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When we first moved to Raleigh in North Carolina, we had a lot of people reach out to us to ask us how we did it.
Moving abroad to the US is not easy, and usually requires some form of visa – whether it’s a work visa, a student visa, or if you’re lucky like we were to be given a green card.
As I have moved overseas five times before, I understand how scary and confusing it can be. There is a lot to consider and organize when you move abroad.
Relocating to Raleigh can be extremely stressful, overwhelming, and an exhausting experience, especially if you have kids to think about.
But if you follow our tips and advice based on our experience, it will be a much smoother venture. If you don’t know where to start, here’s what you need to know…
Side note: If you’re moving to Raleigh, you’ll also want to check out our other site dedicated to Raleigh, which also has a fun community attached to it. Go to ThisIsRaleigh.com for everything about Raleigh!
What You Need Before Relocating To Raleigh
When moving to a new city, you need to plan what you need to do before you move, and what you need to do once you’re on the ground.
We’ll first talk about the things you need before you move, and later on in this guide, we have what to do once you’re actually in Raleigh covered.
The correct visa
This applies to international relocaters, of course. You cannot move to the USA without having the appropriate visa in place, which for most people is a work visa.
Usually, a work visa comes with an employment contract and is often dealt with within your company.
Raleigh is home to the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle Park, where there are lots of tech companies, such as IBM and CISCO, who are always hiring.
Look for job opportunities on platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed.com. These are the best job hunting resources we’ve found in recent years.
Get a temporary address
If you have friends in Raleigh, ask if you can use a friend’s address before you move to your new country – this will help you immensely.
So much of what you want to do you can’t do without a local address. If you have employment lined up already, perhaps your company has a solution in place for this.
Are you thinking of buying a house in Raleigh? Do not attempt that on your own! Our realtor partner Chuck is an experienced and knowledgeable buyer’s agent who will help you find the best home for you (and at no cost to you). Click here to learn more
U.S. Phone Number
If you can, get set up with phone accounts from the beginning – we could because we had a friend’s address and social security numbers and a decent credit score – but if you don’t, buy a Skype number.
We used this for the first couple of weeks before we got our new Verizon cell phone accounts.
It was hugely helpful as everyone wants your phone number! When you are apartment hunting or searching for a car to buy, people will want to call you.
Social Security Numbers
This is just for USA relocation, but whatever country you are moving to consider this from the perspective of their tax numbers.
Social security number is basically your tax ID. It’s tied to everything in the US and so difficult to do anything without one.
We were fortunate to have social security numbers already from when we moved over in 2004. My employer was able to provide all the documentation to get one easily. (This time, however, we’ve had to get an EIN number for our now LLC.)
Note: if you don’t have a social security number or a good credit score, you may have to pay a lot of deposits for security. Have money in your savings to cover you getting set up.
For example, without our good credit score, we would have had to pay a bond of $1,500 on our apartment instead of $300. And last time we moved to the US with bad credit history we had to put down an $800 bond to get a cell phone plan.
Getting credit history
Everything in the US relies on credit history. It basically runs your life!
So having a good credit history and FICO score can bring huge benefits. But, it’s hard to get a credit history if you can’t get credit in the first place!!
As mentioned, you may have to pay deposits for things like phone plans. This will help you start getting the credit history, so pay them.
Then make sure you pay all your bills on time. Set up automatic payments so you don’t miss them. All this gets reported to one of or all three credit reporting agencies; Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.
If you have an American Express credit card from your home country, they make it pretty easy to transfer that over to the US. If you can do that, you are on your way.
The other option is to get a secured credit card. This is when you put your own money on the card and use it as if it is a credit card.
Again, ensure you make your payments each month and your credit score will build. We had our original secured card years ago from Chase Bank. That helped me get the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card this time around.
Be patient, it takes time, but it’s worth it.
Enrol your kids into school
You should enroll your kids into school before moving to Raleigh so there’s no disruption to their education.
However, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, as you need to know roughly where you’re going to live permanently to know which school your kids will go to.
The Wake County Public School System assigns children to a school based on where they live, so be sure to research the school districts you are interested in before moving.
There are many great schools in Raleigh, and it’s also been noted as a highly educated city, so you won’t have problems finding a good school.
Things To Arrange After Relocating To Raleigh
Once you have the above boxes ticked, here are some things to consider when you’re on the ground…
Finding an apartment when relocating to Raleigh
You might think you need to have an apartment sorted before you move, but I think you need to see a place in person before you commit to a year-long lease or more.
Get yourself a nice Airbnb or a hotel in the interim, and start your apartment hunting fully once you’ve landed in Raleigh.
Be sure to pick a rental in one of the neighborhoods that your kids will go to school in, as if you move to a different part of Raleigh, they will have to move schools.
Also consider your work commute. If you’re working in downtown Raleigh, try to pick one of the suburbs within the belt line so you don’t have to travel too far to the downtown area.
What you need to rent an apartment in Raleigh is:
- Photo identification – even when you are touring apartments or rental homes with an agent. It’s a safety precaution and they won’t show you otherwise.
- Proof of income – Being self-employed we couldn’t do this. So we provided bank statements to show the money being deposited into our account. They will want to see three times the rental amount in income each month.
- Renter’s Insurance – we could not move into our apartment until we had renter’s insurance. You can easily get it with one phone call. We got ours with All State.
- Electricity on – make sure you connect the electricity before you move in.
- Security deposit/bond – depends on the policy of where you rent. We paid a small deposit + the first month’s rent in advance. They only accepted money orders, which was a pain for us to get such a large amount of money in cash from our Australian bank accounts. We wrote a post sharing that story on how to transfer money overseas.
- Application fee – This will depend on where you apply, but it was $50 per adult. This covers your police and security background check
- Administration fee – to cover the costs of getting you an apartment.
How we found our apartment in Raleigh
Apartment hunting is a headache and there are so many factors to consider and so many options.
Trying to find the right place in the right area using online sites like Realtor.com was time-consuming. When you find an apartment you’re interested in, you have to set up appointments to see the places, which takes a lot of juggling around. It was wasted time we didn’t like.
We decided to go back to how we found an apartment the previous two times we moved to the USA – get in the car and drive around to the areas we want to live in and talk to the people in the leasing office.
You can easily view apartments when you visit as most complexes have show apartments, so you can get a good idea of the layout.
We originally didn’t want to live in an apartment, but decided it was the easiest short-term option. There’s more availability, better amenities, and less for us to manage.
We spent two days visiting apartment complexes before finding one perfect for what we wanted. We loved it and it’s was in our favorite location close to everything we love.
The girls loved cooling off each day in our apartment complex swimming pool. It’s was a great first home base before we bought our house.
WE have some apartments in Raleigh in our directory.
Beware the daily rental rates
The amount per month for apartment rentals changes every day, almost like airline prices – it’s bizarre. I don’t know how they work this out, but it can mean a huge difference in the price you pay.
Due to a mess up with our application, our rental price went up an extra $30 a month the next day. We were also apartment hunting at a busy time for rentals, so the daily rental rate was higher than what it would have been in April.
We signed a 10-month lease. Rental rates are cheaper the longer the lease you sign.
If you don’t want to renew for a longer period of time, and want to rent on a month to month basis, you have to pay whatever the daily rental rate will be at that time for the month-by-month rate.
For us, that meant an extra $300+ rent a month for us. If we renewed for a year long lease, it could have been $200 cheaper a month!! Go figure!
Getting furniture and homewares
Deciding to rent an apartment meant we’d have the added expense of furnishing it.
We’ve done this multiple times when we’ve lived abroad and we’ve always used Craigslist or even the Salvation Army because every move has had the intention of temporary behind it.
If you’re here to stay, then you can find cheap furniture on those sites, as well as Facebook Market Place.
You can also pay for furniture in monthly instalments with sites like Rooms To Go.
