PetrifiedExPat

Boston does a great job of clearing snow, at the expense of cycling and pathways. The road condition, plus debris makes tyre punctures also likely... oh and pot holes. None of this is really avoidable, I am well and truly a SUV commuter now.

Mercury39

I live and work in Cambridge and mostly walk or walk/red line to work - all year around. The only days that it can be a pain is when actually raining, and from my experience the number of days a year where that is a issue is minimal. We get snow, but a snow storm rarely last more than 24 hrs and once it is over you can get anywhere in Cambridge on foot without any real issue. We don't use a car much, for the first 2 years we lived here we didn't own a car at all, the few times I needed one we used Zipcar or rented. Day to day we don't use a car, mostly of the shopping it done on foot, including groceries and all commuting is done on foot/local transit.

We don't have kids, so no experience of that. Have friends that do, who also live and work in Cambridge and also are infrequent users of a car. Depending on what you are used to/expect, this might work well for you as well. We came here from London, so very used to everything done on foot.

bostonwilly

Hi Mercury39,

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We currently live in a small town in the countryside and we're happy with walking everywhere in town, just use the car when we need to go further. When in cities we prefer to use public transport so that shouldn't be a problem either. I think the problem comes in the preference for type of accommodation - even though we have a small house and only a small garden, it's still our own space. I don't really want to go back to living in an apartment, especially with the ongoing threat of lockdowns etc (although I've no idea how that's gone in MA). My wife on the other hand seems quite happy with the idea of an apartment, so who knows where we'll end up!

PetrifiedExPat - poor roads, potholes, blocked pathways - sounds like the UK! I think I won't really know how I feel about cycling until I'm there.

Cheers

Bob

As an activity, you'll be fine. It's a lot of fun, and a lot of biking happens here.

As a primary means of transport though, it really isn't great.

bostonwilly

Hi all,
Since I'm passing by I just wanted to say thanks to you all for your advice and sharing your experience, it was invaluable to me. Offer has been agreed and we're now working on the visa, so pending that and COVID travel restrictions we'll be moving to the USA later this year.
Cheers

christmasoompa

Congrats! Out of interest, what visa? Apologies if you've said up thread. I just ask as we were supposed to be moving to Boston in the summer but have been told next spring at the earliest now (L1 visa) given the backlog and lack of appointments, so wondered how you were getting there sooner and if there was something we'd missed.

bostonwilly

Hi Christmasoompa,
An O-1, because the company doing it thinks it's achievable for me (I don't, but I won't argue with them!). All I know about timescales is what they've told me, they could very easily be mistaken and it may take much longer.
Cheers

christmasoompa

Ah, ok. Our company's lawyers looked at an O-1 but said it made no difference to timescales. Not sure we'll make it out there as it may be too late from an education point of view for our children to go next year, good luck if you do and have fun on our behalf!

GeneralPowerpoint

Worth bearing in mind your spouse won't be able to work as a dependent of your O-1 visa.

Bob

Nice. Good luck!
State of emergency is lifted on the 15th of June....Everything is pretty much opening up this weekend though.

That doesn't change travel restrictions into the country yet though.

Bob

They've only just started ramping up in the last few weeks and they're wicked behind, with a priority on family backlog. Good luck though!

bostonwilly

Hi all,

Thanks for the wishes christmasoompa, good luck getting your visa sorted out quicker than has been forecast

Thanks GeneralPowerpoint, we're aware of and resigned to that. In the short term (couple of years) we think it won't be an issue.

Thanks Bob We'll wait and see how long it actually takes to do the visa, I'm only going on what I've been advised. In the meantime we're making sure we're comfortable!

Cheers

steveq

Check my timeline - don't sell up JUST yet.....

bostonwilly

Hi steveq,

Interesting timeline! Thanks for sharing your experience. The paperwork does seem to take some time, and I don't have a lot of spare time to spend on it right now.

Cheers

christmasoompa

And now they’re ramping back down again…....apparently all non-immigrant visa appointments from 1st August onwards in London have just been cancelled.

At this rate, even getting out there in 2022 is looking unlikely for us! Sigh.