Move to US - Get fulltimer

[Kati398]

Hello everbody.

My name is Kati. My husband and I will move to the US in October.

Where we will settle we are not sure at the moment it depends on where to find a business. So the plan is to buy a pickup truck and a travel trailer, using Escapees RV Club as address of residency and their mail service until we settle down. So all we have when we arrive is our Visa in our foreign passport.  I need your help what will be the first steps we need to keep in mind:

1. Membership Escapees and Mailservice

2. Bank account (what do we need to get a bank account? SSN and Greencard process start when we are entering the US, so we do only have our Visa in the passport)

3. Mobile phone contracts

3. Buy a Pickup truck (how fast do we get this on the road?)

4. Buy a travel trailer (how fast do we get this on the road?)

There are for sure several steps in between, please feel free to add.

Best regards

Kati

[agesilaus]

42 minutes ago, Kati398 said:

1. Membership Escapees and Mailservice

I suggest Passport America as the one group that you will get back more than you pay. I would espially avoid any groups like Coast to Coast or 1000 Trails until you have been here for long enough to judge how much value YOU will get from them.

Escapees has a good mailservice and St Brendan's Isle is another good one.

2. Bank account (what do we need to get a bank account? SSN and Greencard process start when we are entering the US, so we do only have our Visa in the passport)

Cannot advise you on this.

42 minutes ago, Kati398 said:

3. Mobile phone contracts

Visible has a very good plan with real unlimited service. They also use the most widely distributed cell system. I have very rarely failed to get a good signal with them.

3. Buy a Pickup truck (how fast do we get this on the road?)

Bad news, there is a large backlog of pickup truck orders because of the pandemic and a computer chip shortage. You will want to buy one of the US truck brands: Ford, Dodge Ram or GM for towing and probably one with a diesel engine. The common advice is to select the RV first them select a truck capable of pulling it. Remember out in the western US you will be towing over mountain passes up to 10,000 ft, 3050 meters. Which is why you want a diesel engine.

4. Buy a travel trailer (how fast do we get this on the road?)

Not sure, there is another backlog of Class A, B, and C coaches. I'm not sure what the supply of Travel Trailers is currently.

There are for sure several steps in between, please feel free to add.

You will have a lot of questions, just feel free to ask here.

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums and an early welcome to the USA! We will do all that we are able to assist you. I would suggest that you start by reading over The Australian Perspective on this link. It was written several years ago by a good friend and fellow Escapee who lives in Australia and who regularly visits the forums. There is a second page there as well which is several years older and was written by a couple from the UK who no no longer RV here but much of that is still valid. You can also ask questions for Bruce here as he is the first author. 

None of that was written from the perspective of becoming a permanent resident but rather a frequent visitor for extended periods. I suggest that you contact the US Consulate office nearest you now for more information about getting your green card, if you have not already done so. Feel free to return with comments, or more questions as frequently as you wish as we will do our best to help in any way that we are able. 

How to Open Bank Account in USA in 2021  by Investopedia

How non-US citizens can open a bank account from BankRate

[sandsys]

Some of what you can do depends on where you are coming from. You current home is...?

Linda

[Kati398]

19 hours ago, agesilaus said:

Cannot advise you on this.

You will have a lot of questions, just feel free to ask here.

Thanks for all the information, vrey much appriciated.

I will check the mobile phone rates. I was not aware of that company, so thanks for that.

Truck and Trailer - yes as with all this pandemic it market is really empty, so we will buy what is available maybe a used one.

[Kati398]

18 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Welcome to the Escapee forums and an early welcome to the USA! We will do all that we are able to assist you. I would suggest that you start by reading over The Australian Perspective on this link. It was written several years ago by a good friend and fellow Escapee who lives in Australia and who regularly visits the forums. There is a second page there as well which is several years older and was written by a couple from the UK who no no longer RV here but much of that is still valid. You can also ask questions for Bruce here as he is the first author. 

None of that was written from the perspective of becoming a permanent resident but rather a frequent visitor for extended periods. I suggest that you contact the US Consulate office nearest you now for more information about getting your green card, if you have not already done so. Feel free to return with comments, or more questions as frequently as you wish as we will do our best to help in any way that we are able. 

How to Open Bank Account in USA in 2021  by Investopedia

How non-US citizens can open a bank account from BankRate

Thanks Kirk for all the information, I will check all the links and read the information. That will help.

[Kati398]

16 hours ago, sandsys said:

Some of what you can do depends on where you are coming from. You current home is...?

Linda

Our current home is Germany.

Visa is already approved and greencards gets activated when entering the US. But normally it takes some month to get the card in hand.

SSN should be there in around two to three weeks, but who knows if everything is back on track in October.

[agesilaus]

47 minutes ago, Kati398 said:

I will check the mobile phone rates. I was not aware of that company, so thanks for that.

Visible is $40/month or if you get on their party plan $25/month. That's per phone. You have to use one of their phones or one from their approved list.

[Kirk W]

48 minutes ago, Kati398 said:

Visa is already approved and greencards gets activated when entering the US.

