Thinking of Moving to US

redcup342

Hey Guys,

Myself and the G/F are thinking of making the move to the US for a bit (she has a green card from the lottery)

Is there any Cities in the US that have a similar quality of Life to Germany/Holland that are near the coast with warm weather / beach ?

Also what is the norm with regards vacation days is it different per state ? Here in Germany we have a minimum 25 but it's more normal to have 30-32 days in your contract.

So really looking for:
Good Public Transport and Decent infrastructure for bicycles.
Reasonable cost of living (i.e. somewhere without crazy high rents and decent salary)
Close to the coast with a decent beach.
Decent weather (Year round warmish)
Relatively safe, i.e. can walk home at night time alone without problems.

Have been living outside Ireland for 10 years now and couldn't handle moving back purely due to the poor infrastructure and we really don't want to have to own a car plus there are some other problems that I couldn't really put up with

dartboardio

Why bother moving if Germany is so great? 😬

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

redcup342

dartboardio wrote: »

Why bother moving if Germany is so great? ��

Just fancy a change, Germany is great but having worked here 10 years would be nice to experience another country for a while.

Also, the closest beach is 2 1/2 hours drive away and it's cold for most of the year here

heretothere

I saw North Carolina (or maybe south!) on a travel show once their beaches looked very nice. Also Georgia have a few cities along the coast.

I don't know if I could adjust to the lack of holidays over there. Any of my friends who have worked there only used to get 10 days per year! It would be a great experience though. If you are very good at your job you can argue for more. A guy I know works for Pixar and gets 30 days per year. He was head hunted from London though so I think his leverage was high! Even at that they kept trying to throw more money at him instead but he held out.

s7ryf3925pivug

You get 30-32 days holiday typically in Germany? Wow I'd love that. Burned through most of my holidays for this year already. We've been half considering moving to California but the hours and commutes are not attractive...How much sunshine do you get compared to Ireland?

Think Southern California in general seems lovely. Nice people, great weather from what I've seen. Newport Beach area is particularly nice but prohibitively expensive. Also everyone drives and the roads in the surrounding area are huge and very busy; not much transport infrastructure apart from roads afaik in California in general

s7ryf3925pivug

I've been told that Pixar are unique in that they can allow a greater focus on quality and less on throughput than other studios. Reckon their conditions are not typical of offices in general.

irelandrover

I have a few friends that transferred within the company from The Netherlands to the US. All are moving back after 2 years there.

The quality of life is a lot higher in Netherlands than it would be in the US.
Obviously the holidays is a big thing but for them the amount of hours expected per week was higher in the States that made a work/life balance very tough.

dartboardio

Yeah the quality of life in California seems good, from family members experience, and the pay is quite good apparently, comparing to here, for the same job you'd earn alot more.

coylemj

dartboardio wrote: »

Yeah the quality of life in California seems good, from family members experience, and the pay is quite good apparently, comparing to here, for the same job you'd earn alot more.

Along with the streets being paved with gold, did your family member mention the sky high rent they're paying and the crap annual leave?

boreder

coylemj wrote: »

Along with the streets being paved with gold, did your family member mention the sky high rent they're paying and the crap annual leave?

Average Software Developer in Dublin, €43,000

Average rent in Dublin is €1,774

4.13% of salary in rent

- -

Average Software Developer in SF Bay Area, $112,000

Average rent in SF Bay Area is $3,250

2.92% of salary in rent

- -

I'll leave it to you to work out who has the most money left over for everything else, too.

Sources;

https://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/property-mortgages/revealed-the-average-rent-in-each-county-in-ireland-36317785.html

https://www.payscale.com/research/IE/Job=Software_Engineer/Salary/1f999540/Dublin

https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer/Salary/a5e48575/San-Francisco-CA

https://sf.curbed.com/2018/1/4/16850432/median-rent-san-francisco-2017

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

él statutorio

coylemj wrote: »

Along with the streets being paved with gold, did your family member mention the sky high rent they're paying and the crap annual leave?

The annual leave isn't crap, it's what you negotiate. My annual leave is the same as I had back in Ireland.
Yes, the rents are high, but, no worse than Dublin.

s7ryf3925pivug

I checked my role and the average salary would be 39k euro greater than mine per year after tax including state tax, if I did it right. Rent increase using figures above would be about 24k euro per year. (I'm not Dublin based.) 15k would be a nice bump but not enough to be compelling by itself.

él statutorio

Braydon Purring Goggle wrote: »

I checked my role and the average salary would be 39k euro greater than mine per year after tax including state tax, if I did it right. Rent increase using figures above would be about 24k euro per year. (I'm not Dublin based.) 15k would be a nice bump but not enough to be compelling by itself.

