit evidence of meeting the beneficiary in person within the two-year period preceding the filing of the petition.

I've given one sentence on the I-129F on the circumstances of meeting. The beneficiary was going to the same college I was attending, and we've been dating since. What more specifics do they want? An one page essay? Documents? College transcripts? College degrees?

For the last personal meeting, I didn't submit copies of my passport pages initially, showing that I traveled to my fiance's home country within the past 2 years, and I don't have the plane ticket stubs of that trip. Has anyone got an approval from just only submitting copies of passport pages?

Also, my RFE doesn't show a due date to turn in the RFE back to them. However, it says you are given until May 13, 2013 in which to submit the requested information to the address at the bottom of this notice. The notice date of the RFE IS May 13, 2013. Is this a typo? Or are they really expecting me to send the evidence on date that is already passed? (Note: the due date is BEFORE the date I received the hard copy RFE)

I just got off the phone with USCIS, and they didn't give me any help regarding my specific RFE. All thry told me was to make an InfoPass appointment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Anyone could write a one sentence that they met and dated on the moon but can you prove it? Words and statement especially from the petitioner and beneficiary carry no weight.

In fact, you can write a whole book about how you met and dated and they still are not going to believe you.

You need to send documentary evidence. Passport stamp, college enrollment confirmation, plane ticket stubs or any documentary evidence that establishes you two were in the same place at the same time.

I got job as electrical engineer with PG&E in California. Have to say I was really lucky. I just graduated from school last year and it was my first interview in the US.

In regard to improving one's credit score, here's something that I've done for years that apparently has a very positive impact, at least according to one credit-card outfit.

When my monthly bill comes in, I round the payment amount up to the next even-dollar amount. For example, if the bill is for $127.38, I'll pay $128. Obviously, this creates a small credit (of .62, in this example), which carries over to the next month's bill.

If the cents amount for the month is .09 or less, I'll pay the exact amount, but all other times, I'll round up.

I didn't ask why, but apparently carrying even a fractional credit every month makes a positive difference.

I have always paid off my balance in full but I have heard this theory many times now. Would love to know more why/how it works?

The first step of finding a job is to apply for one. No I haven't heard anything where you pay someone on the internet and they find job for you.

Capital one secured mastercard is the best hand down. I inherited my wife's rather poor credit in september last year. It was about 550ish. Now we are up at 690ish.

Also, see if you can get a credit card from credit union.

How about Aulani? It's a Disney Resort and Spa in Oahu. Probably quite expensive though with the Disney name, but I do think Disney does a good job when it comes to vacations. I've never been there, but I'm sure it's pretty neat, and I'm sure kids will like it.

I think a lot of things my husband and I did in Hawaii, kids will like. Such as we went to Sea Life Park and had a encounter with dolphins, I thought that was one of the best things we did on our vacation.

We also went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, it was beautiful there.

At least there is a few things I can think of at the top of my head that I think will be good for families with kids. But there is a lot to do in Oahu that I think many people of different ages will enjoy. I'm not an expert on Hawaii by any means though, there is still a lot more I could see and do in Oahu and other Hawaiian islands.

Aulani is really great for family, although pretty expensive. Last time we paid almost $400 a night and that was with local resident discount.

There is a lot to do in Aulani, the kids will love the water park, white sand shallow beach and a lot of "disney" activities.

No problem. Keep in mind that the explaination above is only valid for publicly regulated utilities.

In deregulated electricity market like in Europe, that's where they try to pump up your electricity bill

There is so much misinformation and a bunch of bullsh$@ here that I don't even know where to start.

It's worse than that, though. Solar power peaks at midday, which means it is strongest close to the point of highest electricity use — "peak load." Problem is, providing power to meet peak load is where utilities make a huge chunk of their money. Peak power is the most expensive power. So when solar panels provide peak power, they aren't just reducing demand, they're reducing demand for the utilities' most valuable product.

1. The electrical demand "peak load" is not at midday. The daily peak load is around 6-7pm when people come home from work at switches their appliances or whatsoever. There is another smaller peak at 9-10am when people get to their workplaces. Day time load is covered by base load generators. Utilities actually LOVE solar panel because it helps to smoothen out day load and therefore reduce reserve generation capacity = save money. See no.2

This complexity makes it difficult to generalize about utilities … or to discuss them without putting people to sleep. But the main thing to know is that the utility business model relies on selling power. That's how they make their money. Here's how it works: A utility makes a case to a public utility commission (PUC), saying "we will need to satisfy this level of demand from consumers, which means we'll need to generate (or purchase) this much power, which means we'll need to charge these rates." If the PUC finds the case persuasive, it approves the rates and guarantees the utility a reasonable return on its investments in power and grid upkeep.<br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 253);"><br style="color: rgb(28, 40, 55); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 253);">Thrilling, I know. The thing to remember is that it is in a utility's financial interest to generate (or buy) and deliver as much power as possible. The higher the demand, the higher the investments, the higher the utility shareholder profits. In short, all things being equal, utilities want to sell more power.

