Philipp

I totally agree, we do not want to be in the US without healthcare, especially with our German cover-any-risk mentality Most of the international health insurances available here do not have network restrictions. So I think we stick to our plan and go for the first few months with the expat/international care until we find insurance in the US and/or getting employed. I think there are several German companies which might need employees in the US, but personally I have no preferences and would just make a decision based on remote-work options and the position to apply for. Good point. I'm already on LinkedIn, this is really a great platform for building a professional network. I think we will definitely plan now for TX becoming our domicile. SD sounds interesting because of the initial lower costs for our budget. But seems rental car costs are almost doubled with insurance (we need one until we find a truck) compared to TX, flight connections are better between TX and Germany, and the US bank I have a checking account with does not have finance centers in SD. Of course not a major stopper, but opening an account with a local bank might just add some delay till we can hit the road. Thank you all for your very helpful feedback. With this information we can now move forward and one step closer to our next adventure. Looking forward to becoming an Escapee 🙂

Hi, Many thanks for the warm welcome and all the feedback! I'm really happy that I have posted my topic here, this community is impressive 🙂 Here is a little more about our plans: We both have German citizenship and want to move permanently to the US. We visited the US at least 10 times, many of our trips happened in a Class C rental RV, the first few with rental car and small tent. Traveling around in an RV is something we want to do for the first 6 - 12 months, maybe longer. That depends on few factors like finding employment that supports this lifestyle, and of course if this lifestyle fits to us long-term. We bring also our cat with us, and if we would realize she is suffering than we need to re-think if/how to continue. I have a background in the software tech sector and worked for branches of US companies since several years and (hopefully) chances are good to find a position where I can work remotely. Regarding health insurance, the idea is to go with one of the expat insurances available here in Germany. They would cover us also in the US and are almost similar priced as far as I know. Some would allow us to terminate the insurance monthly so we could switch to an US insurance once we find one. Frankly, I wasn't aware that for us it would be impossible to find health insurance in Texas - thanks for the hint! What are the reasons for that? So after the arguments above SD is definitely off the list, remaining TX and FL. Personally, we would prefer TX as we love the states in the west and south-west. We could also imagine to have our "real" domicile after the RV life in TX - if it will ever end 🙂 Do you see problems or stoppers for us when choosing TX? (For the legal domicile thing I will definitely try to get consulting from Loring Associates). For an RV we are currently thinking about finding a smaller new (entry level) travel trailer within the 25' range and a used truck with appropriate towing capacities. Thanks! Philipp

Hi all, We are a young couple from Europe and are currently planning to move to the US in January 2020 and want to start immediately a full time RV life to travel around in this beautiful country for at least the first 6 - 12 months. We already have SSNs and green cards, and I read a lot about the pros & cons of being domiciled in TX vs SD. We would need to buy a truck and travel trailer first and I think this could be easier in the greater Houston area - and during this time of the year SD is probably freezing :-) But here comes the issue: I found the blog post about the ten commandments of Texas domicile and now for me it's quite unsure if we even would have a chance in Texas to get the affidavit signed for the drivers licenses given that we are then just since a few days in the country and never had a residential address before in the US. Might this become a problem? Would it make more sense for us to start in SD? Any advice appreciated! Thank you!