Looking for a job in the U.S. before arrival

[koalas 0]

In our case, I have a French husband who is in a very specialized field (nuclear engineering) and since we are planning to get his green card via DCF, he would be able to have authorization to work as soon as he arrives in the US. As such, we're starting to look for a job for him already, remotely from France. We really want it to work out this way since that way, we can settle in whereever he finds work. Otherwise, we'd have to move once to my native California and if he gets a job in Connecticut, for example, we'd have to move our family again.

That being said, has anyone had any success conducting a job search before arrival? If you did, did you put a U.S. address on your resume (even before you arrived)? Were employers willing to wait for you to move out there (for us, this would probably take 3-4 months)? What was the hardest part about doing that? Thanks!

[Cybele 0]

In our case, I have a French husband who is in a very specialized field (nuclear engineering) and since we are planning to get his green card via DCF, he would be able to have authorization to work as soon as he arrives in the US. As such, we're starting to look for a job for him already, remotely from France. We really want it to work out this way since that way, we can settle in whereever he finds work. Otherwise, we'd have to move once to my native California and if he gets a job in Connecticut, for example, we'd have to move our family again.

That being said, has anyone had any success conducting a job search before arrival? If you did, did you put a U.S. address on your resume (even before you arrived)? Were employers willing to wait for you to move out there (for us, this would probably take 3-4 months)? What was the hardest part about doing that? Thanks!

I would think based on his specialized field he should start sending out feelers immediately with his current international address. His cover letter will say that he will be relocating to the US within a short period of time. His current company may have contacts and should know of openings for positions in the US. My spouse has a 19 year teaching career at a college, he is actually looking forward to doing something different and less stressful, but in your case I think pre-planning would be wise. Your husband also has the option of going into education, many universities crave lecturers with hands on experience.

Edited February 26, 2011 by Cybele