US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

I currently live in the UK but have American (courtesy of my dad) & British citizenship & am looking to move to the US before my 30th bday (so I have 5 yrs to achieve this goal!). I think I want to move to the East coast, PA, Mass., New England yadda yadda or Oregon or Washington. I do have family in America, but these are cousins & I wouldn't want to impose on them.

So a few things...
I know you can never have enough money but how much would people advise to take to set myself up?
How to go about searching for a job?


(I'm educated to A-level standard, and have had 3 yrs retail experience & all in all about 6 months office experience (which is the field in which I would prefer to work)). - I know, no degree... but I'm happy working as an office junior and working my way up.

Anything I should need to know...

Thank you.

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

Get a degree. I saw an ad the other day for a customer service position that preferred someone with a degree. I don't think there is any such thing as "working your way up" over here. Get the degree. ;)

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

You'll be fine.

*For the jobs you're looking for, you're not going to be arranging them before you leave the UK. The only different thing over here is you can't be too forward -- knock down doors, push yourself in their face, and no doesn't mean no till they've said it at least 5 times. i.e. Brit reserve won't work. But on the plus side, the accent usually goes down a charm.

* Wouldn't leave home for the US without $10k in my pocket.

* Would avoid the NE states -- either expensive or middle-of-bloody-nowhere. Would also avoid NY, LA and the bible belt. Middle of the road places are easiest to find a living.

* You have a lot of homework to do. Reading this board is a good place to start.

Good luck!

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

Very true, plus the winter will freeze ya nads off.

But a degree will help getting a decent job, but for casual work...find a city...a big one....kind of rules out most of NE really then...

Thing you'll have to worry about having a shite/casual job is medical insurance, because if the winter doesnt' freeze your nads off, the kick in the nuts will only hurt more if you get sick....but good luck :)

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

You say you have American citizenship but do you have a Social Security number? You'd need it in order to work, even if you're American.

Before you get to the US, you can certainly work on creating an American resume. Please see past threads on writing a resume.

How well do you get on with your cousins in the States? Networking is an extremely effective way of finding employment. Maybe your cousins can give you some pointers to finding your first job in the US.

Also, you'll have nil credit in the US. You need to work on creating a credit history. Please see the sticky post at the top of this forum about establishing credit and also search for threads in this forum on the topic.



NC Penguin

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

no you don't.

I worked quite legally with just my EAD while my SS# was application pending.

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

Yup, you only need to come tax time....though maintaining a job could still be tricky without one...but a US passport would be enough to get the person started :)

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

I would agree that a degree would give you more standing here, even for some of the more basic office work. Getting a degree is what I would do.

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

Unfortunately, getting a degree is pretty much out of the window though I've thought of doing an OU course (otherwise it would probably land me in an average of 10-15 grand sterling debt) & degrees are harder to get over here (which I guess has it's plus side, which means they *should* in theory be more valuable than the average American degree).

Thanks for the advice :-)

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

also, you're 25.
how many tax returns have you made since you were 18?

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

Zero, because I've been resident in the UK all my life.

I think I may have a social security number from when I worked in the States for a few months at a summer camp (though this may have just been a temporary one). I understand I have to apply to get a SS #.

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

oooops

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

You're going to have to get organized! You probably need to file your US taxes. You can back file, and providing you haven't earned > $80k/year you're probably not going to have to pay anything.

Read and ask questions here.

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

:confused:

Why would I need to file tax returns for a country I haven't ever been resident in? I can't see how I'd have to pay two sets of tax to two different countries.

Re: US Citizen in the UK want to move to the US
 

Coz Uncle Sam says so!