Maybe not. Plus you forgot Federal taxes.

However, I can only speak for myself, I found that my quality of life has gotten better. I don't know if it's just the increase in sunshine or the attitude of the people, but, I'm a lot happier here than I was in Dublin. I miss Ireland, my friends, the craic and all that, but I can't see myself moving back.

s7ryf3925pivug

él statutorio wrote: »

Maybe not. Plus you forgot Federal taxes.

However, I can only speak for myself, I found that my quality of life has gotten better. I don't know if it's just the increase in sunshine or the attitude of the people, but, I'm a lot happier here than I was in Dublin. I miss Ireland, my friends, the craic and all that, but I can't see myself moving back.

No I didn't. I used an online calculator.

Weather and people's attitudes are both major positives imo too. Think I'd definitely see it as preferable to Dublin. I'm not in Dublin though. I have a short commute and peaceful country village.

Pkiernan

Overall taxation in California, including State and Federal taxes is still much lower than in Ireland.

Fuel and Insurance costs are half the cost here.

Only big difference is healthcare, which if subsidised by the employer is the best on the planet.

él statutorio

Pkiernan wrote: »

Overall taxation in California, including State and Federal taxes is still much lower than in Ireland.

Fuel and Insurance costs are half the cost here.

Only big difference is healthcare, which if subsidised by the employer is the best on the planet.

Even the State issued coverage is pretty good for some stuff.
Our youngest had some speech issues and the State sends 2 people out to the house 1 day a week at no cost to us to work on it. We're lucky in that we only need the one day a week but it doesn't cost us anything.

s7ryf3925pivug

él statutorio wrote: »

Even the State issued coverage is pretty good for some stuff.
Our youngest had some speech issues and the State sends 2 people out to the house 1 day a week at no cost to us to work on it. We're lucky in that we only need the one day a week but it doesn't cost us anything.

They're pretty autism friendly in CA. Probably a high incidence because of tech communities there. Not assuming that was the root of the speech issues in your case. Just that autism friendliness would be consistent with good supports for speech delay.

I personally had speech delay but there was successful intervention before I went to school. This was lucky, you would expect to wait too long in Ireland usually for intervention, so it usually would impact schooling afaik.

circular flexing

redcup342 wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Myself and the G/F are thinking of making the move to the US for a bit (she has a green card from the lottery)

Are you a US citizen? If not, then US Immigration doesn't generally allow non-married partners to immigrate.

él statutorio

Braydon Purring Goggle wrote: »

They're pretty autism friendly in CA. Probably a high incidence because of tech communities there. Not assuming that was the root of the speech issues in your case. Just that autism friendliness would be consistent with good supports for speech delay.

I personally had speech delay but there was successful intervention before I went to school. This was lucky, you would expect to wait too long in Ireland usually for intervention, so it usually would impact schooling afaik.

Our guy is just lazy when it comes to speaking, plus he has a sister who speaks enough for 5 kids so he's not arsed.

From speaking to family back home you'd go on a waiting list and by the time you get seen it's too late so people just go private.

I was very surprised that the state covered it all here, my expectations were low and I expected to have to go private but it was a nice surprise to have it covered. I didn't actually realize what the state covered, it wasn't nearly as bad as I assumed.

cena

redcup342 wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Myself and the G/F are thinking of making the move to the US for a bit (she has a green card from the lottery)

Is there any Cities in the US that have a similar quality of Life to Germany/Holland that are near the coast with warm weather / beach ?

Also what is the norm with regards vacation days is it different per state ? Here in Germany we have a minimum 25 but it's more normal to have 30-32 days in your contract.

So really looking for:
Good Public Transport and Decent infrastructure for bicycles.
Reasonable cost of living (i.e. somewhere without crazy high rents and decent salary)
Close to the coast with a decent beach.
Decent weather (Year round warmish)
Relatively safe, i.e. can walk home at night time alone without problems.

Have been living outside Ireland for 10 years now and couldn't handle moving back purely due to the poor infrastructure and we really don't want to have to own a car plus there are some other problems that I couldn't really put up with

I wouldn't be able to work at all without a visa.

Fr Tod Umptious

redcup342 wrote: »

Hey Guys,

Myself and the G/F are thinking of making the move to the US for a bit (she has a green card from the lottery)

Is there any Cities in the US that have a similar quality of Life to Germany/Holland that are near the coast with warm weather / beach ?

Also what is the norm with regards vacation days is it different per state ? Here in Germany we have a minimum 25 but it's more normal to have 30-32 days in your contract.

