daccs

So my family and I moved out to Georgia on the 20th August, thought I'd share our experience so far.

We came out with our dog and used PetAir UK; I cant rate them highly enough, very good service from start to finish well worth the money. Collecting the dog was a bit of a pain at the Atlanta airport as you have to go back and forth between Delta/Virgin cargo and US customs apparently its like that at most airports.

So day one went well we had an emotional farewell at the airport to family and by the time we'd got to our temp house we were very tired, stressed and ready to fly back home!
After a night sleep we felt a lot better.

We've acheived alot in the first weeks here are the main points

Bank - used Wells Fargo after reading some posts and they were very good. You need proof of address but we were in an out
in 20 minutes with debit cards and a new bank account.

Before you can rent a house, you'll need to arrange all of the services which can be a pain if you dont have a SSN you have to do it face to face. Be prepared to pay security
deposits.

We've rented cars short term until we have a GA drivers license and can pick cars up from IAG, we've leased two and so far they seem to pretty easy to do business with.

We also used the AIG Inbound program which give you entries to other services for expats like cell phones, and insurances inc car insurance.

Cells phones were through T mobile seems a pretty god rate.

Probably one of the biggest differences weve dealt with is just not knowing were anything is, it take ages to go shopping because you dont know the best shops
even if you do read up on it all, or best way to get around

Once of the biggest issues we had is with UK banks, trying to transfer money or use UK credit cards. Most online shopping we did with a UK credit card would not
deliver to a US address.

We've used caxtonfx for a US dollar card and are using Transferwise for bank transfers. UK to US bank transfer can take a few days to complete depending on banks and amounts

Kids school registration went fine they started yesterday. Do bring your kids vaccination reports with you as this will save them having a lot of 'shots'

Gas is cheap but cars are not as economic, although overall its much cheaper to drive here.

I applied for SSN yesterday about 12 days after arriving, they couldn't give me my number there and then so will have to wait for the SSN card to arrive.

Other than that, always drive on the right (even in a parking lot) lol, never put diesel in a gas car (pump colours are opposite to UK)....long story

More updates to follow..

BubbleChog

Glad you are settling in ok. Whereabouts in ATL are you? Can throw you some recommendations if you want

civilservant

Ugh living in ATL, come up to NE GA, it's much more civilized

Vimto

You have an outlet mall too !

Glad to see you are starting to settle into Atlanta Daccs, as far as getting around doesn't your T Mobile phone have Google Maps on it?
Which shopping is causing you grief, for supermarkets in Atlanta you have Kroger, Ingles or Publix, there are Aldi's dotted around too.

Redwing

I'll second that.

daccs

We've settled in Suwanee

Plenty of maps Vimto, but for those first few days we seemed to crossing all over the place. Not too bad now though.

Any recommendations of tips about Georgia great welcomed

BubbleChog

We do most of our grocery shopping at Buford Highway Farmers Market Buford Highway Farmers Market

Daccs has no doubt discovered that wherever you go in Atlanta everyone involved is 30 mins away, no matter where it is or who is involved. it probably has something to do with quantum

MsElui

its sounds dumb - but one of the oddest parts of moving countries is it just takes time to get to know what the restaurants and shops etc are like. ie back home if i wanted to buy a teapot - i would know exactly where to go to get a cheap one, a fancy one, a matching one etc etc. here i have to trial and error and am not sure of the price vs quality - at least until you get a bit more used to things.

Even now - having been in the usa since 2007 i still have never tried a lot of mainstream restaurants - just because ive not got round to it. Like people at work are amazed ive never ever been into a cheescake factory or red lobster or boston market or .......Plus we move states 2 years ago and have to relearn all the local shop chains and stuff as they are NOT the same. Its not a big deal in the scheme of things - but it does slow you donw and i found it really disconcerting at first driving down a street and barely recognizing a shop sign.

daccs

Definitely agree. Its sounds stupid but its exhausting at times having to think over everything, rather than just getting in your car and knowing where to go. As you said not major, but also something I hadn't thought of before we moved.

BubbleChog

Same here. Me and Mr Chog are working our way through lots of chains as they are often easier to manage with smallchog

lizzyq

And it isn't just finding the stores, sometimes it takes me ages to find what I am looking for within the store, because the logic of what gets shelved near each other is different over here. e.g. dried fruit is with snack stuff, not with home baking.

Bob

You're not missing much, all three of them are utterly shit.

username.exe

I went to a Red Lobster once. Wish I could take that back.

Nutek

Depressing really. A Cheesecake Factory sounds like somewhere I would want to live.

sir_eccles

Their actual cheesecake isn't too bad as take out, if like everything else is closed and the zombie apocalypse is happening and there really isn't much choice. I wouldn't touch their other "food" though.