looking for a web design job in southern california

i live in the bay area, its usal nice weather, 70-90 in the day 50-60 at night. Depending on where you move you will probably have allergie problems. Really the only place with bad bad pollution is the fresno area, other than that its not too bad. I’m not sure about santa barbara, never been there :smile: . In the winter or colder seasons, october thru february, it is about 50- 70 in the day and 40-50 at night. Never rains in the summer, not too bad in the winter, except for the el nino seasons.

Sorry Q i don’t really noe about the foreign policies, but I do noe that it takes a long time to get your American citizenship. I used to live in Alabama and I moved out here 9 years ago, we met a woman who was trying to get her citizenship then, and she just got it like last year :happy: .

Anyway, yeah I have to go to bed :smile: :smile: :smile:

i definately dont want pollution or smog… i assume this is not there in a quiet village/town a bit from the city? I dont want to live in the big city.

No i dont need a place where i can legally use drugs, i dont even smoke or drink.

I dont need a citizenship right now, although i’d like to be an american citizen some time in the future :smile: I need a working permit or something like that i thought.

it is not easy for europeans to come in the USA, you need to have a visa. I need to have one to be able to work and live… I dont know how and where to apply for that. I assume when i find a job it goes automatically.

for americans it is easy to come to europe i thought! in amsterdam are a lot of americans.

milod, i know how beautiful the leaves are in fall - it is the same here :smile: I can always come visit you in fall time :tongue:

i hope you get the opportunity to check out Europe. And to take your time too.

You might wanna try northern California, as it often seems better than the lower regions of this state. As for finding spiritual places, take your pick. I think it’s one of those things that is just very prevalent here. You don’t know what suits you until you come and experience it, though.

Let us know how your search goes, Q, as I’m sure we’re all interested.

If you are concerned about smog that can be a problem in some parts of California. I think as long as you avoid the big cities like LA and as mentioned above the Fresno area you should be ok. I know in some parts of California they have these heat inversions where the heat is trapped in by the smog and it is not safe to be out doors. I do not think that is true of all of California. It’s a huge state. So just avoid the big industrial areas.

I am not an expert on immigration law but, your own state department should be able to help you. I know you can get a work visa that will allow you to work in the US. If you get a work visa and have a job for a while then loose it I do not think you would be automatically kicked out. You would probably have time to find another job (not 100% sure about that). However, if you come over on a work visa and then quit the job after a short period of time then yes they would ( most likely ) revoke your work visa. You can also get something called permanent resident status after you have been here for a while ( I dont know how long. I think after a year or two) You could most likely get all the information and forms you need from the US Department of immigration and naturalization (INS) web site.

I’ll try to find out more info for you.

I hope so too. It has always been something I wanted to do.

holy reality

There are lots of US citizens who, for the most part, reside in Europan countries. I do not think they get the same benefits such as free health care and education though. So you would still have to pay for that. I think. If that is something you really want to do you should not have too much trouble. From what I understand you only have to come back to the US for something like 14 days a year.

sno, but in northern cali it rains and has fog, no?
i want to be in the part north of LA, Where palm trees grow :content:

so thats where my jobsearch starts… that’s the main thing, i need a job first to get my visa. (if this is not the case somebody please inform me :smile: )

well I meant move to Europe, rather than come.

Trust me pollution anywhere in Cali is bad… so is traffic. If you’re a native California “not bad” to you is BAD to people who actually live in non polluted places.

It’s nothing extreme in the suburbs or anything though, but it can be icky at times… if you want relatively un polluted look towards the country/mountains etc.

So I guess you can find some nice unpolluted places in Cali but… well… it’s easier to look in less populated states, I’d imagine.

also real estate is insane, my uncle has a very “normal” house and it cost him half a miilion to get… not kidding… out here it would barely be 100,000 tops… probably less than that.

Of course it’s in a fantastic area/neighborhood, but still…

I’m not a native californian, and no the pollution is not that bad in most places.

Also like I said it never is rainy or foggy in the summer, and usually only foggy early in the morning during the winter, but it usually fades by 10:00 or 11:00.

milod: thanks for the info about the visa and such :smile: If you can direct me to any urls i’m most grateful :smile:
I know the hassle of only coming in for a visit, you already have to fill out 2 forms in the plane, and then 3 times the same questions too (for real) - so i cant wait to see which forms i have to fill out to be able to work and live there :tongue:

holy reality:
that’s what i meant, moving to the Netherlands for an american is not so hard i thought…

hmm i tried finding some info for you but instead found all kinds of info for dutch ppl wanting to emigrate to the US so i’m reading that now :happy:

pasQuale

Generally speaking the rain in California is not too bad. I mean you will get some rain no matter where you live in the US. But, from what I under stand from family and friends you get very little rain in California in comparison to the rest of the US.

