Florida_03

I am Australian living in Brisbane. After 16 months we (wife and 2 kids) finally have our immigrant visas (based on EB2 NIW) for the US.

The house is ready for the market, everything is sorted out. We have decided on Tampa Bay for lot of reasons, but are we making the right choice???

I love the idea of living and working in the US, my wife is OK with Florida, and the kids will adapt. I see the opportunity but we are taking a risk. Is it worth it???

Pulaski

What is your line of work?

Do you have a job to go to? / Have you already bought an established business?

Are your qualifications and experience going to be recognized in the US? / can you be sure clients going to (continue to) patronize your business?

How long could you survive without working/ income?

If you are new the US then you are making a rod for your own back if you are deciding exactly where you will live before you find a job.

Florida_03

Radio communications and satellite navigation engineer.

No job but some prospects (only interested once in-country)

PhD + 20 yrs experience

Have sufficient own funds for several years.

Stipulations from family:

0" snow
low housing costs
low unemployment
plenty of tech companies.
mid-large size city (1-3M in MSA)

I guess it's the other intangible stuff I worry about...

Acceptance of my kids at elementary school.
My wife adapting to the change in lifestlye.
Our acceptance in the community...
..and a million other things...

It is easy to rationalise all these things away but how hard is it really...???

acer rose

Not really sure how to compare Aus-US differences with Brit-US differences so the following may be of no use to you....

We moved from a fairly cosmopolitan area of the UK to a fairly cosmopolitan area of the US (with much better weather;-) We generally found Americans to be very welcoming, friendly and positive but difficult to pin down on facts (perhaps they thought we would sue for misinformation?). This website would have been a lifeline. Of course, there are bone-heads in every country but you cannot get through life without meeting a few. Most of the people we met (outside academia) had not travelled extensively outside the US and consequently had interesting ideas of how relieved us foreigners must be to come to the USA where the plumbing always works! I guess the numbers trying to get into the US may bear this out.

The sense of humour is quite different and my husband was firmly reproached for his bad attitude (sarcasm) on a couple of occasions. That said, nobody at his previous place of employment won the sweepstake for how long it would be before he got himself shot :-) Surprisingly, people were generally MUCH less "pc" in conversation than in the UK and racism can be quite common, though not recognised as such.

The one thing I would like to have known before going out there was how bureaucratic the place is..and how hopeless they are in dealing with that. You will queue (line-up) for hours to deal with the INS, IRS, DMV etc and then have to deal with somebody who knows less than you do. Having said that, with the exception of the INS, Americans get exactly the same treatment as you, so enjoy the cultural experience. If you have a local university, the international office may be prepared to give you some pointers or run seminars about dual taxation issues, transfering funds, what exchange rates to use etc - in general the official helplines (federal and state) know nothing.

If your wife will not be working it might be difficult to get to know people. Having kids should help out there. I had no kids, no work permit and no transport for a while which made things pretty lonely. If you cannot be pigeon-holed into a category you must be some kind of communist!

Basically, loads of people do this and the only way to see whether you will settle is to give it a go. It was hard but not impossible. I would not have missed the experience for anything and have many good friends there even though we eventually decided to move on (back to the UK). My husband and I are planning to move on again away from the UK in the next couple of years. The experience did not put us off but did help us firm up some ideas about what matters to us.

It may be a cliche, but your senses of humour will be the most important thing you take with you.

PS - The AAA accepted our UK insurance certificates to give us a discouted rate for motor insurance (which is really high in SoCal). We would not have known this if it wasn't for a friendly ex-pat tip. Although I wouldn't recommend hanging out with ex-pats as a way of life, people who have been through the mill can be a great resource when you are trying to find your feet.

Harry

I would listen to your heart. If you truly want to go for this, I'd do it...beats sitting around in a few years with that "what if" in the back of your mind. You've got the visas, you're awesomely qualified, and you've got a lot of money saved...there's always going to be some risk and uncertainty with any big undertaking, but you are in a far better position than most to make a success of this. I'd only opt out of this is you have serious doubts that you want this, not for practical reasons.

About intangibles, like acceptance in community, kids in school...I think you'll do fine. People in the U.S. are in general really outgoing and friendly, also prepare for your and especially your kids accents to be a big novelty.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Good luck!

-Harry

Florida_03

Thank you for your thoughtful responses.

I think we will give it a good go and see what the future holds.

jaytee

You have to make the leap and it is almost purely terrifying at times. Lots of different emotions, including lots of anxiety and some panic, but also a new freedom, adventure and a good feeling when starting out in the US. Generally most people really like it here, despite the problems they encounter.