TL;DR: Im returning to North America on August 6th. I love Buenos Aires and enjoy studying Spanish here immensely. I have been überfortunate to find a great family to live with and for meeting so many wonderful people here. When I arrived, I barely could say anything at all in Spanish and, even though I am still not fluent, I can say and understand much more now thanks to my Argentinian family, all of my friends, and my teachers. Thank you so much! (Yes, I know this isnt written in Spanish but everyone who has been helping me can read English rather well and Ill write a separate, shorter Spanish announcement later on, anyway). Migrations recently told me that the paperwork I have is not sufficient for continuing to stay and that I must leave on or by August 5th. This may be a blessing in disguise: I miss my family and my friends and have been concerned for my sister due to her recent emergency surgery. So, even though I truly enjoy being in Buenos Aires, it will be good to visit my family members and friends and there is no doubt in my mind that I would have stayed here and waited until next year to visit the US if Migrations accepted the paperwork I currently do have. In fact, I was planning on staying with my Argentinian family until next Spring or Summer and not even looking for my own place until next year (after getting to know the city and Spanish better). Getting a plane ticket on short notice is expensive business but I was lucky enough to get a ticket for Montreal at a reasonable price ($500 less than the ticket for Manchester, $400 less than the ticket for Boston, and $200 less than the ticket for New York CIty). I am leaving the evening of August 5th but the flight is an overnight flight and I will not reach North America until August 6th. A bus ticket from Montreal is a better option than asking someone to pick me up from Montreal, and buying one ahead of time is inexpensive. I have a return ticket to Buenos Aires for November 3rd and am hoping that Ill be able to get all the necessary paperwork together and sent to Migrations in the meantime. By the way, the round-trip ticket to Montreal was less expensive than the one-way ticket to Montreal and less expensive than the one-way OR round-trip tickets to any of the US cities previously mentioned. Also, when I was looking at plane tickets a few weeks ago, that was just for fun. I had no idea I would actually need tickets anytime soon but am glad I looked because I would have never guessed tickets to Montreal are cheaper... and really only thought to look them up because of a message from an airline about an upcoming sale, so maybe they normally are not cheaper. There are not many jobs (from companies that will sponsor a work visa) for people who speak only English well. Most are for TOEFL-certified (Test of English as a Foreign Language) teaching positions but I have found some that are not related to teaching English. I plan on studying how to teach English and receiving TOEFL certification because the vast majority of available jobs fit in that category but becoming certified can be a time-consuming endeavor and Im keeping all options open. Not only that, but most of the jobs require a criminal-background check with an apostille (which can be acquired from the FBI) and that adds to the difficulty of getting all the necessary documents together for a work visa on short notice (because even though Migrations does not require that document, the workplaces that sponsor work visas wont sponsor me unless I provide that documentation to them). I brought all the documents I thought I would need according to the information that I read before coming to Buenos Aires but it just isnt enough. By the way, a work visa is useful for a significantly longer period of time than a tourism visa (90 days) or a study visa (180 days). Also, even though lots of people just go visit another country for a day or two to get their passport stamped, Migrations specifically told me this is not something I am allowed to do, which was not something I was aware of beforehand (many people said that it is alright and that they have no problems doing that, so this may be a case of Migrations cracking down on people who are doing this or something). Once I was told that I needed to leave, I have been searching for places to live in either Montreal or the whole of New Hampshire (havent found anything yet because the search has just barely begun, but am remaining hopeful) and found some surprising things. Apartments in New Hampshire, generally speaking, are as expensive as apartments in Montreal (the only exceptions are apartments in the middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire where driving would be an absolute necessity, which is an additional cost to factor in… especially since no vehicle will be necessary in the heart of Montreal). There are many schools in Montreal that teach French and Spanish and, even though I wanted to wait until knowing how to speak Spanish better, I do want to learn how to speak French, too. Furthermore, if I eventually have the career I want, it will be absolutely necessary to communicate with lots of people from all over the world but it will be especially important to learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German (even if just a little, most of the people from those countries in the field I want to work in already speak English, but knowing even a little of those languages will go a long way). Luckily, getting from Montreal to Concord, Tilton, or even West Ossipee is fairly simple and inexpensive. I am sad to be leaving Argentina under these circumstance but am happy for the opportunity to visit my family members and friends and plan on making the most of this trip back to North America.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 20:55:16 +0000
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