JayDub77

Hi

I am going to be visiting Boston in the next 2 weeks for a final interview (I have had video interviews so far). If I get offered the job I am planning to accept and will therefore be moving out to Boston with my wife and 2 daughters at some point (timescales will be dictated by visas). I expect to get an H1B visa for me and depenendent/spousal visas for my kids/wife respectively.

I have a few questions which I hoped people might be able to help with, sorry if they have been asked already but I couldn't find them:

1. The job would be based in the Norwood/Canton area - can you please suggest good areas nearby for us to live? My daughters are 4 years and 9 months old so we are only interested in primary schools in terms of schooling. Scituate and Weymouth look fantastic and only appear to be around 14 miles from the offices I would be working at. Are these good areas to live and would that commute be a nightmare along I93?

2. Is securing a rental difficult if you are new to US (and therefore have no credit history)? What things can we do to mitigate this or should I ask the company to help as part of my package negotiations?

3. My mother is American (resident in UK) - does anyone know if a family visa might be better route to take and permit my wife to work? From what I can understand the H1B spouse visa would not allow her to work whilst we are in US.

4. Does anybody have any idea of the costs for health insurance per month for a family of four?


That's about it for now - obviously no need to reply to all points if you only have feedback on one! All help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jason

penguinsix

The health insurance that you pay will be entirely dependent on what percentage the employer pays, and this is something that should (nay, MUST) be discussed as part of the negotiation. They may say 'we have a health plan' but when it gets down to the brass tacks they don't subsidize you in any way and you are responsible for the entire cost. Or it could be they pick it up and pay the whole thing and you are only responsible for the copays when you visit the doctors (i.e. $20 a pop).

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Health_Insurance

My family of 4 has a rather posh package with no deductible and it covers pretty much 100% of things. Unsubsidized the package was $1,400 a month, but with our work subsidy we only pay about $200 out of pocket or so. A number of my friends are in the $400-600 range for a similar sized family.

JayDub77

Thanks PenguinSix, I appreciate the advise - the link and costs you posted will be a really helpful guide. I will definitely be looking to discuss this as part of the package negotiation.

Out of interest I used the salary calculator on paycheckcity.com to understand what my tax deductions would be and there was around $120-125 per month for Medicare - do you know what this would be for?

Thanks again for your help

JayDub77

Sorry scrap that - I have just seen the answer to my Medicare question via your link - very helpful. So, essentially, I will pay Medicare contributions on the basis that when I retire I am entitled to some healthcare for free.

Mummy in the foothills

3. You mother is a USC living in UK, was she born and raised here long enough to pass on citizenship to you, saves on visas for you for work, just a thought.

JayDub77

Well I couldn't be sure as I couldn't establish how long that needed to be. She was born in Ohio and raised in US only until she was around 18 months old before moving to the UK. Is that long enough?

Thanks for your post

Mummy in the foothills

Not long enough, but I'm sure someone will know more. I believe you have to live a lot longer (5 years maybe) and 2 years of it after the age of 14 or something like that. Oh well worth a try.

meauxna

That won't work in itself, but it's worth your time to make a post in the immigration forum and ask more questions about where HER parents live and what your options might be through your USC parent.

This side of the forum is for the practical sorts of questions from the rest of your post.

JayDub77

OK thanks anyway and, as you say, worth a try! She is a US passport holder and citizen but it was the 'length of stay' issue I was unsure of.

Thanks for your help

JayDub77

Will do thanks meauxna - her parents are both deceased so I guess it is looking like I will need a conventional working visa. I will definitely check out the immigration forum though. Thanks for the tip

meauxna

If you wanted your mother to petition/sponsor you, she would need to move to the US to do this.

JayDub77

Ah ok, that may be a little extreme! Thanks so much for the help

Bob

Canton...that's a stretch calling it Boston...by a mile....it's about a 1.5hr commute in traffic, about 45 mins out of traffic.

I-93 North bound is a parking lot in the morning. Weymouth is about an hours morning commute away.

Walpole, Norfolk aren't to bad areas, no idea about schools.