So really looking for:
Good Public Transport and Decent infrastructure for bicycles.
Reasonable cost of living (i.e. somewhere without crazy high rents and decent salary)
Close to the coast with a decent beach.
Decent weather (Year round warmish)
Relatively safe, i.e. can walk home at night time alone without problems.

Have been living outside Ireland for 10 years now and couldn't handle moving back purely due to the poor infrastructure and we really don't want to have to own a car plus there are some other problems that I couldn't really put up with

Hi OP
You probably know this yourself but you are not going to get that wish list in any one US city

US cities are very different to European ones but the good ones each have their own merits that make them good places to live.

Older cities like Boston, NY and Philly can have very decent transport systems, and are close to the beach etc, but the weather can suck in the winter

West coast and southern cities have great weather all year round but are far more spread out and a car is essential

The most desirable places will always be the ones with the crazy high rents, wherever you go.

Many cities have both safe and dangerous neighborhoods, many just a few blocks apart.

Don't allow your familiarity with the European city lifestyle restrict your enjoyment of the US city lifestyle.

And as another poster asked, what are you doing for a visa as your GFs green card is of no help to you ?

boreder

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It was more just to dispel the 'high rents outweigh the increased salary' stuff, than a financial or mathematical education.

The tax (federal + state) rate in CA is less than Ireland. So the difference would be even more significant. There's also stuff (someone already mentioned) like buying cars, fuel, car tax, etc. that is far cheaper here.

redcup342

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Hi OP
You probably know this yourself but you are not going to get that wish list in any one US city

US cities are very different to European ones but the good ones each have their own merits that make them good places to live.

Older cities like Boston, NY and Philly can have very decent transport systems, and are close to the beach etc, but the weather can suck in the winter

West coast and southern cities have great weather all year round but are far more spread out and a car is essential

The most desirable places will always be the ones with the crazy high rents, wherever you go.

Many cities have both safe and dangerous neighborhoods, many just a few blocks apart.

Don't allow your familiarity with the European city lifestyle restrict your enjoyment of the US city lifestyle.

And as another poster asked, what are you doing for a visa as your GFs green card is of no help to you ?

It's more for her really she's looking to get some experience on her CV, I won't need to work as I'll be on a 6 month Sabbatical from my long term working time account (although potentially longer) (B2 Visa)

After talking to a lot of US Colleagues/Friends here though in Germany they all seem to have the consensus that we'd be crazy to go to the US and the time would be much better spent going to Asia, plus it seems for non-native English speakers the market can be quite tough (even though she speaks perfect English)

Will need to decide in the coming months, she's not really that gone on it anymore and thinking of handing back the green card and we just go on a tourist visa instead (since it seems they can deny you entry on the Green Card if they don't believe you plan to stay there permanently)

Fr Tod Umptious

redcup342 wrote: »

It's more for her really she's looking to get some experience on her CV, I won't need to work as I'll be on a 6 month Sabbatical from my long term working time account (although potentially longer) (B2 Visa)

After talking to a lot of US Colleagues/Friends here though in Germany they all seem to have the consensus that we'd be crazy to go to the US and the time would be much better spent going to Asia, plus it seems for non-native English speakers the market can be quite tough (even though she speaks perfect English)

Will need to decide in the coming months, she's not really that gone on it anymore and thinking of handing back the green card and we just go on a tourist visa instead (since it seems they can deny you entry on the Green Card if they don't believe you plan to stay there permanently)

You are right about the taking back of the green card, you cannot use it willy nilly to get in and out of the US, you have to show them that you plan on becoming a permanent resident which is what the green card is for anyway.
They can take it off you on entry to the US if they dont think you have plans to become a permanent resident.

Not sure if the US or Asia is the better place right now, but good luck with whichever you chose.

Das Reich

Go to Australia or New Zealand. Chile is also a very underrated country for being surrounded by less developed countries, but it have a great wages, very good infrastructure and quite safe country, more than the USA. And the landscape can't be compared to the USA.

jme2010

Das Reich wrote: »

And the landscape can't be compared to the USA.

Not sure what your getting at, but for a single country, nothing beats America for diverse landscape.

redcup342

jme2010 wrote: »

Not sure what your getting at, but for a single country, nothing beats America for diverse landscape.

Ehhhh ... Russia :pac: ?

dennyk

As others have noted, your wish list might be tricky in the US. Most of the places where you can truly get along easily without a car are in the larger cities, but they are also quite expensive to live in for the most part, especially in the areas which are well-served by transit. The northeast cities which are the most compact and transit-friendly tend to have fairly cold winters with lots of snow. California is warm all year round, but also insanely expensive; you'd almost certainly need a car to commute from anywhere even remotely "affordable" (meaning it doesn't literally cost more than your net salary to live there...).