2. Utterly misinformation and false statement. Public utilities in regulated market do not want to sell more power. Get it? As a matter of fact, Public utilities are not making any profit from the energy they sell to customers, they are only allowed to make profit from the return of investment they make on the infrastructure.

It's hard to believe right, I know. But let me explain it to you.

Utilities in regulated market are what they call "natural monopolies", they don't have competition. The electricity rates is authorized and approved by the public utilities commission (PUC). They also authorize the rate of return for the investment for utilities.

Every xxx year, utilities make "rates case" (basically how much they plan to invest in the infrastructure that year and etc)

Let's say the rates case for the year 2014 is $2 billions

Then, the PUC authorizes the rate of return of 10% for this year (Usually 10-15%)

So the authorized profit for this year is $20B x 0.10 = $200 millions (Let's call this A)

Next, the utilities estimate how much energy they need to purchase for the year, let's say $300 millions (B)

There other adjustment and costs etc, let's say this is $100 millions (C)

Then you add A + B + C = $200m + $300m + $100m = $600m

Then the $600 millions is the expected/require revenue. (Basically, if their revenue meets the goal of $600m, they will make $200m profit or 10% of their investment as authorized by the PUC)

Now, that they have the required revenue and they can easily estimate the throughput of electricity for the year which is easily estimated and predicted ( say XXX GWh )

Then you take $600m / XXX GWh, and you will get the electricity rates! ( Basically how much they have to sell their electricity for) and this will be reviewed and authorized by the PUC.

So, the business model of public utilities in regulated market are not like private company like Apple, Microsoft etc. They don't care how much energy they sell, they have to match the energy demand no matter what, they makes profit no matter what , their profit is regulated by the PUC.

They make money from the return of investment in the infrastructure and from managing their assets. Public utilities buys, stores and distributes energy to its customers, not sell. (As natural monopoly, they have an obligation to provide their product to whoever needs it and how much it is needed). In terms of profit, public utilities don't care how much energy they sell, their profit is not affected by demand. The regulation is there to encourage energy conservation, so they don't have to sell more iphones to make more money like Apple etc.

So here comes my point. Utilities actually love solar panel because they help to smoothen out the load and reduce the base load, so they can keep the rates low = more customers and happy customers.

Again, the example of calculation above is extremely simplified but that is the general idea how their business model works for utilities in regulated market.

(source: I am a power systems engineer and I work for a major US. utility)

Just to give you an update. My background check is completed. My education was verified and my employer waived the employment check because it was an irrelevant part-time school job!

Hopefully, I will never ever have to deal with Hire "Right" again...

In academia, a resume is short and concise, it includes educations and experience (usually one page). On the hand, a CV includes all your publications and papers published and this can be like 4-5 pages.

I talked to HR from the company I was offered a job today. She sounded pretty tired of HireRight as well. She asked to to fax over the pay stubs every six month of my last employment and she will clear it out of the way. (It was also a part time student job in a video store, totally irrelevant to the job offer I got now). I should hear back next week.

Try http://careers.stackoverflow.com/

Yeah exactly! I had to provide EVERYTHING to them. All the phone numbers, pay stubs and they even asked for W2 and 1099 from my employers in Denmark which we don't issue documents like that lol.

I wonder what exactly are they paid for because I basically did all the work for them.

My friend founds a lot of IT job on craigslist, He applied for one and got an interview and a job offer one week later.

Thanks everyone. Got in touch with them again today and they said they have all the information they need and now my background check report is undergoing a quality check.

Hopefully, it will complete next week.

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if any of you has gone through a pre-employment international background check process and how long did it take?

Specifically, the 3rd party company conducting the background check is "HireRight".

They got terrible reputation and they were even ordered to pay $2.6 millions for multiple FCRA violations last year.

I have been waiting for almost 3 weeks now and they just keep saying my education verification is still pending.

Getting nervous here, although I have nothing to hide but I am worried this would push my start date at work

Anyone has any experience with HireRight?

Thanks

I was wondering how many applications and resume you guys submitted before getting your job. I just moved to another city and finding a job is becoming a nightmare since I don't know anyone in the area. I've already applied to several jobs... and still waiting I would love to hear your stories. They might encourage myself to keep trying.

Just to give you my numbers. I am probably one of the lucky case.

I submitted about 25-30 applications since new year, heard back from about 6-7, got 2 phone interviews, 1 face-to-face interview and one job offer.

I don't have any experience and I was applying for mostly entry level engineer positions which is few and far in between.

I spent half of my time job hunting and the other half studying, learning new softwares and keep my technical knowledge updated which helped me greatly during my technical interviews.

It's just a matter of the right fit and the right job to come along, it can take times. Don't give up!

Sometimes, I kept looking and looking for over a week and couldn't find any position that I was qualified to apply.

My best advice is to practice interview A LOT. After my first phone interview which I ###### up royally, I realized that I was spending too much time applying for jobs and was totally unprepared for interviews.

My next phone interview performance was like day and night which led to a face-to-face interview and I NAILED it with confidence ( A result of countless of hours talking to the mirror lol )

I also found MeetUp groups to be a very interesting way of meeting new people and networking. There are a lot of group such as SF professional networking etc.

