I just moved to NJ myself and you can find very nice places for 1200 or so. You will probably find that 1000$ a month for living expenses is very low. I would r

I just moved to NJ myself and you can find very nice places for 1200 or so. You will probably find that 1000$ a month for living expenses is very low. I would raise that to 1500 a month. Regarding your green card, are you a Chinese citizen? If so, be prepared to wait a very long time. Citizens of India, China, Mexico and the Philippines are artificially restricted in how many green cards are handed out a year- took me 7 years although now I think it's more like 5. Also iirc, citizens of these four countries are not eligible for the green card lottery.