California- north

[Cat1nthehat]

Looking at moving to Northern California- commutable distance to San Jose. Have 2 children aged 11 and 13. Any idea on what schools are like? They are in a very good school right now and moving them would mean losing their place. Is it hard to make friends?? I’m a teacher- not sure i would be able to do this out there without requalifying.

Wgat visa are you moving here with? That will determine whether you can work at all or not (whether as a teacher or anything else). You can look up the results and performance racked for the school district online. At their age, I would consider a school that offers the international baccalaureate as this will be closer to what they are used to. How long is the visa for or is it a permanent move? If it has a limited term you also need to consider their re-entry into the UK school system.

There are some excellent school districts but budget dependent. Cupertino, Palo Alto, Menlo Park have amazing public schools due to presence of Stanford University (professor’s children) and big tech companies like Google, Apple.

That’s the issue indeed - can you afford to live in the school district of your preference? It’s a dilemma many people face here. It’s not much use finding a really great school if the property in that district is completely out of reach.

A lot will depend on how many of the adults in the household will be eligible to work and therefore how much income the household will have.

Your enquiry seems astoundingly vague, OP. I looked into moving my family to SV a few years ago, and came to the swift conclusion that we couldn’t afford it. We had 4 children at Independent school, and a £1m budget, but couldn’t make it work. At the time, we could just about afford a small 3 bed house 2 hours commute from work.
The public (state) schools are excellent because they are funded by local property taxes, which are eye watering, and yearly.
Have you researched this at all?

Sorry my post is vague because we are at the very beginning of this journey. Husband currently works 50% in San Jose. His colleagues have told him Tracy is a cheaper place to live which is commutable. We are waiting for his company to put a package together so we know where we stand in terms of visas, money etc. I definitely would want to work, even if not as a teacher.

Tracy is far from San Jose! Will be well over an hour in traffic of rush hour each way driving.

So what visa is your husband currently on that he works over here 50% of the time? Sounds like it would be an L-1 but not necessarily....

Tracy is a hellish commute to San Jose. Probably more like 2+ hours each way during rush hour. We live MUCH closer to San Jose and it would take dh well over an hour during commute times when he worked down there. Schools are based on location unless you go private so there is massive variation in quality. High quality schools = higher housing costs generally. And like a pp said, an IB program at a private school is probably more ideal considering the age of your dc. The reality is the commute down to San Jose is awful from just about anywhere and the cost of living close to San Jose is extraordinarily high. The large tech companies do have commuter busses that make it slightly less awful. You need to seriously consider the cost of living and commute before you jump into this. It truly is eye wateringly expensive here. Housing of course is a big one, but food, mobile phones, etc. are more expensive as well.

Also, Tracy isn’t the nicest area to live and isn’t particularly close to the amenities of living in the Bay Area.

I live in San Jose and agree with everyone else, the commute is really horrible from just about anywhere.

Also the prices of everything is crazy

We both work and have good jobs, no kids and we don't save much a month as the cost of living is so high

Thanks for your replies. We are all here now for the next month whist he is working. I don’t think he has a visa- I looked it up and it says he would need a visa if he works more than 3months- he pretty much does mon-fri 2/3 2weeks a month in the US and comes home at weekends, which I’m sure you can imagine is pretty hard going why is why we are looking at moving here. Saying that, i can see it’s incredibly expensive, even a loaf of bread is crazy money.
His boss says he could be based in Boston (or just outside) which may be more realistic financially, I just love the weather and laid back lifestyle in California. We will see.

He can’t be employed here without a visa and any company that is expecting him to break the law for their benefit should not only be avoided but also reported. On the VWP he can attend business meetings, trade shows, etc but not work a day to day job. Be very careful. Seriously if it was that easy why wouldn’t more people be doing it? If he’s spending more than 180 days a year here he is also required to file a tax return each year. Does the company provide health insurance for him whilst he’s here? If they have 50 or more employees they have to provide health insurance by law - they don’t have to pay for it (they can require him to pay for it) but they must provide a plan. Geez. Putting yourself in such an illegal situation (especially with the current administration) is just crazy.

For teaching, each state is different. Get on the internet and find out. I was able to access all the info I needed online.

But generally, you're likely to have to pay some money and do a couple of tests, then apply for a teaching license.

However - it depends entirely on what visa he will be on as to whether you can work at all.

