skybaba

I'm looking to determine the costs associated with relocating from the UK to the US.

We're a family of four with a 12yr old and 16 yr old and no pets for now...............kids negotiated getting a dog in the US as part of the move deal :-)

The potential destinations for the relocation are Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina or Florida. This is influenced by my company as they're based in those location.

I'm hoping folks who have moved in the last few years may be able to provide some insight or guidance on how best to estimate moving costs and initial settling cost in the US before securing a house.

I appreciate that it would be hard to get exact costs, so looking for ideas so that when I'm calculating, I'm not missing too many things.

Thanking you all in advance.

SanDiegogirl

What sort of costs are you asking about?

Most people being moved by their company either get an allowance to cover flights out, accommodation rental for 2 or 3 months. temporary car hire for 2 or 3 months, shipping of furniture, etc or the company pays for those costs themselves.

Are you having to pay for all this yourself?

My company paid for all the above and then gave me an allowance for' incidentals' of $5,000. (this was 20 years ago)

Glasgow Girl

As SanDiegoGirl says best to negotiate that the company pays directly for flights out here and at least 2 months car hire and accommodation in a corporate apartment (essentially a fully furnished and outfitted apartment with everything you could need for day day to day living including cookware, dinnerware, linens, etc). You don’t get to keep the furnishings and fittings but it makes your first couple of months easy while you get set up. If the company reimburses you then the IRS will tax you on those payments so then you have to gross that amount up by your tax rate (federal, state, and city) to come out even. Having them pay also cuts out the substantial risk you face in underestimating those costs.

I also moved here about 20 years ago and was provided all of the above plus $25,000 to cover shipping costs and incidentals. I shipped very little and just bought new over here and highly recommend that approach if you can get a decent amount agreed. The amount they will agree to will in some part be determined by whether the move was initiated by you, or whether they approached you.

You also want to negotiate the costs and support for a Green Card for all family members, and an agreement to pay you relocation back to the UK in the unlikely event you are terminated through no fault of you own before you get a Green Card. Most states are allowed to fire workers for no reason and with no compensation. If you find yourself in that position without a Green Card you will have to leave the country within a month or so. US companies can be trigger happy on firing employees frequently having nothing to to do with their personal performance so don’t think that wouldn’t happen to you.

Also negotiate assistance with tax preparation by a professional for at least the first year, preferably two. Have that start before you move so that you fully understand any action you may have to take to avoid major taxation issues associated with any investments or savings in the UK.

Of the states you mentioned I would select North Carolina.

PetrifiedExPat

Sounds like negotiations with the company are not going well. They should be covering all associated costs with moving and visas, at a bare minimum. If not, I also worry this position will not be paying you enough to make the move worth it. Have you examined cost of living in the US?

PetrifiedExPat

Agree with all of the above, a company can throw you out for no reason at all in some States (maybe all!?), then you have limited time to pack up and leave. I would negotiate relocation back to the UK as well as suggested.

civilservant

You need to seriously consider moving children of that age. You could damage their educational prospects for the rest of their lives. There is also no way I would accept this transfer without a guilt in Green Card application, since the oldest child will age out at 21 and will need their own visa at that point.

Pulaski

It's hard to know where to begin with such an open-ended question, other than some people come with only what they can carry in a suitcase, and others bring everything but the kitchen sink, which could mean £12k+ for a 40ft container, especially if you're gong to the west coast. At the risk of stating the obvious, the more you bring, the lower your set up costs will be, however somethings really don't work well if you bring them, such as many electrical items, and British furniture can look lost in an American home where the rooms are typically larger. Beds are a particular problem as UK beds are a different size, so other than a UK king being very close to the size of a US Queen, you won't be able to find bedding to fit your British beds.

Personally I would recommend a middle-ground strategy, bringing personal possessions - clothing, tableware, books, pictures, but limited furniture and electronics, and especially not a TV as even if it works they are so easily damaged and in any case they're dirt cheap in the US. So hopefully you can keep shipping to a 20ft container, and get it packed and delivered to the US for around £7k.

Set-up costs in the US are even more elastic, and it really depends what time-frame you're talking about as we were still buying "replacement" stuff two years after we arrived. To a fair degree it depends not only how much stuff you bring but also whether you're OK furnishing with everything from Ikea, or prefer more mainstream US furnishings. $3k should be enough to put mattresses on your bedroom floors, and get you a dining table, and a cheap three piece suite. But IME it's worth getting a good quality mattress, and the cost of a like-for-like replacement for our king mattress would be around $3k, and a mattress for anything less than about $2k would just lead to chronic back ache, but that might just be me.

Then you may be facing a $3k-$6k deposit and initial rent for a home, and another $1k for utilities. Depending on how you pay for vehicles, a deposit of $2k-$3k or more may be required. You might get lucky and not need all of this, but without $10k-$12k+ in your pocket your options may be reduced as you will have no credit history in the US.

