after interview, preparing to travel

[savagemiss 0]

Hi all,

 I am so relieved that my interview went well and i can now properly prepare to travel and settle in Texas,

I am a super organised person who likes everything in place but i am struggleling to find the best advice on what to prepare before traveling and wondered if any expats have and general advice on what i can be doing and where to get the best advice on :-

 

Bank accounts.... which ones are the best for moving from Uk banks.... Is it best to keep a UK account for a while?

 

Buying property..... I am currently selling my home here in the UK. I know i am going to endure paying tax along the way but what is the best way. To buy whilst still having the money in the UK account or to wait and encore charges fron USA bank while i move then pay further property tax?

 

Should i wait before getting medical insurance. or do i get it before i go. If so where should i go?

 

Any help greatly appriciated and my head is about to explode>

 

 

[yuna628 9,747]

51 minutes ago, savagemiss said:

Hi all,

 I am so relieved that my interview went well and i can now properly prepare to travel and settle in Texas,

I am a super organised person who likes everything in place but i am struggleling to find the best advice on what to prepare before traveling and wondered if any expats have and general advice on what i can be doing and where to get the best advice on :-

 

Bank accounts.... which ones are the best for moving from Uk banks.... Is it best to keep a UK account for a while?

 

Buying property..... I am currently selling my home here in the UK. I know i am going to endure paying tax along the way but what is the best way. To buy whilst still having the money in the UK account or to wait and encore charges fron USA bank while i move then pay further property tax?

 

Should i wait before getting medical insurance. or do i get it before i go. If so where should i go?

 

Any help greatly appriciated and my head is about to explode>

 

 

Keeping a UK account open isn't a bad idea, you never know when you'll need it. If the money is over a certain amount it will need to be reported to the IRS.

As for medical insurance, if your US spouse has insurance they should be able to add you to it and it's something they should do pretty soon after you land (unless they are allowed to do so beforehand in some cases). You may purchase any health insurance that is available in the state you will live privately, sign up to Obamacare, obtain health insurance through a US place of employment, or have your spouse add you to their plan jointly.

 

You'll need to weigh the pros, cons, and costs of each plan carefully.

[Wuozopo 4,293]

I still have a UK bank account many years later. 

 

Transferwise or xe.com are good ways to transfer money from your UK bank to your US bank.  You do not pay any money income tax on money you transfer between UK and US. Any transfer over $10,000 gets reported to the US government, but the transferring agents or banks handle all that. You would only fill out a report yourself if you brought cash on the plane.

 

Once in the US, there are yearly reports of foreign accounts. Over $10,000 held in a foreign account is reported to the US Treasury online. Over $100,000 is a report that is a form on the tax return. They are informational, not to charge you tax.

 

If you sell before moving, you go by UK tax laws. If you sell after arriving in the US, you go by US tax laws. A profit earned on a home can be taxable in the US as income so bring records of what you paid for the home originally and how much you sold it for to determine your gain. And thing you had to pay like an estate agent in order to sell it deduct from your profit. However there is an exclusion (IRS) so unless you profited more than half a million, you won't be taxed. It doesn't matter where the money from the sale is parked US or UK. Where you resided on the day you got the money for the sale matters.

[Derwood 203]

On 4/12/2017 at 9:05 AM, savagemiss said:

Hi all,

 I am so relieved that my interview went well and i can now properly prepare to travel and settle in Texas,

I am a super organised person who likes everything in place but i am struggleling to find the best advice on what to prepare before traveling and wondered if any expats have and general advice on what i can be doing and where to get the best advice on :-

 

Bank accounts.... which ones are the best for moving from Uk banks.... Is it best to keep a UK account for a while?

 

Buying property..... I am currently selling my home here in the UK. I know i am going to endure paying tax along the way but what is the best way. To buy whilst still having the money in the UK account or to wait and encore charges fron USA bank while i move then pay further property tax?

 

Should i wait before getting medical insurance. or do i get it before i go. If so where should i go?

 

Any help greatly appriciated and my head is about to explode>

 

 

Some good advice here already. Definitely use a service like Transferwise or Azimo to transfer money from the UK to the USA. The banks rip you off rotten. I'm amazed by how many people are willing to accept the banks terrible exchange rates.

 

Do not, under any circumstance, close your UK bank account. Opening a UK bank account once you have moved abroad is virtually impossible. Most UK High Street banks will let you change your address to a USA one without any charge or change in the way your account operates. 

 

Renew your UK driving license before you leave and get another 10 years on it. You're not allowed to renew a UK driving license whilst living abroad and I've found that it comes in really handy, quite often.

 

Do you have a UK American Express credit card? AMEX offer a great international relocation service where they will basically give you a U.S AMEX card with very few questions asked. You also get to retain the UK one. The major benefit with this is that you retain your original 'member since' date and that does wonders when building a new U.S credit score. 

 

I rented out my home in the UK. This gave me the security of knowing I could come back if things didn't work out in the USA and allowed me to fund my UK bank account. The downside of that is that if and when I sell I'll have to pay Capital Gains Tax on the increase in value since 2015. By selling your UK property now, you'll avoid that.

 

Wait until you get here to get healthcare. Hopefully you'll be covered by work but if not you should qualify for special enrollment on the Obamacare exchanges. Prepare for a shock cost-wise though.

There's loads of info on the internet about healthcare and plans - here's one to start with http://obamacarefacts.com/health-insurance/how-does-health-insurance-work/

As a UK citizen you will naturally think of health care as a right. Forget that. In the USA healthcare is a benefit and not everyone has that benefit. When you hear people talking about work placed benefits, they usually mean healthcare. I have a job with great benefits translates to I have a job with good health insurance. It's a minefield for a Brit to get their head around but you'll get there. 

 

Good luck!