For an OTR driver is a 100 days on / 30 days off type schedule reasonable?

^ Thanks for the reply. The story of the Bosnian you spoke to is very encouraging indeed! That kind of schedule would be awesome for me.

I have been worried about my California driver's license being expired causing me to not be employable. However, I have been working with a Swift Transportation recruiter and he tells me if I can show a record of one year of a valid license, even if it was well in the past, they can work with me. A California H6 record goes back 10 years, so that should cover me.

I am working on putting this together. I plan to return to the US early next month, get an updated driver's license, stay and work a solid year with one of the “starter” trucking companies, like Swift and establish myself. I figure if I can keep my nose clean, keep a safe driving record, and get a reputation as someone who can make a trucking company money as a driver without causing problems, I will be able to work something out to fulfill my dream working schedule, or at least close to it

 

^ Yours is a fair point. My home base is Thailand but I travel all around SE Asia, Korea and Japan. My "visa expense" has worked out to about $500 per year over the years. There are a lot of diffrent strategies that people use to stay within the Immigration laws, mostly depends on your age, marital status, etc. for what will work best for you. Many expat websites to check out if you are really interested.

That $15 you pay when you leave the Philippines is an airport/airport security tax. You pay that or more in most countries, the only diffrence, in most countries it is included and collected with the price of your airline ticket (you pay some additional taxes with your ticket as well). A bit unusual here in the Phils that you pay it in cash as you exit at an airport counter. I always figured that had something to do with the cash being easier for the corupt Filipino officals to make off with.