Is the grass greener on the other side (America)??

Dr House

Dr House

Dr House

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I am just finishing my F1 year and was hoping to start a F2 position in August. My wife is a ST1 (GP)

Due to a change in circumstance I am no longer obligated to staying in the UK, with that in mind I am considering getting my wife to quite her training position and study for the USMLE’s so we can move to America in the middle of next year.

Is the quality of life so much better our there? Has anyone moved out to the US or back to the uk and care to share their experience?

We would both be on around 35k USD for the first 5 years, I assume you can live quite well on this as long as we buy our house with savings so do not have a mortgage to pay.

Unfortunately I have started building a house/flat which I am going to have to get rid of if we move which will not be easy.
 
Everything is generally cheaper, well it was when i was there.

Uncle moved to New York about 10 years ago. Best decision hes ever made he says :)
 
I would have thought it greatly depends what you want in life and where is best to achieve that.
Would love to move to the states, not for money but because of sheer amount of land and less regs in some areas.
 
It depends entirely on the individual.

If you have a good income and can accept the lack of social care in their society then it's fine.

I prefer the UK tbh, but I have friends who say the opposite.

You'll find it extremely difficult to get work visas however even with medical qualifications.

May I suggest Canada, Toronto is a fantastic city and has the US feel without the violence or homelessness endemic in the US at the moment.

By the way $35k is not a great deal of money, remember everything may be cheaper, but you have to pay for everything also, no social or municipal provision without a fee.

Consider that the US average is around $45k then you see that your living standards may be somewhat lower than you are used to.
 
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35k isnt much at all really, medical insurance will take care of 5k of that each straight away, you both will be running cars but then if you can afford to buy a house outright then money probably isn't too much of an issue regardless for you.

Also of course you need a visa which isn't exactly easy to get.

For me it'd have to be California or New York City, don't really see the point in livng anywhere else if you had the choice.
 
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My brother moved to Missouri several years ago as his American wife was homesick - and being newly weds the wanted to go where they could get the best start. The USA is, or was at the time, much better for them as the cost of living was much lower.

If he was apprehensive or against the idea, it certainly doesn't show now. He loves it and, unfortunately for me, I doubt he will move back to the UK any time soon.
 
I would have thought that you would earn way more than $35k :confused:
What with the sueing culture being far worse in the US. Also, you said you're just finishing F1. But what are you going to do in the 10months until the start of your F2?
And would you be able to take up your residency post without having done F2?

Also, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this, but USMLE is very very hard. In fact, no, you definitely don't need me to tell you that, you're much much older than me :p

I'd like to my degree and F1 and F2 here, but I'm considering moving to the USA after this. That's if I get into Uni in the first place!
 
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35K wont get you anywhere.

I earned way more than that on an exchange year as a student and barely came back with a penny (although I had the time of my life every weekend).

I wouldn't want to be in the US with less than 100K between the couple, if you want to live well in a nice neighborhood. The thing is, the US is only a great place to live if you have a reliable predictable and reasonable income. For the poor the UK is much better. You also have much less support if you mess things up so you need to look after yourself with savings accounts etc.Don't live day in day out on the money you make otherwise if you were to loose your job or have unexpected health problems you may be in trouble.

Prices vary a lot.
 
I'm going to move to the US hopefully within the month.
I'll be going with virtually nothing but my dual nationality and about 1000GBP.
Staying at a commune for free for the first 3 months or so, then hopefully moving to Arizona after saving some cash to attend a well regarded luthiery school and getting work in Fender/Gibson/Warmoth/Alembic, or any of the other US guitar manufacturers.

And I'm only 19.
 
The grass is certainly not greener in terms of holiday time off work. It's abysmal in North America compared to Europe. Hardly any days off each year :(
 
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