AFK_Matrix

Hi,

I am hoping to move to Oklahoma City in the future and am just wondering if anyone on here knows or could point me to a website where I can find out the living costs of Oklahoma city compared to living here in Surrey UK.

If possible I would like to know what kind of salary you think would be needed to be able to live comfortably, pay the bills etc? Am I looking at $15,000, $20000, $30000 or more?

Thanks

Ray

$15000 is virtually poverty ...
Some people manage on $25k other struggle on $500K

Are you going to work or what ....

Bob

and are you a US citizen? Or what visa had the OP in mind? Bit pointless if they can't make it in...

AFK_Matrix

Sorry should have put more info. I am currently talking to a company in Oklahoma City who are willing to go through the H1B process with me. I am just wondering whether the salary they have offered will be good enough to live on as its around $30,000 odd.

Just wondering how it compares as in the UK i used to be on £30,000 so what with the currency that $30,000 is around half my UK salary. But I know its not as simple as that as US living costs are different.

Bob

Be a long wait, they couldn't apply till next April for an Oct start, that's if you won the lottery for the visa as they are gone within a day and there were loads of applications for the small number of slots...so good luck with it

Oh, you didn't say if you were married or had kids...that'll affect things a fair chunk...that and spouse wouldn't be allowed to work on the spouse H4 visa.

$30K is pretty crap tbh...but then cost of living down there is a fair bit less than in other parts of the city, but I can't imagine you'd have much left over if you bought a house and had car with medical insurance and other insurance and costs etc.

Ray

Your kidding ...you want double that at least ...
and full medical insurance

AFK_Matrix

Yeah I know about applying in April then having to wait till October if I am lucky enough to get a H1B. The company is working with an attorney and I am in contact with him also.

I am single so it will just be me and I am going to rent for probably a year just to get a feel for the place etc. I belive I do get medical Insurance but will look into that closely. I should after working for them for a while and getting proficient be on $40,000 but I also will get 10% of the projects I work on also so there is scope for earning more. I was just curious is all, thanks for all your help.

lapin_windstar

Living costs can be lower, but unlike in (much of) Surrey, you are really going to want private medical insurance and (I would imagine in OKC) a car, both of which can firking expensive. Car insurance alone could be a couple of grand - check recent posts on that for more info.

dbj1000

As an H1B you are totally at the mercy of your sponsoring employer. Any employer offering such a crappy salary for a "highly skilled worker" would ring alarm bells for me.

Also, an H1B employer has to show that they are paying at least the national average salary for the role in which you would be employed (or is it the state average? I forget).

What kind of skilled job requires an H1B employee, but only pays $30k?

Bear in mind that in bad cases, an employer who habitually uses H1B workers is actually doing so to pay lower wages than they would need to pay for an equivalent US employee. While I think this isn't nearly as common as the anti-immigration crowd would have us believe, I do know that it used to be relatively common to hire Indian computer programmers at low salaries relative to US programmers, back in the days before companies simply outsourced the programming jobs direct to India!

dbj1000

Oh, and you need to look at the whole package. You'd need a generous relocation package/starting bonus, written assurance that the company will sponsor you for a Green Card at some stage, "affordable" healthcare coverage...

None of which sounds likely in this case.

Just for reference, as a highly skilled H1B visa holder when I arrived 5 years ago, I took a 30% pay raise to move over, plus an additional 20% bonus to cover my relocation.

AFK_Matrix

Thanks for your input dbj1000. It is only a small 4 man company so I don't know if that makes a difference. So you would say I need to be looking at around $60,000 + the 10% of projects?

I do appreciate the advice and will also bring up the Green card issue with them.

Yosser

Abso-bloody-lutley you need atleast $60 k a year, I agree with dbj. $30k a year is chicken scratch even if its Oklahomo. You would be thoughly miserable on that.

scrubbedexpat099

You can ague about the cost of living, but if you do just a straight conversion of your UK requirements for such a position, you will not be far of.

Bob

look very closely, see what is covered, what your premiums will be, what the deductibles are, the co-pays, what prescriptions are covered and the rates, if it's an HMO or PPO and see about dental coverage as that'll be expensive without it.

AFK_Matrix

Thanks bob I will do that, is there a website or something that details what would be a good health plan would be? I have obviously not experience with this being from the UK so some of it I don't understand.

Well I have also asked about the average salary for my kind of work on a forum dedicated to 3D modeling work and it seems the US average is around $50,000.

Well i am having a chat with them tonight so will bring up some of what you have mentioned.