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Live in America
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How to open a bank account? Usually there would be a bank nearby your campus. If that bank has an ATM machine on campus, I recommend you use that bank, since when you withdraw money from your bank ATM machine, you would not be charged of service fee (around $1.50). If not, you can open your account at any bank you like. Citybank is a good one. There're 2 types of bank accounts: checking account and saving account. Most often there will be no service fee for opening student accounts. If you put money into saving account, you may benefit from a tiny interest earned, but you can't withdraw your money out of the bank within a period of time. If you open a checking account, you can't earn any interest but will be able to withdraw money any time. How to obtain a debit/credit card? Most often your bank will issue a debit card to you at free of charge. An ATM/debit card can be used to withdraw money from ATM machine, or to use as a credit card at any place have the signs of: VISA/MasterCard. Your debit will likely be either a VISA card or MasterCard card. The difference between debit and credit card is: if you use debit card, your expenses will be withdrawn directly and immediately from your bank account. But if you use a credit card, the credit card company will pay for your expenses first, then send you a combined bill later. Many companies today issue credit card. There're several figures you need to look for, among which are: annual fee and APR rate. If you pay your credit card bill on time every month, there will be no charges. If not, they will charge you the percentages as in Customer Agreement that you signed when applying for a credit card. My favorite credit card is: AT&T Universal Card. Contact your bank for more information. How to obtain a driver license? If you already had a driver license back home, contact your school's International Advisor for more information on this. If this is the first time you apply for a driver license, first thing is to go to your County Circuit Clerk Office (ask your international student advisor) to obtain a Driver's Manual for your state. Then study it and go take a written exam at the same office to obtain the so-called "driver permit." With this permit, you can practice driving car but have to have a companion in the car which already had a driver license. You're supposed to hold this permit for a certain period of time before you can go to the Court House in your county to take a driving test on real roads. If you're qualified, you will be given a driver license which has to be renewed after a period of time. How can my family send money to me? Your family can go to Foreign Trade Bank to send a money order to you which you can cash at your bank, but the limit is $600 (as to my memory). More than that, they have to go to a special department of the government to get permission. I've never tried Western Union to transfer money, but that might work too. That's it for now. If you still have questions, use this form to send them to me. What kind of phone card should I use? I prefer Nobelcom.com. How to make a phone call using a phone card? Read the instructions! On the card it will have a PIN (personal identification number) for you. Call the toll-free number on the card from virtually any phone, and listen to the instructions on the phone. When they tell you to enter your PIN code, enter that. Then to make a phone call within US, just dial area code+ number. To dial internationally, enter 011+country code+phone number. You will likely be charged a fixed connection fee and per-minute rate. If you make a phone call from a pay phone, there will be some extra charges. How about off-campus employment? Your visa status is: Non-US Residents, meaning you can only work on campus. The Social Security number you are having is used to track your resident status, calculate your tax money, and whatsoever. But still, you can not use that number to find off-campus jobs. However, if that's something not involving serious employment, such as: working for another school temporarily, work as an intern, etc. you can ask for permission to work off-campus, without much trouble. Ask your international student advisor about this. Housing in San Francisco or surrounding area: Housing in San Francisco or surrounding areas have always been sort of crazy all year round. I don't know about other big cities, but here people start looking for housing 6 months earlier. First thing you should do is to check out your school's listings of housing. it's best if you can live in the dorm (most of the time), but don't panic if you have to find off-campus housing, 'cause you're not the only one. craigslist.org is one of the most popular place to post free postings about housing. also check out e-housing.com or homefinderslist.com. All the sites focus on housing in Bay Area. Normally you would have to sign a lease, which expire some time. Be sure you don't have to leave before the time the lease expires, otherwise you will lose your housing deposit money. Also, housing around campus is very hard to find. you may want to expand your search area to other neighbor towns, and think about commute to school/work everyday. |
