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Ask HN: Looking for a visa to Europe
Hi there,
I'll try to make this as short as possible. I'm posting here only because I'm out of ideas. I'm a Syrian, 22, holder of a B.Sc. from the University of Portsmouth, UK. I have about 5 years of experience in web development and my works is of high quality. One of my projects even won the Website of the Year 2012 award at Pan Arab Web Awards, and yes that was during the war. I work as a front-end & WP/NodeJS developer.
I've been living in Turkey for more than a year now. I came without knowing a single word of Turkish and now I can practically say anything I want using it. My only problem is the following:
In Turkey, Syrians are treated like unwanted guests. They are not legally refugees and they have no rights to work, buy land or become citizens. This means that we have no future here.
What I want is to live in a country where I'm respected just as any other citizen. To have rights and to build a future. I'm not seeking to become a refugee but I only want a work visa to any country that respects us for being humans. I have applied to many job applications recently, mostly in Germany & Sweden, and passed the 3 interviews but had no luck as all employers were concerned that my visa wouldn't be approved.
I've also recently found a job in the UK and my employer started with the visa application procedures while I'm working as a contractor, but it has been two months now and we have got no answer from the home office. I'm not very optimistic about it. I've been told that UK visa is the toughest one in Europe.
So do you have any suggestions for me, or can any of you help me? If someone is willing to take the chance and sponsor my visa I'd be very happy. Any kind of visas which can be switched later would be helpful as well. I don't want to deal with smugglers.
Thank you and sorry for the long post.
- dudul 11y ago"it has been two months now and we have got no answer from the home office." Two months in government bureaucracy time is like 2 days. I wouldn't despair. Also, why are you focusing on Europe? Many countries have easier programs to bring in high skilled workers, like Australia or Canada.
- louy 11y agoOh well, maybe I'm just losing my mind while waiting. I have already been accepted into the new program offered by Canada, but I'm not sure about that. Most of my friends are in Europe, and I have nobody in Canada to ask whether it would be a good place for me for a new beginning. The thing that discouraged me about Canada is that you have to pay high fees and also have some a good amount of money to support yourself for a few months (between 3 and 6, I'm not sure). I would prefer Europe, but I'm keeping Canada as a last choice.