BootsnAll Travel Community

Is there a list out there anywhere of places American's CAN get work visas? The only way I know of checking this is to check each country separately... since I have no idea where I want to go, a list in one place would be fabulous....

Do you mean working holiday type visas? I reckon you could get a working visa in almost any country, just depends on if you have a career that's in demand or not (nursing, etc).

Hmm... I'm a little confused by what you said, since it's two different things...

*EDIT* you could read my babbling or just check out this website which I just found that says the same thing I said, only better :P http://www.transitionsabroad.com/listings/work/careers/...nwesterneurope.shtml

*EDIT* I deleted the rest of the crap I wrote. Everytime I do a google search with a different combo of search terms I find something that says it better...

This one is a good resource for Americans also interested in working abroad http://www.career.fsu.edu/ccis/guides/Work_Abroad.html

I would love to get ahold of a list too but no idea if one exists.

I've done some research into this and like you said, it's probably pretty detailed and would require checking each country, but what I think (although I am not considering special eligibilities that students might have here because I don't know much about that):

Teaching English is probably one of the best ways because most countries have to show that you have some qualification (or whatever) that no citizen looking for work has, and usually being a native speaker- with some certificate - meets this requirement if they want to hire you. (excluding the EU because of Britain, although the new eu countries may still be possible)

I think Australia and New Zealand have lists of specific jobs that are in demand but my feeling is that they are pretty technical in nature.

Freelance work from home may allow you to live abroad and may get around the work visa issue because you might take on local people/firms as clients (proofreading?web design?), but this takes a lot of energy, time and money to build up something with enough regular clients to be able to count on an income.

(Don't mean to sound negative here but I think it's pretty difficult...but definitely worth it if you can find a way)


One of my favorite resources is Work your Way around the world by Susan Griffith/Vacation works, which deals a lot with temporary work but might give you a little more info on visas by country. However it is very British oriented so perhaps not as useful to Americans...but worth a check in a bookstore if they have it.

This page is pretty spiffy!

http://travel.state.gov/visa/americans/americans_1251.html

just search within the page for 'work' - it lists loads of visa information, it may be out of date for some territories - so it's best to double check with that countries embassy before you apply.

Hmm... I don't think "business" travel and actually working in a place are the same thing... but good place to start- thanks