EParker

My husband has been seconded to a biotechnology company in mountain view for 6 months as part of his phd studies. we are planning to go as a family with our J1/j2 visas (myself, my husband and our new baby) The company offers great scientific opportunities but no other financial or practical support for relocation- all of the funds will come from his uk based grant. We are not really sure the best way to go about relocating for this time so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Specifically:
Where should we live and how much is it likely to cost?
Should we hire a relocation specialist to help with this?
What about furniture? We don't really want to ship ours there and back for 6 months
Any advice on car hire?
Can we open a us bank account before we leave the uk?- all of our funds will be in gb£
What else do we need to think about? We have arranged medical insurance (we are both doctors and this was the first thing I worried about!)

Thanks!

penguinsix

First big shocker will be the housing prices in most of Silicon Valley. They are expensive, to say the least. As you won't have to be dealing with schools, that gives you a bit more flexibility.

Do a search of this site for "Silicon Valley" or "San Jose" because it is a frequent destination and there has been much discussion on where to live / how much of late. Palo Alto might be a bit fun (but NOT East Palo Alto). Has a small downtown area and a 'college town' feel about it so there are some restaurants and bars.

For six months, I wouldn't bother with a relocation specialist.

For furniture, you can probably get quite a bit second hand on arrival through yard sales and craigslist. You can even rent furniture from furniture rental places that might be a cheaper option. There are furnished places for rent, but generally the quality of the furnishings is not that good and the added price not that great, unless you are renting a professionally serviced 'corporate/serviced' apartment somewhere.

Most car rental places will rent monthly, but renting for six months might be a bit harder. The bigger issue is whether to get two cars. You'll feel very trapped in many parts of Silicon Valley without a car (if your husband is taking it to work). By and large, you NEED a car in most parts of the USA just to accomplish the NECESSITIES of life every day. Walking or relying on public transit to the grocery, pharmacy, nursery, doctor, etc is quite complicated and in many places simply not an option.

HSBC has an office in Palo Alto. If you have an account in the UK they might be able to help you open one in the USA before or as soon as you arrive.

California is several hours away from waking up so I suspect if you check back this evening you'll have more responses when the members that live out there wake up.

MMcD

This is quite a long shot....but nevertheless, worth pursuing:
Have you thought about a home exchange for the 6 month period? That would solve the furnishings dilemma as well as the high rental expense.

Here's one company but there are many (just google for them):
http://www.homeexchange.com/index.html

MMcD

....following up on prior post...
and what about pursuing a 6 mo. exchange with someone from Stanford (Palo Alto area) by placing ads in the student or local newspapers? Tricky...yes but impossible...no!

http://news.stanford.edu/about/submissions.html
Scroll down to classified ads

Michael

Rents are expensive in the bay area. Since he will be working in Mountain View and only for 6 months, I'd recommend that you try to find a place in downtown Mountain View and hopefully he is within walking distance or short bus ride to work. Mountain View has a pretty decent downtown.

As an alternative, downtown San Jose may be an option since it has a light rail to Mountain View every 15 minutes, has trains on a regular basis up and down the peninsula (including stops at Mountain View) and the east bay with shopping, restaurants, bars, theatre, and the arena (star performances) within walking distance. Then on weekends, you can rent a car to see the area (weekend car rentals tend to be cheaper than weekday rentals).

The following is an apartment ($2,000-$2,500 per month for a two bedroom apartment) centrally located in downtown next to the library and San Jose State University within 2 blocks of the light rail and a free shuttle to the trains (about 8 blocks away).

http://www.essexapartmenthomes.com/a...a-5d0248854567

The following is the Caltrain schedule for the pensulia.

http://www.caltrain.com/schedules/weekdaytimetable.html

EParker

Thanks for all the advice so far- it gives me lots to look up!

N1cky

If you have an account with HSBC go talk to them and explain your circumstances they might be able to set you up with an American account from that end. They do have a branch in Mountain View, and although not the biggest bank over here, it would work for you for 6 months. Alternatively, if you are in London, I believe you can set up an American Citibank account with them

If you have an Amex card, they will give you an American card based on your UK credit.

Mountain View is a lovely place to live. I haven't seen many places to rent for only 6 months though, and there aren't any apartment complexs like the ones in San Jose that Michael posted, so you may be better off in one of those for such a short time.

Gillymonkey

HI,

I was in a similar situation to you. My husband was offered a post doc position in San Diego with no relocation assistance offered. We just arrived with one large suitcase each as we worked it out that it would be cheaper to buy stuff once here. Don't underestimate the set up costs. We had to pay a full months rent as the deposit for our apartment plus deposits for things like gas etc. Just make sure the trip is worth it, we have been here for approx 14 months now (its a five year post doc) but are only just beginning to get back on our feet financially. I think we'd have really struggled returning home after 6 months.

Mummy in the foothills

If its just 6 months what about serviced apartments, includes furniture electric gas, internet and washing machines. More per month but a lot less bother than trying to set it all up.
If there is no help what about medical insurance how will that work?

Gillymonkey

If I remember rightly being given access to health insurance is a requirement of the J visa. I may be talking mince though!

Michael

I recommended those San Jose apartments because they are pretty nice and the last time I checked (over a year ago), they did allow short term leases unlike most other apartments that require 1 year leases.

The following is the light rail map.

http://www.vta.org/schedules/lr_inte.../lrBusMap.html

Sally Redux

We visited LA in similar circumstances although my husband was post doc. We rented an apartment in a big complex and they did a package with furniture rental and utilities. We got travel insurance and fortunately never used it, with hindsight I would have worried about that.

We had a wonderful time (it's living here properly that's harder!)

jackattack

I second the recommendation for the serviced apartments. The house rental market here is INSANE and most require a one year lease.

caleyjag

Genentech?

EParker

No- ChemoCentryx in mountain view

Thank you for all of the useful advice!