There are other cities where you might be able to go car-free if you live in certain parts *and* you can find a job close to there, but there may not be jobs available, and housing in those particular areas might be expensive. "On the coast with a nice beach" also means "high cost of living", and if it's not New England or California, most likely means "no jobs or public transit" as well. Very few cities have what any European would consider proper bicycle infrastructure, so you'll be "sharing the road" directly in most places. "Safe enough to walk home at night alone" highly depends on where you live, and in many of the bigger cities, how much you're willing to pay.

The norm for vacation time in the US depends on the company, how in-demand your job is, and what field you're in, really. Paid vacation leave is not mandatory anywhere in the US. A few states now have laws requiring a few days (literally) of paid sick time per year for most employees, however. Standard vacation for most "white-collar" office/professional jobs is often two weeks a year (10 days) when starting out, which sometimes increases after working for the same company for several years. This time is also often combined with sick leave, e.g. you get 10 days of total leave a year which you can use for vacations or for sick leave). It can vary considerably; in a field like IT where competition for talent is more fierce, places often offer more on average. Hourly service/retail type jobs rarely get any paid time off at all. Some companies offer "unlimited" vacation time, but in many cases that is just an accounting trick to get around having to keep paid time off balances on the books as a liability, and the reality is that the company culture discourages taking any time off at all, and very definitely frowns on taking more than a week or two each year. At any company, taking more than two weeks off in a row is likely to be frowned upon or denied outright, and even two weeks in a row may be considered unacceptable at many companies; many US employers run very lean on staff to cut expenses and don't have the necessary coverage to have employees be absent for long periods of time.

Work culture in the US is definitely a "live to work" mentality. Again, it can vary considerably from company to company and job to job, but working long hours, putting in extra time on nights and weekends, and being effectively "on call" and expected to respond to business emails and phone calls 24/7 (including while on holiday) is the norm in some industries. Workers in the US have few protections; 49 of the 50 states have "at-will" employment where the employer can fire an employee at any time for any reason (except a few specific ones such as illegal discrimination or in retaliation for certain legal actions) or for no reason at all. (The flip side is that an employee can theoretically leave a job with no notice for no reason as well, but as I'm sure you can imagine, that doesn't exactly balance out...). Trade union density is significantly lower in the US than in Germany, and most of that membership is in the public sector only.

As you're probably aware, health care is enormously expensive in the US, and in many states recently arrived green card holders generally would not be eligible for the few (and very inadequate) need-based public health care programs in the US until they've lived there for several years, so you would need to have private health insurance. Some employers will offer subsidized health insurance plans as a perk, but the quality varies considerably, and the employer will usually only pay for part of the premium. Individual plans outside of your employer can cost hundreds of dollars a month for the cheapest plans with the poorest coverage. Under many plans you will often have to meet a four-figure deductible before they'll pay for anything, and they may only provide partial coverage after that. Most plans also only cover certain doctors and medical facilities in their "network", and provide much less coverage (or no coverage at all) for out-of-network expenses; because of the complexity of insurance networks and medical services, this can lead to enormous unexpected medical bills in some situations, e.g. if you go to an in-network GP but they send out your lab work to a third party lab that is out-of-network, you may get stuck with the full bill for that lab work. Basically the entire system is a giant cluster****; there's a reason hundreds of thousands of Americans go bankrupt due to medical bills every year.

Taxes in the US tend to be lower than in European countries, even in the states with high state and local taxes. No idea what the effective tax rates are in Germany, but you will likely pay less tax overall in the US (although when you factor in health insurance costs, you may well end up paying *more* out of your paycheck in the end...). As I'm sure your girlfriend has already discovered, the tax filing system in the US isn't very simple, although if she's over there for a full tax year and doesn't have any foreign income for that year, that will simplify her US tax filing for that year a bit (just remember that if she maintains financial accounts in Germany that exceed the reporting threshold, she'll still need to keep filing her FBAR every year to report those, though...).

In general, the real reason to move to the US is money; salaries there tend to be higher than in Europe (*much* higher in certain fields such as IT and in certain geographic locations like Silicon Valley). There really isn't any other advantage to working there over working in Europe besides salary, honestly (other than the experience in general, of course; never a bad thing to get to see what it's like to live in another part of the world!).

jme2010

redcup342 wrote: »

Ehhhh ... Russia :pac: ?

pfft.