Cost, hassle and headache of relocating to another city in USA

So finally you decided that you are going to move to different city for a better job prospectus. Sometime, the annual compensation or the new job  challenge or both is the sole factor for relocating to the new city.

Moving Get Ready for Hassles

Moving Get Ready for Hassles

For a moment let us assume that  you have been working in Richmond, VA and you have got a new project starting in Dallas, TX , your H1B employer has given you a decent raise of 10% of your base annual salary of $65000.  Now your annual salary would be $6500 more and you’ve already started dreaming about how you would spend this additional $6500. But there are certain key factor that you forgot to include in your celebration of 10% salary raise.

If Your employer has denied you the relocation cost

  • You will drive yourself to the destination ( Houston , TX ) in a rental car first, and if you have a family they will stay at the base location ( Richmond, VA in this example) as you try to settle down in your project in Houston , TX. And then you will go back (either drive or fly) to your base location( Richmond,VA ) to pick up your family and the luggage. You feel that you don’t have any costly furniture other than TV, Camcorder, Digital Camera and Laptop; you will end up throwing all those furniture or sell it off on Cragislist which won’t fit in your car.
  • If you are bachelor and just starting out, your relocation cost would be
    less but of course it will never be ZERO dollar.
  • You are renting apartment, and it may be that your apartment lease is ending after next 3 months. So you have to pay the rent even if it is going to stay completely vacant for next 3 months or you have to sub-lease ( renting the rental home again is called sub-lease) it out. Although sub-leasing is sometime easy but again it is a great hassle.

Address Change Exercise of your personnel matters

  • Relocating is also a hassle that you have to change your driving license to the state you are residing , call each and every credit card company’s card that you use/own , banks, mobile phone service provider, landline/voip phone service provider and notify them about address change. Notify current utility bill ( electricity , water) provider that you are terminating your services in Richmond, VA , also get the electricity and water bill transferred in your name at the next place you are renting ( in this example Houston, TX). And of course you own all these credit card, bank accounts, mobile phone etc.. hence all these personal level address change has to be done by yourself. Your employer will never help with you that and it is your own duty to take care of your personnel stuff.

Sometime moving to new city means learning and networking from scratch

  • You will spend countless hours in locating your daily shopping location, such as Walmart, Costco, Sears, JCPenny, Kohls. Although, with a GPS you can locate anything instantly, still it is a little bit of hassle. What you may not find on GPS is Indian Grocery Store and which grocery store is better in quality, price etc.
  • If your spouse is on dependent visa, she would loose the direct contact she had with Indian neighbors at old place.
  • You will try to build a social network in this new town, so that you can call for help ( help could be anything, jump starting your car or giving a ride to work when your car is in workshop for repair/maintenance).
  • Your school/kindergarten age kids will miss their friends at old location. And you need to find someone reliable in that new city whose contact information you can put it on the Kindergarten/School enrollment form in case of emergency.

Summary

In short, moving is a hassle, sometime between two –three projects, H1B employer may force you to the select one which is not local..because it pays the employer more while you go through the many hassle, it means you have to move. Do not consider moving out even if your employer is adding 5 to 10 thousand dollar in extra salary to go and work for a client in some remote place or city with a sky high cost of living , it is just not worth it. Even though Hyderabadi , Gujaratis and Punjabis are everywhere now a days but at remote location where you don’t have any friends or relatives then you will have to start social life from scratch in this new town. Is it worth the hassle? Or you like the challenge of starting from scratch and exploring the new city and location on your own and add another city that you lived in your life profile ? Please weigh-in all the advantages and disadvantages before you accept a new job offer/assignment.

You may also like:
Expecation from your boss
Expecation from your boss
Deception of free benefits and guide to 80-20 option
Deception of free benefits and guide to 80-20 option
Why H1B visa employees lies in their resume ?
Why H1B visa employees lies in their resume ?
Busines Visa – Immediate trick to get a qualified IT Slave in USA
Busines Visa – Immediate trick to get a qualified IT Slave in USA
Secured Credit Card FAQs
Secured Credit Card FAQs
What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India
What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India

 

See Also