Before reading, my main question is, what should a White English-speaking person know before moving here?
After finishing high school, and love to move to Amsterdam, and hopefully on a permanent basis. For this question, I'm going to assume that I'm going alone. Is this practical? Is is harder to live here than in other areas? I want to live close to where everything happens, and stay in a nice, but cheap, apartment. I've heard that space is limited, so rooms run steep, so what is the average room type? I'm looking for a 1 bedroom with a television in it. Do the rooms come with basic appliances? Is there a cable/satellite system of sorts here? Internet? Phone networks?
Is Amsterdam English-speaking friendly, are the people nice? Is it legal to smoke in apartment buildings? And lastly, what are the chances of an English-only-speaking American getting a fair paying job in Amsterdam, what jobs are in a 'demand'? Will American culinary skills work here? Are their nice restaurants? Thank you very much for taking the time to read, and hopefully answer! =] Hello, I'm an american that moved to NL in 2007. You will need to get a residence and work permit to stay here more than 3 months. The process is not easy, cost about $1000 and can take a long time. Most people won't hire illegals her like in the US, and though there are plenty of jobs here, if you don't speak dutch or another language you may be limited to the type of work you can find. I would think culinary skills would be helpful, there are plenty of restaurants.
If you can find a company to hire you, that will help the immigration process.
Coming alone is fine, people are nice and most everyone here speaks english, but if you learn dutch you will get along much better.
Rentals in Amsterdam are more expensive and harder to find but possible. You might want to find a roommate to start off with, that way you have a furnished place with utilities already in place for 500-1000euros, and i always have made friends through my roommates. It is cheaper in other areas of the country, and you may even get a bigger place, but the other cities here are nothing like Amsterdam.
Most people here have cel/mobile phones.
As for smoking, i assume your talking about weed, and yes you can smoke in your home unless you have a roomie that doesn't like it. But there are many coffeeshops that sell it you can smoke in and some people smoke on the streets. It's not a big deal here.
At your age there may be some summer programs that would allow you to come and work here for a few months.
If your set on living here i would suggest saving your money and coming over for 3 months to see if it's for you. As much as i wanted to live here it's been an adjustment. Most everyone goes through some degree of cultureshock and homesickness.
I hope you can live your dream! Give it a go, you can always go back. Amsterdam English-speaking friendly? The most outside England itself.
Don't even bother to ask locals if they speak english.
You will probably live upstairs, in an apartment smaller than you are most likely used to, due to lack of space.
It's quite expensive to live in central Amsterdam. Possibly you should look into Noord-amsterdam,or maybe as far away as Haarlem for cheaper rents. Commuting is easy in Holland - thanks to extensive rail/tram network, and locals can get monthly passes.
Internet, cable is everywhere.
You can possibly get work there but you will get an advantage by learning basic Dutch... Try getting a hold of Rosetta Stone, or something along those lines. Though not as expensive as Paris or London, Amsterdam is a little expensive. Allow me to only answer the laboral aspects of your question(s). For the time being it is extremely difficult to get a work permit in the E.U. for people who are no citizens of one of the member states. The immigration police are checking all working sites and illegals are deported and the employers who allowed them to work are heavily fined. Apart from that an English-only speaking individual has zero chances in the labor market. Here every exec speaks 3 to 4 languages. So unless you get a firm work offer from f.ex. a transnational company which wants to hire you as an expat, I suggest you review your Amsterdam dream.
Don't take it too hard, we only treat you in the same way your country has been treating the Mexicans for years. You mentioned: White
:-) we don't have your racial issues here
Mexicans :-)
Albert, you make me laugh ! Albert you make make laugh swap Mexicans for Polish, you know how crap you treated them before they joined the EU and i witnessed it myself when I was in Tilburg.
Sorry about that just putting facts straight, if you dont get into Amsterdam ( try first), try Belgium or the super American friendly UK just a short ride to Amsterdam Weekends. Moving to the Netherlands right after you graduate High School is probably not a good idea as it's very hard for people who don't speak Dutch to find a job and when you're under 20, wages totally suck if you do find one... Amsterdam is VERY expensive, you'll need at least 鈧?000,- a month to get by and even then it's not easy... If you don't have any specific skills I'd say it's probably impossible unless you're thinking of a career in prostitution...
Culinary skills probably won't cut it... We have plenty of Dutch people who have those skills and I don't think many restaurants would want to hire someone who doesn't speak Dutch...
What I would probably do if I was in your shoes is try to find a college here in the Netherlands who would accept you, it would give you time to learn Dutch and they will help you find an affordable place to live. Speaking from experience, get a good education, just High School is badddd... In 10 or 20 years you'll be very glad you did... |
