Moving to the US ? Any advice?

[Walkingandtalking]

Dh has been offered the opportunity to move to the US with his job. It would be a permanent move (so we would be looking to stay ).

The comapny seem keen and have offered to pay costs of getting us there etc (we are a family of 8 so that is considerable!). We just cant decide if it is a good idea or not!

I was hoping for some pearls of wisdom about moving abroad?

All of our children are homeschooled - we use an American curriculum we pay a fortune to import each year so schooling isnt an issue.

We dont have any close family we see regularly (we see them once a year or less) so we are not leaving people behind.

We dont own a house.

But it seems like such a huge move and a change in way of life - we would be going from a very small coastal town to Miami. It seems crazy!

Its just a total change and we cant decide if its too much of a risk!

Has anyone done this and regretted it (or not regretted it!)

Someone asked a similar question recently: here's the thread in case useful

DH offered a job in Miami- advice and help needed www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4499842-DH-offered-a-job-in-Miami-advice-and-help-needed

Thanks! That wasnt me but reading through the thread has given me lots to think about.

The job does include health insurance for all of the family and the salary is more (around $150,000) but looking at that thread people seem to say it is extremely expensive there!

I live in a Southern US city with a comparable cost of living to Miami and we would struggle (as a family of 3) to have a good standard of living on that salary.
The average house price in my city is $800,000, I spend at least $350 a week on groceries, $10,000 a year in property taxes (which is a relatively low for the US) and I'm about to start spending $75,000 a year on sending my DS to university, although you can get financial aid or loans IF you qualify.
We have excellent, top quality health insurance but our annual deductibles are still $2500 per person.
It's an expensive place to live, even my DS's soccer costs $10000 a year. Yes, you could cut costs but if you're looking for a better or different life, why would you want to cut costs?

Family of 8 with 150k salary, you won’t be able to do much realistically. You’ll find any spare money goes on health copays. Other things that are expensive is insurance, our house this year was going to be $4700!! 4hrs, 2.5 bath not an expensive house by any means. We just don’t find we have anything left for vacations or adventures so seems a total waste of time being here.

Check if they might sponsor and pay for your green card and citizenship in the future too. Quite pricey to get those. I have a first year high schooler and am freaking out about college costs, starting work soon purely to start saving more for that as it’s not his choice to be here so he shouldn’t be saddled with the debt, nor the 2 following.

4 bed…

And rent where I am for a decent neighbourhood is more expensive than paying a mortgage/tax/insurance

I think college for your kids will be the main issue - firstly whether your visa status when you arrive will mean the older ones have to pay international student fees, and secondly whether you can afford college fees for 8 kids.

Also, if your kids want to stay on with you but age out before you get into the green card queue, they'll have to find a different route to permanent residency.

One of the problems my DSIS encountered in the short term was that she arrived in the US but her furniture was a good few weeks behind her (and left before she did) due to delays with shipping. It meant she had to buy some basic furniture to tide her over.
DNephew completed high school in the US but did his degree in Canada because it worked out cheaper. He would also have been an international student in he'd studied at a UK university.

With company moves they will usually rent furniture for you until yours arrives though.

It’s baseline that the job will include health insurance. What you need to look at is the level of coverage, copays, deductibles and the out of pocket maximum. Even with insurance you should expect to have healthcare costs but how much these are likely to be will be down to the plan.

Miami is so expensive. I’d be astonished if you could find suitable housing for 8 in a nice neighbourhood on that salary.

What is your plan to pay for college if it’s a perm move? You cannot underestimate the cost of this.

Ages of the children are also significant. If any of the kids get too old before you’d become eligible for green cards then you’ll have a problem.

Lots of things cost more that you wouldn’t necessarily expect like groceries, insurance and property taxes. There’s a good reason why salaries are generally higher.

Miami is not cheap. $150K for 8 is not nearly as much as it sounds like. Agreed that you need to look at the details of the health insurance: how much your share of the premium is, and how much you need to pay out of pocket. Florida is also a problem for home insurance because of hurricanes and flooding. Keep in mind how much of the year you will need to be running air conditioning. Florida is known to be expensive for groceries. There's no income tax in Florida, and property taxes aren't too high, but many, many houses are in HOAs with sizable fees. The flip side of the low tax model is that public services in Florida are known to be poor. It's one reason Florida is on my list of states I'll never move to.

public university in Florida is actually fairly inexpensive; it's cheaper than the UK (under $7,000 a year). Usually you only need a year's residency to qualify for in-state tuition.

Don't worry about college unless your oldest children won't have green cards by the time they are applying.

On $150k and with six children you will qualify for financial aid.
The University of Florida cost of attendance before finaid this year is approx $22k for in state undergrads. (This is tuition plus room and board plus fees plus estimated student costs - books, etc -plus transport to and from).
www.sfa.ufl.edu/cost/

If your children are extremely intelligent and easily pass SAT and ACT tests, and can navigate the college application process, they may well get into one of the 66 or so extremely selective universities which offer to cover 100% of a student's demonstrated financial need. Again this applies to US citizens and green card holders, though some of these universities offer similar great finaid to international students.
Not sure how close you are to applying to college, but if your oldest child/ren will be doing this soon, you will need to hire a professional to navigate the process.

You need to get green card sponsorship from the company.

I agree that the devil is in the fine print of the health insurance. Ask for the paperwork and pore over it at length. Make sure you look up any terms you don't understand. Call any customer service numbers available and talk to someone who can explain issues you don't understand. Call the HR dept of the company and have a long conversation about the health insurance too.

It might be easier for you all to settle in and find your feet if the children were to attend school. Home schooling is quite popular in the US but some of the communities doing this tend to be what you might call 'fringe', though there are people whose children just plain don't thrive in the school environment. Public schools are free, paid for via property taxes.

Find an area to live where the schools are good. It will be important for your children to acclimate to life in the US if the move will be permanent, and going to school is how they would best do this. You will also find ways to get involved in the life of the school community. This will be important for you as you seek to develop friendships.

Agree 100% with Knitnerd wrt FL public services and the reason they are so bad. I think you might need a higher salary as a result.

More information about relocating to the US can be found on the BritishExpats website.

Though personally I'd give it a miss, for lots of reasons. Salary is too low, healthcare costs, potential problems associated with getting green cards (e.g. kids aging out), likely culture shock, what to if some of the kids fail to settle, the horrible climate, politics, guns, and what happens if husband were to lose his jobs before permanent residency is granted (also, some employers deliberately drag their feet with sponsorship because they don't want the employee to be able to move to a different employer...)

Make sure you have really REALLY good health insurance. A family of that size will cost you a fortune in premiums and co-pays.

And hold on to your hats about the cost of university...

IME premiums are per family, and don't go up as you add more children.

Copays could add up, although we just assume we'll hit our deductible every year, so it doesn't really matter if we had 1 child or 8 - the annual cost will be the same.

Also, as Mathanxiety pointed out upthread, if you have a lot of children you are likely to get more financial aid. We are on about double the salary the OP is being offered, with 2 in college, and both kids get scholarships covering 50% of the cost of their college.

Agree with knitnerd90's comments about Florida. DH was offered a job there many years ago on an excellent salary, and after checking out houses, schools, public services, general areas, we declined.

If you do it, you need to make sure that they cover the taxable cost of the move. so your move is paid for by them, but you'll get taxed on the value of that move in the US, so they need to build that in.