You should look at the car broker International Autosource as they can probably set you up with financed vehicles before you even leave the UK, based on your UK credit history. This is a great service that I used myself, and if nothing else it means you won't be running around trying to find vehicles as you will have a million other things to worry about when you arrive.

So all that considered, with a family of four, I would say that for a reasonably pain free transfer, without having to cut too many corners in "transporting your life to the US", I'd aim to have a minimum of £30k to fund the move and initial set up. Some people do it for less, sometimes a lot less, but I am assuming that you don't want to start out life in the US living like a student.

PetrifiedExPat

Agree on this! I would take advantage of the UK system, then have them come over on their own steam, if they want! Overall quality here is dire

PetrifiedExPat

I think also people assign value to their items that 'must' come with them, when in reality it is just junk! Oh and lets not get started on electricity transformers for essential bulls%$^!

tht

As others note, it all depends on the details. And remember that any money and possibly services you receive to assist are likely taxable.

On one end of the scale I moved as single person and did not own a property so I moved by “carry on” I brought personal effects over maybe 20 flights by having a foldable carry all I brought over full an took back empty… the only item I checked were ski’s and a Brompton bike.

In the OP’s situation I would be especially hesitant… UK and EU employment law offers way more protection than the US, moving to the US on a visa with a role that has a likely “employment at will” could get very expensive if things go south. My focus would be on a repatriation package as a backstop until a Green Card is in hand.

On the other end I have been asked to move back to the UK/EU for a couple of roles in the last couple of years. But now I have property and children in school it’s not really an attractive proposition financially.

My standard response is that I will never say never, but that I would not be able move for what his a reasonable figure for the role…. At this point I would only really consider a role that was commuting back over the pond, and given the time away from family it would have to be extremely well paid. I may consider it more seriously when my kids get closer to University age if it is still free in Germany, but I think the chances of the wife approving are low.

christmasoompa

I agree with the above, your company should be paying for a lot of the move costs (if not all of them), and if not that would be a red flag to me. Any decent company that is relocating you should be covering the costs, and should have a good repatriation package in your contract as well if things don't work out. There's not much point in me giving you the figure on our relocation paperwork as it's a true expat deal so includes housing, cars, school fees etc and consequently is a small fortune. But the cost of the actual move without all of that, for the 4 of us, looks to be about £35-40k. If things went wrong and we had to pay that ourselves and then do similar returning to the UK a year or two later, it would be unfeasible and we wouldn't be going.

Are the company paying for anything? If so, what are you actually having to pay for yourselves?

And I second the suggestions above to make sure you have green card sponsorship written in to your contract if it's not already.

skybaba

Thanks all for the responses and valuable insights so far - much appreciated.

So here's the back story

I've been with the company for about 10 years and in that period, the company had offered me relocation twice with full relocation support (shipping/storage, temp accommodation, all relocation expenses plus cash stipend of about $7K); however, when those offers were made, I had some things going on which meant the time wasn't right.

Now that I'm considering the move, the company is regarding it as a personal move as SanDiegogirl suspected (**edit** actually it was Glasgow Girl that mentioned that).
This means officially, they'll help with visas only; however, my boss has asked me to let him know how much "help" I need towards the relocation; hence I'm trying to do some estimates.

Reading some of the posts above, there would be a tax liability if company reimburses in the US and I suspect that may be the case if a cash sum was paid to me in th eUK.

So that's the back story in a nutshell.

I'll go through all the points made above and would come back with specific answers or more questions.

Again, thanks for taking out time to reply and provide your suggestions - much appreciated.

civilservant

Those terms as described would be deal breaker for me. They will indeed incur tax liability.

Pulaski

While I am sympathetic to the view that "stuff" is in fact "junk", it is worth bearing in mind that a lot of the cost of shipping household possessions is tied up in the fixed costs of delivering an empty container, taking it to the port, completing the paperwork, shipping it to the US, unloading it and clearing it through customs, and hauling it to your new home, so the incremental cost of adding one more box or treasure possession to a container you were already shipping, is very low. On a related note, many of the costs of shipping a 20ft container are the same as shipping a 40ft container - it still needs one driver and one truck to collect and deliver a 20ft container, same as for a 40ft container, and the paperwork is the same.

So if you want to save any significant amount on the cost of shipping your things, you need to plan for an almighty clear-out such that you don't have enough stuff to warrant using a container at all.

Pulaski

OK, so the question now becomes "what are your motivation and expectations for relocating to the US?" .... Despite the common (mis)perception, the US is not the land of milk and honey, and the cost of living here is surprisingly high.

Moving to the US works well for some people, as it did for me, and I would do it all over again without hesitation, but I knew, sort of, what I was getting into. However it is not uncommon for people to have wildly unrealistic expectations about life in the US, especially about the cost of living, with the cost of groceries and household consumables often being much higher than people expect. Given the current state of things, you should probably budget about $300/person/mth, so about $1,200/mth for a family of four. Then, although in most of the US, electricity is cheaper than in the UK, across much of the US you're going to be cranking up the AC for 3-6 months of the year, which is likely to lead to $300/mth electricity bills during the summer.