Where to move for the lifestyle we desperate want

[MomRose12]

Hi all,
I am looking for some suggestions re best place to move to.

Background: DH and I work in Banking-IT. We live in a leafy London suburb. I've been struggling with managing work and home ever since we had our twins. My main problem seems to be the commute. 1.5 hours each way. Also, our 3 bed house has become tight for us now. We don't want to take on a large mortgage for a bigger house though.

Where in the UK can offer us a decent 4 bed detached home (under £500k), safe area, good schools and within 30 min drive of a town/city with banking/IT jobs? Is Leeds a good option?

6 weeks long term disability for maternity leave too? We own a publishing business in the USA and would still be there if we had a higher standard of living there. You're obviously lucky and in the 5% with great benefits. It is very rare however to get more than 2-3 weeks vacation and I've worked at HQ for Coke, American Family Insurance, Ga Pacific and The Home Depot.

Trust me stay in Europe where we don't own guns.

USA is a great option. But isnt getting here a big PITA? How did you move there? H1B? Isnt that super hard to get?

Some of you suggested looking for work first. Makes sense. The plan is to narrow down on 3-4 options and start looking for work there.

@MomRose12 it is an H1B or you can get a transfer L1 visa if you move with your company. It's more difficult now than when we did it 18 years ago. For standard of living I still think Canada or Australia is a far better option than the USA. The benefits system in the USA is not nearly as generous, and we may speak the same language but culturally we are poles apart.

Amsterdam

Just to add if you lived in Alwoodley in Leeds you would be in the catchment area for brilliant schools. Allerton High is an excellent school and just been rated outstanding by Ofsted

The golden triangle of York, Leeds and Harrogate is a lovely area to live but isn't as cheap as some Londoners think.
The central belt in Scotland would also offer a lot of what you are looking for.
The only easy way to get a visa to the US is to do a company transfer with a US company, from memory I think you have to have worked with them for a year. There will be other ways but that is the easiest.

Does it have to be the U.K.? There are plenty of cute villages around Amsterdam. You can take public transport or commute by bicycle or scooter.

Great to see so many singing the praises of my home town of Leeds. It's a great city and thriving at the moment.

However if you're think long term, Edinburgh would mean no university fees for your twins!

30 minutes commute really do-able in edinburgh from lovely areas.

To be absolutely clear, certain parts of the USA, NYC and the immediate surrounding area to be specific, are great for professionals like the Op. I wouldn't do the west coast myself. It's not a culture I am able to tolerate (I don't care what car you drive and how big your home is and find most people out there to be nothing more than a hospital gown with their rear end completely exposed without them even realizing). NJ and NY are good states to live in.

L1 and L2 visas are much easier and premium processing is still running. Applying for jobs in multinationals, I've seen people hired in the local UK office and work there for 1-3 months while the paperwork is completed to move them over to the Us.

We live near Newcastle husband is an IT consultant we are currently looking to up size in our middle class neighborhood and 4 bed detached houses are about 350-450k easy to get to town, the beach and the beautiful Northumberland countryside. Have a look at Low Fell, Gosforth, Jesmond and Ponteland on right move they would all fit your spec. Also train to London is fairly fast. Husband does it regularly for work.

We also have twins so I can even recommend a cracking twins north east FB page!