LJ75

I am not going to have my SSN by the time I'll need the car. The idea is to get the car as soon as we land in Syracuse, and then drive down to Charlotte. It would save us a lot of time and hassle. Well, if it can be done, great, and if not, so be it. Thanks, though.

In a nutshell, I won DV lottery, and will be landing in Syracuse shortly. I was going to ask my brother to buy a car on my behalf, and then sell it to me pretty much as soon as I land. By that time, I still won't have my SSN, let alone a green card. 

I checked for old posts, but they are either very old, or the situation is different from mine.

So, are there any obstacles for me to buy a car from my brother? How would it work when it comes to insurance? If he can't sell it to me, can he remain the owner, and get an authorization (from where= for me?

Love and peace all and thanks.

Well, we are in a similar situation, and here's the topic where we discussed it;

In a nutshell, based on everything we found out, you / we should not need to pay tax on the money you transfer into the US. 

If you discover anything new, pls let us know, or you can pm me.

There are some great properties, so we'll see what's feasible. 

In some cases, there is an application fee just to get on the waiting list, and I am not sure I'd be OK with that - really not clear what do I get in return for that fee.

Also, did they come furnished, semi-furnished or what? 

1 hour ago, EmilyW said:

We were in your exact position last year moving to Charlotte.

 

We opted for an apartment with Weinstein Properties because they were more immigrant friendly in that the lack of credit history etc didn't hurt us with them. Other companies just ignored us because we were too hard work.

 

With Weinstein, I contacted them and they helped me through the application process.  My brother acted as a guarantor for us.  And we proposed paying our lease in advance to offset the fact that we were a high risk for them.

 

They are upfront about month to month rental costs so you don't have to do any negotiation with them.

 

For us, it was a good experience.  The apartments were nice - if a little dated - and it was a soft place to land when we first got to Charlotte.  

Thanks. We don't mind paying in advance as long as the place is OK and everything is legit. We'l contact them and see if we can get somewhere. I am not clear though on why your brother needed to act as a guarantor if you paid your lease in advance - shouldn't it be one or the other?

We are a family of 4 expected to make the move in August, after I won DV lottery and we passed the interviews. My brother and his family live in Syracuse, NY, and this will be our first address (already got the tickets). 

Now, based on our research, we'd probably be better off elsewhere, and after looking at various options and criteria for months (COL indices, schools, job openings, but also weather, potential commute times etc), we believe that Charlotte NC would be a better place for us to start our new lives.

The thing is, we don't have anyone in Charlotte, and we'd practically be on our own from the day we land (from Syracuse, sometime in August / beg Septemer). I am hoping that my brother could possibly help with the credit card, being a guarantor for the property etc, but we need to look at the alternative in case he (declines).

So, the tentative plan is to get as much done as possible online even before we get there, then get AirBnB for a week or so if we need to, and then get a 3/6 month rental in a good area (main factor being public schools quality - middle and high). 

It'd be great if we could get your experience about finding a place;

• what was your approach
• what were you looking at
• how did you get to know about it
• how were the landlords and your experiences with them
• how did you (and they) go about your lack of credit history
• what were the terms you eventually agreed on
• what would you do differently if you were to do it again

Thank you both. Of course, these are major decisions, and I'll triple check before making such an important call. Ultimately, I'll contact a US based accountant for concrete advice. 

Btw, Ernst&Young file my taxes, and contractually, they are supposed to assist me on these matters (one of the perks I have under my current contract), and I have asked them for guidance on this matter, but all I got from them so far is that 'should any additional tax obligations arise as a result of my relocation to the US, it is not xx company's responsibility to pay them, but mine (i.e. LJ75's)'. Well, thanks, of course. I'll keep pushing, see what they say.

I have also sent a preliminary inquiry to my real estate agent anyway, just get a feel about the prices etc.

Overall, there are many of us who have at least some capital that we plan to carry into our adopting country, yet I was surprised to find very limited info on the subject - and I am talking about general guidelines, not specific instructions from the IRS website.

So, your guys' advice has been invaluable, and personally, I would make this topic a sticky, adding, of course, a link or two and a bit more general info.

 

Only the gain is taxable, not the whole value.

This is great news, thanks.

 

Your assets in general are not taxed. It is INCOME tax, so new income money earned during a given calendar year whether it be a profit from selling mops or a house. Or from employment or interest or dividends. 

