Hi all !!!

First ! i'm sorry for my english if i make any faults.
I'm from France, i want to change my life since 1 year and i have the idea to go to Vegas, i went to usa more than 20 times, 5-6 times to Vegas and i love so much your country, but before to across this step, i went to visit Riga, belgium (2 months), Morocco 1,5 months) and Spain, cause of course it's more close, but nothing at all it's similar usa and Vegas !

i write this thread from Morocco, and i just take my decision and i'll go to Vegas at the end of january-begin of february for minimum 3 months.

and of course i have some questions : pleeaasseee !!!!!

1) I read every days craiglist for found an apartment, and found apartments under 1000$, can i trust those ads ?

2) I would prefer a furnished condo with a sport center, are anyone have some experience of those kind of condo ? are anyone knows a woner i can call or have an adress ?

i found this is http://www.apartments.com/Results.as...&am15=0&am46=0 are someone stayed in one of those apartments ?

3) I have a idea to come and take a room in an hotel for 4-5 nights and look for a condo over there or i can directly book a condo from France ? what is the best ?

4) I want to buy a old car for 1000-1500$, can i buy one with my french paper and without a SSN ? can i take an insurance for only 3 months ? and how much it is ?

5) Is it possible to pass my driver licence with no SSN ? Who much is it ? and where can i pass it ?

6) From google map, i check the time by car from some condos and by car it's about 20mn and by bus it's aroune 1h30mn, is it true ? is the transport is not good in vegas ?

7) I have an iphone like lot of people is it possible to listen music at CG and tournament tables ? to make a call ? to use internet ? (in France is not allowed)
Can i take a prepaid card with unlimited data ? and with wich company ? (ho please, please say yes !!! )
Or i have to take a plan for 2 years ? i thing i have to make a deposit for it, right ? and is it true we can buy only one iphone by person (without plan) ? is there a tips to take more ? ( all my family want one)

8) Are they any USB Key data prepaid for laptop ? where can i take one ? and how much it ? and what about the speed ?

9) At the end of my 3 limited visa months, can i go to canada or mexico and come back to Vegas and restart a new 3 months visa or i have to enter back in France ?

10) I checked on internet a Vegas-Tijuana round trip and it's about 600$ and a Vegas-San Diego round trip it's arround 120$, why the first RT is so expensive ? and is there a way to found it for cheaper ? cause i'm afraid if i across the douane by foot or bus, i'm afraid it's not ok to take another new visa, someone have any experience ?

11) Is there other places outside USA to go and not expensive and of course have fun ?

12) Who much cost a bottle in a night club ? wich ones are cool ?

13) Are someone knows how much is a pair of levi's and diesel in an outlet store ? or where i can buy its cheaper

14) Can i let my cash in a casino ? or can i take a paper with the amount of what i let (i don't know the name of this paper in english), and a casino can pay me by check (or cheque ? ) after a CG partie or a tournament ?

15) I know i can open a bank account without SSN, but wich bank is the best for someone like me from outside usa ? and with the highest limit withdrawal ?

16) Can i buy a pass bus and monorail for one month ? and how much is it ?

17) If we don't stay at hotel, can we use sport center or SPA of the strip hotel ? which ones are not expensive ? can we take a pass for a month ? and can we leave our stuff there ?


Thanks a lot by advance for all ones and all your answers... and hope meet you around a table

1. I wouldnt send money until you see the place and confirm that its legit. Stay in one of the cheaper hotels on the strip for a week and look for a place.

2. Your best bet might be vrbo.com

3. Like i said before... youre asking for trouble if you book from france. Stay in a hotel when you get here.

4. Im pretty sure you need to get a US drivers license to register your car (it has to be registered to drive)... and i don tthink you can get a license if youre here on a tourist visa... not sure though.

5. I dont think theyre going to give you a drivers license. I could be wrong about this though.

6. If youre over 25, you can rent one probably for like 2K for the three months. If you find some way to buy one, i doubt youll have much luck reselling it, so its not like youre going to get the money back anyway.

7. IIUC, if you use your cell service out of your home country (if it even works, which im not sure it would) you get butt raped with charges... There are plenty of options for prepaid phones though... cricket, att, net 10... they sell them in any walmart. Others have told me that getting a contract phone will be next to impossible.

8. Virgin mobile makes one. Its prepaid, and costs $149. Ive seen it before in the best buy vending machines at mandalay bay, so i imagine best buy has it too. Cricket makes one also thats 40/month and costs like 100 out the door. If you need more speed, clear makes a 4g one thats like 150 out the door... the latter two options will be in any mall.

9. My assumption would be no.

10-13 -- no idea

14. If your asking if you can leave cash at the casino, yes. You can leave it on deposit. Im not sure what youre talking about with the paper. Are you asking about markers?

15. I imagine there will be a lot of hoop jumping to open a bank account here. Id start with bank of america.

16. I think monorail passes are only sold weekly, and theyre very expensive and not worth it for where the monorail goes. Bus passes are sold monthly.

17. Youll be better off joining a gym like LVAC imo

Thanks a lot senjitsu, for your answers.... i really appreciate it, i take a look at vrbo.com but it seem it's very expensive...
and sorry but what do you mean by "I imagine there will be a lot of hoop jumping to open a bank account here" ? please
I talking about only by a proof that's it, but you don't told me if the casino can pay me by check ? for all safe raisons

And thanks a lot again for your answers senjitsu, are you from Vegas ?

