Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Hi guys, me and my young family (wife to be, two daughters, 5 years and 7 months) are seriously considering relocating to LA over the next year or two and would love to hear from other Brits and US residents as to the locations we should consider. We have in mind Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Venice & Malibu. Schools are very important for us as is the out door way of life and the sea as well as the safety aspect. Love eating out in great places and like to be very near the areas where everything happens.

We are also out in LA as of the 10th Decemeber for two and a bit weeks and would love to get to see as much of these areas a possible. Anyone suggest a great hotel/area?

Hope you can help guys.

Best wishes

Alvin

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

the first thing people will want to know before offering any help or advice is which visa you intend to use to move your family over here.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Now theres a difficult one. I am trying to get a business off of the ground which will be US based and hopefully will qualify for the $turnover bracket but would love to hear any convenient/affordable options anyone has lol.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Experts will correct me if I am wrong (and I know you say ‘would be’) – you will need to be married so that your wife can accompany you. Although I also there is there B2 cohabitating visa.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Need to start reading here: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=585898

And yes, E3only is correct...the immigration process will be MUCH easier if you are married.

Rene

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

What has made you decide you want to live in LA, if you are planning on setting up your own business presumably you have all the US to choose from.

The areas you mention are some of the most expensive places to live in LA, presumably with 2 kids you are going to want a house, you will be looking at an absolute mimimum of $3k to be in Santa Monica, and we aren't talking beach/restaurant walking area, you'll be on the freeway for that price. Also they are very touristy so the restaurants are always packed and expensive and to be honest, not very good. Most are chain restaurants, independents are quite hard to find and when you do they are crazy prices.

The beaches are extremely busy all through the summer, and it gets too hot for hiking/bike riding... from around May through September.

Check out Great Schools for school reports.

Also, PLEASE remember if you move out here it won't be like your upcoming vacation. Living in LA and visiting are 2 totally different things. Lots of things you will do in LA are once or twice events it caters to the tourist. Not many things you will want to do again.

Choosing a hotel will depend entirely on what you want to see while in LA.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Totally. I visited a good 3-4 times before I made up my mind to move. It really is different than visiting where all you see is nice beaches, food, shopping, Studios and Disney land. And then you move and you have to spend 1 hour in traffic to go a piss length away on 405!

I am guessing we are also talking about substantial investment for business related visa?

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Nicky took the words out of my mouth, you are looking at 4 of the most expensive places to live that I could think of.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

I was smiling to myself in the car at the weekend, I went to a mall 11 miles away it took me 15 minutes. I've got so used to 11 miles taking 40 minutes in LA.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Never fails to amuse me even on later afternoon Sunday 405 is busy!

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Nicky...where does $3K fit into things?

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

rent a month...

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Culver City around that – 2 bedroom smallish place (condo) = 1,900pm rent. Just FYI.

This is probably 15 mins away from Santa Monica so I won’t be surprised at a 3k rent closer to the beach (not water facing of course!)

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Culver City is not a bad affordable option, we knew a British family living there, they've moved back now though. Anyway, it is fairly pleasant and has its own school district.

However, this is kind of pie in the sky until the family know what/where the business will be and whether they are successful with the visa application.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Thanks Bob, Sorry I wasn't very clear was I. I knew what I was thinking.

Does Culver City fit with the outside life they want? I've only ever been to the mall there. I suppose its a reasonable drive down to the coast from there.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

It has a park :lol:

It's not too far from the coast, it seems quite a convivial place.

Unless they are seriously loaded, they are going to have to look at places like this.

Houses are still around $3,000 to rent though:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11...20438453_zpid/

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

And now back to the real question –VISA. Not to be rude but “we are seriously thinking of moving in a year or two” does not quite cut it.

Need to have a business plan and serious money to move.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

That sounds reasonable...cost us over $2K per month to rent an apartment 15 yrs ago.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

The public schools that your children will go to is determined by the address of your home. Use the following map to get an idea of the rank of schools in different areas. You can click on any of the symbols to get more information about the school.

http://schoolperformancemaps.com/ca/...00159%2C11%2C1

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Thanks for your replies guys, we have been to LA on a number of occasions now but not enough to know where we would ideally like to live. I am interested to hear what you, being Brits, seeing it and having done it think. Can you all come up with some locations that you suggest we should visit whilst we are there in December. Ideally we would like to stay a week in one area and a week in another as this should give us a good feel for them. Schools are very important so we need to be near great schools, and without wishing to sound snobby private is our preference, any suggestions? As for the living area, we just want to be near a great community, outdoor playing parks, activity centres etc. Speak soon, Alvin

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Private will cost...in NJ kindergarten starts around $25k per year. You are also expected to cough up a 'healthy donation' each year. Google is your friend.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Thanks Jersey girl!!

