DH may have a job in the US !!!!!

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DH works for a company whose head office is in the US. They are huge and have factories all over the world. A new plant is being built in NY state which he has shown interest in and they are showing an interest in him. He is waiting to hear back from the hiring team.

I've gone into panic mode If the package is good we will be going permanently.

DCs are 10 and 14, not the best ages to move, especially with DD starting year 10 in September. School is my priority and looking at the areas I have no idea where would be a good place to live. The new factory is in Nichols and we would be looking at 30 minutes commute ideally.

I'm also worried my mh will be a problem as I've recently been diagnosed with dysthymia. Does anyone have any experience of relocating to the US with mh issues as I understand it can prevent you from getting a visa?

Congrats on the opportunity!! It sounds like your DH will probably be offered an L1 visa and you and the kids will get L2 visas. An L2 visa for you would allow you to work if you so wish. You can never really say that you are "going permanently" until you have the initial visas in hand and then if you decide you do want to stay permanently, applying for and getting Green Cards is how you will ensure you can stay for good. But Visas and Green Cards are never guaranteed and as much as the employer wants to send you to the US and you want to go, it's the US Government who has the final say and issues the Visas and Green Cards, not your employer. On an L visa, you can stay for a maximum of 7 years before you need to either return to the UK or have Green Cards in place.

You also need to be realistic and consider the possibility that you don't settle and want to return the UK. It's great that you're enthusiastic about the opportunity but the reality is many, many people make the move and are desperately homesick, don't like living the in US, miss much about home and cannot wait to return. I've known people that have made the move with the best of intentions to stay for a long period but have returned after 18-24 months. I'm not saying this will be your case, just be aware of the realities of such a life changing move. It can be very hard at times.

I don't think your health issues will impact your visa. As the trailing spouse, the application for your visa is pretty straighforward, there's no medical or medical questions for L visas, it's pretty much based around the job. Do make sure you understand the Health Insurance aspect clearly, presumably DH's employer will provide it but make sure you have an idea of what your monthly costs are going to be and what your co-pay costs are going to be each time you visit a doctor and if you need specialist doctors for your health issues, will there be local doctors who are in your insurance network?

Can't help with specifics about the area you're going to, the City Data website can be good for that www.city-data.com. The biggest tip is normally to speak to work colleagues from the local area and ask them about schools / housing etc. and presumably if it's a large company with an HR department, they will be able to offer re-location support. Also, if you can, take a trip over for a look see visit just so you have a broad idea of what you're coming to.

Hope that helps, ask me any other questions......exciting (but slightly scary!) times ahead for you.

Thank you real housewife, lots of useful info. The company do offer a comprehensive insurance package and I have a whole list of questions for DH to ask once the offer is official. I think there will be a relocation person to assist, there is one for the European side of the business.

I understand about the green card not being guaranteed, and glad my mh shouldn't impact on DH's prospects.

I'll check out the link you posted.

Ask your dh to negotiate uk holidays if possible.

No advice OP, just to say that NY state is beautiful! You'll love it

I've just looked at the map - Nichols is waaaaay out there in the middle of the state. Where do you live now OP - country, town, city? It looks like a small town without very much of anything nearby. How do you feel about that? It will be really cold in winter, so bear that in mind too and the winters are long in the northeast US.

I'd definitely try and visit before you commit. Has your DH been there yet? Ideally visit while its still the bleak midwinter so you'll know what you're letting yourself in for.

Couldn't agree more. I too checked the map and didn't want to be Debbie downer but it looks like the middle of nowhere. I agree with juneau, know what you're getting into. Looking at the map, it seems very close to the PA border so that might even be an option to actually pick a town that's in PA. That's pretty common for people to live in one state and work in another. If that turns out to be an option working in NY and living in PA, just read up on the tax implications of that.

Please carefully check about pre existing conditions applied to insurances. Some allow it, some have X amount of days before they will cover you that's "all clear" of whatever your condition is and some completely exclude it.
I've lived in the US and my worst nightmare would be to grow old and ill there.

Insurance companies in the US are no longer allowed to take pre-existing conditions under consideration. That is Federal law now.

Nichols is within commuting distance of Ithaca and Binghamton, both of which are terrific university towns. Ithaca in particular is a very well-known, kind of "groovy" area.

If a person works in one state and lives in another, that person just pays state taxes in the state in which he/she works, Federal taxes as usual, and local taxes in the area in which he/she lives. Very easy.

Oh, one more thought, NY has a very good state University system-affordable, and well-respected, for your kids if you do stay long-term.

Hi! My family lives in upstate NY, but waaaay up in the Rochester area.

I would guess that it's quite rural in nature - farming or ex coal mining?

Getting the kids into a school shouldn't be a problem. Generally if you live in a town/municipality then they have to give you a place at the local school. Schools get their money through local taxes, so a town with higher taxes (akin to council tax) will probably have better funded schools.

