Living & 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