Living in America 2015

[rootypig]

New thread. In honour of:

1. allegedly Irish bangers discovered I saw in Trader Joe's today, which made me think of you lot and especially you Want2b, you pork fanatic - I will report back; and

2. taxes bloody argh! do I have to do this? NOW??? My green card was granted in August last year and I didn't earn a bloody penny. What am I supposed to put on a tax return

How else is everyone's American odyssey going?

yours chaotically, as ever,

rooty

Happy 4th of July from NJ! Well, technically in PA (in the Poconos) right now. Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

Wishing everyone a good 4th! We are off to the local fireworks later and in a little while we'll be tucking into some gumbo I made before the afternoon got too hot.

Happy 4th to y'all from TX. We did a local bike ride for little kids this morning, fabulous burgers in a very rough and ready roadside diner for lunch, swimming all afternoon and will probably miss fireworks tonight as they're on after 10pm and I don't think the kids will make it... we'll see.

Happy belated 4th! We're in Bentonville, Arkansas for the holiday weekend (home of Walmart!). 4 YO DS managed to stay awake for the fireworks despite an intense day of hiking in the Ozarks, playing in the park and swimming in the hotel pool. 2 YO DD slept in the stroller all evening but woke up at the first loud bang.

The fireworks were amazing and I felt strangely emotional during the finale when they played America the Beautiful. Which was weird!

We may move to California with both of our jobs. A few questions:

1. How does nursery and school work? We have a one-year-old... Do you have to put name down for nurseries early like in London or is it less crazy? How can you find out about catchment areas?

1. Visas: if my work relocate me and he has a related visa can he work? Better to have his own visa? What's the best source for visa info?

1. If we rent out our house in UK which has a big mortgage do we have to pay tax on the income (which we need to cover the mortgage)? I heard we should move to an interest only mortgage... Is that right? Is there a good source for UK/US tax info and questions like this?

Any help much appreciated!!

We live in CA, 123. A lot depends on where in CA you are moving to. If it's around San Francisco / Bay Area or LA then, yes, the waiting lists for the best nurseries / preschools fill up fast. Quite a few in our area have 1 year waiting lists but it's not a big deal. They wouldn't put you on the list if you're not resident here anyway so I would suggest you hire a nanny once you get here for the interim until a place becomes available. Daycare places of some kind are always available so you would definitely not be left with nowhere, just the best places do fill up fast. They start enrollment in Jan / Feb usually for the school year starting in August of that year.

Catchment areas are usually provided as standard info with any house you buy or rent. If you are looking to buy, you'll need a realtor who will have all that information to hand for you. On zillow.com, the main real estate website where, info on schools is provided with each listing, scored out of 10 (10 is the top ranking).

1. Depends on what visa you have - H1B, he will be H4 which means he won't be able to work. L1, he will have the right to work so it just depends. He might be better off applying for his own visa.

1. If you make a profit on your rental in the UK, then you will have to pay tax, same as the UK. Doesn't really make a big diff if you are interest only or not. There are plenty of tax attorneys (CPAs) here with intl expertise who can help with stuff like that.

Forgot to say that you can offset tax paid on the profits of your rental in the UK towards any tax owed in the US.

Thank you Solas! This is so helpful. We're in London and nursery and private school places are booked during pregnancy so glad it's not so bad :-)

In terms of areas, my company is based in Cupertino and my husband's in San Francisco. My company have shuttles from the city but it makes for a long day... Wondering if there is somewhere good in between that wouldn't be too bad a commute and perhaps on CalTrain? Any ideas? I know traffic can be bad so wondering if CalTrain might help...

Thanks for all your replies recently. Very useful. Sorry for not replying...been so busy having just moved! Settling in a bit now.

We were thinking of taking a weeks holiday at around the mid/end of October. Ideally not too far to fly from Ohio (1-3 hours) and preferably by the coast. Would love to go somewhere still warm, but not really hot as our DD is still a baby and struggles with the heat (as do I!)..... We're thinking of a trip to Florida next January so would like to avoid going there twice....

Any ideas for locations??? Tia! :)

What about outer banks In NC? Anyone been there before?

It covers 200miles so any recommendations? We would like to be in our own cabin/house rental, but near a town with a bit of interest but not too overdeveloped. (We love a good diserted Cornish beach or Italian countryside to give you an idea of our sort of holiday! Flashing lights, clubs bars etc ain't our thing!) ;)

I was going to suggest the Massachusettes coast. Maybe Cape Cod or Martha's Vineyard? I've not been (yet) but we have friends who live there and it looks lovely.

Definitely don't come south! It's crazy hot down here; it was 107 on Sunday.

We're not going away until October.....outer banks should be a nice temperature then according to good old Google....

But Cape cod does look nice for a summer holiday thanks!

If it's October then the south will be fine. Even Oklahoma is beautiful in October! Although I'm not recommending it as a holiday spot of course

Well, it's finally here. The time has come for us to move back home to England! After three epic years in the U.S. we're on our way home in a few weeks' time. Stuff shipped, rental house nearly empty, school places sorted for DSs (following fun appeal!), now just trying to fill in the weeks and weeks of school hols when it's hotter than the surface of the sun so too hot to play out and all of the DCs toys have been sent back, so nothing to do indoors. Thank goodness for the community pool, otherwise we'd never leave the safety of air con!