 

Can you please clarify a bit the term 'calendar year' in this context - i.e. if I enter US in August (and hence become PR), will my income received before this date be taxed? I have read different interpretations on the issue.

It's been a while, but here's what happened; Originally, my interview was scheduled for May 15th. That did not work for us, so I called the embassy, and asked them to reschedule it. You cant really pick the exact date, but there is a degree of flexibility. So, my new date is June 12th, and they suggested that I don't reschedule again.

So, in short, based on my experience, if you need to reschedule, just call them, and check what are the options. Of course, this may depend on the embassy, but they were really nice when I contacted them (Sarajevo, Bosnia).

You will not get any written confirmation, and your 2nd letter will still have the initial date, but they reassured me that it will not be an issue.

Thanks a lot, extremely useful.

Based on your replies, I am OK when it comes to cash and near-cash. However, I need to figure out what to do with the real estate. We'll be moving either to NY or NC, and I guess tax rates vary from one state to another. So, we need to see are we better off paying the tax eventually, or selling quickly, even at a loss.

Quote

There are many ways - I used a currency broker to get the best currency rate, and they are normally (not always) cheaper than banks. I can refer you to who helped me at TorFX, she was very prompt, and professional and things went incredibly smooth. She answered all and any silly questions I had. Let me know if you want her info.

Yes, thank you, I'd appreciate that.

Again, if I find out anything from E&Y, I will post here. 

As the title says, I won DV lottery, and we (SO, 2 kids and I) have our interviews scheduled in June, and unless something unexpected happens, expect to move across the pond in August 2017. I also don't think our situation is unique, and quite a few of us posters will have the same dilemmas.

We're in our early 40s, and over the years, we have managed to save a bit, and purchase a few properties. If everything goes as per plan, most likely we'll sell them, and permanently settle in the US.

Hypothetically, let's say this is the situation:

• I have 100K in savings account.
• In addition, I expect 100K to be paid in June this year as a completion bonus for my current contract.
• I also have 100K in properties.

All of this has already been taxed by my home country (which doesn't have any tax agreement on double taxation with the US) (and since I work as an expat, my income also by my host country). It's not a bad problem to have, but it's still a problem. I'd appreciate your views and experiences on the following:

• What are the tax implications of moving to the US?
• What is the best and most economical way of transferring the funds?
• What should I expect going forward?
• None of my net worth has been generated in the US, and although I expect this to come up in 2018, what should I expect?

Of course, we will contact a tax consultant on this (and tbh, I have already asked Ernst&Young, who currently file my taxes, and I will share once I hear from them), but I'd be also interested to hear what esteemed posters think.

Well, no replies, but here is what we did.

They got their new passports, then I called the embassy, and they told me to wait till the case is with them (it's with KCC now), so that they can unlock it and change it.

Quite straight forward.

I am sure this must have happened to some of us, and if there are earlier but recent discussions, I apologize for duplicating, but I would appreciate if can share the links.

We are DV lottery winners, and my wife and son are running out of passport pages, and we wanted to get new passports before the interview. My number is EU25xxx, second draw, so interview will probably be in May or more likely, June. Of course, we are all current, and our case is still with KCC.

Just your thoughts / views on our situation:

– Are we better off waiting until the case is with local embassy to call them, ask them to unlock the case and change passport details
– Wait until the interview, do nothing, and just bring both passports on the interview date
– Email KCC now, ask them to unlock it, wait. change, and see what happens

What would you do?

atlanta isnt good you shouldnt consider it

Care to elaborate?

We go out moderately, love gardening, spending time outdoors, yet it would be great if our kids had some company. It's be also great to have access to some walking zones, where you can just stroll, walk, go to some cafes, etc. I've lived on three continents, so I can adapt easily, and wife and kids are quite flexible too. Ideally, we would like to go for an LSD (look-see-decide), but don't think it's feasible - There just isn't enough time, and once we are there (well, we still need to pass this DV interview and get our visas), we'll need to start looking for jobs, visiting schools, buy a car and so on.

Maybe once we are there we can fly out to some of alternative locations before we settle, we'll see.

West coast sounds great, but realistically, it's quite expensive. In Seattle, our rent would be 2000+, and decent houses / areas are almost 500K. Portland is not much better either, and the same amount of money gets us much more in most other places I listed in the table. We are not in IT, and I'd rather be conservative with our projected salaries in the beginning.

