Hi,

I'm currently living in Vancouver, BC - emigrated there from London about 4 years ago. Love Vancouver, love the lifestyle etc - however I've just been offered a very good job in Chicago.

I wouldn't really be considering the move, but my current job is up in the next few months and given the economy I'm concerned about finding a similar level of job (I'm pretty young for the position I hold & there aren't many head offices in Vancouver). The offer in Chicago is a promotion, very good career move, big pay rise, they'd pay for the relocation etc, plus cost of living & taxes are much lower so overall we'd be better off financially.

Trying to decide whether to accept or not. So for those of you in Chicago, what's on offer for a young family (we're in our early 30's plus have a newborn). We love the outdoors (hence why we moved to Vancouver), but with our new little bundle of joy on the scene, lifestyle has certainly changed!

I travel to Chicago regularly on business, but only tend to see the airport, hotel & office (which is in Downers Grove). Managed to make it downtown a couple of times, and impressed with what I've seen - but would probably want to live in the burbs as don't fancy a long commute. Some guys in the office mentioned Naperville as a nice area to live?? Wat are house prices like - search on the web and seems to be a lot of variety...

Also not sure on the visa situation. The company would sort all that out, but not sure how the visa system works in the US, would we be on a temp visa first and then a green card? Would my wife be able to work if she wanted?

Anything else to consider?

Cheers,
Rob

Are you a dual UK/Canadian citizen?

Valid, Canadian will get TN but if not then H1B. If H1 then wife can not work unless she can get her own visa own merit.

Someone would prove me wrong if at all. Not sure of the TN spouse work rights.

None. A TD visa holder can not work. The good news though, is that the spouse doesn't need to be either a CDN or MX citizen to qualify for the visa.

Ian

All visas are temporary. If the company wishes to apply for a GC on your behalf, that's their choice - not yours. During negotiations, have them put it in writing with a specific time limit as part of your package. Otherwise, you're at their mercy for years.


Not if you get an H-1B visa. Your wife will get an H-4 derivative visa and will not be able to work. The H-4 is known as the "visa from hell"... for good reason.

Ian

Hi, we moved to Chicago from london a couple of years ago. at the time our daughter was 7. We came on an L1-A visa, and then applied for and got Green card earlier this year. We live in the burbs about 30 miles north of O Hare near a village called Long Grove. What do you get? The area is fantastic. The schools are better than UK private. Shopping is as good as anywhere I've been. The lifestyle is at the expected million miles an hour, but its really what you make of the downtime that counts. There are numerous train stations that can get you downtown for about $6 and 50 minutes, so the commute is really not bad at all. Overall, its just a great place to live, and we now would never go back to the UK.

No idea on the visa front. But Chicago is awesome.

Stevie123 I have a feeling we've met lol!




Rob! there is a good British community here in Chicago

Feel free to use this thread to ask any questions about the area! It has everything you need even the odd good pub that doesn't feel like a standard american bar!

Good luck, and bring your snow boots!

Rob_999...there's been several threads about Chicago in this forum...including recommended areas to live. Try the search engine located at the top of the page...go to Advanced Search.

I would certainly recommend any area with a 60047 or 60089 zip code from personal experience.

If the new job is with the same company, and you've been there more than a year, you could get a company transfer L1 which would allow your other half to work after getting an EAD.

If you get a H1 visa, spouse won't be able to work.

USBound I think it is has posted quite a few decent posts on places to live in the burbs and commuter area. Commuting sounds like it sucks though unless you can get in on the train....and them winters...ouch...

Commuting can suck either way, and yes winter can be harsh, minus 60c wind chill is enough to put some people off for good!

Commuting is made easier due to the many park and rides there are at metra stops, these are run by Metra. Also allot of the Metra (the local train service) and EL trains have car parks near by that are priced similar to car parks in the down town area.

We pay $9 to park in the South Loop, a ten minute walk from the Loop area.

Allot of people take the Metra to the nearest El stop and get a train into the city, as it's more favorable than walking from Union station unless you work near by that is.

But you can pretty much get every where on the El and if you don't fancy walking there are always taxis and LOTS of buses. People do moan about public transport but I do believe that Chicago has a good transit system.

The only down side living on the NW side is the 90/94 merge, one of the busiest bits of road in the country apparently.


As for living in Naperville, I couldnt say either way, I've heard good things and bad things. But I very rarely hear bad things about the northern suburbs and places in the far west such as Elgin, Elk Grove Village and Hoffman Estates.

As far as things to do, there is no shortage, you name it and I'm sure it's here. Summers are great, lake Michigan is an amazing place to hang out, there's too much to mention but here are a few highlights, FREE fireworks twice a week at Navy Pier. FREE annual air show that goes on for two days! Free concerts weekly if not daily in Millennium Park!.

Also a brand new kids museum set to open soon as well as the 'old' but still cool kids museum on Navy Pier. Also nay pier has an I-Max that's great for kids films.

Museum access is increasingly becoming free on a regular basis also.

The culture, it's very diverse here, most communities are represented and you will often find festivals (Mainly revolving around food) through out the year!

Any questions are more than welcome if you don't feel like googling!

My cousin from Germany lived in Chicago for a year and told me it was pretty awesome there. I've been to Chicago on an Amtrak layover from St. Louis and the downtown is pretty slick. Though beware the winters, I heard they can be pretty brutal and remember their slogan "The Windy City" :

Rob,
Dont discount Downers Grove - its a very nice community with a wide range of housing (and prices) great downtown area (including Irish pubs) good schools - Downers Grove South High School has a very good reputation. Why move to Naperville or anywhere else when you could live close to work? While Naperville is nice, my advice would be to try Downers first. It is also a train line to downtown Chicago so trips for shopping etc should be easy. We have lived in the Chicago suburbs for 12 years now and currently live about 5 miles from Downers so if you need more local info let me know.
Lynne

I know I've mentioned this before, if you've read me saying this, please forgive me...:

Naperville is where everyone from out of town looks first. This is generally because it's mentioned in several "best places to live in America" type lists. However, there are many immediately adjacent or further flung towns in the Chicagoland area that are just as nice if not nicer. Naperville is gigantic (a quarter of a million people) and ever expanding. It's also very newly built and somewhat characterless (if you ask me...).

If you want the western suburbs, Downer's Grove, Wheaton, Elmhurst and Glen Ellyn are all really nice towns with terrific schools. Figure half a million bucks for a decent four bedroom house. Lombard, Warrenville, Addison and Bloomingdale are slightly cheaper and just slightly not as nice. More upscale towns like Burr Ridge and Hinsdale are really nice places (not exactly cheap for Chicago, though). There are tons of other options as well, depending on your price range.

The North Shore also has a wide variety of really nice towns, but if you're going to be working in the western burbs, be advised that traffic is terrible and there's no good way to get from the North Shore to the western burbs easily... Also, IMO the western burbs can be just as nice.

Chicago's awesome. This is particularly true if you have kids: great schools, tons of parks and museums, well organized town sports leagues and other activites, great park district facilities (the town pools here have to be seen to be believed...) etc. I really haven't seen the equal of this place anywhere in the states in terms of infrastructure for raising kids.

Not sure about winter in Vancouver, but the stories are indeed true: winter here is long and Siberian. Learn to love pond skating and sledding and it's easier... On the upside, the summers and falls here are great.

It's definitely a "midwestern" place and probably very different culturally than Vancouver. There are, however, 12 million people here from all over the world so you can't really generalize...