L E A F

Hello friends.
FUCKINGLEAF going to USA tomorrow on a trip.
Why do you burgers make it so hard to become a citizen?
Lastly, what else do I need to bring to make my trip most enjoyable?

bring cyanide.

Drugs, a lot of them. Make sure to tell customs, they'll give you a drug stamp so you won't be harassed for it.

>Why do you burgers make it so hard to become a citizen?
you leafs don't make it easy either. even just applying for a citizenship certificate (jus sanguinis citizenship by birth to a canadian parent outside of Canada) has a five month wait time.

anyways, if you have a good college degree and grades, it's not *that* hard to go for permanent residence in the states. come in on H1-B visa at a large employer, they sponsor you for a green card shortly thereafter, once you have permanent residence for a few years (which entails most of the benefits of citizenship) you can apply to be a US citizen.

>Lastly, what else do I need to bring to make my trip most enjoyable?
depending on where you go cash is good to have. try to use ATMs at actual banks (safer as they are less likely to have skimmers that read the magnetic strip) , and use credit over debit at restaurants and gas stations - many of them don't read the chip, and while your bank should reverse fraudulent charges, if it's your money that's tied up while they investigate it, it's a bigger pain than if your credit is just tied up temporarily.

keep in mind that the loonie is pretty weak right now, I think it's about 80 cents on the dollar. if you do use credit or debit, check if any of your cards have no foreign transaction fee. most US credit & debit cards charge 3% on foreign transactions, I imagine canadian credit/debit cards are the same.

where are you going user?

Orlando

80 cents is actually good for canuckbux, we were at 72 cents not too long ago

>80 cents is actually good for canuckbux, we were at 72 cents not too long ago
yeah, i know. the CAD going back up is making staying within my expense limits harder when I go to my customers in canada.

>orlando
ah, going to disney & universal or are you in florida for some other reason?

orlando's airport is a zoo. arriving is fine. leaving is shit. you have tons of children and families that are unfamiliar with airport security and trying to figure out how to collapse their strollers. if you have NEXUS, you can add your PASS ID to your airline reservation on most US Airlines & Air canada to get TSA Precheck, which has a much shorter and easier line. if not... show up early. definitely more than an hour before departure. security at MCO can take a half hour or longer to clear on a regular basis. once you get past security Orlando is alright, no hub carriers so different airlines have different restaurants and shops because of the weird airport design.

if you rent a car, it's hard to avoid a toll leaving the airport. using the electronic tolling in a rental car will generally charge you a fee for every day of the rental plus the actual toll costs. so if you use electronic tolling, expect to pay the tolls plus another $30.

what else...

there are some good guides to disney, if you're staying at one of their resort hotels and you get the wristbands then you can pay for shit and open your hotel door and enter the park and use fastpassess and such all on one thing. if you use a traditional ticket, disney requires you to either present ID or scan your fingerprint upon entry. once the value of a ticket is used (all entries or days pass for ones that are not by visit) your biometrics are supposed to be cleared, but some people don't trust disney.

orlando's universal parks are pretty nice and I would try to stop by them. if you visit a water park I liked typhoon lagoon more than blizzard beach, but they have different attractions.

Becoming a citizen is actually very easy.

Learn language and get a job and youll be in the clear.

here
prepaying for rental car gas is a scam if you rent a car. they'll discount the price slightly below gas stations in the area, but they will charge you by a full tank. you basically have to return the car with less than a tenth of a tank of gas for it to be worth it. otherwise you pay for a full tank of gas but they don't have to actually fill it and you get swindled. returning the car without a full tank isn't worth it either, they will charge you generally about $10/gallon to fill it back up. fill it up on the way to the airport and save your receipt. some rental car companies require you to show the receipt as proof you filled the tank if you didn't drive a minimum number of miles.

most family oriented hotels will offer free internet. some hotel chains will offer free internet to people who sign up for their rewards program (almost always free of charge) or people in their rewards program who book the hotels directly on their website.

tipping is similar to canada for restaurants. at casual service restaurants, where you go up to a counter and order something and get it at the counter, typically tipping is not expected. if you are waited on by a waiter/waitress then tipping is typically expected, 15-20%. sales tax is not included but sales tax is lower than the HST in most canadian provinces.

drinking age is 21 and expect to be IDed if you are not substantially older than that. keep the passport handy if you drink alcohol, they're a lot more strict about it in the states than in Canada in no ID, no sale.

orlando gets fucking hot in the summer, do your best to stay hydrated, check the forecasts. if you are outdoors a lot you will probably need to sunscreen or risk massive sunburn that will ruin your vacation.

kek

I'm going to vacation and to look at a car I might buy.

Why do you want to come to leaf-land? it sucks ass here.

A Gun Will make it more fun... Take out a couple Mudslimes well your here...

Take a negriss home with you.

For the same reason you don't put a $1 price tag on a million dollar home. Why should we make it easy when the demand is so high? We should be charging $400,000 application fees.

Get some burger bucks for toll roads.
Or are you flying?

I'm flying

here
what else...

any questions on orlando I can tell you what I know

don't know if the cigar in OP is cuban but cuban cigars are verboten. you do NOT want to get caught at US customs with one, even preclearance locations in canada.

if you have a smartphone and stay for a week you can get AT&T service on walmarts prepaid plan for $60 for one month. unlimited talk and text while in the US to international phones, and 8GB of high speed (4G LTE data). these are GSM carriers though, so if you have an unlocked phone and GSM phone service then you can use this. CDMA phone, probably not.

it's really not that hard to become a US citizen coming from Canada, assuming that you have at least a bachelor's degree.

