A long long time later.....

Ok, so I get my FPGEC certificate about 6 weeks after taking the iBT-TOEFL test, and immediately contact the Florida State board to request a deficiency letter. Beautiful. Everything seems to be going to plan. I receive the deficiency letter (that was probably back in about April 2007? - Can I remind you the dates on this blog are nonsense as you cant get them to appear in reverse date order, so I just picked Dec 31st and each new post I enter has the preceding date, but is a meaningless date in respect of the timeline of my story here). So, where was I. I have the FPGEC and now I have the Florida deficiency letter. Now what? Well, now I need a job! If at this point you have an American wife/husband simply walk in to Walmarts, go up to the pharmacy counter and ask for a job. You can then fill out some forms, collect your name badge, and start working away on your intern hours. If at this point you don't have an American husband/wife, and therefore DONT have an American Social Security Number (SSN) you can tie your legs around your neck and twist them till the blood stops reaching your brain, because there's a heap of problems waiting for you. To put it simply, you need a job, but you can't get a job without an SSN, and you can't get an SSN without a job. The easiest answer is to go to the big chains like Rite Aid, Walgreens, Walmart, Eckerd, Albertsons, Longs or CVS (later I will show just how many visa's each of these managed to obtain in the 2007 lottery). They are used to dealing with foreign graduates and have special departments set up for it. Some other smaller companies do too, but they obtain very very few H1B visas. So I emailed CVS and Walmart back in April 2007, to tell them I have an FPGEC and a state deficiency letter, and guess what their response was? Walmart: PLEASE CONTACT US AGAIN IN NOVEMBER CVS: PLEASE CONTACT US IN EARLY 2008. Fan-dibbly-tastic. So, after everything I've gone through, I now have to sit back, wait for another group of FPGEE'rs to pass their exams and catch up with me (I'm not bitter, everyone deserves to get through) and then wait until either November or next January just to find out if these chains are even interested in me. Great. So I sit, and I wait. Tick tock. In the interim I have spoken with LOADS of people. Friends. Friends of friends. Strangers. Strangers friends. Random weirdos. Anyone really. And I have learnt a great deal of stuff. One area I have investigate but never needed was the possibility of doing a higher degree (masters or PhD) from a US University. This gives the benefit of a 1-year post degree work permit, which can therefore be used to do an internship and escape the H1B lottery rush, although I note that in 2008 that even this route was over-subscribed so not a 100% guarantee. And there is also another route which involves working for a voluntary organisation, or hospital or Government department, which I also believe somehow circumvents the H1B route. As I say, I'm not particularly familiar with these other routes, but I believe they may well be of interest to some of you reading this, and would love to update this blog with more info on these other options, so please email me! In my next entry I shall write more about the specifics of the H1B visa. Good luck everyone, Farmacyst.