In Desperate Need Of Help.

[sleslie23]

Other people have done it. So your telling me that they only did it by knowing someone? you knew someone?

I think what people are trying to tell you is that merely having a spunky, can-do attitude is not sufficient for success in Argentina.

If you are seriously asking for help/advice, you need to provide more information. Where are you from? What skills do you have? What level of Spanish do you have? Etc.....

 

[Ceviche]

Other people have done it. So your telling me that they only did it by knowing someone? you knew someone?

I did it. I did not know anyone per se.

However, since I was in my late teens/ early 20's ( now I am in my late 30's) , I wanted to live in South America. However, I did not abandon everything to come here. I took my time ( more than a decade!).

I explored whole of South America as a tourist. I met lawyers/locals/expats in various countries to find out what all I would need to live in this continent. Ultimately I zeroed on to Buenos Aires/Argentina as a place I will settle down in the continent of my choice.

The three most important things I did were :-

1. Study immigration/Citizenship policies of all the Latin American countries. made notes/comparison charts. I wanted to be 100% legal.
2. Specifically train myself in a partcular set of skills which would help me sustain myself in the continent and would not make me dependent on the local economy. I did not want to be broke and eventually run back home!
3. Save enough monetarily, for 3 years ahead, to give me a head start in my goal of making a life in South America. At any given time, I have 3 years funds ( as per my needs) as a rainy days (years) fund. So that i do not have leave in a hurry.

Hope this helps?

Bottom Line - If you want anything in life from the core of your heart and mind - You will surely get it. The whole of the universe will collaborate to make it happen - one day. Just be patient and work towards it.

 

[moving_wind]

I did it. I did not know anyone per se.

However, since I was in my late teens/ early 20's ( now I am in my late 30's) , I wanted to live in South America. However, I did not abandon everything to come here. I took my time ( more than a decade!).

I explored whole of South America as a tourist. I met lawyers/locals/expats in various countries to find out what all I would need to live in this continent. Ultimately I zeroed on to Buenos Aires/Argentina as a place I will settle down in the continent of my choice.

The three most important things I did were :-

1. Study immigration/Citizenship policies of all the Latin American countries. made notes/comparison charts. I wanted to be 100% legal.
2. Specifically train myself in a partcular set of skills which would help me sustain myself in the continent and would not make me dependent on the local economy. I did not want to be broke and eventually run back home!
3. Save enough monetarily, for 3 years ahead, to give me a head start in my goal of making a life in South America. At any given time, I have 3 years funds ( as per my needs) as a rainy days (years) fund. So that i do not have leave in a hurry.

Hope this helps?

Bottom Line - If you want anything in life from the core of your heart and mind - You will surely get it. The whole of the universe will collaborate to make it happen - one day. Just be patient and work towards it.

Thank you so much Ceviche this has been the most helpfull answer. Which skills would i need to have do you think?

 

[moving_wind]

I think what people are trying to tell you is that merely having a spunky, can-do attitude is not sufficient for success in Argentina.

If you are seriously asking for help/advice, you need to provide more information. Where are you from? What skills do you have? What level of Spanish do you have? Etc.....

i work in web and my spanish is very limited :/

 

[johnw100]

i work in web and my spanish is very limited :/

Best thing to do is improve your Spanish, people wont employ you because your a foreigner. They want you to be useful to them straight away, there are 40+ million other hard working people in this country that will work every waking hour to earn a few more pesos to survive.

If you work on the web, i assume publishing? Then can you not just work freelance? Perhaps use freelancer.com and build up a portfolio of work. Then you can live wherever you want regardless of the local language. You just need your laptop and an internet connection. But like Cerviche said, have some savings for back up. Argentina is no longer a cheap place to live and without some savings for when you are not working, things will go down quickly and you`ll be in just as bad a situation as you are now.

John

 

[ElQueso]

Other people have done it. So your telling me that they only did it by knowing someone? you knew someone?

No, that's not what I'm telling you. I make my money from outside the country. I didn't have to know someone here to get ahead. And when I came here, I came to employ people here for software development projects outside the country because when I came, I saw the lack of opportunities and knew I could take that lack and use it to create a win-win situation for both me and the people I employed. Things were a lot different in 2006 than they are now and probably will be for a few years to come.

The non-Mercosur expats I know come in four categories: Retired, independently wealthy, earn their money outside the country, or are trying to make a living here. The first three categories of people are relatively happy while the latter category are dwindling fast and those that remain are not terribly happy and thinking about leaving - because they can't find very many opportunities.

I know three guys who have started a bar here, and expanded into two bars and are looking at more expansion - but they are taking advantage of a niche here. Young Argentinos love to party and get drunk and my friends in this endeavor have managed to do a better job of it than anyone else. they are the only ones I know who are successful and happy as well. but even they have their problems. And they were very lucky, two of them anyway - they started out under the tutelage of a rich expat and were very fortunate to take over from him and improve what the original expat had already started. Even as it is, they have to deal with a ton of crap from the government on an almost daily basis (they are a bit too successful) and pay quite a bit in bribes to various officials to remain in business.