>Why do you want to come to leaf-land? it sucks ass here.
my customer(s) in canada pays my employer (big company) a little over $3,000 CAD a day for my time. in turn, i fly up to Canada and work there some of the time.

if you are black or asian you can stay

if you are white you better gtfo my country fast,leaf boy

America is pretty much the same as leaf land, just better. Not much you have to worry about.

>Get a job
Its not that easy.
The employer has to show that there are no Americans that are able to do the job in the application, so you have to have a specialized skill.
Even then they have to provide job postings etc to show that they LOOKED but couldn't find an American, and are resorting to ice-beaners.
I'm not a doctor or anything, I am just a lowly polar-gook with a regular business degree.

Ive been looking and its not easy to find a sponsor. My immigration lawyer said its best to do an L1 or E2 but I have to sell my house to get the money to do the investor visa and open a qualifying business. Its several hundred thousand dollars.

Is your company hiring snow-nigs? Gib visa pls.

hah, you think it's HARD to get an H1-B? the letter of the law is a lot less strong than reality. hell, my roommate was from India on an F-1 student visa and a large consulting company interviewed him, then created a job posting based on his resume (must have [list variety of experience with specific softwares made to match his resume]). he applied to that and they found no other candidates who matched. boom, H1-B granted.

>My immigration lawyer said its best to do an L1 or E2 but I have to sell my house to get the money to do the investor visa and open a qualifying business. Its several hundred thousand dollars.

well there are other visa options. your immigration lawyer is probably suggesting E2 because the only limit is really money, and L-1 because that's an intracompany transfer visa that allows for dual intent. basically, if a visa allows for dual intent, you are allowed to enter the US for the purpose of the visa while seeking to get permanent residence here. L-1 is five years once.

H1-B is three years once with the option for a three year renewal. it requires a minimum of a bachelor's degree and "specialized knowledge". if you have experience and a company wants to take you to the US subsidiary, they can basically usually justify some pretext to bring you in under H1-B (the sum of your experiences).

Then there's TN. If you meet a job category under NAFTA (e.g. computer systems analyst for me)... Canadian citizens can get a TN visa at the US border for $50 USD and you can fill the application yourself (or have lawyers do it). All you need is a job offer from a US employer. TN is granted for up to three years and may be renewed indefinitely.

if you're trying to get into the US, your best bet is L-1, H1-B directly, or failing those, TN while working to get on H1-B.

once you get on H1-B/L-1, your company will probably wait at least a year, and can then sponsor you for a green card (US Lawful permanent residence).

here
>135770510
Forgot to mention, my employer frequently brings people in on H1-B.

the main challenge with H1-B is the 65,000 cap/year for bachelor's degree equivalent education, they usually get 3x that in correct applications. TN is not capped (but not dual intent, you'd have to enter under TN and then go for H1-B, but you could continue work in the US under TN while seeking an H1-B), but TN has some specifically designed occupations. a lot of people can fit under TN though.

L-1 is intracompany transfer and is uncapped, and dual intent allowed, and not subject to the occupation restrictions of TN or the lottery of H1B. L1 status requires that you are a manager, executive, or have specialized knowledge too.

do you work at a big company with a presence in the states? if so, L1 isn't a stretch by any means.

So what you're saying is... I should get a (((lawyer))) instead of a lawyer.

But seriously I thought it was harder than that, they said its a huge pain in the ass and I wasn't aware that companies would be willing to jew-up some bullshit job postings like that. Good to know.

Thanks for the advice.

Because we hate socialists...

I work for a Canadian company that only operates here, so yeah id need a new job.
Also any licenses such as mortgage broker, real-estate etc are different so i'd have to retake or upgrade anything I have.
I'll have to look harder.

you're going to find it hard or impossible to get a visa under H1-B or L-1 without the support of an employer. TN you can basically get on your own. i would not want to go for H1-B or L-1 without the support of a lawyer, and basically, it's impossible to do it without a lawyer.

L-1 is only for intercompany transfers. if you work for RBC Bank in Canada, and they want you at RBC bank in the US in Raleigh North carolina, RBC could file a petition for you to get an L-1 visa.

H1-B can be used by other companies to get talent for hires that didn't come from a foreign branch of the same company, or it can be used by a foreign branch of the same company to get people in. good companies will use it to transfer employees with skills at competitive wages, and once the wage is at certain points, they must prove that they tried to hire an american first (job postings with minimum open periods, etc.). bad companies like indian outsourcers will use it to bring in people at half the wage a US resource would get paid.

TN requires an existing job or job offer but doesn't require legal representation to apply for. on the other hand, it isn't a visa that permits dual intent, e.g. seeking a green card. you would need to get a visa like L-1 or H1B that permits dual intent before trying to go for a green card.

if you're doing mortgage broker/real estate I don't think you fit under any NAFTA professional category defined for TN, which basically leaves you with L1 or H1-B.

if you're really good at your job and have some specialized knowledge, e.g. industry experience, potentially finding an employer in the US interested in you isn't impossible... but it would probably be easier to find a job at a larger multinational company and then look to transfer to the US on L-1 or H-1B.