fortyishcouga:


Okay. Wanted to find out a bit more about your relocation journey... and get some tips as well.

Did you go through the PR, study or LMIA?

I am looking at the study route with option of PR after graduation but would have loved to go via employment from Nigeria. How feasible is that for someone in the marketing profession?

Went through PR. Wouldn't advise study route except you have the funds. It is the easiest but most hardous when it comes to settling in. You are setting yourself back by at least $30k

Marketing is a good job just that their marketing here might be a lot concentrated around metrics and more panned towards digital marketing. Also you might be required to have north American experience to land a job in marketing. You would need to be able to use lots of new tools like google analytics, lots of data analysis and understand social media trends etc.

If you can simulate your PR score and you are much more younger. Would say you wait and max points out studying French to boost your scores, getting an extra diploma to get two certifications. That would not cost you more than $1k in comparison to study route. But if you are in a hurry. Probably go through the study route.

fortyishcouga:
Your bad temper caused you so much. Try to be more patient in future as a service provider.

email for pm is non-existent so you can chat on this thread.

fortyishcouga:
@throwaway12345 very good advice.

Mind sharing the country you moved to and what field you are in?

Canada...IT Project Management was a DevOps engineer before leaving Nigeria.

sukkot:
i totally get you bro and understand that we are just bouncing information off each other , no ill intentions . But brother on a side note what is life without takeouts ? Lol. Make we try enjoy this life small oooo. But I totally get your analysis. Cut your coat according to your size. Also it appears you have the type of skill where you could have done remote work from naija or setup your own outfit. It's not always about looking for a job if you get laid off but hey ? Ultimately it's your life and if you are happy with your decision then have at it. But I hope you are aware that the whole global economy is scheming to get awAy from the dollar and put America in the dark and they know America will not go down without a fight so Russia is sorrounding America as we speak with submarine nukes as well as overhead propelled nukes. America is about to fall. World war 3. China and Russia and Iran and India are forming that coalition that is planning to nuke America. Watch the news closely. Don't be caught napping

I have someone doing a remote IT job out of Nigeria as a QA. She wants to move to another coy but opportunities of such are limited. So her earnings are capped. Why would i want to limit myself? Also lots of coys are moving towards an Hybrid model. What happens when your company move towards such? Also such contractors are less paid than their counterparts who are in the country of residence. Pay disparity can be as high as double. So even if you are spending less staying in Nigeria. You are still leaving a lot of money on the table. So like i said initially. It is all about the economics and you doing your calculations. Do whatever you can do to maximise your earnings.

cococandy:
Thank you.

Because it’s like every time someone in Nigeria is calculating pay for others abroad it’s for $10/hr as if that’s the only earning potential possible. meanwhile I’m here surrounded by Nigerian professionals none of whom makes anything less than 6 figures.

But no they are all doing menial jobs. Anyway what if they are?

I think maybe it is for them to feel a lot better about themselves and maybe as a consolation. Yes a lot of people fudge numbers online and tell lies about their earnings but honestly the crop of young Nigerians moving nowadays are very versatile and well read. The average already has a Bachelor's and multiple years of experience and were maybe at the pinnacle of their careers back home and needed to get more out of their careers so they could retire early and make much more money than back home. Yeah, we understand nowhere is easy and you need to value money based on where you live but a lot of us made this move to make much more, reduce the length of service and retire back to Nigeria to enjoy the labour. You would always reach your saving goals faster than whatever Nigeria can offer at the moment. It is common sense and not a dig at the country.

I have lots of young people here and a former colleague is a VP in one of the biggest American Finance coy here(don't want to drop names) . Got the job straight after landing. Another is a Director in one of the FAANGs. So the idea that a lot of Nigerians are doing $10 jobs is just ridiculous. Yeah there are some struggling which is understandable and definitely they have their exit strategies to either return back to school or just waiting for the right openings but a vast majority are doing extremely well for themselves.

On a weekly basis my LinkedIn is hit by nothing less than 30 people searching and this aren't your regular people. Mostly CTOs , CEOs, Founders of which i get at least one chat me up asking if was willing to take a look at one of their roles that is open. I am sure the CTO of a coy isn't looking at my profile and chatting me up to come offer me $10 per hour or $25 or even $50 per hour

I can even double my my current pay if i took a new role which i am purposely not applying for currently. It would be a great feat to go from a N700k job to 1.5million in Nigeria. It happens but you would be a unicorn. Yes my case might be a lot different and the outlier but from casual conversation it feels like other Nigerian friends are even doing far better which is lovely.

sukkot:
that's good stuff that you had transferable skills. Is it IT ? but brother even at that the amount you put up there is struggle territory for a family of 4 in America. 6500 a month for a family of four ? When you pay your rent, health insurance, car payment, insurance, feeding for 4, school fees, clothing for 4 etc etc in a month that money is finished. I know single people in America who eArn that amount and say they are struggling, talk less of a family of 4. You can't even be in New York or California ,rent would eat all that money up. I wouldn't give up 700,000 per month in Nigeria to go eArn 6500 a month in America. See brother you got bamboozled by the false equivalent. The false equivalent is the exchange rAte but in America you spend dollars and not naira and for example when you convert what you pay per month for rent in America, it would be what you pay for annual rent in naija. The false equivalent . Never compare salaries between two country because the cost of living is never the same between two country

The problem with this your analysis is that you didn't see that we made a projection based off a minimum of $6500 as a worst case scenario. We make way much more than that after landing. By the way $6500 is even much more than enough for most families as long as you aren't indulging in takeouts and unhealthy spending habits. Not interested in following the Joneses. You don't need a $70k Ford truck. A beige coloured sedan is more than enough to take you around. Insane people are paying $1k in car payments on a monthly basis. They are car poor.

