RollingStones

Hello! This is the first post of a newbie here.

So after of few weeks of tossing the idea around, and coming around to the possibility, my husband comes home last week and says, "Update. I'm being put forward for an inter-company transfer to the US."
So this is it. Suddenly the possibility becomes something more and we can't assume our son will be starting secondary school here in September, and we can't assume that our daughter will be going on the next school residential trip in October. It would be silly for me to plan for the local triathlon in September, and Yikes!... What about the dogs? But at the same time... so very, very exciting.

Which brings me to here. Where to start?

So, we are a family of 4, our son is 11 and our daughter is almost 13, and we have decided to take the opportunity before she becomes embedded in GCSE study. Oh and we have two well-mannered small dogs.
I understand that we will have a relocation consultant to help us move.
Ideally we'd like arrange things for September to tie in with school admission.

So a week with the knowledge that my husband should be getting an L1 visa for a position with his company based in Philadelphia, we're thinking we need to start with schools. Hubby is really keen to get the train into the centre and avoid car traffic so he's thinking we need to locate ourselves along the Mainline. We don't know yet if the company will pay for schools. So far I've gathered schools are pretty good in these areas and if I understand correctly, Lower Merion and Radnor are good with high property taxes. Further west on the Mainline the schools are just as good, and property taxes are lower.

I'm guessing this is going to be a bit of a culture shock compared to sleepy West Oxfordshire so I'd be grateful for ideas that might help the transition. We're a pretty easy-going sociable family, and we love the community we live in now. However, we feel a few years in Phildelphia is just too good an opportunity to pass up.

We have two over-friendly dogs that will come with us ... and I'd really like to stick with a manual gear shift car.

SanDiegogirl

Are you intending to move for just a few years or is this going to be a permanent move? Your intentions will have an influence on what you do now.

You mentioned that you wanted to move now, before your daughter gets embedded in GCSE studies. That sounds like a temporary move.

If only for a few years then you need to be certain that it is going to be worth your while and the package the company is offering will move you and repatriate you without costs to you.

Presume you will be renting out your property in the UK? If so, presume you are renting in the US? What about furniture? Shipping from the UK or buying in US?

You'll be paying for medical insurance via the company - make sure this is comprehensive. What will it cost you? Few companies pay for all the premiums and out of pocket costs.

Ordinary public schools are free for residents. The company would only pay if you sent your children to a private school.

Manual shift cars are available - but automatic are sooo much easier.

RollingStones

Thank you SanDiegogirl, these are all really good points.

We will be renting in the US. So we will live according to school locations.

I understand the company is paying for all relocation costs. But we still have to speak to relocation consultants so all these questions will be helpful.

carcajou

Speaking in generalities - Philadelphia has become somewhat of a hot city for US millennials. That is being fueled by it being a cheaper big city to live in than New York, which lost it's "hot city" status a few years ago after a sustained run of about a decade. A lot of millennial Americans are looking to leave New York due to the very high cost-of-living/tiny accommodation but don't want to leave the northeast and so are moving to smaller big cities like Philadelphia and Boston.

As with most things in the US, I think you will like it if your husband makes a decent salary, but you will struggle if he doesn't.

RollingStones

Thanks carcajou :-)
What would you describe as a decent salary?

rpjs

You'd probably be looking at least $140k. You'll probably find the Main Line to be quite a lot like Oxfordshire socially.

Cami123

Hi RollingStones,

my wife and I just moved to Boston 2 weeks ago. We are planning to be here for 2 to 4 years but we will see... We have no kids yet, so that was not an issue for us and we do not drive (unheard of in the US) so commute was our main focus point when looking for a place.
I don't know what Philly is like but something that surprised us was that in Boston the estate agent fees are a whole month worth of rent, and the landlords expects 2 months rent up front (first and last month) as well as a month of rent in deposit. In New York the estate agent fees are even higher! Make sure you have a lot of money easily available for the first few weeks.

Another thing that majorly differed was that here you can get very few or no flats/houses that are furnished. Coming short term we did not want to move our furniture, but we are finding that now we have to acquire a lot of it (we knew this in advance and chose to go this way because we owned very little and what we had was not going to survive 2 moves in 2 years).

We sent 10 boxes with bits and bobs here and we hope to receive them within 2 or 3 months, but from internet reviews we have seen it could end up being more like 6 to 9 months... We brought the basics with us and had to pay insane amounts of overweight luggage. Make sure your relocation consultant tells you what to expect in terms of timing and insurance of stuff being shipped/flown over.

Salarywise - we have about 120 000 brutto a year between us and while that sounded like so much back in the UK, we are finding it is not that much over here. A lot of the little every day stuff is more expensive - mobile phones, internet, etc... and rent is higher here than what we paid in London (but Boston is known to be extremely expensive). Plus health insurance. It ended up not being as much as we feared (but we have no kids! And two jobs) but it is an additional cost that in the UK didn't matter.

There is limited public transport, even in university cities like here (and I think the public transport here is considered among the best in the US... it is irregular and infrequent compared to any European city though!), so for your daughter that will limit her freedom! And it will mean that you will end up driving her and your son to every activity, every girl trip to the mall, etc...

That all said - so far we really like it here. It is nice, people have been very welcoming, we are finding our work very fulfulling and our jobs have many perks (we are both academics though and have come to work at a top university) things were not as hard as we thought they might be and we are having a great time getting to know this city.

RollingStones

OK well it's up for negotiation at the moment. It's north of $140 but south of $200.
<I've just asked him>

Nutmegger

Welcome to BE! Philadelphia is a very vibrant city, with wonderful arts institutions, good restaurants, and lots of history. Make sure your dogs are up to date on all their shots -- rabies, DHLP, and Lyme, etc. -- and ensure that they have heartworm and flea and tick protection. I've been in the US decades,and have always had a stick shift vehicle.

RollingStones

Thank you for your post Cami. This is really useful stuff. I guess getting our heads around the cost of things is the tough thing.

Both of us drive cars, we couldn't live here without them but hubby is hoping to only need one in Philly. I love driving, him not so much

I'm currently studying for a PhD, however we have decided that the opportunity for us as a family outweighs this at the moment. It would be nice if I could wangle something at PENN though, but we'll see.

Pulaski

I don't think anyone has mentioned that in the US the school year starts in August. It varies a bit from state to state and may be as early as the second week in August.

That said, and slightly counterintuitivly, someone (Kodokan I think), reported that she found it better to move children mid-year, that way the teachers know that the child is new, and more likely to remember that they are from overseas and not familiar with US schools.

Beaverstate

Sept 7 in Philly, suburbs are usually the same or close.
Academic Calendar 2016 - 2017 - School District of Philadelphia
In Oregon they start in Sept. as well.

Pulaski

Thank you for correcting me, I hadn't realised that some states started back so late. Round here the explanation is to allow for possible snow days, and the further north and into the mountains you go, the earlier the school districts start back at the end of summer.

MarylandNed

In my county school district in Maryland, school has always started in late August. For 2017/18, they have pushed the start date back to Tue Sep 5th - the day after Labor Day. This is a long overdue change because it was really silly starting school right before the Labor Day holiday. Now parents have more options for summer vacations. This was done in response to an executive order from the Maryland Governor.

Rete

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut also start just after Labor Day and end around the third week in June. I've found that the southern states are the ones that start in August.