Help me decide where to move. #student?

ibu guru

You cannot work in the US at all unless you are US citizen or legal permanent resident. If you are coming to US on temporary visa - e.g. tourist, student, etc. - you must have sufficient cash to provide for everything for the duration of your stay. If you still have your green card after being out of the US for so long to go to a foreign med school, how could you have no connections? Who is your sponsor for immigration? They are required to provide for you! If you have been out of the US more than 365 days (which would appear to be essential for med school), you do NOT hold a green card - deemed abandoned by leaving the US & revoked. Considering the difficulty of passing all 3 phases of USMLE, you could not possibly remain in US long enough to study for & take all 3 phases of USMLE unless you really do still hold a currently valid green card. Do that studying in your own country. It commonly takes 1-2 (or more) years to sit the 3 levels of exams, assuming you pass phase 1 & can continue to phase 2, etc. Have you checked to be sure your foreign medical degree even qualifies you to sit the USMLE exams? Also note that of foreign medical grads who eventually pass phase 1 & phase 2, less than half can ever complete phase 3. Also, your foreign medical degree, even if you pass all 3 phases of USMLE, is unlikely to get you a job & employment in the US, especially if you hold a bachelor's degree like mbbs instead of MD degree. There are more Americans earning MDs from US medical schools now than there are residency placements for them. So your foreign degree is at best worthless or nearly so. If you really are a legal permanent resident, you needed to get accepted into a US premed bachelor's degree program & US 4-year med school to earn a US MD degree. You have not done your proper research on visa/green card residence requirements, requirements to sit USMLE exams, etc. Forget coming to US in March. Totally idiotic notion. You cannot get a proper visa if your green card has been revoked for extended absence from US. You don't have enough money, and your claim of "no connections" in US indicates a problem with your sponsor. You don't know what you are doing with USMLE exams. And your chances of ever working in US are poor with a foreign degree, even if you could ever pass USMLE.

Politically Correct

If it does not matter where you live why not stay where you are now and study for the exams from there? I presume you are asking about the USMLE https://www.usmle.org/ Do you know whether your university is even is on the list? No good spending money relocating until you have done your basic research. Most people coming from overseas do at least the first two exams where they live now, then get their internship/fellowhip set up and then go to the US for the final year. That considerably reduces your cost and risk. UPDATE: If you have a greencard and it does not matter where you live because you will not need to attend classes, go to the cheapest place where you can find unskilled work. I suggest you check out Prescott Arizona.

sunshine_mel

If you're going to the US on a student visa, you first have to prove you can afford the full cost of living and studying there - without getting a job. Your work opportunities on a student visa are strictly limited, so the chance of finding anything is pretty slim.

Stoo

You can't just show up in the USA. Your visa status will limit what you can do - if showing up as a student, you can't work off campus. If you are not a student but working, your employer has to sign off on your status - and at that point you're making enough to pay the bills, one would hope. This sounds like you just want to show up and write local medical exams - which suggests you haven't done some basic research here. Is your foreign medical degree even accepted as equivalent in the USA? Check that first - if not you'll have to do extra study in the USA to actually be certified in the first place. Medical school in the USA is a long process - if you have a 4 year undergraduate degree only internationally, that's not going to be seen as equivalent at all. Also note that student visas do not transfer into permanent resident status. You'd have to go home and apply from your home country, and that would be contingent on an actual job offer. Research visa status and medical licensing as it applies to your situation. You're probably looking at more schooling here, which limits your work choices considerably, and that won't start at some random time like March. If not looking at more schooling, you can study for the exams anywhere in the world, show up to write them when necessary, and then search for jobs that might sponsor your working visa - but that depends on there being a demand for your skills not met by citizens.

drip

And what visa do you plan to get? A tourist visa allows you to stay her for three months and you can not work during that time. A work visa requires you to have a job already lined up with an employer who can sponsor your visa. Not happening with a non professional job. A child, parent or spouse who lives in the USA can sponsor you. A student visa requires you to be accepted into a university. You must prove you can pay to attend. You first need to figure out how you can get into the USA to live here. Large major cities = more job opportunities and a higher cost of living. It would be cheaper to live in a smaller city like Indianapolis or Columbus. For Chicago look outside Chicago for jobs and apartments. Follow the metro routes that branch out from the city to the suburbs. Go to apartments.com to see rent costs