Yeah, I have been living in North America for about four months now. Many things have been happening. The relocation and adaptation processes are not so easy. I just couldn’t imagine if I had to relocate to North America five years ago. About 5 – 6 years ago, I had a dream to live in North America, especially in the United States. Just like many other people, I was imagining about American Dream.

At that time, I did everything I could to move to North America. I joined Green Card lottery from the US government five years ago (but no luck). I applied hundred of IT jobs (but again no luck). Well… actually I got a job offer from a start-up company in San Diego, but the company collapsed right after I got my H1B approval. I applied for M.Sc. programs in 7 universities in the US (guess what…. again no luck).

I was very depressed at that time, no more American Dream. I continued my study in Europe and then work there for a couple of years. Now, I feel very lucky that I didn’t move to North America five years ago. Life is not easy here. I have marked three things that might be obstacles for new immigrants in North America.

  • Finding a job is not easy. Finding a job in North America is very challenging. Even though they are open to immigrants, but many skilled workers are still unemployed. I had been looking for a job in North America like crazy for quite some times. Hundred of applications had been sent. I had two interviews in Canada about 18 months ago and 9 months ago, but they rejected me (although I feel very confident that I could do the job).
  • Living cost is killing us. It’s true that the salary in North America is relatively high, but the living cost is very high too. I simply couldn’t imagine how new Canadian immigrants can survive in the first few months because finding a job is not so easy either. This will become worse if we have spouse and children.
    In many cities, having a car is mandatory; otherwise we won’t be able to do anything. The public transportation is usually not so good. Buying a car, of course, requires some amount of money. Don’t expect to apply for credit (a.k.a. financing) if we are still new to the country (they won’t approve it). Applying for driving license is another challenge. I have been fighting for about 2 months to get my driving license, but it is likely that I won’t have it until beginning of next year (may be longer).
  • We are not trusted at the beginning. Government and many institutions basically don’t trust us before they see our records or references. May be this is because there are a lot of criminals.
    When I came to Canada and would like to rent an apartment, the landlord asked for a reference from my former landlord. How could I have a reference if I just arrived in Canada for a couple of days? Opening bank account and credit card is even trickier.

As final words, I have relocated a few times, to Europe, Asia and North America, but this time is the most difficult one. If I would have known this from the beginning, I would have decided to stay in Singapore and live happily there…. Well, everything has happened and life must go on.