Also there is not an exam system like in the UK so it's no problem joining whenever. The only worry would be your kids returning to the UK in the middle year of GCSEs or A-levels.

Be prepared for some proper seasons up there! Snow in winter, hot in summer. Live somewhere with air conditioning if (like most British people) you can't tolerate heat.

Yes to asking for UK holiday allocation, US workers can have pitifully few days. (On my first job, for the first year I got ONE paid holiday day.)

I work in the US and get 26 days of vacation per year (everyone at my workplace does), but I agree, your husband's strongest negotiation time is now, so he should ask for what he wants.

I have looked at Binghampton and Waveley and a few other little towns. Will take a look at Ithaca. It's the schools that bother me, here we chose to send the DCs to a school out of catchment. I understand over there you go to the school assigned to the area you live so getting the area right is important.

We've lived on the outskirts of Leicester for the last 11 years so best of both worlds although I am a country bumpkin at heart.

I agree Horton, medical bills are a worry. I'm waiting for CBT and take anti-depressants at the moment with the aim to be off medication by next year. A lot of my problems are family related, we are not close at all, so this would be a fresh start.

The point about the winter - who knows? I wish it would snow more here . It's a good idea about visiting this season although DH may have to go himself. I work in a school so have no way of taking holidays during term time.

There is no waiting time for therapy here, and co-payments for medical care are small-free for primary care, and the pediatrician, $10 weekly for my therapy, many meds are $5-10 co-pay monthly. I have fairly standard insurance.

I would prefer an NHS-like system here, but what we have is not as dire as outsiders think, and eventually we will likely end up with a system much like Canada's.

I have noticed that on this board that posters always seem to respond with alarm whenever someone mentions moving to the US. Yet I have a cousin who emigrated here 35 years ago after getting a degree at Oxford (shameless name-dropping), and a dear friend who moved here from the Uk 15 years ago, and gosh, now that I think of it, there are many other examples I could cite-I have a friend who grew up in Paris, one from Austria, etc.

I don't live in a very exciting area, either, just a nice medium-sized city in the Midwest.

There is a lot to love about the UK, I respect it very much, but be wary of people's warnings and see for yourself if the US suits you.

P. S. I am the least jingoistic person you will ever meet-so this is not about me defending the US, that's not my style. I am a born skeptic. It just seems like people love to rain on other people's parades around here!

No offense intended, I am sure that some people find that I am excessively cheery.

You need to be sure about the green card situation. Your oldest can be an L2 dependent on your L1 visa until the age of 21, and then would either have to find a visa under their own steam or go back to the UK. So you need the company to sponsor you for green cards, preferably filing the application as soon as you land in the US. You would also need to check whether she would be classed as an international student for the purpose of college fees if she goes to college in the US (and likewise if she wants to go to uni in the UK, they might consider her an international student if she's been living in the US).

Ithaca is lovely and will have good schools as well as a more diverse community.

Way back in dark ages when I took AP classes, we spent pretty much the entire year preparing for the exam (high pressure, you have an hour to write an essay on a topic type of thing). How much credit you received depended on your test result score, not the class. And yes, it was great having a year's of classes done for "free" instead of paying university tuition for them :-)

Thank you, lots more to consider. Advanced placement is interesting. DD is more able in maths, science and English and has aspirations to be a vet. It worries me that the move could hold her back. She isn't completely against the move, Cornell University has grabbed her attention.

PitilessYank - we love the US, obviously only been there on holiday so not experienced the lifestyle but it's an amazing country. We married in Vegas 10 years ago and are supposed to be going back this year but that is on hold until we know what is happening with the job. Have spent two 3 week holidays visiting different places in Florida and were in New York the week before that terrible hurricane struck in 2012. Everywhere has good and bad points and sometimes you need to take a leap of faith otherwise life will be full of regrets.

Couple of points ... yes, AP can advance you through your freshman college year so that you can either take a reduced number of classes or skip it entirely. IB can do the same thing. When you look at the price of college (and the fact that many students do a master's degree too), it's worth taking this into account.....

Cornell is located in NY state. If you live in PA and your dd attends Cornell, I believe she will pay out of state tuition fees which are about $48k / year. For a NY resident, it's about $33k. It's always cheaper to attend college in your state. As an expat, the disadvantage is that we haven't been saving for college since our kids were born!

State universities cost less for state residents but private universities cost the same regardless of state residency, with Cornell being, I believe, the only exception to that rule. It is private, but has some public connection.

We moved here 6 years ago and love it here. We feel a lot safer and I think it's a great country for teens to grow up in...lots of sports open to all and no teen drinking...visibly I mean. We would cry if we had to return to the UK just because of the weather mainly which we don't miss