$2000 on rent and utilities
$1000 on groceries
$400 on health insurance premiums if your company doesn't provide insurance deductibles.
$500 on a single car payment
$500 on transport fees
$500 on other associated costs.

This is even less than $6500. You can keep doing a back and forth but the reality for a lot is different and there are lots not making up to this and have been able to keep their finances in good stead and saving. The average house hold income in North America is probably $65k which would not even get a $6500 net take home. More like $4500.

You want me to stay back in a N700k job that they could restructure and phase out the department down the line? Now you are back in the job market jostling 250k jobs with new graduates while you are way above the age for their entry level requirements? So you end up with nothing and unemployed?

It is not dem say , dem say. The coy phased out a lot people when they needed to optimize some services. A lot of people with 15years of experience with the firm were let go. 80% got a severance of 6 months and never got back into similar roles. Fact is the probability of getting a similar job paying you same 700k in Nigeria is almost 10%. Ask those who have lost jobs. We see lots on the family forum here lamenting their husbands been out of jobs for years and now depressed etc. You wonder why the banking and most jobs is so toxic even BOs, BMs ,Senior Execs would take the worst forms of verbal abuse and not be able to resign from such jobs and leave? They would never get such remuneration again. That's if they even ever get employed.

I think it is about doing a cost to benefit analysis.

Like finance , a lot of people don't know how to do basic calculation and they tend to get a lot emotional about things.

For us it was an economic decision, and trust me i would be open with numbers. We made a combined N700k inclusive of bonuses and incentives after calculation monthly with a lot of headroom for growth. I was a year away from being a Manager and was in a very sort after role. But doing a cost analysis of what i would earn if we were overseas we noticed we were short paid and dping ourselves a disservice staying back. This was guaranteed, i had a lot of interviews that I was about to be offered something but because of my location which was Nigeria they would not be able to employ me because of their government policies or company policies so it was either we move first then apply or i stay back.

But doing basic maths, even the most junior roles I would do got a take home of almost $4500 per month after tax and this was me with almost 8 years of experience in a multinational. And i had a partner who was making about N100k per month. Even if my partner did the most basic jobs like cashier or admin jobs we were just being pretty blunt and a decided a worst case scenario, they would earn $2000 per month. So that makes it a combined of $6500. We did a calculation of cost of living factoring in our 2kids and we arrived at a monthly spend of about $4000 inclusive of rent and utilities. That gives us a savings room of $2500. If we were in Nigeria even with minimal spending, the max we were able to save a month was N300k.

$2500*500 is N1,250,000 monthly saved in Nigeria. That means we are able to get to our goals *4 faster than staying back with me working even the most junior roles. Our plans are to work for maybe 5 to 6 years or till the kids are probably 12. Come back to Nigeria, enroll them in schools here for the final lap of high school with international schools in Nigeria. Max 2 years. Immerse them in the local culture and morals. Then allow them return back for their University education over here. With this, we would have saved ourselves thousands of dollars they would pay as international students as they would be citizens by then.


Truth is.

1. We even make much more than the $6500 we projected.

2. We really do not miss home that much. We weren't the outgoing ones back in Nigeria and our family is closely knit. With the kids you are already gassed out with their wahala to even think of going up and down. So it's almost same outlook living here.

3. I am far ahead of my peers in Nigeria now . Even though I worked for a multinational. The cost outlay for the cutting edge technologies I work with now is way out of what the Nigerian arm would be able to afford so I would never be able to ever work or experiment with such until after 3 to 5 years when the cost has become more cost effective for the Nigerian arm to deploy. Also please note that even as good as i was in Nigeria, the guarantees of getting the same type of job i was doing back then with same pay was almost 10%. If i lost my Nigerian job, i might have lost significant pay that's if i ever got another job. That was a big motivation to leave. It was purely economical. I already changed jobs twice and even have higher offers lined up that i am unwilling to take because the current coy gives the perfect balance between work and family I always wanted.

4. Our greatest fears are the kids. With the role I am in and how versatile I am. I would never work a minimum wage job guaranteed for the next forseeable future and even as at now we are building our emergency funds and saving like crazy to provide cushion for any unforseen circumstances. Economy can take a down turn or whatever. So we are getting there.

