wigwham

Dear all,
I'm hoping for some advice if possible.
My husband has been offered a job in Atlanta. Basically the situation arose as he is currently running a company in the UK which is running slow and steady but he has family and friends in the same industry working and living in the US.The CEO of the company that his friend works for has contacted my husband,pleading him to come and work for him as the job is so specialist he can't get anyone to run this side of his company. He's offered full moving package for all our family, accommodation etc etc, visa sponsorship, flights for a meeting,flights to move, salary of over $70000,health care, car, .
My questions are really is $70000 a good wage in this part of the USA? I don't know, it sounds a lot to me but what do I know! I mean, we would have to rent out two properties as we currently live in one and rent the other, we have two dogs, two children 11 and 8 . What sorts of questions should he be asking? Can anyone give me the main points of where we should start to even see if this is possible. The idea it self sounds amazing and we already have family and friends in Canton and Woodstock so we feel we can make a good life out there. But at the same time I don't want to get caught up with the romance of it all and try to be as logical and more importantly cut the best deal with the CEO as we can.

Pulaski

Visa? What sort of visa is being contemplated? Everything else is moot without an achievable route to a visa, and nothing in what you have shared so far suggests any route to a visa.

Several times each year we hear, here on BE of someone who has been "offered a job", but has absolutely no means of getting a visa to live and work in the US.

FWIW I wouldn't consider $70,000 as great income for a family. To uproot yourselves and cross the Atlantic I would be looking for household income of $100k living in that area. And even if your husband can get a visa, not all work visas come with a work visa for the trailing spouse, so the primary income might be the only income.

geoff52

If your husbands company is failing in the UK that would be the only reason why I would consider working for some else. The salary is not great, anything less than 100,000 usd for a senior position is not great.
Take a trip to Atlanta and see if you like it, if you haven’t been already. I don’t feel too comfortable in the US southern states, there was a reason why the civil war was fought, but that’s just personal.
Just as the UK has problem the Americans have their own problems.

SanDiegogirl

Is the company able to sponsor a visa? Is the job eligible for a visa?

What visa are they offering?

No, 70K USD is not a great salary for family.

wigwham

Yes they are to sponsor us with the visa and yes it is classed as a job an American can not do therefore why he is asking my husband to come over as the one English guy that is qualified has been unable to train anyone American to the standard required.
I'm worried that the salary isn't good I suspected as much and I don't want to uproot my children and business which is steady but not amazing . I have been to Atlanta and I did like it. I went in November though and I've never been in summer. My husband has been quite a few times to visit our niece and family and he loves it. I was slightly shocked by some of the pro slavery stickers on bumpers that I saw tbh and I know everywhere does have issues. Food for thought many thanks for your replies so far

Pulaski

That is what the employers always say in the cases I referred to above. Please can you be specific about the visa they are proposing to apply for, because with all due respect to you and the company offering your husband a job, most would-be employers whose job "offers" spawn the questions that end up here on BE, don't seem to have a clue about what jobs are visa eligible and how to go about getting a visa.

For starters the job will have to require the person to have a degree. "Equivalent knowledge and experience" may be considered, but without a degree it immediately makes the challenge of getting a visa a significant step harder.

I don't suppose by any chance the business owner is British?

I live just up the road in NC and I have never seen a "pro-slavery" sticker. What do they look like?

SanDiegogirl

I don't think there is any job that Americans cannot do - there are, however, jobs they are not willing to do.

When I asked if the job qualifies for a visa, I meant does the job itself meet the requirements for being eligible for a visa. Hence I was wondering what visa the employer is offering.

For example: if offering to sponsor an H-1B visa then there are certain criteria the proposed employee has to fulfill, as does the job itself. See below:


https://www.uscis.gov/eir/visa-guide...b-requirements

wigwham

The stickers just say "pro slavery" in a circle I saw a few this was a few years back. Yes it's a H-1B and meets the requirements . The CEO is American.

Pulaski

If this is a for profit company (not a charity or educational establishment), then the company has just missed the annual window for applications, so the earliest they can apply would he next April for a start on or after October 1, 2018.

Based on the results of the 2015 and 2016 H-1B application cycles, the chances of a valid H-1B application being accepted is somewhere between one in three and one in four because of over-subscription.

Twinkle0927

If not one of the 350 million or so Americans and only one British person can do the job then I wound expect a lot more than $70,000. Especially to uproot my family and take my children out of school. I make that and I'm not even in a supervisory, let alone managerial role. There are 2 of us living on that salary and we are comfortable. I don't think we would want to raise two children on it also. We are in the Pacific Northwest which is probably more expensive than Georgia, however.

Much as they might want him there, they may find it's not possible and for the money it would cost them to do so they could probably train an existing employee.

carcajou

I agree with Pulaski about the visa situation.

Atlanta is not New York or San Francisco, and has attracted a lot of younger Americans due to its lower cost of living (as have a lot of Southern cities) - but $70k USD is livable for a family but certainly not great.

Atlanta itself has undergone a cultural renaissance in the last 20 years and it is currently its turn as one of the cyclical "hot" cities that American millennials are flocking to - it is a HUGE business/corporate centre (Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola, CNN, etc are all based there) and is one of the biggest metro areas in the US - it is no Confederate backwater. Georgia Tech, which is a major top-tier university, is also there. It has also carved out a niche for some TV and entertainment production. Remember this is a city that also hosted the Olympics not too long ago.

Southerners used to have a joke, when you died and went to Heaven you would have to connect in Atlanta first.

However, traffic is a total nightmare, it doesn't have any signature sights or activities, and the neighbourhoods do tend to be fairly segregated (though, that is not limited to Atlanta). I think it is more noticeable in Atlanta because the African-American population is so much larger - Atlanta is de facto capital of the South and is one of the major centres of African-American culture in the US.

It wouldn't be my first choice, but I do know a ton of people who have moved there from other places - all of them love it and have been there a long time now. Flip side is I can't think of anyone who has left.

Good luck - but I would press for a higher salary and make sure you have the visa iron-clad sorted before drawing up any firm plans.

Noorah101

So they aren't expecting him to start work until October 2018? If that's the case, talk of moving is premature. Come on back after April 1, 2018, after the employer has filed the H1B petition.

Rene

wigwham

I don't think it's premature when there is so much to think about , but thank you for your replies you have been helpful and have given some great starting points many thanks

mikelincs

The point is that, currently, you have a 1 in 4 chance of being drawn in the lottery, and with the current leadership in the US, with his jobs for Americans, and keep immigration way down it's always possible that the number of places may be reduced, or even scrapped.

aless02

$70k is better considering OP said accommodation is included. Also really depends on what salary he was on the UK to see what the family's standard of living is.