As for the jobs, it's quite simple - there is direct correlation between the size of the city and number of openings. Of course, it also means that there a lot of people applying for the same job like you...

Thanks a lot SusieQQQ. If you are doing all of this pro bono, you deserve a statue, and if not, you deserve a smaller statue.

did you list a current address in Bosnia in your form?

Yes.

Dou do know that you need to do medicals in the country you are interviewing in, right?

Sure. We are gooing back home for Christmas / New Year, going to check where are we with the vaccinations, get some if required. And then get the medicals done prior to the interview. We were already in touch with authorized clinics. It takes half a day for the medical, and then another day, max 2 for the results.

I think your concerns about doing the interview in Nigeria are very overblown tbh

I wish you were right, but they are not. It's a great country, amazing people, but unfortunately things don't really work here. I've been here for the past 3 years, and it's been very 'interesting' at times. My biggest concern is that the interview will be scheduled after my contract has ended, and then getting the visas for the four of us would be very challenging.

The one drawback of Lagos is that it will be almost impossible to reschedule.

Correct.

Just to emphasize, as it's not clear you understand this given your comment about Lagos "there is the risk that by the time it's our turn, they will have run out of visas": your interview will be scheduled in a particular month by KCC regardless of what the interview location is. It is based on your case number alone and won't be later than it otherwise might have been just because it's in Lagos.

Of course, this is the case with the original / initial interview. The risk is in case I reschedule the interview, and the rescheduled slot is e.g. in September. However, as I mentioned, smaller embassies tend to be more flexible, even accommodating in some cases. However, based on what I have read, there really are no rules, and it varies from one case to another.

Well, if they schedule it e.g. end of June, July - perfect. In it's earlier (april / may), first we'll check with the school - there will be a short break in April which we may use to do the medicals etc. If that does not work, we'll call the embassy and check if we can reschedule it for July / August.

Once again, thanks for your help.

Thanks everybody, your inputs have really helped narrow down my choices. Not sure how much is visible, but I updated the table I posted earlier. I added COL index and property price to income ratio. Some of the elements are very subjective and I may be even incorrect.

I just tried to quantify everything, since I have no emotional preferences for any of the areas listed.

However, my wife and I did have a long conversation with my Syracuse area based brother and his wife, who strongly encouraged us to move there, since everything will be easier and they would be able to help us - more with sound advice rather than financially (we will have enough funds for the first year or two). Still not sure though. In plain terms, our first two choices are Minneapolis-St Paul and Charlotte, followed by those other places you see on the list.

Rent is based on rent.com, housing on trulia.com, schools on greatschools.org, COL and price to income ratios on numbeo.com etc.

There's still plenty of time to decide, and all your inputs are welcome.

Hi all, and let me share my concerns:

My number is EU259xx and DS260 was sent on Sep 15 (2nd draw). Based on the average available DVs depletion rates, I estimate that we'd be scheduled for an interview mid April or May. What we need is end of June or July.

Our interview location is Sarajevo (we are Bosnians), and we live (I work as an expat here, kids go to school, wife takes care of us ) in Nigeria. School will still be on in April and May, and we'd need to travel to Sarajevo for the interview - i.e. kids would be absent for at least a week. That's not good for their grades, and if the school were to enforce their (strict) rules, it could even jeopardize their chances of graduation.

Option 1: Attend the interview in Sarajevo, whenever they schedule it, and handle the school issue separately.

Option 2: Reschedule the interview to end of June or July (if embassy is OK with this, though in smaller countries they tend to be more flexible). We will be in Bosnia at the time, and we'll have enough time. Given our relatively high number (EU259xx), there is a moderate risk that they could run out of visas by then.

Option 3: Change interview location to Lagos. Quite risky - Nigeria is not qualified for dv, it's a huge country handling a lot of different visas, getting appointment is more difficult, and again, there is the risk that by the time it's our turn, they will have run out of visas.

What are your thoughts, what would you do, and what else should I consider? Thanks.

I have a forum I can suggest to you. I have been reviewing it a very long time to make sure we decide perfectly where to go.

http://www.city-data.com/

Yes, great source of information, and some great discussions too. I comb through it extensively.

Btw, we are caucasians, but really prefer diverse communities - our friends - expats come from all over the world, and in all colors and sizes, and our kids' school here has more than 70 different nationalities. And I find that bigger cities are generally more open-minded and receptive.