We prioritize the culture and feel the Aftican culture is amazing. We are afraid we would not be able to give our kids the same outlook and experience we had growing up. We are trying to, but raising kids here is extremely challenging. It takes a community to raise a kid and your kid would learn from the environment that it is okay to cut ties with families, personalize the individual over the community/family in their dealings. The idea of family from an African context is lovely and would want them to imbibe the positive aspects of such growing up. We do a lot of work with their local language and it is a strictly 90% local language in the house but you sure know it can never be like them having a community of speakers close by.


So bottomline. Do your calculations. We are a special case. If your job does not have transferable skills and you would end up doing minimum wage jobs here, i really would rather find a way to do some more training back home and test the waters by applying and see how you place before moving. Also, people who have partners have it much more easier if you can combine finances even if both do minimum wage jobs. You just might do more hours and you need to be level headed and have an end game and exit. You should be fine might just be much more difficult and I believe this is one of the reasons most new immigrants divorce or grow apart in the first few years of moving as this leads to a lot of resentment that eventually breaks the marriage. It ain't easy leaving a cushy job to come do menial jobs just to have a roof over your head.

hdior:
It is very easy to say these things. You need to understand that circumstances differ. Not everyone has the luxury of leaving a child behind. As a widow with an aged mum, who do you leave your child for?

Sometimes the only feasible option is to take your child along, pray, hustle and hope you find your footing. That or you don't make the move at all.

I quite understand your position and yeah there is always the outlier or special case. Yours is one and I can understand the need to bring them in.

My post is more aligned to people with spouses who move here on study route and have their kids follow when they have a spouse back in Nigeria and even family members who could in the interim handle the kids for 6months or more till they are settled in here. Hard as it may be to leave a child behind it is one sacrifice you have to make if you need to make it. Else gather extra money and do meticulous planning with your relocation. Here no be where you fit carry kid go drop for neighbor say i dey come back in 3hours. Had a friend caught up in traffic one day and they would exceed the 6pm pick up time of their kid from the daycare by about 20mins. Nanny point blank told them they have to be there by 6pm or nothing else that she had other appointments scheduled also. Thankfully she had someone else who was 10mins away and was already listed on those who could pick the kid from the daycare who rushed down and was able to pick up. That was the only saving grace. So it's extremely difficult landing with a kid here alone especially when you are here on study. I would rather avoid it.

Creativebelle:
Everything is finally aligning…

Wasn’t easy but we pushing…

Got an apartment…getting an accommodation is the most important..it’s the link to every other thing..

You need address for everything..

Kids finally started school and day care..

Coming alone with kids should not be encouraged…

Come alone or come with your spouse..

Ask question ( regardless of what the response may be)

Introvert may find it tough sha..

One more thing for applicant who are in their 40s or 50s…schooling may not be easy..your classmates may be younger and mingling may not be easy..



Get ready !

Glad you are settling in. When we tell people to not bring in their kids, they would think you are lieing to them. The biggest hurdle to your initial success is how you land and how easy it is for you to move around and get things done.

You need a house close to school or place of work? Bringing in kids would scuttle this.

You need to do part time work while studying? Your kids would scuttle this.

You would spend *4 of what a regular person should spend with them if you insist on bringing them in. Ordinary 10mins drive destination that you should use a $3 bus you would have to take Uber amd pay $20. Carry trolley and car seat if they are toddlers or below 9. Imagine carrying trolley around in a new country when trying to find your foot and settle in?

Most times it isn't even about money, it is about the inconvenience. With all your money, you might not get daycare placement until 6months down the line. Even if you get it might be tens of kilometers away. And remember you can't buy a car without a license so you have to depend on Public transportation pending when you sort licensing. So how do you drop the kids and pick them up from daycare everyday? $20 uber to go drop before you find your way to school another $20 to take them back home.

How do you attend classes or go to work with a child? You lock them indoors? I don't even need to talk about Landlords and seeing you as the only parent who is on a student visa with a child. It is crazy to think anyone would do such. Why would you have a kid with you while studying without a partner to take of the kid? That's a red flag to them already because their understanding is you can't earn money to pay rent and they can't evict you easily. So you would toil to even get a landlord to agree to renting to you and might get ridiculous terms like paying 12months rent upfront or even more .


So please Nigerians should listen especially the female folks. Listen to people when they tell you the realities of here. Stop daydreaming and believing you wield some stupid powers or your God is different and has a Miracle in store somewhere to navigate you through bringing kids especially toddlers when coming over. You won't die if you leave them behind no matter how tough it is. Get over it and do the right thing for the kid. If you are trying to provide a better future for the kid, you need to be able to do that from a point of strength.

Of what use is the saner clime when you can't even work, get into debt paying $1000 per month day care fees , can't feed the kid properly, can't concentrate in class because of stress and pressure, have to pay more for everything because you choose to not follow basic logical reasoning? Studying is hard enough, ask even singke people here how they want to use assignments and coursework to kill them . Let alone when you now have to tend to kids.


Sorry for the strong words. But it annoys the hell out that people keep doing this even with all the advice given and posts shared. Stay back in Nigeria if you know your spouse isn't following you to come help with the child responsibiliies or you drop the kid and come alone. Don't even dare try thinking about coming alone with kids.