charlas

Spoke to one of the UK guys, that moved out to Chicago last year earlier, he was unmarried when he went out, and due to laws you have to be married 12 weeks before moving out, he got around it by just going to Vegas and getting married out there, and when he spoke to the people that sort out the paperwork it's obviously a popular choice, as they asked if he planned to do that. They did it and sorted out L1/L2 visa's that way. So probably do the same thing if I'm honest, then keep the wedding planning going and do that next year anyhow as a renewal/blessing/UK wedding. As if I take the wedding away from the missus, I'll get shot 😊

Seems as well that work take the chance to bump me back to the bottom of my wages band, so even though I'm at the top of my band in the UK, I would start in the USA at the bottom again, not a big deal, but apparently it's a done thing, and lots of large companies take the opertunity, oh well, still decent money though from what I've gathered on here.

For anyone that's renting out there, what sorts of guarantees / paperwork do you need to rent?

And as I'll have to get at least one car, possibly two, what's the best way there? Lease? As I'm sure without a US credit history I'm sure it's not simple as such.

I've read that getting a no interest bank account is simple enough, and switch it to a 'real' account when get ssn, any recommendations in austin/Texas area? As I know it's very area dependent over there, not like in the UK (bank with co-op and Halifax and barclaycard here) I'll keep those accounts open though.

Thanks again all

loubiblu

We live in Chicago, but my husband does a lot of work in both Austin and San Francisco (along with most other US cities). Austin is by far his favourite, with SF a close second. Madpooper posts like his name...

Listen to Petitefrancaise, she posts excellent advice. BTW, I love Chicago and have absolutely no regrets on choosing it over all the other places we could have gone (we pretty much had free reign over where we relocated).

When we moved out, my husband brought 2 colleagues with him. His SVP got married 3 days before he applied for L1-A and L2 for his new wife and daughters.

charlas

Yeah, I've got a bit of freedom where we move out to, just being as a lot of the work would be in Texas (to be fair a lot up near Sweetwater and Bigspring) with a week or so a month/two in either San Fran/Chicago and head office in Austin it makes sense to locate there for now at least. Although I know, just because some of the sites are in Texas, does not make it just up the road

Like I said one of the guys I've been speaking to (had forgotten he moved out there) has moved to Chicago (where most of the 'code' is done) and he's loving it by all accounts. But he is a codey, and all of the code is done there so makes sense for him, even though he does do some travelling to Austin and San Fran as well when needs be.

I'm glad it's a 'fairly common' thing to do, should make getting L1/L2 easier, even if the other half won't really like to be married before having a wedding

Cars : Anyone got any recommendations around lease/hire/buy

petitefrancaise

1. The salary band - usually the grade/band is determined by the job you are doing and how well you are doing it. If you will be doing the same job in the USA, then the grade/band should stay the same. If HR have done their jobs then the actual salary for that grade/band will have been adjusted to reflect local market conditions. So, if you are doing the same job, I would go and re-negotiate that one.$180k is a v good salary but as I said earlier, IT people are raking it in at the moment and it is really hard to find good people. Or use it as a negotiation to get them to sponsor you and your wife for a green card asap. Point out you have a company car which you will be losing, vacation time and increased cost of healthcare.
2. Renting in Austin. There are places available, especially apartments but there aren't masses of them so landlords can be a bit choosey. You won't have a credit history but you will have an excellent salary with a well-known (I assume) company. You may have to provide copies of your employment contract, your passport showing your visa and a large deposit. If you are lucky, you will get asked for the usual 1 month rent as deposit but don't be surprised if asked for more. Your realtor will guide you on that. You will have to pay a pet deposit, the texas rental lease norm is $300 per pet but again they can ask for more. If you like the place you must be prepared to pay the deposit immediately to secure it. Most rentals will expect you to be moving in within the following 2 weeks. Unless your "visit" to Austin is within a month of moving here, I wouldn't expect you to be signing a lease then. Take a look around the different areas, look at the available properties and be ready to move quickly (a few days) after your permanent arrival. Check that temporary accommodation is included in your moving allowance.
3. A car. No credit history means it's difficult to get financing after you've arrived here. Go to International Autsource (often recommended on BE) or Expatride and sort it out before you leave the UK. Your new wife will need a car too, Austin isn't a city to be without a car. If you're thinking about buying a used car as a second car, take a look on austin craigslist to get an idea of price and don't forget to add 6.9% sales tax on top of the car price. T

4. bank- yes easy. 2 forms of ID (passport/driving license, bank cards) proof of address which can be your UK one. I always recommend Wells Fargo. They are on every street corner.

sweetwater! Ughhhh... When we drive past Lubbock, I tell my kids that if they really annoy me I'll make them go to college there.

Moses2013

Don't know if anybody's mentioned it to you, but car insurance can be pretty pricey in the US with no driving history. Just a thing to look at too.

charlas

Yeah, I'll be in the same equivalent salary band, just at the bottom of the band scale from the looks, Still not bad (150-180k), I will haggle about car and Holiday, although the lad that moved recently got his holiday matched to his UK allowance (32 days). The company has health/dental/eyecare as part of the contract, although, so does my UK contract (BUPA cover here). They also offer schemes for insurance and such though the corporate policy, so may look into costs/benefits of that when getting home contents and car insurance.

Temporary accommodation is included (3 months I believe) so wont be completely rushed off my feet finding somewhere, although would rather sort sooner than later, so get stuff delivered to the place we will be staying rather than have to pay for movers again, I believe the 'rent' for it comes out of my relocation package total.

