Working in the USA

[soundo26]

I went over to New York to do a conference which was in two parts, US followed by a repeat in the UK and was not allowed to touch anything. It is very heavily unionised and very difficult for an outsider to work in.

[Bobbsy]

I went over to New York to do a conference which was in two parts, US followed by a repeat in the UK and was not allowed to touch anything. It is very heavily unionised and very difficult for an outsider to work in.

 

In New York, that is very often the case but, even there, it varies with the venue.

 

However, the USA is a huge place and the degree of unionisation can range from none to "the union controls everything" depending on where you're talking about. Frankly, it's impossible to give a single answer to a question about "the USA". Some states have passed "right to work" legislation making closed shops illegal; others are pretty much as described (though, even there, there will be non-union venues).

 

To the OP, do you have any idea where you'd try to locate?

 

Bob

[Bennage]

Thanks very much all for your replies. There's some great info in those posts.

 

I can tell you that my wife is American and has been living with me over here (in the UK) for many years. We are thinking about moving back to the States at some point in the future. I currently don't have a visa for there, but she has a lot of contacts in the US immigration sector so the visa thing shouldn't be a problem. Consider that knocked on the head :P

 

I understand that my original post of us moving to the USA wasn't very useful being that there are so many differences from state to state/city to city - sorry!

 

We would be looking at either New York of Philadelphia. I'm guessing that New York would be the tough union-nut to crack, compared with Philly.

 

Also, although I don't know if it would make a big difference or not, I work more on gig/corporate/events things than theatre, although theatre is still a big part of my work. AV is my speciality.

[fredfish]

I have no personal experiance of the US Labour market, but out of interest I gave these a read, they might be of interest to you if you haven't read them already

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_shop#United_States

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

[Cerbertech]

Your main problem may be proving that you are more qualified to do the job than an American when getting a green card / work visa.

 

A friend of mine got a job out in Rochester New York State to run an English Theme Pub complete with on site real ale brewery making authentic English style beers (it was a joint project with a UK brewery).

 

Took him months to get a work permit as they needed him to prove he was more qualified than a US citizen to do the job.

 

Good luck if you decide to make the move.

[ImagineerTom]

 

We'll leave it as the green card stuff may be relevant to future readers of the post - but let's call time on the imigration angle:

 

Assume he has his immigration ducks in a row; all further immigration nags will be treated as OT.

 

 

Any discussion about working in the US cannot ignore the immigration angle though as their visa / immigration policies are very very strict, you don't get "permission to work in the country, do whatever you like" visa's. If when you apply you tell them you're going to be a sound operator in a theatre, but then a couple of years down the line you end up working as a sound tech in an arena tour you're breaking the rules, you help out a friend who's short-staffed flipping burgers one afternoon and you're breaking the rules; they have a "no exceptions policy" and within 24 hours you're out of the country and banned from returning for life for breaking the rules. Any visa / permissions that are issued will come with a very specific set of criteria and restrictions so if you want to work in the US (as a non natural US citizen) it's an integral part of the process - if you're sponsored by a company and they go bust / make you redundant you don't get time to go hunting for another job; within a certain number of days you have to leave the country; no exceptions.

 

It's a crazily complicated situation, add in the issues of "union rules" and it becomes an overtly complicated set-up that really needs re-thinking but until they do it's unavoidable that any discussion about a UK citizen moving to or working in the USA has to involve discussions and questions about the immigration and visa issues.

 

 

[AndrewR]

So to wrap up all the immigration thing:

 

I can tell you that my wife is American

 

I can actually tell the people people dragging back up immigration, from personal experience that

a)Shush. If people really want, start a thread about it.

b)His green card and work permit (which are 2 different things for starters) are formalities due to his marital status. Long expensive formalities that could still be screwed up, but its as close to guaranteed as you can get.

 

We would be looking at either New York of Philadelphia. I'm guessing that New York would be the tough union-nut to crack, compared with Philly.

 

Also, although I don't know if it would make a big difference or not, I work more on gig/corporate/events things than theatre, although theatre is still a big part of my work. AV is my speciality.

 

I can't speak too closely for NYC as I only have friends there, no direct experience. But NYC is the number 1 place to work (obviously), pay is better and competition for work is greater. Its also much more heavily union controlled than most places. Unless you know someone in NYC who can walk you through everything then it will be fairly difficult.

I would suggest that you pick the city based on your wifes work prospects (but if you really plan on going and are willing to sink the money into it, start the visa process now) and (obviously) try and line up work for her before you go. The key to it is networking, once you make friends with the right people they can either pull strings or just point you in the right direction.