What are the challenges of being an immigrant in the US?

The biggest problem is having to deal with USCIS, at least until you get your green card. Simple things like renewing your driver license, getting a mortgage, filling your taxes becomes way more complicated and sometimes impossible. Depending on the type of your your visa, you may have to postpone your foreign travel or job changes while done paperwork is stick in limbo at the USCIS. And if somehow you get into a complicated situation because USCIS messed up your application (happens more often than you think), be prepared to be stonewalled or ignored while you pull your hair out trying to fix it.

People can be the biggest challenge. You’ll discover that the further you get from the immigrant friendly areas of the east and west coasts. My advice to newcomers has always been to stick to the interstates while traveling within the US, and general feedback has been they thought I was a loon until they drove down a state highway and got pulled over by the cops six times wanting to know if they were lost, or got stared at constantly by all the rural people who had never seen a non-caucasian in person. The biggest issue is that most Americans can’t distinguish between the different varieties of non-caucasians so regardless of where you are from you’ll get a lot of random flack for stealing people’s jobs or blowing up the World Trade Center. Once while traveling I had a one year old girl refer to my wife as the N word - the parents didn’t cause any problems and they noticeably stuck a bottle in her mouth really quick after she said it, but obviously the girl had been present at enough discussions that she thought that is what non-caucasians were called. I imagine that when not patronizing Arby’s the family must just sit around the TV every night and holler out slurs every time they see a dark skinned person - not sure how else a one year old would pick that up.

In addition to dealing with the absurd amount of immigration paperwork mentioned in the other comments: the fact that the US doesn’t recognize foreign records for most matters, even when it would be very easy to do so.

Foreign driver’s license? In most states there is no way to exchange it directly for a local one like most other countries do, you’ll have to sit the driving test again. This even applies to licenses issued by jurisdictions like Canada or Europe, which have similar driving customs and laws.

Foreign driving record? Unless you were driving in neighbouring Canada, with most insurers it won’t count for insurance purposes. You’ll be starting with crazy high premiums like a new driver, as if you never drove a car before.

Foreign credit score? Nope, you’ll have to start from scratch and pay high interest rates on car payments, and deal with a very low credit limit on your credit card. It won’t no matter what limit your previous cards abroad trusted you with. Also you won’t be able to get a phone on a contract, you’ll have to get a prepaid or BYOD because of your low credit score.

It’s all the paperwork that’s a nightmare. Drivers licenses, USCIS and it’s fucking endless nonsense, infinite paperwork. Just paperwork paperwork paperwork.

Massive taxes without any benefit.

And most Americans haven’t a clue how much trouble it is. It’s a constant thundercloud in your life.

Anyway, Americans are super friendly and very nice. A few among them are very motivated and the country is unbelievably wealthy so there is a lot of opportunity. Most locals don’t like to challenge themselves very much but the country will give to you tenfold what you put in so it’s worth all the pain and then some.

Oh and don’t go to all the weird places if you aren’t white. Pick an election map and stick to cities and areas that were colored blue. On the Internet people will get very offended about this and tell you how the finest people they know are in the other parts and they much prefer people be upfront and straightforward and all that. But here’s straight talk: stick to the places colored blue.

This is a white collar perspective.

Credit score. As a foreigner, you won't have one. And can't rent an apartment, buy a car, or get a mortgage. Many companies run a credit check as part of the pre-hire background check.

If you are able to befriend a local with good credit and get them to trust you so they're willing to cosign, you can work around this, but it's a barrier that is not to be unaware of. Immigrant communities are built on people that do this for others creating community.

In my experience (many years on the east coast as an immigrant) I found people very friendly.

I felt like people cared less about where you are from and what you do (blue collar/white collar) compared to my home country.

In some larger cities, specialized blue-collar workers can earn high wages (home-repair type work) due to a shortage of these skills in high cost-of-living areas.

Most people don't care. I have a friend and business partner from India who was an undocumented immigrant, his father was a doctor and brought his family with him. When my friend was 18 he was supposed to take a test to become a citizen and he did not. Eventually they found out and he served 4 years in the US Army to become a citizen.

Just work on your English and try to avoid an accent. Some people are picky about people with accents. Learn the culture, laws, religions, society norms and you'll do fine.

I studied International Business and it tells you how to blend in to a new country.

Plenty of people have already replied about the challenges. I would like to add a few tips that would help a lot as an immigrant.

1. The moment you land in America, you need to try and get a Social Security Number (SSN). As a legal immigrant, you can get this by applying either yourself or through your school/employer etc.

2. Once you have SSN and a decent proof of Address (lease/school letter), go and apply for a local State ID at your local Motor Vehicle Agency. You probably won't be able to geta Driver's License right away BUT many people don't know that you can get a State Identification Card or State ID which is really useful for ID purposes. Carrying your passport everywhere for ID if needed is very inconvenient and frankly opens you up for more scrutiny unfortunately. Get a State ID.

3. Go to a local bank/credit union and ask them for a secured line of credit. In other words, they will ask you to deposit something like $500 and in return give you an actual credit card (not a debit card). This will help you build credit slowly over time. Don't wait for this. Do it as soon as you can. Debit cards in US will not help with building a credit score.

Once you have these in order, you will find it much easier to get other things done.

As an immigrant to the US who is now a citizen for many years, I can tell you that most Americans are friendly and want to help but there is a lot of ignorance as well. Racism etc exist but it is not as common. What really hurts the immigrants is the ignorance and knowledge gap that Americans in general have especially if they have never travelled outside. But most mean well and you just have to be patient and get your ducks in a row. All the best.

Many people have mentioned the red-tape around immigration paperwork. One thing not mentioned yet is the emotional aspect. When you come here for an extended period of time you build your life and hopes here. You pray everything comes through and that one day you will get that green card and citizenship, and pray nothing happens with the legal process (loss of employment, deportation, visa issues, etc).

It’s the same as having credit card debt, it will keep you up at night. It takes tremendous coping mechanisms to power through.

Depends on the colour of your skin.

Yeah us is overall welcoming. It helps if you hang out with the locals and not a local ethnic enclave. Also helps to be in a liberal area.