I've noticed people talking about those two, so will look into it. Not sure if to keep the other halves lease going in the UK for hers, and stash it at parent's for now, would give them a second car to use, and save us hassle for a few years in hiring a car in the UK when we come back (as with the wedding one of us probably be back fairly regular at least till after that), and probably cost me no more to keep than paying the penalty for getting out of the lease agreement anyhow. Don't have to worry about mine, as the lease is with the company anyhow.

Someone else recommended them to me too, are they affiliated with any European banks? Was thinking of opening a HSBC account here and getting them to setup the US one, but loads of complaints about them on here making a mess of it all, and very few branches (although to be fair can't remember the last time I went into one here). Take it there's no 'easy' way of organising one before move if you have relevant details for it? Although always easier to do that sort of stuff face to face I suppose.

Yeah, If I told you the company you would know it, they have site (Huge one, in fact was until very recently the largest land based installation on the planet) at Roscoe, as well as others. (and you can probably work out from that who I work for).

Thanks all for the help, it's been a bit of an 'eyes wide open' learning phase for me, I thought with all the interconnected system now, it would be easier, but hey, it's an adventure, and they are always good

themadpooper

Wells Fargo is not on every street corner I'm afraid. I rarely see them here in Chicago, the nearest one to me is in Stokie which is miles away. And I never see them in the part of Southern Florida my in laws live at, nor do I remember seeing them in the New York suburb I used to live at. Bank of America is the only bank I see everywhere so the op might want to bear this in mind. You'll need your salary paid in to avoid the charges and proof of income to get an overdraft - they will also need your social security number and proof of it

loubiblu

There you go talking like your name again. Yes, Wells Fargo has a tiny presence in Chicago, but they have a huge branch network in other places and he's favouring Austin. I don't have a BoA near me. The OP can research branch coverage easily enough.

You do not need an SSN to open an account, just a form of gov ID, usually a passport and proof of a residential address.

charlas

I think most banks will allow you to have a basic no-interest account without SSN, as I hear they can take a little bit to get through. I'm open to recommendations though, who's the best to deal with, and have decent online presence as I mostly do my banking online.

Although saying that, I hear that if you withdraw from cashpoints you get charged if it's not your branch? not had that in the UK for years now, they all just get along. Is that still true?

I'll register my UK Accounts to my parents address before I go out (as I know Barclaycard don't like Ex-Pats) to keep them up and running, and a credit history in the UK, and will make visits back a whole lot easier. Just have to work out how to send money over to the UK Current account regularly to make sure there's enough in it to pay any bills/direct debits that are left on it.

EE UK will help me set up a T-Mobile USA account (I have a business account with EE) and allow me to migrate my phones to the US Partner, but keep my UK account, which I thought was nice, will work out slightly more expensive than opening an account myself in the US with them, but a lot less hassle for the moment, and can always change later on down the line. Although not sure if that will work for me, as not sure if it will go against my US Credit history or UK one, or both? Assume they would need to create me a US account as such against my name, and can only complete it after I get my SSN so assume that it would be on my American history. Might look into switching to Google Fi anyhow after all settled (as also want Google Fibre, another advantage of Austin)

Just had a look over IAS site, seems straight forward enough to organise cars, so probably look into that in more detail before we go out, after I've tried to bully work into a car After all we are working with Tesla on something Unfortunately not their cars, but hey, can dream

Then after settled a bit, need to look into getting my Technical Assistance Agreement, as one of our sites is at a US Military Base..... Oh the fun Although to be honest, I know that getting any level of clearance (even though I have UK clearance) is almost impossible, so just send one of the contractors what we pay them for afterall.....

charlas

Oh on another note, I have a UK LTD company (used to contract using it), even though I've not been contracting for years, I've kept it up and running, is it worth keeping? would it possibly make money transfers easier or anything?

loubiblu

We are with T Mobile in the US. No issue with no credit as they have a no credit check plan. We went into a store the day after we arrived and came out with a 5 line family plan. Unlimited calls, texts and 10gb of data each (no sharing) plus unlimited calls to the Uk and Ireland for an additional $15 per line. It costs us $180 plus a bit of tax (think the exact is $186.74 per month for the 5 lines. We paid a $110 deposit, which was credited to our account last month when we moved over to a credit account. We had 5 existing unlocked iPhones that we brought from the UK.

kodokan

Be very careful about insurance. Once you're no longer resident in the UK, your UK driving licence is no longer valid so when you return for your visits, you'll be driving on your US one. There's a high chance your lease contract/ current insurance doesn't include driving on a foreign licence; most of us find it impossible, or near enough, to find an insurer who'll cover us on a relative's car, for example.

charlas

Really? why does your UK one expire/invalidate? Didn't realise that. Surely if I change the address on our license to my parents it will still be valid?

Just use the UK one in the UK, and the US one in the US? Also how hard is it to obtain a Texas license? I know you get 60 days on the UK one with L1 visa, so assume it's something that needs sorting ASAP, as if the DMV are anything like the DVLA it takes that long just to get a test setup?

petitefrancaise

This is why forums like BE are so good. It means that any incorrect information has a good chance of being corrected pronto.

I was referring to Austin but Wells Fargo is all over Texas in vast numbers.
Most people will have their salaries paid into a bank, don't you think? What you do need to watch is how much they require to be paid in each month and for the "premier" accounts how much the daily balance needs to be.

You do not need a SSN to open a bank account. You need a SSN to get any form of credit service though , like an overdraft/loan/credit card.

Bob

There's a wiki, up top. It's a good starting point