Basically, I don’t want to be an engineer in the US, but I have no choice but to go to college in the US due to my situation. What would I need to do to take steps toward working abroad? Preferably in China. I can imagine learning Chinese is a must, but what about citizenship and other things?
Yes but it would be much cheaper to get the degree from somewhere else. Don’t expect to be paid enough in USD in Cuba or China to pay off your university debt, unless you intend on never repaying it ;)
if u leave the US and never want to go back u can 100% just not pay it.
Wait… really? How does that work?
By not going back
Short answer: Credit Scores are a US thing and dont exist elsewhere. And they cant come after money you have in a bank in another country.
If you don’t reside or bank in the US, how are the loan servicers going to make you pay? They can’t. You wouldn’t have trouble visiting the US, but if you were to to live here, you’d have trouble getting loans or credit cards or apartment leases, etc, because your US social credit score (AKA credit rating) would still haunt you. Missed Student Loan Payments Will Hurt Your Credit Again. What to Know.
Not to mention the possibility of wage garnishment and bank levies.
If you’re at it, borrow copious amounts from banks that have zero branches within China
moving to another country is very expensive so what id do is have as much credit card available credit as u can and use them to cover expenses when u first move
Yes but you will have steep competition in China unless it’s highly specialize
Cuba is under embargo. They’re not able to just welcome and take tons of random people who want to live there so I really, really would not count on that happening. They’re a country that has been struggling in the face of US imperialism and embargo for half a century, they’ve recently had wide-spread power outages again, moving there will not help their situation.
China on the other hand is not in the same boat. Learning Chinese is indeed a bare minimum I’d think. As to citizenship, it’s near impossible to get for the average person. The best you can realistically hope for is permanent residency status which gives you most of the rights of a citizen without any political rights and certain others. You can get that after living there for a certain amount of time and applying for it or by marrying a national.
Of the two China is the more realistic plan but understand that China has tons and tons of engineering graduates, it’s a very popular discipline so competition will be very steep and getting a job there on that basis could be tough. I’d recommend having some other angle, a very specialized discipline, perhaps something the west is slightly ahead of China on or something that’s just come into vogue and will have increasing demand but hasn’t hit it quite yet.
And as others mentioned your pay will be much lower than in the US (lower cost of living makes up for it), if you have student loans you need to consider you may never be able to pay them off even with decades of work in China, though as others mentioned if you can move to China, get permanent residence status, renounce your US citizenship and/or simply never return to the US it may not matter if you never pay them off but realize if something goes wrong, if your plans don’t work out and you end up back in the US things could be very rough for you if you have loans you haven’t paid anything into and they go after you.
I don’t think American citizens can work (unless it’s volunteer work or tourism) or live in Cuba (unless married to a Cuban person, but they do recognize same-sex marriage). Iirc the US doesn’t let you buy property in Cuba or trade with Cuban companies due to the Embargo. I believe China is much easier, the only major problem is the language barrier.
Presumably the cuba option is predicated on cutting ties with the US, though it’s bad for other reasons unless you can get to Cuba with a significant amount of machinery, fuel, and food
You’ll definitely want Chinese language ability. The good news is that Mandarin is not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. There is a pretty steep initial learning curve as you get used to a tonal language, but it actually gets a lot easier (and more fun, imo) after that period. Grammar is extremely straightforward, especially for an English speaker.
Citizenship isn’t incredibly easy, but neither is it totally impossible. China does not recognize dual citizenships, so you would need to renounce your existing citizenship. Assuming you are USian, that is a headache in itself (and will cost you a good chunk of money to do). Honestly this would be something that could come after the job. Get a job, move to China, eventually get permanent residency. You could move from PR to citizenship eventually, but that’s going to be something that happens after you have lived in China a very long time. Permanent Residency will give you many of the benefits of citizenship. If you are married to a Chinese national, have relatives there, or can prove Chinese descent the process becomes a lot easier.
As far as the job prospects. Engineering is obviously a sought after position, but also a very competitive field. Your language ability and cultural knowledge will obviously never be as good as a native person in China, so you’d need to offer something that locals didn’t already. Otherwise why would a company want to hire you instead of giving the job to a Chinese citizen. Like darkcalling mentioned, some kind of very specialized niche would be best.
There is also the possibility of working in an international company that might transfer you there, especially if you have language skills already. My company’s regional head offices are there, and I have been angling for a transfer the past year or so as I brush up on my Chinese.
Ahhh the tones! So fucking hard. I haven’t studied Chinese, but another tonal language and it is the biggest roadblock for me. I can learn the grammar and the script, but I feel like I’ll never be able to choose the right tones when speaking.
I have a stupid question. I doubt that this would make a big difference, but like, if my grandma is like 2 percent Chinese, would that help my family and I get citizenship, even slightly?
Very unlikely it would make any real difference. Even if your parents were Chinese, if they had naturalized to another country it wouldn’t guarantee your ability to get citizenship (though if they had retained Chinese citizenship then yes, you would get citizenship).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Accord_(credentials)
Washington accord includes China.
