ThrowawayUry

vor 8 Jahrendiscuss

Thank you. Thought so, and it's a huge bummer.

Meetings, etc. are still fair right?

vor 8 Jahrendiscuss

Hello Peter, I'm a non-resident and non-citizen selling consultancy and development services to U.S. companies (as a contractor, filing a W8-BEN). I hold a B1/B2 visa (only used for conferences and training so far).

Are there any potential immigration issues if I do U.S. based work for a couple of months on my B1/B2 visa? Could I do that more than once in a year or would that be a red flag for immigration services?

I don't want to move to the U.S. but I do want to be able to work onsite during crunch times, pushes to production or similar events, without risking my visa.

I also want to allay fears of potential customers that I don't qualify as an employee, but that's not an immigration question I guess :)

Thank you for taking your time for answering!

ThrowawayUry

vor 8 Jahrendiscuss

Montevideo, Uruguay (most expensive country in South America):

  2004-2008 - Programmer at Software Factory - U$ 10.000 / year
  2008-2016 - Functional Analyst (developer really) at non-software company - U$ 30.000
  2016-2018 - Programmer Analyst (still developer + pm) at U.S. company's outsourcing center - U$ 55.000

Mis-spent a lot of money on an MBA (30k) which didn't bring me any additional income, and didn't save anything after 15 years' career :(

Also, over half my salary goes to taxes as I'm on the 2nd highest income bracket.

I'm hoping to get way more as a remote worker (and there are ways to get tax breaks that way).

ThrowawayUry

vor 8 Jahrendiscuss

Thank you ! You're right, maybe getting better on what I do know and try to sell solutions not technology.

ThrowawayUry

vor 8 Jahrendiscuss

Not all Android vendors are the same (like not all Wintel laptops were the same).

I'm on my 5th Android, and I've had awful, mediocre and very good experiences.

I currently own a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and it's a fantastic device and will continue buying Xiaomi in the future.

I also have a company-issued Samsung Galaxy S8 for work and it's also pretty good (though I don't use it nearly as much as the Xiaomi). I was burned by the Samsung Galaxy Ace though (very crappy).

If you have enough money and like the best out of the box experience and don't like tweaking, iPhones are probably your best bet.

ThrowawayUry

vor 8 Jahrendiscuss

I'm 37. I made an idiotic decision several years ago and got some crippling debt.

Now I have a stable relationship and I'd love to have children... but I can't, because 70% of my income goes to debt payment. My country has no US-style bankruptcy (if I stop paying I'm a pariah for life).

Absolutely agree about universal healthcare, that's something my country does well, and would improve the life of Americans.

Education... well, I'm more on the fence. I think current college prices in the U.S. are too high, but there's so much amazing free education... but yes, some basic level should be free. Maybe UBI would enable self-taught or other alternatives (I know there are some YC startups focused on alternatives).

Edit: no idea why I was downvoted :(

ThrowawayUry

vor 9 Jahrendiscuss

Average salary before taxes for all jobs is about $1000. Developers are paid about $1500 to $2500 gross on average, so my salary (about $3400 gross) is about the absolute maximum you can make before jumping to a manager/architect role (which are really scarce).

Quality of life is good but cost of living is also surprisingly high - about the same as in a city not in the US coasts, and the extremely high taxes cut into the chance of savings.

Real estate is very expensive (according to Numbeo, 50% higher than in most of the US) and there's no easy access to mortgages (interest rates are ludicrous, you need at least 20% of the property cost up front, some expensive overhead too).

The one huge benefit is healthcare being both cheap and REALLY good (the kind of service only very rich people get in the U.S.).

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

ThrowawayUry

vor 9 Jahrendiscuss

Programmer Analyst / Senior Software Engineer, 15 years, $53k (UR$ 100.000 per month gross + vacation pay + bi-yearly legally mandated extra pay/bonus) + $1k discretionary bonus, in Uruguay, South America.

About half of that goes to taxes and mandatory social security :( , take-home pay is about $2k/month.

ThrowawayUry

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Ask HN: Work as .NET independant contractor in SF/Bay Area? Or re-specialize?

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