Where should I go to make money to put my brother through college?

July 11, 2017 5:16 AM

I'm a recent liberal arts graduate supporting a sibling, but I need to find a country to live in and a job. Cannot return to home country, current visa ends soon. What to do?

Hi!

I'm a 24 year old who just graduated Uni with a degree in Comparative Literature. I'm currently living in France, but my student visa ends in September. My father passed away last year and told me to make sure my brother goes to college (my brother is 16, living legally in America with relatives). He left us some money which we're using to get by, but it will not last long.

I have two questions:

a) Where should I live? My main issue is that I don't have any visas, so staying in the West doesn't seem like it's a possibility for me. However, I can't go back to where I was born for a number of reasons, among which is personal safety. Don't get too hung up on that, it is what it is. Is there any country I can move to where becoming a permanent resident isn't too difficult? I speak English, French and Spanish but I don't mind learning a new language.

b) What jobs should I be looking for? I was planning to stay in academia after graduation but now I need to make money to take care of my brother. What can I do with a degree like this? Advertising, corporate communications?

PS: While staying in France seems appealing, I'd have to find a company willing to hire and sponsor me in order to change my status from Student to Worker. It seems unlikely I would find one given my empty resume and stammery French (I'm not very social, so the fluidity of my spoken French has always lagged far behind my overall grasp of the language).

I understand these questions are fairly broad in scope, so I'm not expecting easy solutions from you guys, but any ideas you might have could be useful.

Thanks!
goner

posted by goner to Work & Money (15 answers total)

To get specific suggestions it may help people to know your nationality.

Are there student services and alumni networks you can access to understand what people with your background and degree have been known to go into?

Are you allowed to do any part-time work on your student visa? If so pursue that aggressively while you can to work on fluidity and reduce cash outflow if nothing else.
posted by koahiatamadl at 5:31 AM on July 11, 2017

I would look into Canada. My understanding is that they have a points system for immigration, and your education plus speaking both English and some French would give you a leg up.

What's your brother's visa situation in the US? If he's a permanent resident or a refugee (which would require formal refugee status), he probably qualifies for in-state tuition at public universities in the state where he's currently living. One way to save money on college in the US is to start out at community college, which is extremely inexpensive, and then transfer to a four-year institution after two years. Has he talked to the college counselor at his high school about his options? College in the US is really expensive, but there may be ways to make it cheaper.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 5:41 AM on July 11, 2017 [7 favorites]

Knowing your nationality might help, and what, if any, countries you can legally live/work in as well. What koahiatamadl said, get any internship or work experience you can through your uni/professors and their career office. Fill out your resume with skills you have gained through school projects, activities, etc. One other thought, if you cannot return to your home country because of safety reasons, you may want to look into asylum or other international protection options, which can include work and residency permission.
posted by perrouno at 5:43 AM on July 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can you get a work visa for Germany? College tuition is essentially free, and if you were living there your brothers living expenses (living together) would be easier to scale. Are your language skills at the translation level?
posted by sammyo at 5:45 AM on July 11, 2017

One huge help to get into Canada is a job offer. That immediately gets you a big leg up on the points scale. It's probably easier to get a job first on a visa then go for your PR status if your plan is to emigrate here.
posted by bonehead at 6:01 AM on July 11, 2017

Response by poster: I'm Venezuelan, by the way. My brother is a permanent resident in America. Internships are a bit of problem because most of the ones offered through my college require that you are studying at the same time, but I am able to legally work in France for the remainder of my stay. I am able to translate and took many courses where I had to translate my own primary sources.

I am currently looking into Canada and it looks very doable. Thank you all for taking the time to help :).
posted by goner at 6:06 AM on July 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

If he's a permanent resident, he should be eligible for student loans. He's totally able to go to college. I know student loans aren't great, but they don't mean you don't get to go--they're the totally normal way to do things. I'd focus first on establishing your own stability before you worry about his future student loan payments.
posted by Sequence at 6:10 AM on July 11, 2017 [18 favorites]

Possibly your most portable skill would be teaching English, though I'm not sure it pays enough to meet your needs.
posted by SemiSalt at 6:12 AM on July 11, 2017

As a permanent resident, your brother is very likely eligible for in-state tuition, and may be eligible for a whole host of scholarships. One way you can help him is to put him in touch with community groups in the US that can make sure he gets access to whatever he is eligible for. I'd have a search for country-specific organizations that are active where he lives.

