Do not ask me for help to immigrate or to study abroad

I cannot help you immigrate from the country you are in to another country.

I cannot help you immigrate to the USA, Canada, a country in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil or anywhere else.

Do not write me for help or advice about immigration or studying abroad.

Do not write me for money.

Do not write me seeking a sponsor / sponsorship. I will not sponsor you, I will not help you find a sponsor.

Do not write me seeking financial help. I will not give you any money.

Do not write me and say, "Is this program legitimate?"

Any country you want to immigrate to has information on how to get a visa to visit or live in the country. Look at that information on the OFFICIAL web site.

Make sure any information you are looking at online about immigration comes from the OFFICIAL web site of the country; there are a LOT of for-profit companies that have immigration information and you should not trust their information about immigration without verifying the information on the OFFICIAL government-run web site of the country.

Do not believe anything anyone tells you about immigration or studying abroad unless that person telling you is a registered, credible lawyer in your own country and has a list of people he or she has helped immigrate or study abroad, people you can talk with to find out if it's true. That means do not believe your Mom, your brother, your neighbor, your friend, your friend of a friend - not unless you can verify what they are telling you on the OFFICIAL web site of the country they are talking about.

A family member living in another country is NOT automatically well-informed about immigration. Do not believe everything such a person tells you about how to immigrate without verifying it first. Verify everything that person tells you on the OFFICIAL web site of the country.

Here is a link to UNHCR Services for refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless people.

Below is an old graphic originally published in 2008 of what the immigration process is like for people that want to come to the USA. It's old, but still mostly accurate.

You see other people migrate and live in other countries. How do they do it?

Foreigners who travel to another country and live in that country are one of the following:

• They have a great deal of money, they enter the country where they want to live as a tourist or they sneak in another way illegally with that money, and then they live in the country illegally. They either live off of the money they have saved or they work illegally by washing dishes in restaurants, cleaning houses, picking fruits and vegetables, etc. and hoping that they will be paid at the end of each day or each week (if they are not paid, they have no legal recourse, since they are in the country illegally). They also hope they do not get caught by authorities, because if they do, they will be deported.
   
• They have a family member who is already in the country where they want to live, and that family member files the necessary paperwork with the government to show that they have enough money saved up to support their relative if they move to the country and that the family member has a business and their relative will work for that business when they arrive, or a job where they work that their relative can have once they arrive, and that family member guarantees their relative will never be unemployed for the first few years they live in the country. This is what is referred to as the "green card" visa for the USA; it is called something different in other countries. 
   
• They have a skill or expertise that is not easy to find in the country where they want to live, and the country has a program that person can apply through to migrate to the country and work in a job applying that unique skill or expertise, or there is an employer in that country that is willing to sponsor the work permit for that foreigner to come work for them. This is what is referred to as the "green card" visa for the USA; it is called something different in other countries. 
   
• They enroll in a school in the country where they want to live, they get a student visa and come to the country on that student visa, as they study, they meet someone who has a business and is willing to apply for them to stay on a work visa. This happens rarely. Most students who go to another country hoping this will happen are disappointed andnever find such an employer. 
   
• They marry a citizen of the country where they want to migrate to. However, they usually do NOT automatically become a citizen and it can take years to get a visa to join their spouse in that country. Their spouse may be required to have enough money saved to prove that they can provide for their spouse financially for a full year.
   
• They leave their country and live in another country, NOT the one they want to live in permanently, and in that country, they apply for refugee status with UNHCR. The country they left has to be one that is in conflict or in a grave humanitarian crisis, and the person who is seeking relocation must prove that they cannot return to their country of origin without risking their lives, safety or freedom. Note that refugees live in refugee camps or in the margins of society in the country where they flee to for years and may never end up being resettled by UNHCR in another country.
   

If you make it to another country as a refugee or asylum seeker, your journey is NOT over. Some refugees and those granted asylum will tell you that things got HARDER for them and their families once they made it to another country. Please see this advice for refugees and asylum seekers already living in another country.

Also, many countries are experiencing an ugly backlash against immigrants, including legal immigrants. Some countries, like the USA, are cancelling visas of international workers and students, including green cards, and expelling immigrants, including those who have never committed a crime. Just because you get a visa to go to another country doesn't mean you will live there, care-free, forever.

Also see How to Try to Work Abroad & Not Get Scammed.

If you want to apply for a scholarship to study abroad at a university:

• Do not pay any money to anyone. No credible university charges a fee from people that want to apply for a scholarship.
   
• For undergraduate studies, you need to have a verifiable diploma from a credible high school or your GED from a credible, verifiable institution, you must have excellent and verifiable grades, you must have a demonstrated aptitude and enthusiasm for study (documents that describe projects you undertook, letters of reference from your teachers describing this aptitude and enthusiasm, etc.), and a demonstrated enthusiasm for a field of study (a blog or an Instagram account or a YouTube channel that you produce yourself, for instance, that is focused on a field of study). You must demonstrate in many different ways that you are an outstanding student that a university would love to fund to study at their institution. You must also have an excellent command of the language of the country where you want to study - that means you need to be ready to do any interviews in that language and writings in that language. You must also be able to say what it is you want to do with a degree from that university - what are your professional goals? And even if you have all this, there is NO guarantee you will get a scholarship. If you even hint that, once abroad, you will not return to your original country, you will be disqualified from any scholarship.
   
• For graduate studies, you need all of the aforementioned and also a body of published work that shows you are becoming an expert in a particular field of study.
   
• You must make a connection to a university on your own. No one will do it for you. If you are in a country where USA-based universities or Canadian-based universities work or German-based universities work, etc., you have to do your own research to find out which universities are working where in your country and if their work relates at all to what you want to study or have studied, and you have to try to meet their representatives, in a respectful, appropriate way. If you are in a country where no foreign universities have a presence, you have to do research to find what universities have the kind of programs you want to be a part of, you have to explore what faculty are leading classes you would love to be a part of, and you have to reach out yourself to that faculty to talk about what you want to do. You can also go to Google and type in appropriate keywords, such as scholarships for afghanistan students.
   

I'm so sorry I cannot help you with any other advice or action. I am sorry for whatever you are going through that is driving your desire to leave your home country.

What's on this page is all I can do for you. Please do NOT write me for anything else. 

Also see:

For People That Want Refugee or Asylum Status: Realities You Need to Know.


Here's all the advice I have if you want to work abroad. DO NOT WRITE ME FOR MORE GUIDANCE.