Boston to PR expat , in need of advice and some guidance

Hola

Puerto Rico is nice beautiful, but it is not easy to get a job there, and housing is very expensive.
Good Luck

I suggest you read some of the older posts in this section of the Expat.com Forum. Many people had similar questions and a lot of similar topics are there.

Unless you have some special qualifications/education that allow you to get a job that pays a decent salary (and those jobs, even if you're qualified are hard to find) you won't be able to make enough to live from. Simple jobs pay the minimum wage of $ 7.25/hour and you will only get a part time so you'll need multiple jobs.

Next to that, although in San Juan you might get lucky, you should be fluent in Spanish.

Bottom line: if you don't have a nice financial buffer to set yourself up with the basic needs and keep yourself alive for the first year or so, it's going to be almost impossible.

Now, mark my words, there are going to be people who will tell you that the lifestyle here is wonderful and that you should follow your heart and go for it (without telling you how to survive, of course).

My advice is simple, if you don't have a financial buffer (and I'm not talking about 5 Grand but more 20, 25 at least) don't even start thinking about it.
If you want to start a business you will need more or a lot more depending on what kind of business.

Some call the above negative - I know it is realistic.

Don't get me wrong, Puerto Rico is a nice place to live if you have sufficient income. I've been here for quite a while, have a business that provides for me and my family  and I'm really happy here.
The problem is that it's really hard to get a job, also for locals. Lots and lots of young people are going to the mainland USA because they can't make a living here! Even if you're lucky to get a job and even more lucky to get full time employment you will still have a real hard time making ends meet.

There are of course ways to get started here but that requires some planning and preparation.
One way would be getting a federal job in the USA with an agency that is also present in Puerto Rico and try to get a transfer. The same goes for getting an education that can get you hired by a company that has offices in multiple countries.

Another way could be to start an online business for which you only need internet access and - if you're selling something that needs to be shipped - access to the USPS and/or Fedex/UPS etc. I know more than a couple of people who make a decent living with an online business, both here on the island and in other countries. Of course it takes time, a lot of hard work and money to get any business running.

One way or another, make a planning of how you're going to make a living and make sure you have a financial buffer.

Gary, you are such a naysayer. Honestly though, Gary is right. Unless you have access to considerable backup money it's actually kind of a dangerous thing to do. I can't imagine the difficulty and horror of being stuck in San Juan without any money. Visiting a place and actually living there and trying to survive are two completely different things. I'm from a small college town in Pennsylvania. I absolutely love it there. I feel great sadness when I visit and have to leave. But I'm realistic about it because I know I can't afford to live there and because of my arthritis I can't do the cold weather.

Follow Gary's advice and go back through older posts and keep an open mind. There are people on both sides of the spectrum who are strongly pro and con about living there. You will find that a lot of the people who are fiercely positive about moving to PR usually have substantial financial means and/or connections and are somewhat insulated from a lot of the things the average PR has to endure. I'll tell you like I tell everyone else. Come to PR, stay a week or two (several times if you can), go to the grocery store and do a little shopping to find out the prices and what is available. Find out what electricity costs (it just went up again). There are many positive and many negative things about living in PR. Do your research. It's absolutely nothing like living in the states. Just remember, people are leaving the island in large numbers for a reason. That doesn't mean it can't work out for you. Make your decisions based on reality and being honest with yourself, not simply idealism.

I am (or was) from Boston as well.

Listen to the advice above. This is a very poor island. Unless you speak spanish and have friends or relatives here, it is difficult. I am an attorney and business man. I still had a tough time. If you have minimal expertise and no spanish, fuhgettit.

Lookit.  Boston is a beautiful city, and the grass is not greener on the other side of the hill. I miss home tremendously, but I love San Juan. I also speak spanish and spent two years planning my move here. It was still tough.

Paradise is in your heart, it is not a geographical location. You really got to want it if you move here.

You're a Bostonian. You'll do your due diligence. XOXO

Chuck is right: Running a business in PR is a regulatory nightmare.

Gary and Gregg are right as well: Finding regular employment is very, very, very difficult. You need to already have a lot of cash that you can burn through without ever seeing a return on it in order to live in PR.

I'm not an expert by any means in the area of teaching English in PR, but I would imagine that your services would not be in high demand. This is because (1) a lot of people speak English already, (2) if they don't, they have a family member or friend who does, and (3) why would they hire you instead one of the thousands of Puerto Ricans who teach English classes? But if anyone knows more about this area of employment for non-Puerto Rican, non-Spanish speakers, then please let me know.

I'll say this at the risk of being attacked. Beside what Nomad Lawyer just told you,a lot of natives just plain don't want to learn English. They feel strongly that you should know or learn Spanish instead.

I want to agree with the general theme that although PR is a wonderful place to live, it is not for the faint of heart or the minimally financed. Food is expensive, electricity is through the roof, service is pretty much non existent and trying to work here is a nightmare. That being said we love it here but honestly look forward to going back to the Cape for the summer. Mass becomes our vacation. I don't have to maintain the water supply, or troubleshoot electric problems, there is no concrete to patch or pool to maintain. I don't have to paint every other year or worry about electric bills that run four times what I amused to in the states. I don't have to deal with constant power surges that ruin appliances and expensive electronics and when I need to call a service person I don't have to worry about them showing up or having the right tools. That being said, we love PR. I love all the fruit trees, the constant garden, the great weather and the culture. I enjoy challenges and can fix almost anything but after 8 months of it I need a break. We never get tired of hunting for sand glass or swimming in waterfall fed pools (except on weekends when the local kids crowd them out).
PR is loosing people at an alarming rate because of the economy. Many people here survive on social services supplied by the States. Almost everyone I see in the supermarket uses food stamps. Every service person I have hired will only take cash because they are getting Social Security Disability Benefits. This should tell us something. You really need a secure, steady income to make it here. With that said, only you know if you are the exception to the rule.

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