I'll come up with some more thorough answers in a second...but what he means by this is that you may have to go through a lot of complicated steps to open a bank account here in Las Vegas.

I only moved here from a different state and even I had a lot of difficulty at first; I can only imagine that it would be even worse coming from a foreign country.

ISenjitsu covered a lot of stuff, this is just some things I thought I could add.

1-3) You can certainly find a decent apartment for ~1000/month here, but definitely don't pay for anything without checking it out for yourself first. Plenty of them have amenities like fitness centers and more, but your idea of finding a place to stay temporarily while you look for an apartment is best.

4-5) You can buy an old car for 1000-1500 with no problem, but in order to legally drive it, you need to have it registered. I don't know about the complications involving getting a driver's license when you move here from a foreign country. Also, most insurance companies charge you for 6 months at a time.

6) Buses are fine, but they take longer because they stop so frequently. It will always be faster to travel by car. If you live near the center of the city, you might be ok, but the nicer areas of town are further out.

7) Most casinos will let you use your phone during cash games as long as you don't delay the game. I've never seen anybody let you use one during a tournament.

10) Tijuana is in Mexico, so the flight will be more expensive, even though it's not that much further away.

12) Bottles of alcohol are much more expensive in nightclubs than they are in the store because you're also paying for your location, bottle service is provided in seated areas. Depending on what you order, they are typically several hundred dollars each, and sometimes you have to order more than one (2-3 is a typical minimum)

13) Diesel is an expensive brand name here (don't know if that's the case in France), and so they'll be MUCH more expensive than Levi's. Expect to pay upwards of 100+ for a Diesel pair, and 20-30 for Levi's.

yeah, the casino will cut you a check. As far as the other part, i think the word youre looking for is receipt. Yeah, you can leave cash on deposit at the casino cashier and get a receipt for it and pick it up at a later time.

yeah, vrbo is pretty expensive for the most part, but if you look around there are some decent deals, and also the owners might be somewhat negotiable on price.

As for hoop jumping -- yeah what kel said. As far as I know, they really dont like to open accounts for non citizens, and its gotten even tougher since the patriot act. Im sure its possible, but it wouldnt surprise me if you had to try a number of different banks before you found one willing to accomodate you.

It kind of depends on personal taste, but his best bet might be to pick up a scooter if hes not living terribly far from the strip. You can get one for like 800 new and probably a lot less used. You dont have to register them and youre not required to have insurance.

yes it was a receipt ( idiot i'm !!!!)

thanks a lot keshaldra !

ok, this what i'm going to do, i'll take a room for a fews days..
yes in france too, diesel it's very expensive, and where can i found a 20-30$ levi's ? please

For the bank, as my very big surprise, my ex is in NYC only with a 3 months visa (she's there more than one year and she back france all 3 months), and the last week she's open an account ONLY with a 2 French ID card, no bills, no adresse proof, no, nothing else, she ordered a visa card, and denied a checkbook cause she don't need it.
This is totally impossible to do this in France...

thanks dudes !

That's an EXCELLENT idea.

Do this.

You can get levi's in any department store here (for example, Kohl's, but there are LOTS of stores in the area)

I've never been to NYC, but I have lived in many other cities in the US...and I've never had problems getting a bank account until I came to Vegas.

In any other city, I could show identification, and walk out with a bank account. In Las Vegas, they wanted many forms of identification, mail delivered to the address that I wanted registered on the account, a personal reference....it was absurd. I think I went to 4 different banks before I got an account with Wells Fargo.

Ok, i know what you mean, and do you think, i can go to LA or other cities around to open one more easy ?

Maybe and maybe not, but if you're only going to be here for 3 months why do you need a bank account?

Also- I don't profess to know the answer to this, but I do know that you need to explore much more deeply the question of whether you can go to Canada or Mexico after your 3-month visa expires and then just come back to Vegas. I strongly suspect that the answer is no, and it's unlikely that you can even go to France and instantly come back. There have been threads on this in the past.

AFAIK if you are not a US citizen, to open an account you need to have a social security number (ssn) or a tax payers id number (itin).

Some banks (US bank for instance) require state id, other banks will accept pasports.

you can't make visa runs to mexico (since 9/11)

you'll need a return flight (not to france but it can't be canada, mexico or caribbean)
or they won't even let you enter

and if you fly somewhere else and try to get in again...the agent will suspect that you try to stay in USA and you are ****ed

If you are only staying for 3 months i would recommend renting a hotel room by the week. Check out kayak for the best deals. Normally to rent an apartment you need to sign a 12 month lease, give a depot and have good credit/rental and job history.

I would also recommend renting a car over buying one since you don't have to deal with reg, insurance and repair.

this is the case in many places... but not in vegas.

Don't you mean moped? Scooters require registration and insurance in most places.

i meant scooter... but what i was thinking of is actually a moped it turns out.

I still think you are referring to a scooter, as that's what most people around here drive on the roads without insurance/license/registration/etc. Almost all of them are "scooters" and not "mopeds".

Anyways, about this idea, it's kind of good in a way but also kind of lame. From my understanding, depending on where the OP is from, I believe the US allows some foreign licenses to be valid in the US for a certain period of time, so he may be able to easily drive a car with much less hassle.