We have 'exotic' names and accents (our kids less so), so we'll certainly contribute our share of diversity.

Anyway, Chicago is out (several factors), as is Seattle (COL). Syracuse and Rochester too (Economy, mainly). I looked at Washington DC, but prices are just crazy, so it looks like it's not going to work. Currently looking at:

• Charlotte
• Atlanta
• Austin
• Plano (lots of positive reviews, though not very big)
• Portland

Thank you all for your inputs.

I have tried to quantify this whole thing, and assign weights to different areas, but as you have so rightly said, it's very hard not to be subjective about it. What I realized from this and other (local) forums, is that DV lottery winners tend to move to areas where they already have family and friends. And often, many regret doing it, but relocating once the roots are set becomes rather difficult.

Now, this is still WIP, basically I 'double-clicked' on the approach I mentioned earlier. In comments, I have added the links to websites with sources of info. I will certainly look into additional places (e.g. Portland, Houston....), and it looks like I will need to remove some. Please disregard 'scores' I have given to employability, climate, commute - those are just place holders, I need to do some more research...

The other way is to use the elimination method - e.g. Chicago, Syracuse, Rochester will be removed, for one reason or another. Probably Seattle too - it just does not fit into our budget, and I am not sure we would be able to generate sufficient revenues to sustain us. There may be lots of jobs there, but we are not engineers (or programmers), and it seems that most of those jobs are in IT related industries. I am a marketeer (marketing director / manager), and my background is in commercial - marketing, sales, business development, key accounts in FMCG industry (i.e. non-digital). I have lots of experience - from Europe, Asia, and currently, Africa (Nigeria), and a degree in business admin from SE Asia, so I'd rather be a bit conservative about my prospects.

We are also not very religious (I guess that's a politically correct way to say that we are atheists), don't fancy guns too much (but don't mind them as long as they are not pointing at us), we have a small dog, like outdoors, and would prefer our own yard.

Again, thank you for a great discussion, and subjectivity and favoritism is welcome, and if you add a fact or two to it, that's added bonus.

Hi all - I am new to this amazing forum, and this is my first post. I tried looking for similar topics, and while there are some overlaps, I could not find anything that discusses our dilemmas.

I happen to be one of the winners of the DV lottery. We are a family of 4, kids are 13 and 11. We all speak English fairly well, wife and I have bachelor degrees and I have 15+ years of experience in leading MNCs. We are originally from SE Europe, and I currently work in Nigeria, (we are all here, kids go to the American School). I have also lived in SE Asia for 6 years. My brother (US citizen) lives in upstate NY. We can also bring in 100K USD, and perhaps some 200K-250K more once we sell some properties back home.

Our strategy is two-fold:

cost control (so moving into relatively cheaper cities, but not compromising safety and quality of education) and

revenue generation (i.e. bigger cities, i.e. more jobs available in our industries, though we wouldn't shy away from any kind of work, esp. in the early days)

We are looking at;

Rochester and

Syracuse, NY (brother & his family are there, and COL is (very) cheap). Economy is so-so, as is the weather. Kind of similar to where we come from.

Chicago area (big job market, solid balance between cost and potential earnings)

Charlotte (as above, perhaps slightly smaller, affordable real estate, + like the weather)

Atlanta area (again, big job market, OK weather)

Austin (Not too expensive, some good schools, apparently good QOL)

Plano (as above)

Seattle (it looks like it's not going to work - rent / properties are just too expensive, though would love to move there).

We are combing through city-data and other sources we find useful - rent, trulia, salary.com, monster etc.

Securing a job prior to arrival would be great, one obvious issue is that I don't have my SSN yet, so potential employer would need to be open minded and willing to risk a bit (and I'd need to reassure them that it's all legit).

Our location choices are guided by

Cost of living (rent at first, then buy a house/apt)

Safety

Quality of (public) schools (Middle and High)

Employment opportunities (I am struggling how to quantify this - I am looking at salaries, number of job openings, unemployment rates)

Relatives (only in the short run)

Climate

Commuting times

Overall QOL (can be very subjective)

Eliminatory factors are cost of living and safety.

Just curious what do you think of this plan, and if you are (considering) moving, what are your thoughts and what do you factor in. What else would you look at, both in terms of potential locations, as well as factors to consider.