Had an amazing three years here but very excited about going home, miss family and friends too much to make this a long term thing. DCs excited too, can't wait to see their old friends.

Anyone else done the move back? How did it go in reality?

Hello Potterwolfie. I can't advise as we're not going back for good until next summer.

Can I ask how you managed to get school places sorted? I was under the impression that you had to be living at the address you supply on the application, but that could just be a London thing. If there's another way, I'd love to know as we're facing the prospect of trying to find a year 1 place for DS when we return and it makes me feel sick with dread!

This may be too late but we love the Outer Banks. Beaches are gorgeous. However, the ocean in that particular area suffers in hurricane season so you have to be very careful with rip tides, etc. We've been twice and someone has drowned both times just up from the beach from us. Cape Cod's beaches are more gentle.

Any LA Mnetters around? There is a rumbling of a possible move there and I'm a bit nervous. I love California and think it would be more of a natural fit for our family than the neurotic North East, just not sure about LA itself iygwim. Any advice gratefully received!

Potter good luck moving home! My BFF returned home after 4 years and she said the hardest part was the reverse culture shock. She wasn't expecting it as she is British. Plus, someone stole her iPad out of the car about 3 days in. After living in an area where you could leave your car unlocked and nothing happened, she'd forgotten that's not the case in London!

Ugh, it's only been a week and I am DONE with August in Oklahoma. Even worse than the 100 + degree temperatures are the bloody cicadas. They never stop and they are so loud!

Fortunately we're going back to the UK the week after next for 10 days, so we'll get some respite. Then there's only September to get through before it starts to cool down a little.

mrsfrumble You are a star for surviving Oklahoma! You are a better person than me.

So I survived the 3 week trip back to Denmark but only just. We stayed at the PIL summer house out of a misplaced sense of loyalty. 8 people to 1 bathroom is not a good ratio and NEVER again are we doing this.

In other news, we found out that my constant pucking in Denmark was because I'm pregnant. I'm about 6 weeks along so very early stages. This is so very unplanned. We are panicking about living arrangements because we only have 2 bedrooms and the upstairs rental unit has been rented for $400 more a month than previously.

AmericasTorturedbrow here

Congrats want2be!!!

Very jealous of those talking of moving home, it's 3.5yrs for us and I want a plan now. Trouble is DH never wants to leave so.....

sethrogen there are a couple of us knocking about feel free to pm! I personally like LA a lot and got used to it quicker than I thought I wojkd

Congratulations W2B! That's presuming you're still here as I just read "The List" and saw you were on it. Hope you're ok. We're at the complete other end of parenting as our eldest leaves for college next week. What a rollercoaster of emotions it is!

Delivered thanks! The LA thing is now definitely not happening. I'm kind of disappointed as I LOVE California. There is a high chance we're moving onto pastures new though, so we will see how that goes.

Just logging me back in after hackgate (and being away for over 6 weeks of the summer).

W2B congrats! Three is a great number! Though hope the MS eases!

Hope everyone is well. Returning to the muggy heat of NJ made me realise quite how much I hate humidity! DS starts kindergarten just before Labor Day and we're planning a camping trip to Chincoteague in mid-Sept (as school will shut for a couple of days for Ros Hashannah).

Seth We are so scared about college. I doubt we will get any help with the cost so right now our strategy to is make sure the kids have Canadian citizenship as the fees are $6k a year. I can't justify spending $750k on college tuition.

Yeah the hackergate thing was so annoying. The only difference between MN and RL for me is that on here I have talked about a few issues around money which I would NEVER talk about in RL. Oh that and my MIL.

Hi Flip! The MS is still going strong sadly. I had my appointment yesterday and I am so sad that my obns joined Summit medical group. I thought about going with my old obn here in Hoboken but the front desk is a nightmare. It turns out I am proper high risk because I am officially fat (obese), had preeclampsia with DD and 35. Came home and would have cried in my cheerios if I had been allowed to eat them.

How exciting that your DS is starting school! DD is going into PreK 4 here and I hate to admit it but I am not happy that DD has so many days off school in September and October. Its a real pain to have to arrange care for one day and I am using my one day off a week to do my doctor appointments. I don't want DD to know I am pregnant yet.

Congratulations Want2B!

Congratulations W2B!

It's finally cooling down a little bit here (like low-to-mid 90s...) and the cicadas have all died or buggered off to hibernate, or whatever they do, so I can go outside again without being deafened.

DS started Pre-K last month and is doing really well. He's a total teacher's pet which has blindsided us, because he's (ahem) "spirited" at home. I've recently realized that different states have different cut-offs for starting school, so if we lived somewhere else he might have started kindergarten already (November born). Seems weird to me...

We've got some road trips planned. We're going to drive up to South Dakota in the fall break with my in laws who are visiting for October. The journey up through Kansas and Nebraska promises to be as boring as can be, but I've heard SD is beautiful and worth it. Mountains! Hell yeah!

In November we're flying up to New England and will drive around visit some friends in Cape Cod and upstate NY. I'm pretty excited.