Look Westerly, it's much cheaper the further out you go. Needham is a great area and great schools. Look at the MBTA website for the commuter rail, anywhere along their would usually be pretty good, won't help you much, but if your wife and kids fancy a trip into Boston, it'll make things easier, just as parking in Boston is crap and easily run you $25-45 a day. The T runs out as far as Newton, Riverside stop and that's the greenline, which is about as crap a service as they offer and that's 40 mins to get into Southstation and another 20 for downtown. It's a 45 min drive by car in traffic, 20 out of traffic, but the T will only cost $2 one way and $6 parking.

Getting a rental, depends on the place. Usually want to see a first/last and a months worth of a security deposit up front, if you have no credit history, usually offering more money will help...but a decent sized house will cost a lot to rent, so the deposit will be huge, so you'll want if going with a private renter to make sure they aren't defaulting on the mortgage so that you don't get kicked out and lose the deposit. What might help, having a realtor/agent look for you, but they that close to Boston usually will cost you 1-3 months worth of rent as a fee, if you go well out into the burbs it might cost as low as a half months rent as a fee.

Utilities, check the windows and insulation on the place thoroughly, and ask what the heat is, oil is shit, on a 2 upper floors of a Victorian house, we were dropping around $350 a month during winter, for about 5-6 months of the year and around $250 a month during the summer for AC. Gas is cheaper, but less available.

Good luck on the interview stuff though!

JayDub77

Thanks so much for the tips - I guess it is a bit of a stretch calling Canton 'Boston' but it is a heck of a lot closer than I have ever lived!

Sounds like Weymouth and other places along the coast are out as I don't fancy massive commuting...I have enough of that here. I will definitely check out Norfolk, Walpole and Needham for sure - thanks for the pointers.

Really appreciate the feedback on renting and heating too - this is all great stuff and will definitely help with the house/apartment search if we get to that stage.

Thanks again for all your help

Bob

Haha...I wouldn't worry about it, folks still call Worcester, Boston, and that takes imaginative drugs to even remotely make sense of that one

The coastal area is a lovely place to live, insurance tends to be higher, especially car insurance the closer to Boston, problem with the coast, gets a bit of a pounding with the weather, but the plus side is not to much snow, speaking of, if you rent, check to see the rental includes snow removal. It shouldn't be a deal breaker but it could be a deciding factor because nothing more than a bigger ball ache spending an hour chipping your car out of the parking spot only to have to do it again when you get back home.

Also, and this is pretty big bonus, check that the town does the rubbish pick up and if it doesn't, that the rental includes it, because some towns require you to use "town" bags to put your rubbish in, some require you buying stickers for a couple of bucks a sticker to put on the bags, some towns have no restrictions. Biggest pain in the arse having to take your own rubbish to the dump/transfer station, on a weekend, in the winter.

Some other towns, along Rt 126 and Rt27 tend to be really nice. Bellingham is quite cute, not sure about the schools, I wouldn't recommend going any further out than that though to be honest, because during the winter you can easily be doubling the commute times if it isn't on a major roadway/interstate.

Wrentham, the town is a shit hole, but they have an amazing and huge outlet mall, so that's a great place to do your shopping for cheap.

I know someone who commuted to Canton from Framingham, bit of a trek on Rt 27, but doable. Framingham is little Brazil, which shouldn't be bad, but the town is a shit hole, really nice parts to the north of the town though. Natick next door has fantastic school programs and loads of free things for little kids to do and same for the posher towns along that area.

Holliston and Sherborn are up Rt27....really nice towns, quiet though, but fab schools, still fairly doable to get into Boston and reasonable commutes down to Canton and the roads get cleared really well down that way. They even have nice town centres with shops, which is a bonus.

Another cool thing about the area in general, quite easy to get to Mendon, on Rt16, for the drive-in, which is awesome, $20 a car load of people for 2 movies, especially great when you've got a little one and it's a lot of fun in the summer....and it's not far from Milford, which is a shit town, but there's an amazing Italian deli, does the best homemade sausages around

Anyway, rule of thumb, anything inside I-95/93 will cost a fortune to rent, parking will be crazy pricey and car insurance will hurt. Outside of I-495 and things get into sensible pricing. Can get a 300 sq/ft studio in Havard Square for $3500 a month plus HOA fees down to a 1200 sq/ft 3 bedroom apartment out in Clinton for $1000. Somewhere in the middle, got mates renting a 2 bed apartment, with garden for $1950 a month. Craigslist and boston.com will be your friends

Oh, childcare can easily cost $1500 a month for a few part time days a month close to Boston.