If you can find something that makes so much money you can more-or-less forget the other crap, you'd be in good shape. but I've watched other expats try to do things like start up a business and fail miserably after losing a lot of money.

Most of my wife's brothers and sisters have come here from Paraguay. They started coming about 4 years ago, but the majority came 2-3 years ago (she has 12 brothers and sisters). I warned them when they came that their plan to come here, work their asses off, and return to their country with enough money to start a business was not going to turn out the way they figured. I saw the writing on the wall a couple of years ago, what was coming, but they came anyway and now can barely keep their heads above water, much less think about returning with money for a new business. The only kind of opportunities they have for the most part are working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and a lot of Sundays half days at hard labor and living in places that are not very good.

I know Argentinos who are successful. But they went to good private schools and are connected between their classmates (a bond which means a lot here and continues for years into the future, quite often). and received good opportunities as a result. I know Argentinos who didn't grow up so lucky to grow up with such good contacts and have left their country in search of opportunity.

So, you said you were depressed because of a lack of opportunities where you come from. My opinion stands - if you are coming here looking for other opportunities you may be disappointed and there are other places that have more opportunities. Just my two cents' worth of advice and probably worth about that much.

Maybe there are more opportunities here than where you are from, but if so, I guarantee that that isn't saying too much. Maybe you will be happy with the struggle to get anywhere here with the weight of bad government, bad economy and a general attitude here that doesn't lend itself toward people who work hard advancing. Personally, if it wasn't for other external factors I'd be living in Paraguay, most likely Asuncion, where hard work is better valued and even with a little bit of money you can turn a small investment into something without so much crap on top of you.

You have to make that decision yourself. I'm not saying you can't make it here, but coming here depressed, looking for something that had you depressed in your home country, may not be the way to approach it. At the very least I think Cevishe's explanation of how and why he chose to come here bears some scrutiny on your part.

As I said, through experience mind you, coming here as a tourist and enjoying the partying environment is a completely different thing than coming here to stay and get ahead in life. Good luck to you.

 

[ElQueso]

i work in web and my spanish is very limited :/

BTW - working in the web is a different story. If you make your money from outside this country things are different, as long as you can maintain cash flow. But you would have the same opportunities in your home country. Maybe I misunderstood what opportunities you are seeking - if they are social opportunities, what I said above doesn't necessarily apply.

You might even be able to find some work here and be paid reasonably well for it, if you speak Spanish and are more than a beginner in your work, although the IT market here is pretty competitive because there were a lot of younger folk who were looking to break into IT because there were a lot of people like me coming down and looking to hire people at lower wages than in their home country who could do decent work. I haven't been very interested in the local IT market for a couple of years, so there may be people who could tell you better about that.

But again, I'm not sure why you couldn't find international opportunities where you are, working in the web. You must be looking for something else?

 

[Crema Americana]

While it is certainly possible to work here and make a good living, you'll probably have a better chance at it if you either work for yourself (start a business, which is no easy matter) or work remotely (getting paid in a foreign currency.)

Salaries here are generally low - you'll be working to make someone else rich. Even professional salaries are low compared to the rest of the world. Just being hardworking isn't going to get you far... labor is plentiful and cheap here. Good labor on the other hand... well there's where you might make a name for yourself. I'd say learn some skills you can use and take advantage of here. Web work (building sites, graphic design, etc) tends to not pay well here -- there's plenty of very talented young people who work for little. But if you are really good, then maybe you have chance. It's all about finding a market for your skills and standing out from the crowd. Sometimes that takes some initial investment.

 

[EdRooney]

I recommend you contact one forum member, ARBound. He was in a similar situation to yours, was miserable in his home country and was looking for a life change and new opportunity. He came here without much in the way of savings, and managed to get a basic job. Ask him how he fared in Argentina and what he would recommend in your situation.

If you are unable to contact him, search the forum for his posts, he wrote plenty about his life here.

Best of luck!

 

[ElQueso]

[...]Web work (building sites, graphic design, etc) tends to not pay well here -- there's plenty of very talented young people who work for little.[...]

That's a very good point, it depends on what kind of web work you do. Actual developers (programmers) with experience make relatively good money here. One of my last two employees, an Argentino who fled from his own country due to lack of opportunities (not so much in work, because I pay pretty well) and went to live in Scotland, was telling me the other day that guys a bit below his level (he's a very senior programmer who does, like me, mostly web development) are making around $30K pesos a month, which for here isn't bad (although about a quarter of what the same level of experience can get you in the US, for example). My brothers-in-law make around $6K pesos a month working their asses off.

But website layout and graphics and such are pretty low-paying, and being relatively easy to get into (assuming you have some talent for that sort of thing - i.e., it doesn't take years of learning and experience IF you have talent, unlike programming), but therefore not as well paid.