He has health insurance, world wide. He works for a huge global company and his job has evolved over the years that most of his work now seems to be based in the USA. He has meetings, visits customers etc. He is employed by the UK part of his company but as his job has evolved so much, more and more of his time is spent here. I don’t think anything illegal is happening here... his job has always involved a significant amount of travel worldwide but it seems it is mostly within the USA now.
As it said it is a huge global company... plenty of people in his company have relocated to other locations, eg China, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, it just so happens that most of his work for the foreseeable future is US based.

Your dh may or may not need a work visa (just because a company says you don’t need one doesn’t mean the USCIS agrees...). However you and your dc can’t just move to the US without a visa. You can enter as a visitor, but if you stay without having an appropriate visa you’ll be an illegal immigrate. The US frowns on that... So if your dh is going to continue to work for the U.K. division of his company, what kind of visa will YOU have?

That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I would need a visa that enables me to work. I would definitely not want to be here and not work. I guess maybe he would have to get a new contract with the US division of the company- we have kind of discussed this as he was asked what he wanted and he said he wanted his health insurance to cover pre existing conditions and also to keep his UK holiday allowance. Whether that would happen I do not know.
I spoke to him about the 180 days thing and he said he knows and so far he has not worked above 180 days here and hoping not to exceed that. He said he also thought it was optional??

Just to clarify- the kids and I are here on holiday at the moment!! We are not planning to stay right now!! We all have to be back in school in September- in the UK- we would of course be doing everything above board.

If you want to move and work, I would suggest looking into an L visa. Spouses can work on L visas and they are much easier to get than others. They are for people transferring to a US division of their international company, so it should likely be a good fit for your situation. H1b visas are the other common work visa and they are on annual lottery, very hard to get and no spousal work rights.

Income tax law in the US is definitely not “optional”. The IRS has a very far reach and likes to get theirs. US citizens are taxed on world wide income for example, which is not typical. Some major crime syndicates have been brought down on tax evasion as even illegal income is subject to tax. Be very careful not to get on the wrong side of tax law. They don’t look kindly on that, especially for immigrants.

Ha yeah bread price still makes me 🥺 and also pretty much everything else and I've been here 3 years. I live quite near San Jose you can pm me if you like, I agree Tracy is way too far away for commuting, in fact I hadn't heard of it which is not a good sign!

He is employed by the UK part of his company but as his job has evolved so much, more and more of his time is spent here. I don’t think anything illegal is happening here.

I think USCIS might say differently. From what you've said it does seem like your DH is "working" in the US rather than traveling on business for meetings, trade shows, conferences etc. A lot of people with US immigration experience would probably say it's only a matter of time before he gets questioned at immigration as to why he's visiting so often on an Esta and if it comes out that he's working 2-3 weeks a month in the US, that's going to raise all sorts of red flags. He could potentially be refused entry to the US on his Esta and then it's game over. He's not coming back to the US for a very long time on an Esta or a visa. You really need to seek advice from an immigration lawyer.

My husband works for a huge multinational too. He's worked all over the world including the USA. Every time he's been to the USA he's had to get an H1 visa, even if he's only three for 3-4 months. he's never been in the USA without an H1 visa, ever. It's illegal. It sounds fishy if his company are doing that.

Your husband company is putting your husband at risk by having him work a Monday-Friday job on an ESTA, if he gets caught (which he will eventually because why would a lone man frequently come for 5 days in the US) he will get ban from traveling to the US for 10 years, which means he will be flagged every single time he travels abroad (regardless of the country) and when he will be asked why he was banned from the US and reply he was working without a visa, he will be refused entry to those countries too, meaning you will not be able to travel abroad as a family anymore (and probably will make him lose his job as a result if his job is all about traveling!)

Not wanting to be alarmist but seriously, have his company provide him with a business visa, as he should be having instead of letting him be personally liable for breaching his ESTA conditions and working illegally in a country that is extremely strict on immigration which will impact personal life and your family if things go tits up.

As for moving to California, I live in the East Bay so not quite San Jose but I would have a look at Dublin and Pleasanton as the commute might be a tiny bit smoother?

have his company provide him with a business visa

^^ THIS!

You won't be able to work for 3 years minimum in my experience, the business visas only allow a non working spouse then you apply for green card status once in situ. Everything costs a lot more so it mostly comes down to the package on offer, even double a British salary would not be enough