Hey all,

Anyone knows anything about migrating (from Malaysia) to the USA?
I know the condition is bad right now (bearish market, unemployment, pestilences, etc), but I am really considering migration as an option 5 or 10 years down the road.

There are the H1B visas, green cards, etc... Looks like there are various ways to work & live in the US (apart from entering as a student). I studied there for more than 3 years and absolutely loved the experience.

Appreciate if you could share your experience with me 

The easiest way would be to get a close American relative to sponsor you.

Or enter as a student then look for a job there.

Or migrate to Canada/Mexico first. NAFTA agreement makes it easier for citizens of these two countries to enter US.

I'm not too sure on this one, but I believe that if you own a property in the US it's easier to get a migrant visa. Anyone able to confirm this?

EDIT:

Oh yeah, I forgot about another easy method. Marry an American!

So what migration route are you taking?

It takes some time to migrate to Canada, almost 1.5 - 2 years for the process along with do you get past the points issue. There will be medical checks, and you need an invitation as well, along with the testing scheme. Its got a basis of you must get at least 70+ point to qualify, usually some people older don't reach 70 but qualify on their experience education as well. My Uncle and his family just migrated over to Canada last year. But the process took over 1.5 years. He considered himself lucky.
For the US you can go thru some agency, costs are between 10-20k USD. Depending on who does it from which state and which part of the US you want to migrate to.
Working Visa is heavily competitive, and also you need an employer. With the current situation of recession in the US, it will be damned difficult for you to get thru it and get in. Green Card is worse, with the new laws in the US, its quite hard to get one now adays unless you marry someone. But even marrying someone there are quite strict guidelines as people do that very often as well.
Sponsorship makes the process move faster, but its not exactly easy because of the CAnadians/Americans selling their status to China to marry a girl for 30k USD for 2-3 years to get a Green card or Canadian passport. They've really cracked down on that alot now.
I currently heard from friends in IT in Toronto, literally 1000s of jobs got chopped, so its quite cutthroat looking for a job for the moment.
I wish you the best of luck getting that perfect scenario.

He went for the citizenship, he managed to get away with i think 58+. He has to stay for 3 years to get the citizenship and invest 300k RM into the economy. Close to 100k Cdn.

Try hitting up companies directly, maybe Microsoft, or ShawCable etc.