# Offered job in Connecticut. Lots of questions!



## Ped - London to CT (Jan 31, 2010)

Hello everyone. 

I have just found this place and you all seem really helpful. I’ve been offered a move to our US office in Connecticut as part of the transition of an account I work on. I’m a 28yr old single guy. It seems like the sort of opportunity that wouldn’t come around very often and I am in the perfect position to go for it. However, I have a ton of questions about the whole thing, so as well as searching around the net and forums such as this for relevant posts, I thought I’d line them all up here so that anyone can answer particular bits they may know about. Here they are, although I may think of lots more!

I *think* I would get an L1 visa. (I can check when at work next week) This would definitely be arranged by the company on my behalf and free unless I leave within 2 years. Just as a ref, what would this cost i.e. what would I have to pay should I leave?

My current salary in the UK is £35k. I’ve been offered $67k / £41k upon relocation. I may still negotiate this up a little. Considering I’m moving from London to CT, what sort of relative amounts are these? What sort of tax etc would I expect to pay – is it any different for expats on a visa than US citizens?

Where to live? I’d be working in the Norwalk area. I’m guessing living in NYC is not the best idea as travel would be a nightmare (when I’ve visited our office, it’s a $15 cab to/from the nearest train station, so I couldn’t just get the train everyday). Norwalk itself doesn’t look great. I’d want a certain amount of ‘life’ to the area. From what I’ve seen, Stamford or Fairfield look like the best. At the moment, I would probably think Stamford, maybe it looks a bit younger and lively and also a bit closer to NYC should I want to go at weekends etc. What do you all think?

Getting a place. Rent my own flat or get a flatshare? Own place: I would not be moving much stuff and have always rented furnished, so don’t have the possessions to just move over to unfurnished. It seems that most places are rented unfurnished, but are there options for many furnished flats? It would be a pretty big outlay to fully kit out a place. Flatshare: probably better chance for furnished? Also cheaper and probably gives a quick head-start to knowing people in the area. But I might like my own place, well, just because!

Cost of renting. I can see the rents of rooms and flats, but what sort of extras would get put on top? Say, an agency puts a flat up for $1200 pm. Roughly what extra things would go on that and how much might they cost? Obviously this is an estimate, but $200pm or $1kpm ??

Contracts/ References. I have been subletting for the past 15 mths so can’t really get a proper landlord reference (but I could kind of fix one). I guess my credit rating in the US would be non-existent, but can I transfer some details over from the UK to show I am not in debt, pay my bills on time etc? 

Cars. I’d need to get a car! So, in the UK, on top of buying a car and the general upkeep involved, legally you need to pay Insurance, Tax and have an MOT. What are the relative legal requirements in the US and what sort of ballpark would they be?? Also, would I need to do anything to change my UK driving licence?

Moving stuff over. As I said, I don’t have much in terms of furniture and I’d just sell electricals and buy in the US. But if, say I wanted to ship a few boxes of clothes/ books etc. what sort of time/ price would this be? 

Ok, I think that’s everything I can think of right now! Any help greatly appreciated for any of these topics, and other advice as you see fit is very welcome. Thanks for reading this very long post!



Ped


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It has been a long time since I lived in Connecticut, but that whole Norwalk-Stamford stretch is really nice. If you're more of a city person, you could consider living in New Haven, which can be something of a "university town" thanks to the presence of Yale. Lots of night life, theaters, cinemas, interesting restaurants, and still within a reasonable shooting distance of NYC.

Your taxes will be identical to those of a US citizen. Connecticut has a state income tax - and actually, if you live and work in the same state you save yourself a certain level of hassle. Were you to live in NYC, you'd have all the fun and games of having to file returns in both the state in which you reside and another non-resident form in the state in which you work. Loads of people do this, but why complicate your life too soon?

For some of your other questions, the state of Connecticut has a pretty good portal website CT.gov Portal where you can track down the details of getting your driver's license, figuring out the mass transit systems, etc. etc.
Cheers,
Bev


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