Hovik

After a bit over two glorious (and sometimes challenging) years in the US, I've accepted a job back home (same company), and will leave the US in a few months. We'll probably head back to the US, but not for at least 5 years.

I'm essentially looking for recommendations for what to do and not do when leaving the US. We'll need to turn in our green cards, but what to do about credit cards, keeping a PO box, etc ? Feedback on what to keep, and what to ditch would be appreciated.

rebs

We left the US after 2 years. We didn't have green cards, just L visas so there was nothing to do for that.

We kept open our Bank of America bank account. Since there would be no salary being paid into it we converted the account to a basic internet only account so we would not pay any charges. We still have that account 2 years later - they had no problem updating our address to a UK address.

We didn't bother with a PO box, we simply used the USPS mail redirecting service - that will get mail sent to you at your UK address for free. I can't remember if that is for one year or two.

For credit cards, we kind of kept them on for a bit (just in case it would be useful to have a card with a US billing address) but in the end we decided to cancel them which we did before new cards would be issued as we had never changed the address to our UK address.

Didn't bother doing anything with driving licences - just let those lapse.

Tax returns were a bit fiddly as we moved mid year - part of my husband's repatriation deal included tax prep by accountants so we didn't need to worry too much about the detail on that.

avanutria

Re: driving licences, if you keep them valid then you won't have to take the driving test again when you return. Many states have ways to renew overseas. I renewed my Washington state licence while overseas, and they gave me a new one that was valid for driving but didn't have a picture. When I moved to Oregon later, I was able to just trade in the licence and not have to take a road test. (I did have to take the written test.)

nun

Be careful about intentions to return, some US states will see that and want you to keep paying state taxes.

If you are giving up the green cards make sure you file I-407 and then inform the IRS for you NRA status, if you have lived in the US for 8 out of the last 15 years you'll need to file and 8854.

If you own any US mutual funds sell them before you return so that you can avoid having to deal with potential UK non-reporting funds issues.

If you have any US retirement funds I'd consolidate them into a single IRA and understand how that are treated for UK tax purposes.

avanutria

OP's profile says Washington which has no state income taxes, so he should be OK there.

cheers

Have you thought about taking out US citizenship?
Thats probably not a good idea because then you would have to file a US tax return each year you are out of the country.

Ethelred_the_Unready

Wish I were leaving too.

dlake02

God - you lucky sod. We've put a hard limit on 18 more months here. The more I stay, the less I like the place or the very odd people and their Byzantine attitudes....

Sheepdip

They've only been here for two years so that isn't an option is it?

Sally Redux

Lucky bastard.

Ethelred_the_Unready

What she said.