Work visa for UK affiliate marketers who want to move to NYC?

I've looked into this to go be with my girlfriend (I'm from the UK too ). Since you don't want to marry; you can either take on a second job and get them to foot the bill (around $3000), but depending on the job there'll be a 3 month - 7 year wait, depending on the level of skill. Work visas are also temporary, unfortunately.

Another option is study visa, valid for however long you're studying - this of course means you need to actually study though.

Final option is expensive - a $500000 investment to start a business you can prove will generate at least 10 jobs for US citizens. But still, expensive

There may be more, but if there is I can't remember them right now. I'll edit my post if I remember any

What about the diversity visa? I don't know too much about it, but I used to have some friends from Japan who got their visa that way, then came here and the husband got a regular job.
Diversity Visa (DV) Program

I married so my husband could get a visa, so I don't know about the other options.

Or what about maintaining two residences and only staying here for three months at a time (or whatever the minimum is), then going back to the UK for a few months? I always wondered if that would work.

Love,
Shannon

I got a friend (European citizen) who recently scored a $100,000/year job in Silicon Valley. Well, he's telling me that his wife (Euro citizen too) is having a hell of a time to get the permits to stay with him. Seems like this issue is a tough nut to crack.

Where were you born? If you were born in India, good luck moving permanently. If you want to go the job route, depending on your skill level and the job skill requirement, your wait time is anywhere from 8 years(best case) to 70 years.

I am not kidding you. The system is broken and there was a recent report about this too.

So your only way is to invest 500k to 1 mil in US and employ at least 10 US citizens or marry a US citizen.

As someone suggested, it is a legal minefield and even entrepreneurs are leaving US because of this and setting up shop elsewhere. I know of at least 2 people who moved out because of the uncertain wait times.

I lived in NYC with a student Visa for 2 years (I'm from Spain). This was easy. But to stay as a worker things are a lot more complicated. The only solution is the pointed above: Get hired (and sponsored) by someone or get an investor Visa (difficult and very expensive).
As a freelancer you just CAN'T get a Visa. I wish I can, too.

damn what if i try canada first, then go from there to nyc?

I know that for regular employees, the best bet is either the TN or H1B visa (followed by a green card). For self employed people, not too sure.....hmmmmm, but logically speaking, if you were married to an American citizen, you could get yourself sponsored by your American spouse .
I may be wrong, but from what I remember, most western european nationals are allowed to stay in the US for 6 months without a visa.....may be you can give it a try first and see if you even like NYC

I think we have enough diversity here as it is. How about coming over here after you become successful as an affiliate marketer?

If you are born in the UK then you are not eligible for the diversity lottery unfortunately.

The EB-5 visa requires between $500,000 and $1 million investment in an area and is being reviewed at the end of 2012 and the experts are not sure if it will continue or change. There are no guarantees that you will get your investment back or get to retain your green card. There have been people who have gone in on this visa and had to leave when the investment fails and have lost their money! If the investment works then you get your money back after about 5 years. However, you do have to pay about $40,000 in costs for this visa.

You can go in on a working visa (H1B), but that means finding a job, which unless you have very, very specific skills that are in high demand will be extremely difficult. There is a long wait (yes it can be up to 7 years) for the visa and once you are there you have to stay working. Quit the job / get fired / be made redundant and you lose your visa instantly. A company has to prove that it cannot find an American to do the job to get a H1B visa plus it costs them $5K or so. In the current climate few companies will be willing to do this. On a H1B visa you can apply for a green card, but it's not easy and I think you have to get your spouse to apply for residency whilst you are working.

You can go in as a business start-up and create a business over there (IM / affiliate marketing might work but you'd have to employ people in the USA) but that is a temporary visa and if your business doesn't do well you can be asked to leave. A lot of UK citizens on this visa have been leaving in recent years because of the poor economy and their businesses failing.

Getting in to America is extremely difficult to do. I've spent quite a bit of time investigating it and there is no easy route to move out there. Many people are looking at Australia because it is an awful lot easier to get in. You could look at moving to Canada and then moving down in to the USA, but you'd have to become a Canadian citizen I think and then try to get into America, but I'm not sure how easy that is either.

Good luck with it, but I'd create a plan B because you unless the situation changes it's a tough country to get in to.

All the best to you

Jason