I love interest free repayment deals like these. I use them all the time. You some times have to pay a little more for the products as the quality is higher, but it saves me having to use credit or money I don’t have.
This is a great strategy to use if you are starting out and you’re buying something you really need. I’ve used them before when my computers have died and I can’t work and don’t have spare cash. It helps me get back in business.
With Rooms To Go, you do have to pay sales tax and delivery up front. The super annoying thing about the US is that sales tax is added at the end. It’s something I always forget to calculate so end up with receipt shock at the cash register.
IMPORTANT – if you follow this strategy, make your repayments each month and pay it off before the end of the term, otherwise, you’ll be stung real bad with hefty interest fees.
After we bought the big items, we purchased most other stuff on Amazon or at Wal-Mart and Target.
Sort out your banking and finances
What a headache sorting our your banking and finances is! I swear, trying to transfer my money overseas was extremely stressful and required a lot of problem-solving.
You’d think with today’s modern online world sending money abroad would be easy. Not so. I had that many road blocks to navigate around and everything took so much time.
We’ve changed business structures as well and set up our business under a US LLC, which made the transferring of funds difficult as we had to consider tax implications.
And online payment systems like Payoneer, Wise, and PayPal have different rules to navigate as to where and how you can transfer certain money.
I have written a separate post for you on the best way to transfer money overseas with the best exchange rate and no fees for you. I saved $200 on my first transfer by using this and not the banks. I’ve saved hundreds more since.
Finding nearby services
I use sites like Groupon to help me find the right services such as hair salons.
You can get cheap deals and use that as an opportunity to decide if you like the salon or not. Better than paying a high price to start off with and hating it!
We were in the perfect location when we first moved to Raleigh. Everything was within a short driving distance to us, such as all our favorite grocery stores: Costco, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and Harris Teeter.
You can also use Facebook communities and forums to find recommendations for dining options, shopping places, where to go for nightlife, and other things to do in your free time.
Our Facebook community for our Raleigh site is pretty active about sharing local recommendations, so be sure to check out our social media pages for local tips. See more on our Instagram here.
Get health insurance
Most people get health insurance provided by their company, but these may not always be the best healthcare plans.
It’s always a good idea to get a good healthcare plan, especially if you’re new to the USA.
Chat to Raleigh residents or colleagues about which healthcare insurance providers they use and choose wisely. We love Ronee Greene from Carolina Insurance Professionals. She will guide you to the best insurance policy for you at no cost.
Get out and explore Raleigh
Relocating can be overwhelming and stressful, so don’t just spend all your time worrying about the things you need to sort out, and spend some time exploring the city.
Raleigh is also known as the City of Oaks, due to its population of oak trees.
If you love nature, you’re in the right city.
Get out of the city and explore the many greenways and biking trails, go for a hike around Lake Johnson or explore Dorthea Dix Park.
Go and watch a Carolina Hurricanes game, the hockey team for North Carolina State University, and experience the atmosphere of a wolfpacks game.
Go check out the North Carolina Museum of Art, watch a show at the red Hat Amphitheater, or sip craft beers at one of the many breweries in the city.
Don’t be shy to go further afield and check out other towns and cities in the Raleigh-Durham area, such as Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Chapel Hill, Morrisville, and Wake Forest.
Final Thoughts
Moving to Raleigh was one of the best decisions we’ve made. The low cost of living (lower than the national average, anyway) and the quality of life make it an easy city to live in.
It provided a ton of educational opportunities for our daughters, who are now nearing the end of high school and looking towards college, and there’s a lot of work opportunities for young professionals – so it’s easy to see why more and more people are moving to the city.
We also love the climate, the North Carolina charm, the welcoming atmosphere, and the fact there is always something to do.
We really do think Raleigh is the best place in the USA to live, but of course we are bias.
We hope this relocation guide helped you plan your move to Raleigh and helped you understand what your steps are.
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Are you planning on moving abroad or relocating? Let us know if you have any questions in the comments!
