Relocating to US from UK
 

Hi all,

Hope you are all well.

I will potentially be relocating to the US from UK in the next 24 months through work, hopefully!

Potential locations include -

Texas
New York
Alaska
Washington
Massachusetts

Ideally we are aiming for Texas/New York.., does anyone have any experience of living in/around these areas? I understand the general cost of living will differ greatly between them, but just any general advice would be appreciated!

Thank you

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

First question - if it’s through work, are you looking at a specific city or area within New York or Texas? Both are very varied states!

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

Probably nothing specific as of yet, no. Fortunately (more so on the Texas route) company HQ is based there, so there's a lot of scope potentially to move to any area there. We've looked at Houston/San Antonio/Dallas etc.

For New York, not so much. The work would mainly be central NY based, so would have to be somwhere with decent travel/access into the City, can appreciate that is easier said than done there though!

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

Huge cost of living, and lifestyle differences in those! What’s the extra percentage you’d get salary wise for the higher cost states?

I live in MA, and personally wouldn’t consider living in TX or AK. WA at a push, the only other state I’d happily move to on your list would be NY. But that’s me and my personal circumstances. We were given the choice of any state in America with our company move, but thankfully it was fairly easy for us to choose.

What kind of lifestyle/climate/culture would you want? How old are you, is a young community and nightlife important to you, or are you in your 60’s and want a quieter life? What do you like to do in your free time (or what would you like to do - if for example, you’ve always wanted to take up skiing, then TX probably isn’t ideal). Who is ‘we’ - spouse (if so, what do they do? And is one location better for opportunities in their field than others?), kids (if so, are any of them at a crucial schooling age?)? Is being able to get back to the UK easily (or anywhere else in the world) important to you? Consider politics too, particularly at the moment.

Presumably the company will pay for a reccie trip as part of your relocation package. Maybe see if they’ll consider paying for two so you can narrow it down and then visit the two front runners.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

Thanks for the reply!

So the salaries vary from state to state as I'm sure you can imagine, but for my role in general (and I haven't checked all of the same roles in different states) but it's roughly -

Annual Salaries -
Texas - $145,000 - 160,000
New York - $105,000 - 160,000
Washington - $102,000 - 125,000

That's the rough base line of what it would be, some are a bit higher and it would depend what project I was assigned to ultimately as well as there could be a higher percentage again. From my experience level I would be at the higher end, I'm also just doing a rough average as until I took one of the roles, I haven't got a guaranteed figure.

I've spoken to a few colleagues who work in Texas as this is where the HQ is based and most of them enjoy it for various reasons, for us it would be my partner and child, child enjoys the outdoors activities, parks etc, and partner enjoys similar things, as long as she has easy access to shops and sites then she is fairly happy.

For us as a family, ideally we want somewhere that has a lot of variety on what we can do in our free time and plenty of places to go. Ideally somewhere with fairly low crime in comparison, and somewhere with good schools/community really. Getting back to the UK is not massively important, I think the option to come back to visit family etc would always be there. For the Visa option I have through the company we would be eligible for a Green card after 12 months, the Visa it's self lasts for 7 years.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

I’d take NY off your list, I think you’d massively struggle on that salary. Not sure about TX or WA but they still seem low to me. Hopefully others in those areas will comment though. If this is just your research on what you think you could get, I’d ask the company for a lot more details of exactly what salary you’d be on in each location, but also what kind of healthcare cost you would have, and what kind of relocation package you would get. As those will be factors to consider as well.

If you’d at least want the option of coming back to the UK to visit family then I’d also discount AK. It would be a mammoth undertaking getting there from that location! I live in Boston, and I love the fact that I can be back in the UK door to door in just 7/8 hours. I fly backwards and forwards every other month, and it’s just no hassle. It also means our family and friends come and see us a lot, as it’s easy and cheap for them to do so. I’m pretty sure that if we’d moved to Alaska, we’d never have had any visitors!

Also check to see which category of green card you would be eligible for, as some can take many many years to get. We got ours in about five months from start to finish, the company applied before we left the UK, so we landed as permanent residents. But that was the quickest category.

And lastly, you mentioned partner, just in case that means you’re not married, you’re aware you would need to be for him/her to accompany you?

