Originally Posted by 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!