It very well might be that the support your brother needs isn't monetary (it's not just paying for college that's hard!). Your ability to navigate the system of academia might be the most useful asset you have!
posted by nat at 6:13 AM on July 11, 2017 [7 favorites]

As arbitrary and Capricious said Canada uses a point based "merit" system or offering permanent residency. We looked into this relatively recently, including a consult with a Canadian immigration lawyer who offered to give us an estimated score to determine where we would fall in the pool. She also wanted like 10k to represent us in a process that is really set up to be very user friendly (in comparison say to the American system of immigration in my experience).

Basically you get points for age, education, language proficiency, work experience, time spent living and/or working in Canada. I believe those are the only criteria - we have (immediate) family who are Canadian citizens and even this did not factor into the score. Basically if you are under 30 you get max points for age (they want younger permanent residents who will work for longer paying into pensions etc). Education is based on your highest degree attained - you do have to pay an external service to certify your degrees if not earned in Canada, we asked and that even applied to US colleges which offer directly comparable degrees.

once you get a score yougo into a pool and the govt draws from that pool regularly at some cut off (the cutoff scores have been falling since they started this system, but you get no credit for lingering in the pool, if you have a 431 and someone submits paperwork and gets a 432 they are in front of you in line).

It is definitely worth looing into - we were told that, based on our estimated scores, we would have been offered the opportunity to apply for PR as of the last draw. While were not currently pursuing it my estimatd timeline was about 9 months in total, 3 months to get together application materials (including language testing and degree certification) and then six months to review once we were invited to apply. That is probably best case scenario though the govt does say that 95% of cases are adjudicated within 6 months application submission following the invitation to apply.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 6:47 AM on July 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm chiming in to echo Canada as a path worthy of investigation, in particular Quebec. Your English is obviously excellent but your French could really pay off here, too. There are differences between coming to Quebec and coming to other parts of Canada, and they could be in your favor. You can see more here on Quebec's immigration site.

I immigrated to Quebec but it was through a different process that wouldn't apply in your situation. One part that would apply: As Exceptional_Hubris noted, the process is pretty straightforward. We did it without a lawyer. There's a lot of paperwork, yes, but it is pretty user-friendly. Good luck/suerte/bonne chance.
posted by veggieboy at 7:07 AM on July 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

Your brother has two years of high school left? That plus two years of an inexpensive community college gives you some breathing room. Also your brother doesn't necessarily have to enter college with his peers. He can also work and save up money. Get yourself sorted out first.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:12 AM on July 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

Your options:

1. Residency by investment program in a number of countries

2. Points-based immigration systems (Canada, Australia, New Zealand basically)

3. Find a job somewhere and ask your employer to sponsor you. With your skills, I'd look at a job in one of the Gulf countries

But, as already pointed upthread, you really should work towards enabling your brother to pay for university himself.
posted by Kwadeng at 10:43 AM on July 11, 2017

I think you're taking on a unnecessary burden in thinking that you have to financially cover your brother's college. As someone who has put herself through college without any financial help from her family, let me assure you that you don't have to stress about paying to put your brother through college because he can and should do a few things:

* Work his butt off for the remainder of time he has left in school, take the SAT, and figure out what his chances are getting into his preferred schools.
* He should apply to the universities he's interested in attending and see who gives him scholarships and figure out the balance to cover with student loans.
* Let's say that he doesn't get into his preferred schools or they don't give him any scholarships. Then he can go to a community college for the first two years and work hard to excel there. He can also apply for grants to pay for community college.
* After those two years, he can reapply to universities. It's likely he'll now get scholarships.
* He can get a part-time job to help with paying for books, housing, etc. The money left by your father can help with whatever scholarships and student loans can't cover.

You can help him with navigating through college applications, figuring out scholarships and student loans, student housing, etc., but you don't have to take on paying for his college. Having family pay for college is a luxury, and plenty of us have made it through on hard work, scholarships, and student loans.
posted by vivzan at 3:01 PM on July 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

New York state just started a scholarship that makes public colleges and universities free for full time students whose families earn less than $100k per year and who commit to staying/working in NY afterwards (otherwise it converts to a loan). Where in the USA is your brother?
posted by Salamandrous at 7:51 AM on July 12, 2017