Alannad14

Hey

I hope I'm posting in the correct place.

I'm a young professional moving from Scotland to Los Angeles in October of his year. I'm moving with my company through a secondment.

I was hoping I could have some good beneficial advice on set up costs when I move. I.e. deposits for apartment, finders fees, deposit to lease a car, furniture etc etc.

I have been offered a relocation allowance from my employer so I am looking to see if the offer is reasonable and it will be affordable for me to move.

Also, I wanted to plan how far in advance I should move over to LA before starting my new job. I will obviously have to find an apartment, car etc. sit my driving test get a social security number.

Can anyone advice how long would be necessary for these types of things?

Any general advice on moving to LA would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Poppy girl

So your company is transfering you under what visa!

Sally Redux

Yes, the visa will affect the answers to some of those questions.

Also whereabouts you will be working, it's a big place.

mikelincs

First things first, your company has to apply for and get you a visa, this may take longer than October. Does your company really know what they will have to do to get you that visa?

Noorah101

Where exactly in the LA area will you be working? LA is pretty big.

Rene

Alannad14

Thanks for the replies so far.

I believe it's the L1 - A visa they are currently in the process of applying for. We started the visa process around one month ago in the hope to receive it in time for an October start, otherwise the date will be pushed back.

I was considering looking for places to stay in Santa Monica, Brentwood or Marina Del Ray.

My office is approx 3miles from Brentwood. (Not fully up to speed on all the LA areas yet)

Thanks again

Noorah101

My husband works most of the time in West Hollywood...he has a 1-bedroom, 1-bath apartment there which also serves as his workshop from home. He pays $1,400/month for rent, which includes utilities. No parking available, and he doesn't own a car, so can't help you there.

Typically an apartment will need 1st and last months' rent up front, plus maybe a refundable cleaning deposit, if you leave the apartment in good shape.

If utilities are not included in the rent, you will probably need to pay a deposit on those to start up also (not sure how much, though).

Rene

Sally Redux

I am not sure how far ahead you are allowed to enter on L1. Officially you have 10 days to get a California licence but that's tricky, you can drive on your UK licence and set that up as soon as possible.

There have been a number of threads on relocation but I think the search function on here is not working at the moment.

The areas you have mentioned are all expensive to live, what kind of budget are you working with?

Hotscot

When I moved over I brought minimal belongings.
Stocked up from WalMart, Ikea etc.
If furnishing an apt start with bed/sofa/fridge/tv and you can't go wrong.
Most days sandals and tshirts, or at least casual if work allows.. (However it's best to minimise sun and think about protection, possibly many health issues later in life like skin cancer etc.
What kind of work you doing?
What qualifications do you have?..Just curious...
Do you need a quiet apt or do you want some buzz?
What do you want to do at the weekend? Beach, clubbing, outdoors, traveling?

Welcome to an adventure. I came on a short term contract for Adobe 14 years ago.
It's been wonderful but now, with U.S. citizenship and an incredibly cute and intelligent English teacher wife I'm tired of the U.S. and heading back to Scotland in a few years. Next adventure, discovering Europe.

S Folinsky

I live in L.A. -- in the Los Feliz area.

As a general rule, the closer you are to the water, the higher the rent.

There is life on the other side of the 405. Culver City is not too bad IMHO.

BTW, many place names are Spanish -- with appropriate spelling. So, it is Marina Del Rey. [There is a recent topic of conversation on proper pronunciation of place names. Should it be Los Feh-LEEZ or Los FEEL-is? I've always said San PEH-dro but some people actually say San PEE-drow. Go figure. See place names. I really liked the embedded video.

BTW, "Cali" is a city in Colombia. I cringe when Brits use the term "Cali" to describe "California." Cal or CA, maybe Calif but not Cali.

Sally Redux

Yes I always called it Los Feh-LEEZ but I noticed on 'Selling LA' they were all saying Lows FEEL-is.

Noorah101

After visiting my husband in LA for nearly 8 years, I was pronouncing his street as "La cee-ye-NEH-ga". Come to find out, it's "La cee-YEH-na-ga"!

Same with Sepulveda. I always said "se-pul-VEE-da", when it seems it's actually "se-PULL-ve-da". That just sounds wrong to my ears! lol

Rene

Sally Redux

exactly.

Poppy girl

Yours truly used to say La Jolla yep excatly as its written I kept thinking why do folk not know this place

Lbjen

A lot of things can't be done without your social security number and it can take a couple of weeks for that to come through. So you'll be looking at probably staying in a hotel during that time, renting a car etc. Depending on how well known your employer is in the area, you may be able to rent in a corporate owned building without needing to pay a deposit or put down more than your first months rent. Because you won't have a credit history you may not be able to get a conventional car lease, some people here have been getting 'expat leases'.

One tip - try to get a hotel room that has a kitchen or your expat allowance will be gone before you know it, eating out for 3-4 weeks gets expensive!