Whatever you do, do not tell the nice man/woman at immigration that you’re looking for a job. He’ll/she’ll turn your heinie right around and you’ll be on the next plane back to Sweden unless you have an appropriate work visa.
I’m Scottish living in the US.
I would strongly advise against working here without a visa. You will be in dead end jobs and certainly not living the American dream.
Don’t mess with the INS rules or you will have real trouble getting any form of visa in the future.
Sorry, not meaning to sound like a git, but what you suggest really isn’t a good idea.
Research the different visa’s and stick within the rules.
Oh yeah, just to rub it in, I love it over here.
Best of luck with whatever you do.
I seem to recall you saying you work in a rendering plant? What kind of visa did that require - the “I will do something so incredibly icky that no one in the US wants to do it” visa?
Is there *anything * in any of the OP’s posts which indicates he (she?) is going to try entering the USA illegally? 8 replies here warn the OP against doing so. AFAIK, there hasn’t been a great influx of Swedes entering the USA illegally, has there? 
I didn’t assume s/he was going to enter illegally but many people don’t realize that they’re likely to be refused entry even if they’re just planning on looking for work to start at a later date w/proper documentation. I’ve seen it happen many, many times. Forewarned is forearmed!
Hi there. Fellow Scandihooligan (I’m from Denmark) in LA checking in…
Not that great, sorry.
The US immigration authorities have no sense of humour.
If you enter the US as a tourist under the Visa Waiver Program, you sign a slip that clearly states that you’re not intending to seek work in the US. And so the second you take that job washing dishes at Joe’s All-night Diner, you’re committing visa fraud. If you’re just making pocket money to extend a stay, you may get away with that for a while, certainly quite a few people do. But the USCIS has the right to deport you and to turn any future visa applications down. And they will, especially if you stay beyond the 90 days that the Visa Waiver program allows for.
If you intend to build a life here, with a decent job, taxes, perhaps a car, health insurance, bank accounts, credit ratings and all the other accoutrements, you need to secure a work permit, and that is hard.
Sorry to be a wet blanket. But I’d really advise against getting on the wrong side of the USCIS. They’ll put you on a plane for Stockholm and deny you entry for the next 10 years without a second thought.
But come visit anyway. It’s an awesome place, the locals are friendly, the food is great, the scenery hard to beat. Who knows, you might fall madly in love with a local and get married - that’s how I ended up here and completely legal, too.
The Swedes are sneaky, as any Dane will tell you. Given half a chance, they’ll ride across the frozen belts and lay siege to Copenhagen…
But I digress. Seriously: It is almost impossible to do what the OP describes in a legal manner.
We’re not talking about him entering the country illegally. As a Swede, he can enter the country without any kind of visa for 90 days. It’s the trying to work in the US illegally that we are warning him against, and especially (in my case) against staying past the approved 90 days for any reason if he is visa-less.
Umm, no. He can enter the USA on a tourist visa, and check out living conditions and even the job market. True, he can’t actually earn a living or specifically “seek work”. Then as Mississippienne nicely pointed out, he can likely enter on a Diversity Visa, if he finds conditions to his liking.
True- it’s VERY hard to get a work visa if you’re coming from "CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, POLAND, RUSSIA, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM. " Not so hard for a scandinavian.
Ummm, no. It is not at all “likely” that he can adjust his status to a Diversity Visa. Or “likely” that he can check out the US, return to Sweden, and then get a Diversity Visa and return to work here. This is a lottery, where visas are granted randomly by computer.
The DV-2007 registration period was in 2005 to give the bureaucracy enough time to process the millions of applications it receives for only 50,000 visas. “Not so hard for a scandinavian” who happens to be very, very lucky.
Correct.
I am a Scandinavian, and I checked my options when moving here. The Diversity visa is, as niblet_head correctly pointed out, a very long shot. It’s better known as the “Green Card Lottery”, which is a very precise description.
For a Scandinavian, the practical options basically boil down to one of three:
[ol]
[li]H1-B visa, where an employer sponsors you and argues that your talents and qualifications are sufficiently unique that a US citizen cannot do the job, or…[/li][li]Family reasons - in practical terms, marriage, or…[/li][li]A 1-in 10,000 shot at a Diversity Visa.[/li][/ol]
None of which seem to match the conditions listed in the OP.
I just don’t know if this intended to be a snarky comment or not
Sorry, no not all! I was really wondering. I did not mean to come off as snarky. 
(But you have to admit, it’s kind of an icky concept!)
If you want to stay in the US your chances are 100%. There are trucking companies that will train you for free to get your CDL license (commercial driver license). You’ll have to drive for them for probably a year to cover the training cost or they’ll charge you for it. After that you can drive around the country earning a living while surfing the internet for a job. It will actually be easier for you to get employment because you are not tied down emotionally to any place particular.
With that said, I don’t know the process for getting a work permit or what is involved in permanent residency.
No problem
Short story…
I was a seafarer when I met my American wife while she was living in Scotland. Got married a wee while later, and moved over here. Still went to sea for a year or two then when we started to talk about having kids and I started looking for a “normal” job. Answered an ad in the newspaper (first job I looked at) for a Maintenence Manager at a “Production Facility” and when I went for the interview I found out that was a rendering plant. If you had asked me what a rendering plant was before that interview I wouldn’t have had a clue.
Anyway, I figured it would be a good starting point and I’d be able to move on when I’d had a bit of shore-side experience.
Going forward 4 years I’m still here and while it might not be the most pleasant work enviroment or “icky” to some, I’m working with some of the most dedicated, honest and hardworking people I’ve ever met.
Sure I could get a more pleasant job tomorrow if I wanted, but it’s the folks that you work with that make a job good, not what you actually do.
The world according to SeaDog
Oh, and Dear Og, it can be icky :eek:
Come to Wyoming, there are places around here that currently have a negative unemployment rate. That’s right, there are communities here where there are more open jobs than people to fill them. THe wages in the oil field are rather high, and are siphoning off workers in even the office/semi-professional realm. Around here, we are screaming for health care professionals, including mental health.
Of course, you would have to live in the relatively cold and rural Wyoming, but location is everything.
Ahh, so you were already legal and didn’t have to apply for the I(cky) visa…
You’re spot on about co-workers. I move posts every 2/3 years and you can be in the most fabulous city in the world but if your colleagues suck, life is hell.
Check this site for the Swedish enrollment in green card lottery http://www.usagcls.com/P1.asp?COUNTRY=Sweden
The OP’s best bets seem to be…
- Applying for a Diversity visa for 2008, and keep applying till he gets one.
- Fall in love with an American and get married.
- Find an employer willing to sponser him.
Not many other options, really.
Call me a romantic, but this quality is pretty much all you need to make a good life here. Given the right work ethic and perserverence. No clue on any legalities or processes, but yeah, you pretty much have the core of what other’s coming here had when building a good life.
Some will say stay in Sweden because of the health care, etc. Ask yourself this. How many Americans emmigrate to Sweden each year? Either way, you won’t be CEO of a mjor company in a year (although, that’s happened often), but you’re not going to be sleeping in a park hoping to find work.