Yes, I will do that tonight. ( I have to go out in a few minutes and don’t have time to do that right now) I know it is a irritating process for people to legally come here to live and work. But it is not impossible and it’s worth it.

pasQuale

Here is a link to the INS home page. It is a bit hard to navigate and much of the info is in legalize but, it is a start. As I find more info I will ad the links to this post.

uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm

thank you very much! :bow:

pasQuale, you should consider Grass Valley or Nevada City. I live in Auburn, but my band practices in GV, and we go to Nevada City alot too. the people around there are mostly very nice, even the few homeless people. theres a large community of “new-age” or progressive thinkers, and there are constantly gatherings for world music and the like in the area. the area is beautiful, very foresty with some awesome parks. the economy is pretty good right now and looks to be getting better, and even in downtown auburn, which is incredibly small, there is a web design place. like an actual building. im sure there are many more web-based ones too. but the internet is big in california, so i dont think it would be too hard to find a job. the air is clean, the water tastes good, and the weather is warm/hot in the summer and cool/cold in the winter, if thats what you’re looking for. its a 2 and a half hour drive to san francisco, two hour drive to lake tahoe, and 6 hour drive to the beach. The place isnt perfect, but i havent been to a place i liked as much. except for portland, oregon. if you would prefer to live in a city, that would be the one. its very clean and nice, especially compared to san francisco or the other hippy-ish citys. im sure theres an abundance of information on the net about portland, though. if you have any questions about Grass Valley/Nevada City, go ahead and PM me.

thank you very much wakeup :smile:

we do want to live close to the sea, so 6 hour drive is way too far for us. We need the sea/beach energy.

We also dont want to live in a city. Just outside in suburbs or something.
Or a quiet town relatively close to a city…

That’s just what we want to escape, the cold in the winter, so that is not it. How beautiful it might be, we want to live in a place where there is practically no winter.

i’ll look GV up on the map though :smile:

Is anyone here from the santabarbara/LA area? We are thinking of that direction, northwest from LA, close to the coast.

to all the ppl who say cali is so crowded… you haven’t been to holland. My country is maybe one quarter of the size of Cali (maybe even smaller) and we have 16 million inhabitants.

You might want to think further north in California. I mean Santa Barbara is nice and all but. you need major $$$ to live there ( I am talking millionaire range). You might want to look into Santa Cruse, Monterey or Bodega Bay. I’m not sure how great the beaches are there but, at least you will be on the ocean and the cost of living is more reasonable ( as far as California goes anyway ). The weather up north is not as bad as you might think. What they would laughingly call a winter is temps at about 40F and a little rain. The “winter” there is also very short.

You could also look into Florida. It is much more humid there than in California. However, they have plenty of beaches and yes palm trees too. Not to mention a lower cost of living. Also no winter.

There is also southern Texas I hear the beaches in Galveston are verry nice.

hmm then i would have to have a really good web design job then :grin:

i’m going to check online to see if i can find santa barbara house prices and see if i get blown off my shoes.

florida, yes we have thought about that too, but there you have the hurricanes and humidity. Also it is sunrise not sunset. We are used to having the sunset. I dont know it just doesnt feel right to not see the sun setting into the ocean.

montery i know, the other places you mention i’m going to look up :smile:

southern texas, texas has beaches? I didn’t know that, have to refresh my american state map image inside my head.

Every place has its advantages and disadvantages.

Yes florida has hurricanes which sometimes move right up the east coast and even hit us here some times. Also alligators ( could be good or bad depending on your point of view). I almost forgot about the huge roaches. But, it is a cheaper place to live and be near a beach. Also they have dolphins that sometimes come right into the shallows.

California may have great weather, nice beaches, and no snow. However, it also has pollution, major traffic problems, earthquakes, and a high cost of living.

Yes southern Texas does have beaches. Well at least Galveston does. Other than that I do not know much about Texas. Though as far as I know they do not have any palm trees.

New jersey, Connecticut, Newengland and long island also have beaches. They are doted with lots of quaint little towns with a sea side atmosphere. But of course 3 mo out of the year they get snow (winter) 6mo (fall and spring) of mild weather 60-70F and 3 mo of summer where it is very hot/ humid 90- over 100 at times. Though this summer has been fairly mild so far.

Hope I am helping and not confusing you more. Also I am not sure what your definition of a small town is. Santa Barbara is nice but. I would not call it small town.

I hope you get to move soon. I know you will love it no matter where you live. Once you are here you are not confined to one state. If after living in California you decide you don’t like it you can always move to another state. For that matter you can migrate depending on the seasons. Many people live up north during spring summer and fall then move to Florida during winter. So there are plenty of options for you.

I love northern San Jose (psst maybe I could visit sometime)

But San Jose is kind of a big city… not with skyscrapers like san francisco, it can be quite peaceful here. I don’t know about any new age stuff though. The weather here IS nice.

San Francisco is quite diverse… I was at chinatown today :smile: got me 6 boxes of “pop pops”

pasQuale

Hear are some links to look for houses and apartments:

www.realtor.com To look for houses

www.apartments.com For apartments

Both sites allow you to search using a map, city name or zip code. Very easy to navigate.

By the way I did find some rental apartment in the santa barbara area at a reasonable price ( for CA anyway) I also found a few mobile homes but, I have no idea what kind of shape they are in or where they are located.

thanks milod! :smile:

i did some real estate searching myself and found prices ranging from $50.000 to $20.000.000 :grin:

sure infection0, when we have moved over there we could organize some cali ld4all meetings :happy: And then a big one in Maui :biggrin:

I saw the same and the $50,000 ones were mobile homes. The other thing you need to find out is where they are. They may be no where near the beach. You also have to check what the lot fees are. The way mobile home parks work in the US is you own the trailer ( house) but, you don’t own the land it sits on. So you have to pay rent ( what they call lot fees) plus the mortgage on the mobile home its self. I don’t know what the lot fees in California are like but in NY they can be anywhere from $75.00 per mo to $400.00 a mo.

I am curious. What is the cost of living like over there in the Netherlands. How much would you need to live comfortably. You know pay rent on an apartment, buy food, own a car etc.

No fair. Then all the lucid dreaming “getaways” will be in Hawaii.