# Looking for a job in US remotely before move



## starbuck77 (Jan 7, 2011)

In our case, I'm a US citizen and my husband is French. He is in a very specialized field (nuclear engineering) and since he can have a green card through me, 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 state and if he gets a job in a different state, 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!


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## twostep (Apr 3, 2008)

He will probably have two issues - 
most nuke related work is somehow tied into government contracts/grants and requires clearance of some degree
employers are unlikely to wait several months to fill a position; you did not go into any detail about his qualifications; 1-5 year engineers in his field are all over; networking is the name of the game in today's job market


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## starbuck77 (Jan 7, 2011)

it's true that more than half of the jobs that fit his profile require at least u.s. citizenship, if not government clearance. let's just say that it's really not an internationally mobile profession! still, we've come across some jobs, though not many. he has a french phd in physics and has around 5 years of work experience in scientific software programming in the nuclear industry.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

One other issue is that, even with most things set up and in place, it can take a while for the spouse visa to get processed once you file your application. Employers in the US often expect you to be available to start working within a couple of weeks of accepting the job. It can take up to six months or so for a spouse visa to come through (and with your husband in a "touchy" field like nuclear engineering, they may devote special attention to his background "just in case").

There's certainly no harm in starting a job search remotely. No one is going to hire someone at the engineer level, however, without at least one (possibly more) face to face interviews so he should make him self "available" during a vacation or house-hunting trip you were going to make anyway. (Most employers are not willing to spring for an interview trip internationally, but if you were going to be in the US anyway, they'd probably fly him to the interview site from a US location.) It's also likely that if someone is interested in hiring him, they may simply say he should get back in touch once he is settled in the US and has his green card in hand.

Haven't been through the process myself, but I'm told that one important item on the spouse visa application is where you are going to be living - i.e. that the American spouse has arranged for a place to live (even if it's with parents or other family members) and has financial sponsorship covered (i.e. that YOU have a job, or solid job prospects or have someone to financially sponsor you both until you find work and get settled). 
Cheers,
Bev


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