Atlanta for two years...yes/no/advice gratefully received!

[Snoodleberry]

We have been given the opportunity to move to Atlanta for two years with my husbands work. My company also have potential roles for me as well in Atlanta.

We have a two year old DD and another baby on the way.

Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on Atlanta, living as an expat there (I realise it is not your typical expat city!), living with small children there, working, housing etc etc.

Thank you!

Not sure what you mean by “not your typical ex pat city” or what that matters... there are ex oats all over the US. Those of us married to Americans moved to where the spouse is. In my case, a town of less than 5000 people where I am the only British person.

Anyway, find of what they are offering in terms of salary, healthcare coverage, relocation expenses, etc and get them to send you on a fact-finding trip before you accept. It’s s lit more expensive to live here than most Brits realize. They base their costs on being here on holiday. Living here, paying utility bills, health care, insurance, property taxes, etc is a whole other matter.

If they are organizing an L visa for him, you will be able to work once you get your EAD (currently taking in excess of 100 days to approve) as you will have an L-2 visa. The good news is that with the EAD you can work for whomever you want. It doesn’t have to be your UK employer.

If you are only intending this to a temporary move then you don’t need to get too bogged down in things that apply more to long-term moves such as buying a property, starting a 401(k), etc. I’m assuming you will be renting? But if you do want this to be long-term then you really must get it in writing from the employer that they will sponsor your green cards later down the line. Otherwise you have no path to live here permanently unless you have immediate family here who are citizens or LPRs.

If you are planning to have the next baby here, most definitely look at healthcare offerings, salary and your out-of-pocket requirements. Giving birth is a very costly exercise here.

Thank you so much for your response.

Is very much a two year stint, then back to the UK. Renting not buying, and baby would be here before we moved as am already 6 months pregnant!

Thank you for giving me lots to think about!

A food rule of thumb for s salary expectation is that your DH should take his UK salary, double it, and put a dollar sign in front. So, if he’s currently on £50k, don’t do it for anything less than $100k and so on. That is about what you would need to do to maintain your standard of living. Also ask them if they will be honoring his annual leave allowance. Many people who transfer here through work manage to do that. It’s common here to only have 5 days annual leave s year. Before my husband stopped working his allowance was 0 days, just the main federal holidays. My employer is “generous” with 22 days a year but that’s a combined total for holiday and sickness.