Part 1: USA the good parts, couple secrets

In my previous post I told a little bit about the story before I moved to the Bay Area. Go read that first before this post. Or don’t I don’t care.

Anyway, being an illegal immigrant in the US kinda sucks a lot, but there are ways on which we keep afloat, and things we’re able to accomplish and do that make it worth it. Those who know me know that I’m the positive type of person and barely ever complains, so I much rather talk about the things I love about this place.

Getting a job

My first job in the bay area was kinda easy, it took me like three weeks since I landed here until I started on it. I hated my boss, and the company was kinda silly, I was ‘underpaid’, but they had a ton of money and were OK with me working for them so I went with it .

I was extremely surprised by getting a job so fast, like, I knew programmers were adored here but I wasn’t expecting to have find a job that quickly with such a salary.

I was kinda cocky then and left that job after five weeks, I wasn’t happy there and I figured, a second one would come with similar ease, and it did! I was only unemployed for 10 days. Again, ‘underpaid’, because I was making like 4k a month, (which is absolutely nothing for you people, but it was a lot for me then).

Being accepted

I’m like queer, or non binary, idk anymore, you people use too many labels. Back in my country I was just closeted and would try to live it. Here, there’s so many labels, options, things to do, consider, people to date, talk about and share; I really like this about the bay area. My current labels and pronouns are not relevant for this post, but I’m happy I can share and relate to so much more people here than I could do back in my country.

Oh, also, I have severe mental and social issues, and I’m kind of an alcoholic, but somehow people are OK talking about them here. In a very shitty and judgmental way, but at least there’s a conversation.

My first real job

After a lot of networking, losing a lot of my accent, learning the lingo of programmers here, and several (10) months of practice, I was ready to try out for a real job at a cool startup. I met a founder at a bar, in a networking event, chatted for a while about technical things, founding, life, etc, and created a bond that led to an interview with her CTO next week.

Normal interview, they were looking for some senior(experienced) javascript person. To write isomorphic JS, which I’m totally able to. Wrote a bunch of modules for their backend, a few components for their angular application, and claimed a few nice paychecks. I wasn’t in love with the company’s mission, but I built cred.

My second/current real job

A couple of months into my job, I get an email from some random person. At first I almost discarded it into the pile of SPAM I get from recruiters (side note: recruiters suck if you’re illegal, specially those not actually affiliated with the company, so always avoid them!). But it wasn’t a random recruiter, it was the founder of a company with ~50 employees, and like 40million raised in two rounds. I kinda didn’t believe it a first but I went with it.

After two technical interviews and an HR talk I received an offer. I only brought up the fact I didn’t have a work permit until after a salary offer, and somehow they were OK with it.

They’re not super OK with it ever, but there’s a workaround, the US lets anyone, legal or illegal, start a company, I used one of those online legal services and started an LLC in a random state. Then I went to the federal building in SF and requested an EIN. Now I had a number and name I could use to fill out W-9 forms. So, when I received this offer, I said something along the lines of “I own an LLC that I prefer to route my business through, would you mind if we do W-9 instead of W-2?”. They were like whatever and didn’t ask why.

Stuff I can get

After writing this much I realized it might be useful to share what can I get in the US and what can’t I. Legally I can get, driver’s license in CA or NV, I can start any sort of company, I can get a bank account in any bank, I can get an ITIN, I can use that ITIN to create a credit history, I can get a secured credit card, I can sign up for colleges paying out of state tuition, I can fly or travel inside the country. I can get really good beer, and a huge variety of food. I can get stuff delivered to my house in hours with Amazon or Google Express, instacart, caviar or Uber eats. Free food at meetups. Free workshops and training at diversity events.

I can’t get health insurance in any way, I can’t get social security, I can’t leave the country, I can’t get many loans, I don’t date people that aren’t american, I can find real friends and I’ve been single for 3+ years, haven’t seen my family in a while, missed my great-grandma’s funeral, brother tried to kill himself and I wasn’t there for him, etc, etc, etc.

I gave out too much info already, so TLDR; It’s not easy to survive here, but if you hustle, keep at it, and are able to manage your priorities/emotions, you can achieve whatever you want here.

Disclaimer: I’m maybe not a woman or a guy or a real person, believe whatever you want. But if you have questions or complaints or whatever, add a comment here or hit me up in the twitters.