sime303

You can use your debit for nearly everything just like the UK but make sure the company you use for you car rental accepts debit cards. A lot of them will only let you rent a car on a credit card. I guess it is in case you damage the car and they have to charge your card.

Longy

There shouldn't be any reason why you can't use your UK debit card to pay rent for the first month.

chicagojlo

If necessary you could withdraw cash over a couple of days from your UK debit card and get a money order for rent from the local post office or even 7-Eleven. In most cases they prefer that over a personal cheque anyway for the first month. That's what we did and it was fine.
There is no way anyone would recommend carrying any amount of cash over what you need to spend that day on you. It is just asking for trouble when there are plenty of ways and means around it.
Check if your employer has a credit union as they will normally give you a bank account and possibly credit card straight away. They usually do better rates on car loans and mortgages too.
And please don't try to buy a house during your first week here! Besides the fact that the market is a mess right now, you have to take some time to figure out what and where you want to buy.
Check your state's DMV for info on drivers licenses http://www.txdot.gov/ as regulations vary by state.

CitySimon

I still maintain a bank account in the UK and still use my cash cards from the UK to withdraw cash from that account as required. It's now been five years sicne I moved over and there are no problems... I can use it to purchase goods just as in the UK and can use it in ATM machines as required.

As has been said previously, you really don't need to carry over large bundles of cash in your carry-on to use as emergency funds until you open a US account, just use your England cash card.

The internet is your friend!

chicagojlo

You might be interested in opening a Nationwide account in the UK as they do fee-free ATM withdrawals in the US. Also some UK banks have reciprocal agreements with US banks to not charge fees too, I believe Barclays is the Bank of America one. You could try to find out with your own bank which US bank they have an agreement with if any.

jumping doris

He will probably still be in High school. My daughter is 17 and is a junior.
Next year she will be a senior and her 18th birthday will fall part way through the school year. She will leave school for college in June 2009.
I don't know what the law is here but it might be that legally he has to be in school until he is 18.
Our school year is end of August to early June. Texas might be different.

Where I live you go to the school in your town, if you move then you have to move school.

chicagojlo

This from http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/ed.toc.htm section 25.085

"Unless specifically exempted by Section 25.086, a child
who is at least six years of age, or who is younger than six years of
age and has previously been enrolled in first grade, and who has not
yet reached the child's 18th birthday shall attend school.

A child is exempt from the
requirements of compulsory school attendance if the child:
is at least 17 years of age and:
(B) has received a high school diploma or high
school equivalency certificate"

So you may be able to get around it. But you may find your child has a lot of difficulty getting a decent job without at least a GED if they don't graduate from a local high school. And getting into university will be even more of an issue with only GCSEs. Plus I'm not certain how it works with E3s but if you are planning on staying past the child's 21st birthday you might want to investigate 'aging out'.

Tarkak9

you could always wire the proceeds from your sale to the the title company/escrow company too. Check with your bank with regards to that and what sort of xch rate etc.

don't see why not, if need be you may be able to use that address, depends if you want to or not.. you can always change the address later on once you're settled.

You will have to get a test. Look into international license. Now, if you rent a car here, you can drive on your UK license until then. You might not be able to take a test in a rental though. Every state is different so try to contact texas DMV. Buying a car will have its hurdles too (insurance, license, registration - use your friends place for registering) - there are ALOT of threads on this topic as a whole so search first!!
Not impossible, just many more hoops & conditions etc - you might not get the best rate to begin with.... all depends with underwriting. Shop around too. Just incase have the docs from the sale of UK house 'handy' so you can do copies to show its sold etc.

Englishmum

No point. There is no such thing - it's actually an International Driving Permit which you typically get from somewhere like the AA.

An IDP is purely for translating non-English language driving licenses (eg. Korean, Russian) into English in case one is stopped by the police, and a translated foreign licence into English probably helps with car rentals too.

You have 30 days to get a Texas driving licence after being resident there and you have to provide a vehicle for the practical part.

Double check with the DMV and/or car rental company to see if you can use a rental car for a driving test. If not, see if you can take the test in your friend's car - the DMV will check the registration and insurance papers just before you take your test, so you would need to show that his insurance covers you and it's probably best to get his written permission to use his car. Otherwise, book a car via a driving school for a couple of hours so you can take the test and the driving instructor will go with you to the DMV (money for nothing, but hey, it's one option to get that licence and his documents will be kosher).

I don't live in Texas but here in New Jersey and new arrivals, the car dealer said he couldn't sell our car to us until we had a NJ driving licence; he said that he was unable to register the car at the DMV without it (and I think this applies to private sales as well).

Here are the FAQs for getting a Texas driving licence for people moving there from out of State or from overseas, and if you scroll down there are seperate requirements for under 18s:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/adminis...s_dl_id.htm#q1

Home page:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/index.htm


hope this helps!

rew1000

In our case, we brought a few thousand dollars in travelers checks using the highest denomination we could get.

We were able to open a bank account the day after we arrived, paid in the travelers checks, cashing one check so that we had some cash. We were given a temporary checkbook on the spot, then checkbooks/debit card arrived a few days later. We used our UK debit cards in the interim.

Once our US bank account was set up, we used xetrade whenever we needed to transfer money (you need to have internet banking set up before you leave the UK).

BritishGuy36

The problem with transferring large amounts of cash is that the source bank won't allow transactions more than a few thousand quid by online banking or telephone in most cases. Normally you need to go to the bank in person with ID....or make a LOT of smaller transactions if you have a lot of cash to transfer - if they let you do that (after a few transactions it may look suspicious and they may stop you doing it).

But if you don't have a bank account set up in the US then this means you have to go to the US to open a bank account, then come back to the UK to transfer the money....catch 22.

Options:

1) Go to a branch of a US bank in the UK to open an account (there are branches of Wachovia and Wells Fargo in London)

2) Get a USC family member or friend to open an account for you in their name, or if trust is not 100%, a joint account with a USC and you as named persons on the account.

This is what we did, my wife (the USC) had her dad open an account with him and her (both USCs) on the account. The bank wanted a photocopy of wifey's photo-ID so we are sending a photocopy of her passport over to her dad.

Jerseygirl

True UK banks are tightening up the transfer of large amounts of money overseas due to money laundering/terrorist activity. Maybe if chaskas went to her UK bank and told them she intends to transfer a large amount of money at a later date...the background checks could be done then. You need to take photo ID ie passport for prove your identity plus a few utility bills with your UK address on.

GetYourBritsOut

We brought over international licenses & when we went to our local office in Texas the guy said we could use them until they expired. This conflicted what we had researched on the net so were none the wiser but we used these anyway for 5 months until we got around to taking our tests.

augigi

Are you sure you mean you are emigrating on an E3 visa? The one for Australians? Or do you mean an EB3 category green card?

lisa67

Wecome to BE. You're going to love Texas...93 degs. here in Fort worth today ! Haven't got anything to add to the good advice you've already been given here, but just wanted to welcome you aboard.