After winning the green card: work on the bugs

In May, the 2016 I won the green card. Looking back, I see some mistakes that have turned into monetary costs, and now I will tell about them. Everything is considered in the conditions of California, and in this context: a family with an 9-year-old child moves to the US without work, without housing, without dating.

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Let's start right from the airport - the car. We rented a car because it was more convenient and cheaper for us to travel with all our suitcases in “our” car, rather than by taxi. And then there was a mistake: we extended the rental for more than 2 weeks.

Do not delay the time, start looking for a car to buy as soon as possible, and this will save you a lot of money. Those. slept, ate and went to watch the sites of companies selling cars to buy theirs just at the moment when the time comes to return the rented.

To save time, it is good to choose on the site what suits you, and go to the office where there is a suitable car. Miracles, of course, happen, but, as practice has shown, usually there is what is indicated on the site, and no more. Why we went to the company, and did not buy from the hands - because we were afraid of something to be underestimated in documents out of ignorance, well, we didn’t want to search for a car, order a number, look for insurance. It is more convenient to wait a bit until a specially trained man quickly does everything for you.

In California, you can buy a car for $ 2000, like mine, for example, or even cheaper, and you can save on rent. If you didn’t come to live in a huge city, then it’s impossible to survive without a car: this is the only way to get to work, which may be 20 miles from home, or the store.

To get around America’s insidious credit system, we bought a car for our money. This time they just took the cheapest one, which started up decently and made an impression of a mechanism that can serve for at least six months.

Photo medium.com/tam-gede

Completing all the necessary documents - payment, insurance, registration - all this took 1 hour and 10 minutes from the moment of choosing the car. To do this, you needed a store employee, a telephone and a computer. All papers will arrive home within 2-3 weeks.

Now rental housing. For the first time, the cheapest apartment for us was airbnb. Here again, it is necessary to resolve the issue quickly. As soon as you know the SSN number, take it off immediately. Usually a lease agreement at a nice price is valid for 12 + months with rare exceptions.

We are now looking for housing to move to, and we came across a good option in a complex that is being demolished in the winter, so the rental there is only for 6 months - convenient for “fresh” emigrants. So what was our mistake with housing immediately after moving? We delayed contacting the city for a long, long time, waiting for the work issue to be resolved, and in the end we spent a lot of money on temporary overnight stays, but still rented permanent housing 50 miles from work. But now we appreciate how wonderful it is to live in “our own” home, and not in rooms for short rent.

When searching for a house, it is worth considering not only the rent amount, but also the amount of utility bills, paperwork fees and, of course, a deposit. We have seen good houses in our price range, but a deposit of $ 6000 somewhat discourages the desire to rent.

I reached the school just at the time when everyone was on vacation there, so we only got to the class with the language program after half a year. For my daughter, a special class came up more, because there they develop not only language, but also self-esteem, they help to adapt to local traditions. Maybe, of course, we were just lucky with the teacher.

Photo medium.com/tam-gede

All our mistakes, of course, were not fatal, but caused some discomfort, material and mental. I want you to draw useful conclusions and make your move as easy as possible.

Finally, I want to ask you: go to the state where your soul is calling you, and drop the idea to go to the agricultural wilderness just because there is a friend of your grandmother's nephew.

Published with permission Author

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