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

I've done a bit more research on the Texas side but that was mainly because that was one of the first places that was mentioned. Salary wise it works out quite well there for the housing prices etc. Fortunately with my company as well it's decent benefits which all factors in. Just doing a very rough number crunch, I think as a medium and lower end figure, I would have around $10,000 per month after taxes and so on. Most of the properties we checked on line were in the range of $1900-3200 per month. (Less so around NY).

But yes, unfortunately I've only got rough estimates to work off at the moment.

And yes! Wedding is booked in for March next year so that worked out well when we booked it last year haha.

On the Visa side, from the discussions I've had I think they like to give you 12 months before you apply for a green card to give you enough time to see if you want to remain where you are, or move to another project in another location etc. Or back home all together. I'm assuming in the past they have applied for permanent residency for people who have then returned to their home countries which has come at the companies expense.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

That's good. No idea on if that budget would give you decent properties, but again those in the know will be able to help. There are lots of members in Texas, might also be worth doing a search to see if you can find any other threads on the cost of living there. Good benefits are vital, but do check on the healthcare cost as that can still run in to thousands for a family each month, depending on how generous your employer is. And the relocation package will be key, our relocation cost something like £40k so you want to make sure that's at the company's expense and not yours. I'm guessing that if you're going to be petitioned for a green card it's a permanent move, not an expat assignment, so you won't get house/car etc paid for, but you still want to make sure you're not out of pocket. The waiting 12 months for a GC makes perfect sense, and is pretty standard. We just didn't have time to wait as I needed to work (run my own businesses in the UK that I didn't want to give up), plus we moved with 16 and 18 year olds that also wanted to work, so we had to have green cards straight away.

As above, I'd search for info on Texas as you'll find tons of threads about life there. Best of luck with the move planning!

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

Thank you! I've asked the question about the relocation package etc to work, just waiting on a reply back and see what comes of it. Ill probably pop back and forward on here as things develop, and as you say, do some further research.

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

New York State is a large state and living in Central New York will not allow you to easily commute to NYC for work. NYC is in the lower part of New York State so you would want to live in one of the suburbs of NYC, i.e. Westchester County or even in Connecticut or coastal New Jersey for an easy commute to New York City.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

I lived in Texas for most of my 20+ years in the US before moving back to Scotland. Depending on your tolerance for heat, "outdoors activities" might be more of a challenge than you think. I personally loved San Antonio because it felt more like a "town" than a city. Dallas was more of a challenge but there's enough variety of neighbourhoods that most folks would find somewhere to fit. Just be aware that in places like Dallas and Houston (not sure about Austin) many folks struggle to find the the neighbourhood / school district they want within a reasonable commute to work. When I was in Dallas, 45-60 minute one way drive was fairly common for the folks in my team who had kids. Something to have a specific convesation with your Texas colleagues about.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

I lived in New York and worked in New York City and up until 8 years ago I lived quite nicely on just under $100K a year. Not everyone needs a big house in a tony suburb. Depends on what you want from life and actually, what you expect from life. I expected to live comfortably, with a great commute to the city for employment and extra monies for good vacations.

PS BTW a partner will not be included in your immigration. Only a spouse will be given a visa to live in the US with you.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

Roughly $132k/year in today’s value.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

I lived in Austin for a couple of years. It’s a great place, unique and interesting with lots of outside things to do. It’s the only place in Texas I would want to live. Most of Texas is flat and boring. All of it is extremely hot. Although it did snow in Austin once while I was there, that was extremely unusual. I was surprised how much I missed the seasons because spring and fall last for about 2 weeks each. Other than that it is blazing hot sunshine which becomes tiresome after a while If you consider Texas. make sure you understand how hot it is going to be, and the cost of running A/C year round in high temperatures, that can be substantial.

Re: Relocating to US from UK
 

$132k per year is not very much in NYC anymore, especially for someone relocating from the UK. That's approx $6k per month in NYC (Federal, State and NYC local), which means to spend 33% of income on rent that's $2k, which is about half the average rent for a 1 bedroom. https://www.apartments.com/rent-mark...s/new-york-ny/ (that's with no 401(k) etc.). Even at the top of OPs range - NYC is a stretch for a single person.

Of course many many people get away with less in NYC, but they didn't move from the UK and probably have a rent stablized apartment at a reasonable rate.