

Ask HN: H1B visa holders, what do you wish you knew before moving to the US? - davidshariff

My H1B visa process is finished and I&#x27;m all set to arrive in September.<p>Was there anything you have experienced or wish you knew beforehand?<p>[Edit]<p>Looking for experiences living &#x2F; moving to the US. I will be moving to Seattle.
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gusmd
Hey there! I'm also moving to the US in late-September (H1B too). However, I
was in intern (J1) a couple years ago, so I do have a single advice that some
people forget to take into account.

As a new immigrant with no credit score, you might have a hard time getting a
good place to live. So in case you haven't, do some research on rent prices on
the place you are going to live, and expect to spend double or triple that
UPFRONT for first month's rent + deposit.

~~~
kstenerud
Further to the credit rating thing, I'll post something I wrote for a friend.
Note that you can only do this if you have been issued a social security
number.

If you're planning to stay here more than 2 years I highly recommend building
up a credit rating. It's a pain in the ass, but so many things in the USA
depend on your credit score. It's absolutely insane, but that's the way they
do things here.

You can actually build up from scratch, even if you can't leverage your home
country credit rating for a boost. To start, you can get a secured credit
card, which requires a cash deposit. The bigger deposit you make, the bigger
your credit limit. Your current credit limit is something banks look at when
you apply for a real credit card, so it's best to get the secured card as high
as you can and then a year later get a normal card (or just keep it small for
a year, then get it increased by putting more money in, wait a month, and then
apply).

Once you have enough credit on credit cards (5-10k), you can start getting
other kinds of loans. Diversity in loan types is looked upon favorably. I used
this trick in Canada to build my rating up there, basically taking a car loan
and then putting the cash I would have paid into a term investment that yields
a higher interest rate than I'm paying for the loan. I was going to do that in
the USA as well, but they only give loans for cars that are less than 15 years
old :(

When you first start out, you'll need to build up a history of about 2 months
with your bank of having used your card AND paid your card. Once that's done,
they'll have reported your activities to various credit reporting companies
like equifax and transunion. Next, you can write to these credit reporting
companies to request your free credit report. They'll send back a request that
you prove your identity, asking for copies of various identifications, which
is a bit of a pain, but you only need to do that once.

You should also make sure that your SSN is clean. When I first came here, I
couldn't get a card, and I just assumed that it was because I'm a foreigner.
It turns out that in 1994, someone had opened a credit account using a fake
SSN. When I arrived here in 2011, I was assigned that compromised SSN, and it
took me 2 years to clean everything up. My record is now clean, but I never
would have known if I hadn't inquired about it with the credit reporting
agencies and the bank. I could have had another 2 years of credit history by
now if not for that.

Here is what affects your credit rating:

Credit card utilization (high impact): Keep it below 30%, but always above 0
(having zero credit utilization is bad). Just don't carry a balance. I always
make sure I spend at least $10 each month with the card so that it never goes
to 0. Also, when I had low credit, I would make a purchase, and then
immediately go online and pay off all but about $10 of it. One thing to note:
This factor is only affected by the previous month, so it's easy to fix.

Payment history (high impact): ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS pay your card on time! I
set up an automatic payment system with my bank.

Derogatory marks (high impact): Only affects you if a company sends a
collection agency after you and you don’t pay up immediately when they call.
Derogatory marks fall off after 7 years.

Age of credit history (medium impact): You'll get hit hard with this, as I am
being hit now. You need 9 YEARS of history to get an excellent rating here,
and 2 years just go go from "very poor" to "poor".

Total accounts (low impact): This one is just stupid. Basically, you need to
have 6 credit cards just to go from "very poor" to "poor".

Credit inquiries (low impact): You get fucked on this one all the time.
Everyone under the sun will do a hard credit inquiry, and they'll usually
trick you into saying yes without actually telling you they're doing it.
Others will just do the hard inquiry without even asking you, and even though
that's illegal, they get away with it. I currently have 14 hard inquiries on
my file from phone companies (they did 3!!!), comcast, alarm companies, banks,
basically any company that will be billing you monthly. You can have max 2
before it affects your rating much. After 1-2 years the inquiries fall off, so
if you're doing anything that will likely cause a hit, it's best to do them
all at the same time (sometimes if they are within a week of each other,
they'll end up only counting for 1 inquiry in aggregate).

Total credit (affects how much more credit you can get): The more credit you
have, the more they are willing to give when you ask for it. The higher your
overall credit limit, the more favorably companies will see you.

You can probably build your rating up to the low 700s within a year as long as
you're careful. Anything 680 and above is looked upon favorably when trying to
rent an apartment. I use a program called "Credit Karma" to help track my
credit rating. They also have tips for optimizing your score, but basically it
boils down to what I wrote above.

Oh, and one last thing: Once you get close to 700, you’ll start getting credit
card offers in the mail. Many of them will be “pre-approved”, which is a
baldfaced lie. If you reply to them, you’ll actually be giving them permission
to do a hard credit inquiry on you, and you could still end up being denied.
It’s best to do your research and pick and choose your cards. I always go for
cards with no annual fee, even if they have high interest rates (which don’t
affect me because I always pay down my cards at the end of the month). Another
good thing to look for is point systems. Most of them are 1 point per dollar
spent, but some of them have introductory offers where, if you spend a certain
amount in the first 3 months, you get a bunch of bonus points. I do this with
companies that allow me to trade points for $0.01 each. Last year I waited
until I had a bunch of expensive purchases lined up, then got the card, then
immediately bought those items. It worked out that after cashing in the points
I got 25% of my purchase cost back (spent $2000 to get the bonus 50,000
points, then cashed those in for $500). Lots of cool things you can do with
these special offers so long as you are disciplined in your approach.

~~~
gesman
Thanks much, good tips!

~~~
adorearun
Instead of going for secure credit card with cash deposit in the initial
stage, you can get credit card without deposit in some of the banks like DCU
and other credit unions. This will help to build your credit score.

~~~
gesman
What's DCU? (I ask because I'm about to receive an offer from SF company, and
I'm in Canada)

~~~
adorearun
DCU -Digital Federal credit union , its a bank which will offer credit card
without deposits.

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airframeng
I work in aerospace engineering and I've noticed that companies make H1Bs work
2, 3 times harder than residents just because it's not as easy for them to
switch jobs. They tend to take advantage of that, so you've been warned!

~~~
adorearun
Its not true , its legal & easy to switch jobs in H1B if you find right
opportunity .

~~~
airframeng
It is legal. Easy? Not as easy as it is for residents. You still need to get
sponsored and you're not necessarily eligible for all job openings (Some
require citizenship or green card). At least in my field that's how it is.

~~~
adorearun
Yes I totally agree that its not as easy as residents , but in IT there are
lot of opportunities.

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takinola
You probably should be a bit more specific in order to get some meaningful
responses. Are you asking about living in the US, the H1B experience, etc?
Where are you coming from and where are you going to live / be doing?
Providing some of that information might help.

