AmericaTrip

Short summary of my trip to the US/California.

The decision

to go abroad was made very easily as my girlfriend had to do a semester abroad and I told her I would grab that chance and join her.

Quitting my job

I started in February 2016 by cancelling my job at EDAG-PS (programming report management frontend software for BMW) and starting as a frontend freelancer.

Get a flexible employment

Actually I did not do that much for the first contract as a freelancer Windows DotNet developer. Some guy called me after lunch, told me he is Marc Ablay, productmanager of a digital asset company and asked if I want the job and I said yes, then he asked me how much I want per hour and that was it. Probably if you want to start your own business you should simply have a good LinkedIn- or web- page, it worked for me and I still get requests every week for even in January (where ordinarily nobody has tasks for developers, I thought).

After that I worked at a very fulfilling fullstack C# Project for Genesis Mining and also took the chance to see Island for a month in their behalf. I was probably very lucky with my superiors who let me even employ friends of mine who I think are amazing software coders. Also this company really invests into a warm welcoming working climate by the way.

Get an ESTA

First thing you need is a Visa for the US. The Maximum stay time is three months for the standard ESTA Visa.

Getting an ESTA is pretty neat, you simply fill out this (Germans only) ESTA form. Or that (Everyone else) ESTA form.

Costs:

  • 750€ – Flight Munich to San Diego and back to Munich
  • 2700€ – 900€ per month for three months