Moving To The US: The Decision
In summer 2006 my husband Darren’s company asked if anyone would be interested in working abroad. He put his name forward. No specifics were mentioned at the time so we didn’t think much more about it. Then in October came the offer to move to the US. Specifically, Newport News Virginia, to work in the HQ of their US operations.
Should we stay or should we go? What a dilemma. We had a nice life in the UK, friends, family, good jobs, nice little house, did we want to disrupt all that for something that might not work out? On the other hand did we want to turn down the exciting opportunity of a new life abroad and all the possibilities that came with it? We had already traveled in the US quite a bit, but we had a list as long as your arm of places we still wanted to see. In addition to that Darren had been a baseball fan for years, traveling to many different grounds, but this would give him the chance to fulfill his ambition of visiting all the major league teams in the US.
We decided we had to at least see Newport News before we made up our minds one way or the other about moving to the US. So in November we hopped aboard a transatlantic flight from Heathrow to Atlanta and from there we were going to connect to Newport News. All went smoothly until we were going through immigration. Unfortunately the officer managed to get our passports muddled up and ended up recording my finger prints against my husband’s passport, he was certainly not the smartest tool in the box! He didn’t know how to fix it, so we were sent off to the room full of people who were about to get deported! Needless to say we missed our connecting flight and when we did arrive at Newport News late at night, it was pouring with rain. We had to get the hire car and drive in the dark on the “wrong” side of the road, with directions to the hotel given by someone who, it turns out, didn’t know their left from their right. Not a good start. At this point we were thinking ‘we are definitely not moving to the US’.
Then we woke up the next morning and looked out the window. The sun was shining and it was 70 degrees outside – (in November), so this was a wonderful surprise after our long journey and soggy arrival. Darren’s company had arranged for a realtor (estate agent) to come and show us some of the areas we might want to live in. We were stunned. The houses were so much bigger than in the UK, a lot of them had the traditional American wrap around porches and beautiful gardens. The streets were clean and in the area we particularly liked there were lakes interspersed with the houses and golf course.
Darren headed into the office for a few hours to meet his potential new boss and I took the opportunity to explore the area a bit more. I discovered some beautiful walking trails. Also, this part of Virginia has considerable history attached to it, as this is where the first landings took place 400 years ago; there are many places of interest to visit in Williamsburg, James Town & York Town.
One thing that struck me as a little odd about Newport News (and we discovered over the course of our stay that it was true about a lot of places in the US) is that it really doesn’t have a town centre in the way that most British cities and towns do. The shops are mostly large and on retail parks. There are some relatively modern purpose built areas, which they call town centres. These have bars and restaurants and a few more expensive shops, but they had a very different feel to UK town centres back home.
At the end of our whirlwind few days in Newport News we left feeling a lot more positive about the move, but still undecided. We mulled it over for another few weeks, talked to friends about it and, both being accountants, created a spread sheet or two to work out the financial implications of going v staying, with various different scenarios, i.e what if I couldn’t find a job in the US and what if we had long periods of not being able to rent out our house in the UK.
At the end of the day, the decision really was made on the philosophy of “we would rather regret something we tried and failed at, rather than always wonder what if?”
Moving To The US; Newport News
So February 2007 found us with a very large container lorry parked outside our house and a team of packers inside it. This followed a manic few weeks of organizing, among other things, to rent out the house and a trip to London to get our visa’s.
We were really sad to say good bye to family and friends, since we had signed up for three years away. We were saying good bye knowing we would only see everyone on brief trips back for the next few years.
I would have to say though that it was one of the most exciting times of my life too, we were off to start a whole new adventure together.
Darren’s company had arranged a fully furnished apartment for us in Newport News along with a rental car, which meant we could relax for the first few days before Darren started work and I started the task of house hunting.
We were staying in one of the “town centres” and I felt it lacked soul although it did have some lovely shops including one selling Belgian Beer which Darren was very pleased to find! Due to the fact that these ‘town centres’ are purpose built with several bars, most of the housing is apartments geared to a relatively young crowd, who are of course at work during the day. So it felt a bit spooky to me walking around an almost deserted town centre on a weekday morning.
We considered buying a house in Newport News, but having weighed up the likely performance of the economy and the fact that the realtor gets 6% of the sale price in Virginia, we felt we were unlikely to make any money if we only stayed three years. We ended up staying four years, but were still very glad that we stuck with our decision to rent, as the house prices and exchange rate movement meant we would have lost a lot of money if we had purchased somewhere.
The realtor that had showed us around on our first trip kindly helped me search for a rental property in Newport News. In the US it seems that it is common practice for people to move before they have sold or rented out their houses and so they are vacant for viewings. There are lock boxes on the door which the realtor can open with a secure code and so you can view a lot of houses in a relatively short period of time. I of course saw some less than perfect places, but then we came across a lovely four bed 2500 sqft house on the outskirts of Newport News overlooking a green of a golf course. It had a porch at the front and a balcony off the master bedroom which also boasted two walk in closets and a huge ensuite! The rent was a little more than we wanted to pay, but it was just too nice to turn down. Also, we had the added pressure of our sea freight actually only taking just over two weeks to cross the Atlantic and clear customs when we had been warned it might take up to six weeks, so it was now racking up a bill in storage fees.
In the US you will hear a lot about needing a good credit history for all sorts of things and having only just arrived, of course we had no history at all. Luckily for us the HR department at Darren’s company were happy to write us a letter stating the fact the Darren was gainfully employed and so we were now proud renters of our new home!
Read USA Here We Come Part 2; Working In The USA
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Thanks Michelle for a really interesting and informative article, looking forward to reading more soon!
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