Part 3 of a series about moving to the US. Jump to the main article here.
INSTALLING BRIT v0.1
Here is an incomplete list of things to do in the USA when you first arrive. Mostly a bunch of dull paper work :S
Social Security Card
This is the first thing you need and all the paper work says you have to apply for it immediately upon landing, but SSN website says you can’t apply for it until you have been in the US for 2 weeks (10 working days) so their systems can be updated with your immigration arrival record. I did the latter and on the 10th day went in to their office.
This takes around 3 weeks to turn up in the mail once submitted and although I believe you can get the number from it earlier than this, I was not able to find a method at the time.
This number (the SSN) is needed to track your tax contributions,credit history etc… Basically the National Insurance number equivalent from the UK.
Drivers License
The law says you need to apply for your US license within 10 days of being in the US. HOWEVER! You also need your SSN to get driving license which doesn't arrive for another 3 weeks, so we just sat back and used our UK license until the SSN number was ready.
The license is applied for in 3 steps:
- temporary license valid for a few months
- written test (usually done at the same time as the above application)
- practical test
All this is done at the DMV which is a soulless place to visit. Book an appointment online or be prepared to spend 2 hours doing absolutely nothing. If you join the AA (like the AAA), they do have a DMV counter in their offices which I have heard can be good for walk in appointments, but never used it as most insurance comes with free breakdown recovery anyway. The AA can also give you a 10% discount on a lot of hotels however, which might pay back the $60 membership fee if you travel for a week or so in the US.
The practical test is trivial compared to the UK, but the written test is actually full of enough facts and figures that you have to revise or risk failure and another visit to their office.
Sample question: what is the maximum weight an infant can be in a rear facing seat?
Top tip - currently the 2 written tests for CA are available online if you Google a little... Usually, the DMV lets you take the second test if you somehow cock up the first one which is nice.
Bank Account
You want to get paid? Then you will need a back account and quickly.
The banks in the US are one of the downsides to living this side of the pond - they charge you to keep your money in their electronic vaults and give back a pitiful interest that costs more in time to declare in your tax return than actually contributed anything to your pocket. The main high street banks (Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America etc…) are all in this category with various levels of evil and gotcha’s depending on what account you have and with whom. Getting a bank account for your spouse who isn't working? Unless she has a balance of 1000 USD at all times and moves 75$ to a savings account every month, I’d expect a charge of around 8-15$ a month. The worst crime however is that most banks in the US allows you to use a competitors cash machine for free. They prefer to charge you 2-3$ per transaction to the privilege!
I originally opened an account at Wells Fargo to get off the ground as they were very close to my office and you will need to make several trips to get the initial account setup. I opened this with a British passport originally, then gave them my SSN when it turned up to build up credit.
After a near disaster with Wells Fargo trying to get a mortgage 4 years later, I moved to “First Republic” (https://www.firstrepublic.com/) bank who I actually can’t recommend enough. Firstly, there are no banking charges or minimum balance nonsense AND they refund all cash machine fees (even outside of the US) - this is mostly because they don’t really have many cash outlets and are very much an online based bank. Other upsides are that you get a private banker (mine is called Tim) who will transfer money around, cancel cards, phone you if your account is getting low and handle international money transfers for you. The only caveat with this is that I understand they want customers that earn over 100k USD a year (combined household income), although I don't see it written down anywhere so it might be a rumor.
Note that the first paycheck from a US company is usually in paper form, then the rest are electronic and transferred directly into your account. The pay is bi-weekly (means every 2 weeks in US terminology) and you can actually split up the wage into several different destination accounts at the majority of companies (i.e. 40% to me, 2% to the wife, 58% to new car fund) which is useful.
UK banks and money transfer
We actually kept all our bank accounts in the UK with enough money in them to take a trip back and not have to use a US based credit card. You do need a fixed address however to manage this, but really I only get junk mail from them - all statements etc… are online these days.
To transfer money to the US when we first moved over (first 4 weeks can be a bit lean which is why the credit card setup from the UK sounds like a great idea), I actually used XE.com as it had the best rates, then wired money to XE from barclays online account and waited for it to be deposited in my US bank account around a week later. The second time I moved over money was with First Republic who not only beat the XE transfer rate but also handled most of the transfer themselves including giving daily updates on where it was and what the micro-exchange rate was at the time. If you are thinking about going with First Republic and can hold off a few weeks for the transfer, I’d do it this way as I spent a considerable amount of time figuring it out myself the first time.
EAD
The Employment Authorization Document for L2 visa holders (the document that your spouse needs to be able to get a job) takes between 3 weeks to 3 months to apply for and arrive after you land in the US. Before this card arrives, the spouse is not allowed to work BUT they can volunteer (provided it is an actual volunteer position i.e. you cannot work for free in a position that someone would normally get paid to do in hope that it will become paid once the EAD comes through). Kirstin used to help out at the Ferry Building Farmers Market for example, helping with their fundraising events. There are hundreds of other examples of organisations in the bay area that really survive on donated time including our favorite, MuttVille and its considered very common to dedicate your career experience to charitable concerns.
Unfortunately, you cannot apply for a SSN until the EAD comes through (as really, the SSN is only needed to pay tax). However, this means you also cannot apply for a Drivers Licence until all this paper work is sorted out!
Health Insurance
As the US has really no free health care, it’s critical to setup your health, dental and opticians within the first week or so of arriving. Most companies offer a selection of health care providers, the difference really being the type of care you get, your choices in how to get the care and also the amount you pay out of pocket a month for it (either directly or in taxable benefits).
Employers will both setup health care schemes, arrange deals with the health care providers and also contribute a percentage of the cost per employee every month.
The main types of plans fall into the following categories:
Examples of this are Kaiser who run hospitals, doctors, birthing clinics and everything in-between. You sign up with these guys and you can only use their services (or pay full price elsewhere in cash). This is a cheap option if the employee ends up paying most of the cost of the health care, although if a company is paying all of the cost, it might not be the best option. Kaiser does have a good reputation however so you are not sacrificing health care, just flexibility and potentially wait times.
In short, its a company that might run some of its own hospitals etc… but more likely just has strong contracts with various private institutions that give it preferential rates to use them. If you select a HMO, you can attend any doctor “in network” as part of the plan, but if you stray “out of network” to use a specific doctor or service (such as root canal specialist), expect to pay a pretty penny. This scheme is good for people that want flexibility in their choice of health care provider, but still pay a low-ish amount per month.
Very similar to a HMO health plan, a PPO basically gives you a much wider access to a network of dentists, doctors and opticians in exchange for a moderately more expensive monthly premium. This is the plan we chose as we can look up reviews of dentists etc… and pick the best ones in the city for a good price. It rarely costs us much a year, although we have good health still and don't visit the doctors very often.
This is a strange one as its actually a bank account with ties to the medical profession. Instead of paying a premium every month, you put money into a special account (as will your employer) that comes with a VISA card and can be used to pay for health care as you go. A HSA usually negotiates rates with dentists etc… so you don’t pay full price, but you still pay in your money directly (from your special account). This is great if you don’t have some major expenses planned, for example, having our baby generated a bill from the hospital of over 80k USD to the insurance company - I don’t envisage having a VISA card with this much money on if hanging around! However, this is great if you don’t plan on being sick and just need incidental coverage.
For all of these schemes, there is generally a thing called “a co-pay” involved with any transaction. This is basically a fee from 5-40$ that you pay per visit to a doctor or dentist.