I suggest that you check out the "green card" rules as published by the US Immigration Service. It is my understanding that they can be very difficult to get. 

58 minutes ago, Kati398 said:

SSN should be there in around two to three weeks, but who knows if everything is back on track in October.

Social Security Numbers for Noncitizens

Am I reading this correctly that you plan to move to the US permanently? If so, have you received approval for your permanent move here? In general a visa only allows you to stay for 6 to 12 months. I am a little concerned that you may not be able to get the required documentation for permanent status here in order to make your plan work. 

[Kati398]

1 hour ago, Kirk W said:

I suggest that you check out the "green card" rules as published by the US Immigration Service. It is my understanding that they can be very difficult to get. 

Social Security Numbers for Noncitizens

Am I reading this correctly that you plan to move to the US permanently? If so, have you received approval for your permanent move here? In general a visa only allows you to stay for 6 to 12 months. I am a little concerned that you may not be able to get the required documentation for permanent status here in order to make your plan work. 

Yes we plan to move permanently and we already applied for a greencard and it is approved. The process is that when it is approved by NVC and consulate you have to activate it and you do this with your next visit after approval. So nothing to worry about. We know that it is not that easy to immigrate to the US. So we have the appropriate documents to live there permanently.

[agesilaus]

Well if you are going to be permanent residents you will be dealing with the US taxes. You will need to pick a domicile state.  Most people adopt one of three states that have no state income tax and have low taxes in general. Those states are Florida, Texas and South Dakota. The Escapees have a video on their website showing how to go about this.

Escapees Domicile

Other issues are health and auto insurance, Texas has some sort of vehicle inspection which means they inspect you vehicles periodically. Whichever state you pick you will need to visit for a day or two in order to get a drivers license, automobile/truck registration/and for US citizens, voter registration.

At least the US bureaucrats are not as bad as I understand the German ones are. You should be able to finish all this in an afternoon.

[Kati398]

10 minutes ago, agesilaus said:

Well if you are going to be permanent residents you will be dealing with the US taxes. You will need to pick a domicile state.  Most people adopt one of three states that have no state income tax and have low taxes in general. Those states are Florida, Texas and South Dakota. The Escapees have a video on their website showing how to go about this.

Escapees Domicile

Other issues are health and auto insurance, Texas has some sort of vehicle inspection which means they inspect you vehicles periodically. Whichever state you pick you will need to visit for a day or two in order to get a drivers license, automobile/truck registration/and for US citizens, voter registration.

At least the US bureaucrats are not as bad as I understand the German ones are. You should be able to finish all this in an afternoon.

We will pick Texas as Domicile state.

Health insurance we will check with the Marketplace, if this is not possible we will use a global health insurance we already have an offer.

Auto insurance might get a little tricky as we are no beginners but without history in the US the insurance company might think a little bit different about this. So we need to find an agency whereas  maybe with a translated copy of a German Federal Motor Transport Authority and from our insurance company which shows that we had no accidents and no penalties we might get a discount.

To get this solved within an afternoon sounds great.

 

[Kati398]

4 hours ago, agesilaus said:

Visible is $40/month or if you get on their party plan $25/month. That's per phone. You have to use one of their phones or one from their approved list.

What is the rule in the US in regards of getting the SIM Card.

In Germany you need to be at home and sign yourself for that parcel.

Ist this in the US the same, or will it be possible to sign a contract online with delivery and bill to address of the mailservice of Escapees RV Club which will be our address of residency?

Regards

Kati

[agesilaus]

The German Embassy may be able to help with the insurance issue with some suggestions. There is a consulate in Houston.

 

As for SIM cards, there is no rule just buy one. Visible will provide them for example as will any other phone company. I haven't heard anyone saying they had problems with a mail service address. Ask the Escapees mail people about it.

Edited June 7, 2021 by agesilaus

[soos]

On 6/7/2021 at 2:51 PM, agesilaus said:

The German Embassy may be able to help with the insurance issue with some suggestions. There is a consulate in Houston.

 

As for SIM cards, there is no rule just buy one. Visible will provide them for example as will any other phone company. I haven't heard anyone saying they had problems with a mail service address. Ask the Escapees mail people about it.

I think what she is saying is that the SIM card needs to be signed for? Therefore it can’t just be delivered…..but if they use Escapees, Escapees will sign for it if it’s delivered to them

 

 

[agesilaus]

But you can use the park address for delivery not the Escapee address.

[RV_]

We lived in Germany for seven years Wilkommen bei Escapees! Also check into our neighbors to the North. Next to Europe Canada is where we would settle outside the US as B.C is gorgeous and Vancouver close enough to the US for using commissaries and medical for us retired military. I never checked them out for taxes etc., we just traveled in 1999 from Glacier N.P. through Alberta and then the ALCAN up to Alaska and Back on the Cassiar hwy. Beautiful. BTW our youngest and family are in Landstuhl now.

Lots of folks here have done what you are doing now and this is the right place to find answers IMHO.

Edited August 3, 2021 by RV_