JAJ

They should be starting the GC process immediately, when you arrive. Make sure he is eligible for first preference GC, otherwise it could take years.

This is an aide-memoire for Australia bound expats, most of it is US relevant.
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Corpor...tion-Australia

NYCbound

Just a little update and a few snide comments aimed at HR.
Just had an email after chasing for weeks the status of our Visa, ie had it even been filed yet, confirmation it would be L1A, expected time frames, to be told that they have a blanket application and will take upwards of 8 weeks before it will be processed and we can do our interview. Now this information at the very start would have been nice, a little information passed from Employer to Employee wouldn't have gone amiss.

However we do now know that our Tax Liability that came up in this thread is to be contributed towards, and we have everything in writing now.

re Green Card, HR say they don't usually start this until 1-2 yrs after the start date, which goes against what was said by my DH's direct boss and so will be looked into more.

Thanks for all your great advice.

tonrob

Glad things are moving along. I found our HR to be mostly useless too (moved here 4 years ago on L1-A and then obtained GCs). I ended up having to educate myself online (BE was a godsend!) and get the name and number of the attorney and follow up with them myself to see where things stood.

In terms of how long we waited for starting the GC process - in my company HR is a service organization and will respond to the request of the line manager who was, in this case, calling the shots.

Lazzza

Going back to earlier posts in this thread, I went over to Houston last October on my on with 2 kids aged 7 & 2. Aberdeen > London. Wait in London. London > Houston. Apart from the fact that we were delayed for 4 hours and had to be diverted to Dallas (bad weather) which was a nightmare, it was not too bad really overall. I am in the exact situation as you. Our negotiations are just beginning, so it was good to see what your company had offered. We are L1 and L2 and I agree with your sentiments about taking the kids out of school/giving up work unless you are compensated for this.

Giantaxe

And remember that that help towards taxes is in itself also taxable etc etc! A nice little negative exponential of tax liability in fact, with a few quirks thrown in because of the tax code.

NYCbound

Yep, they made that clear in the document! Cheers though.

buckers

Hiya

Well back off hols and have been told we are going in 10 weeks. NYC bound, can your hubby's company not put in for the 15 day visa? My hubbys company are dong that now as they didnt want to wait 2-4 months. I think its costing them around $1500 more to do this but means we are over there in the timeframe they wanted. Just had the removal people round to work out what size of freight container theyw ill need. Seems they pack it all themselves otherwise we arent insured (bonus) and customs will have a field day if we did it, however been told it can take 5 weeks to get over to US (not good), so looking at renting some things in the UK for the last 5 weeks just so all the furniture etc is over there when we get there.........more for the children really so they have their own home comforts straight away. Going on a field trip at end of Aug now to find the house and set up the school. Green card bit doesnt sound right either. Hubbies company are applying straight away for that.............but then how often can we rely on HR eh?

Hope things are progressing for your

NYCbound

Really glad things are progressing so quickly for you.
My Hubby's company have a blanket application so won't do premium processing. We also found out now we are in touch with the lawyers (after filling out the loooooooong questionnaire) that he is going on an L1B, so he's going over on specialist knowledge but when he gets there will be in a managerial/executive position, I really don't understand the in and outs of this, but I do know it makes the Green Card thing a harder and longer road.

We are off on Thursday for a lookie. Have a realtor and relocation wifey lined up to meet with us and a list of properties to see, they will also sort out a lease car(s) to be ready for us when we all arrive. Looking at schools will bea problem seeing as they aren't open, but all the houses we are looking at are within great school catchments (according to greatschools.net) We have our bank accounts open now, and got our cards and checks through. Wow US checks are different, it's funny as most places don't accept cheques here now!

That's where we're at, I keep looking at the Lawyer's status page to see how the application's doing!

buckers

Hey thats brilliant. Hubby is on an L1 but they are putting in the L2 for me aswell so that i can go for a job if needed for my own sanity etc. Things progressing more so then. Hmm never thought about the bank account bits. Did you hubby sort that out on his last trip and what did he use as an address or dont you need one? Mental note to put that on my list of things for whilst we are over there i think. We are in contact with the estate agents to get some viewings sorted for whilst we are over there. I know what you mean about schools. We have a few in mind and trying to find properties around that area, hopefully the estate agent will have a few lined up for when we go over - thats the plan anyway.
BTW, where abouts in Hampshire are you? Have a good trip over this week

Take care

NYCbound

re the bank account, Hubby's company and the relocation company have a good relationship with HSBC and we are existing customers too, so it was all opened (checking and savings accounts) via email and faxes. Pretty simple really, we got our debit cards through today too. It was all done via this address, we'll just change it when we have a US one.

Schools is a toughie, my kids currently go to a small village school with only 125 pupils in total, it looks like they might go to a school with 125 in their year alone!

Are you getting excited? I'm swinging from uber giddy to sheer fright.

btw we live in Fleet, Hampshire.

kins

Mine went from a school with 120 total to a school with 100 per year. However the school system they are now in is much better. 12 per class in Kindergarten, 20 per class in 1st grade and up. Much nicer buildings, and a better system generally.

kins

This is how we did the move - husband moved here 2 months before I did. Once he'd moved the UK tax credits people classed me as single, so suddenly I was getting a few £100 a month in tax credits. I used it to pay for 2 days a week of childcare, and during those days I organised moving.

I did the flight on my own with 3 kids. MIL helped me as far as security at the airport, then it was just 7.5 hours of torture on the plane. It wasn't that bad TBH. Mine were 6, 4 and 2 at that point.

You won't need to pack - the movers will do all of that for you. But you will need to sort everything out first. Anything you're not taking (eg washing machine, TV) you'll have to get rid of. Ebay, Freecycle, and a skip are your friends.

You can usually bring computers but most other electricals won't work.

It's all worth it

NYCbound

Thanks kins. The class sizes are a bonus aren't they, at their current school, even though there are only 20 per year it's still a class of 30 as the years are mixed. I think my kids will really benefit from the change in schooling.

That's interesting to know, we don't qualify for Tax Credits at the moment and hopefully he won't move that far ahead of us, but interesting to know none-the-less.
Point blank refuse to do it on my own You are a stronger woman than me!

Started with the selling and chucking out, it's quite liberating, although an arse. And I'm glad you think it's worth it, I've been reading too much doom and gloom recently!

SarahG

My husband is flying out month ahead of me and my 2 kids so he can sort the boring stuff out. You know, find a place to live, furnish it etc! I will fly from Heathrow to Chicago and husband will drive there to collect us and drive back to Chicago. No idea what the distance is but would save couple hundred $$ on getting a connecting flight!
Kids shouldn't be too bad on flight (I hope). Son would watch movies or play with my DS and daughter will sleep as she sleeps everywhere, failing that she will watch movies too!

Jerseygirl

You're trusting your husband to find you somewhere to live and furnish it?