A lots of good advices given here already but here is my experience and what I learned during my job hunting process.

A little background:

I graduated April 2012 from Technical University of Denmark (A school that 99% of the US has never heard of and a lot of people can't even find Denmark on the map...) I have ZERO industrial experience except some internship and research experience here and there.

I moved to the US on K-1 visa August last year, got my Greencard in November, started job hunting seriously after new year. I just accepted a job offer as electrical engineer with PG&E two weeks ago.

Although it only took me two months to find a professional job, it has been a rich learning experience and frustrating at the same time (Also becI have been in the immigration limbo since April).

I just took a look at the early versions of my resume and cover letter and I just shook my head. THEY WERE SO BAD, obviously it has got a lot better with revisions.

Here are the lessons I learned

1. Put an effort in your resume

Includes professional format, be concise and informative, ask people to look at it and give you feedback. Revise and revise.

2. Think about the job you are applying for and TAILOR your resume to it

In the beginning, I just had one "cookie-cutter" resume. I just sent it out "Fire and Forget" no wonder I never heard back.

3 .Know the buzzwords for your professional

Put these buzzwords in your resume. a lot of companies use computer systems to screen for these buzzwords.

4. Use local address to apply for the job

Most companies don't like out of state or out of city address. Period. Use friend's address, heck I even googled a random address and used it in my resume

5. Clearly state in your resume that you are legally authorized to work for any employer in the US on a continuous and permanent basic

6. Practice telephone interview

My first phone interview was a disaster as I never had one before and I was so busy "hunting" for jobs that I wasn't prepared at all of what to do when I actually get an interview.

7. Get to know yourself! Know your strengths and weaknesses and sell it to the company

It's funny but you have to practice this. It's not just knowing who you are, how you work, you also have to be able to verbally express yourself and your qualifications in a concise and professional manner.

I remember I didn't include language proficiency in my resume because I didn't think that was important for an engineer. Then someone told me when I was struggling to find a job "You are an engineer who speaks five languages, if you can't find a job I'd be damned."

Then I realized as a new grad with no experience to show off. Those languages are probably my greatest strength and assets. I started to believe in it and "sell it" to companies.

8. Large corporate values diversity more than small company

In my experience, large companies tend to appreciate my international background and global awareness more than small local companies who rather hire a local.

9. Salary discussion don't come in until an offer has been extended. if they ask and you must answer, then state a range. do your research so you know what the salary range is for the position

10. Finally, don't rely on job websites like indeed/linkedIn etc

Thousands of people have probably seen the same job ads and hundreds of people probably applied for that position. I had much better luck doing research on companies in my industry and I found a lot of positions that are not even listed any where else.

Good luck hunting!

We are probably going to have to agree to disagree on this.

How many people divorce their spouse the first time they get drunk? Use drugs or gamble? They say they won't drink again...but they do. Divorce the 2nd they drink?

My family depends on me. My children depend on me (I have 4, so I am not talking out my @ss) So if my wife has sex ONCE, or twice or three times with someone else, I should divorce her, go through custody battles, call my children's mother a ####### and split our family assets (their assets) and jeapordize the children's future ...for sex? Sorry. Ain't happenin' to my kids.

I took an oath to, above all, love my wife unconditionally. The oath we took was to each other and were vows we could live with forever. We did not take an oath someone else wrote for their purposes, there are two parties in our marriage, not three. The oath is ours, it is not some entity we expect someone else to abide by.

You seem to be having trouble getting past the fact that I would DIE for my wife. Would you? Without hesitation, I would sacrifice my life to save hers, or the children's. My marriage and my wife and family mean THAT much to me. I would take myself out of the picture ONLY if it were to save their life. I simply would not consider throwing them out because of sex. It is NOT about trust, stop handing me that BS. There are many ways to break trust, including addictions, and no one suggests not working on those issues before bailing out. If someone's addiction is so bad that it is a bigger threat to the family than a breakup...then you get divorced to protect the family.

Sex is never a bigger threat than a breakup.

The real issues is although I understand that you would die and do anything for your wife and your family ( which I admire) but what if your wife doesn't feel the same way and wouldn't reciprocate.

Sorry, but it takes two persons to make a marriage works.

I will just say this.

If our house were on fire I would run into it to save my wife's life...even if I burned to death. If a car was going to hit her, I would push her out of the way and take the hit myself. If a man broke into our house and threatened her, I would shoot him until he was dead. Get it?

Would you do those things? Would most people?

So I would DIE for my wife, I would KILL for my wife...understand?

So would I throw away my life with my wife if she had sex with someone else?

Get real! It's SEX.

Try another thing, ANY of you...

write down the 10 best things about your wife and your marriage. Go ahead.

Is "She will never have sex with anyone else until she dies" on that list?

Didn't think so. So you will DIVORCE her, throw away everything you have because of something that doesn't even make the list?

I am curious what you would do if one day you return home from work and find your wife in bed with another man and your children sleeping next door?

I'm sure that is not on on your 10 best things list either.