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

If you Google to find the names of private schools in Ca and go to their website the fees will probably be listed.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Need to establish the area we would like to relocate to first I suppose!!

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Since you ask, I suggest you concentrate your efforts on the visa - without which, all of this is just a pipe dream. You are setting yourself up for heartache if you don't get the visa - especially if you put so much effort into researching where to live, what school to send the kids to, and just about everything else. No visa = no move. Once you get the visa, there's plenty of time to sort out the rest of it.

Ian

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

I realise you're probably only sussing this all out at the moment...but as Ian has said you really need to sort the visa out first. If you can't get a visa you're wasting your time looking at school fees, areas to live etc.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Figure out the likelyhood of getting the visa, if it's no chance, don't waste the time and enjoy the holiday.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

My morning commute in LA is 50 miles, takes about 45 minutes. Apparently I live in the right part, up the hill :)


As for the OP's asking about Santa Monica:

There are approx 300,000 Brit ex pats living in California, with the exception of maybe 6 of us, all the others seem to live in Santa Monica. As you're from Pompey you'l understand this: It's like Southampton, but with scouse accents... ;)

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

:rofl::unsure::ohmy::eek:

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

I appreciate this probably doesn’t work without the Visa but I am sure well find a way around this if LA is the place we finally want to move to. Plus it would be like saving for a car we’ve never driven..... I would rather get to know the areas first, see what they are like then once we have definitely decided that LA is for us then we can exhaust the Visa situation. But I am aware and take on board your advice that it is not as straight forward as the UK. All you have to do here is seek asylum and not only are you fine, they give you all the benefits you could ever dream of....

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

LOL point taken, Southampton accents are bad enough! Santa Monica wouldnt be for us anyway, I think from what we have seen and heard we prefer a little more north! What about the Pacific Palisades?

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Don't be so sure. It isn't that easy. Spend a few mins reading the visa forum, it might save yourself a lot of time and hassle.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

You really are putting the cart before the horse here. There is a way you could get round the visa situation - although washing dishes for cash-in-hand isn't the best way to pay for private schooling. :lol:

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

LOL, sometimes you just have to.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Do you mind if I ask how you guys qualified??

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Are you sure you don't fancy Australia?

Many have married a USC, some are company transfers within large international companies (L visas), a few are highly skilled workers with various degrees and experience (H Visas).

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

[QUOTE=Cape Blue;9014986]Are you sure you don't fancy Australia?
[QUOTE]

Funking hard to get there by boat!

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Did you read the link given to you in post 5? There arent 'ways around it,' you cant 'do it another way' you really need to sort the Visa then ask the questions.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

Alvin:

I live in "Los Feliz" -- 90027 adjacent to Griffith Park. On the other side of I-5 is the "Atwater" [90039] neighborhood between the I-5 and Glendale. I find them to be quite "walkable."

I used to live in Hermosa Beach in the "South Bay" and I stayed there only a year. I moved to Echo Park [90026] and have been in 90027 since 1984.

Also, look at the Pasadena area [San Gabriel valley].

On schools, you have to live here for a while to rationally discuss it. There are a plethora of programs. And, if you end up in "Los Angeles Unified School District," it bears in mind that LAUSD is huge and varied. [The "unified" refers to the fact it is "K-12" rather than separate elementary & secondary districts]. LAUSD has "open enrollment" and has "Charter Schools" etc etc.

I saw a mention of zillow.com -- it is an interesting site.

If you have not noticed, it is not uncommon to use postal ZIP codes to locate areas. As a general rule, 900xx is for "Los Angeles" -- but the numbers are not necessarily adjacent -- 90024 & 90025 is the "Westwood" and UCLA area while 90026 is Echo Park and 90027, 90028 are the "Hollywood" codes -- but 90038 is "Silver Lake" between 90026 and 90027. IOW, enter the ZIP code into a map program to find things.

Good luck.

Re: Help needed for Brits relocating to LA
 

It’s not uncommon (from my experience on this forum) for poms to think it’s (should be as a matter of fact) relatively easy to get into US. This perhaps is because their claim on how easy it is for EU nationals & easy (comparatively) for non EU nationals to get into UK

Learning US immigration is a rude shock though and the OP needs to consider the visa situation first. I mean good for the forum everyone sharing information but honestly little waste of time, with due respect, without the VISA situation first looked into.

“we will figure it out, we will work around it” – not US immigration for sure. It usually is, do you qualify for a visa or not. No "working around" US visas.