IMMIGRANTS WILL ALWAYS SPEND MORE IN THE US
1. Immigration: Attorney Fees & USCIS Fees
No, you don’t simply apply for a visa for free and knock on wood that the USCIS sends you an envelope in the mail with a letter saying, “welcome to the United States.” You may be applying for an H-1B visa in which your employer will cover the several thousand dollars in expenses, but if you’re bringing in some family members as your dependents, be prepared to pay filing fees for their H-4 visas.
Unless you are absolutely confident in taking care of your own immigration case, you’ll most likely end up hiring an immigration attorney. When applying for a green card, that could mean several thousand dollars out of your pocket in addition to the filing fee of $1,140 to the USCIS for the I-485 (Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status) as mentioned on the USCIS’s website.
You might not need to hire an immigration attorney for visas that are fairly simple to apply for like the F-1 student visa and simply pay the SEVIS fee of $200, but there’s something else you would need to think of.
2. International Students May Need to Pay a Higher Tuition
College tuition in the U.S. can be already expensive as it is. State colleges usually require out-of-state students to pay a higher tuition. The admission office could use your high school diploma in addition to your physical address for reference, so renting a cheap apartment in-state right before applying probably won’t work. As international students don’t really have a “home state” in the U.S. when coming here for the first time, they will have to pay the tuition for out-of-state students which could be substantially higher than the tuition of students from that state. For instance, the annual tuition for California residents is $13,225 at UCLA, but out-of-state students will be billed an additional $28,992 for a grand total of $42,217 per academic year according to UCLA’s website. State colleges run partly on public funding and taxes, so you (or your parents) haven’t contributed to the state taxes if you’re not from that state which is why out-of-state students need to pay a higher tuition.
Private colleges may bill the same tuition for all students, but note that their tuition can be as expensive as $59,430 per academic year to begin with according to College Tuition Compare. Note that some colleges may charge a fee for international students though in addition to the tuition. Don’t forget that housing cost, textbooks, and other living expenses are separate from all the numbers we’ve mentioned here.
3. Your National Food Will Cost More in the US
With most of the ingredients getting imported, it should be no surprise that your country’s national food will probably cost the least in your home country. You may find a decent meal in Bangkok for 100 bahts (or US$3), but a plate of Massaman Curry alone could cost you $15 plus tax and gratuity in New York City. If you associate your country of origin with a non-Western one, the cost of cooking at home could come at a premium too if you need the right ingredients that were imported to an international market or if you have to find a way to import them yourself. You’ll pay the same amount for food as any other American if you eat like any other American, but you most likely will want to have something that you’ve been eating for your entire life at least once in a few days.
4. The American Standard is Not Made to Fit Your Country’s Standards
Different cultures call for different needs. If you’re coming from a nation where baking is not very common, you’ll be amazed by the gigantic American oven in every kitchen. If it’s the standard in your country to line-dry clothes, a clothes dryer in your new apartment could fascinate you. In a country where we do our very best to suit the ones who can’t climb stairs, a lot of American apartments would have elevators even if they are 2 or 3 stories high. An American moving abroad to a place where these features are uncommon may have to pay a substantial amount of money if they want to install them in their home.
Likewise, there will probably be some features that you would see in every home in your country but you would almost never see in an American home. If it’s the standard to take a relaxing bath every night in your home country, you probably had a really deep bathtub or some fancy technology features that syncs to the tub. Sorry, you probably won’t see that here. Especially with energy efficiency becoming a thing these days in the U.S. and a lot of Americans trying to cut down on water usage, you may not even see a bathtub in some of the modern homes. Sure, there are the homes with the extra deep garden tubs or jetted tubs with separate shower rooms, but you could definitely expect to pay a few more thousand bucks a month to rent a home like that in comparison to a home that might just have a walk-in shower or a standard 14” (35cm) deep tub.
Did you usually close shutters to your windows at night or when a storm hits back home? Most of our homes here won’t have them even in areas that are prone to hurricane, not that they are completely non-existent. You could see people nailing in wooden boards to protect their walls prior to a hurricane’s landing. Seems like we live in the Iron Age? Maybe that’s a question to the architects.
5. You’ll Need To Buy Everything Again
Moving within the US could be tiring enough whether you decide to have a moving sale or decide to repurchase all your furniture. Either way, you would probably take a few expensive items with you like electronics. If you’re not coming from Canada or a few other countries that have 120V currency like in the U.S., you could be either overpowering or underpowering your electric or electronic device. At the very least, you may need to bring a power converter for every device you decide to plug in.
We have some good news for you though. Most modern laptops are designed to automatically handle various voltages, so all you may need is a plug converter. Make sure to check your owner’s manual though to see what voltage(s) your laptop can handle. We’re pretty sure most of us don’t know where our owner’s manuals went, so simply search for your model’s online 😉
Shipping all your belongings to the U.S. would cost you more in most cases than purchasing them brand new, so you’ll be making large purchases at least when you’re first here. Sure, it’ll probably cost less to ship a Steinway grand piano or an antique German mahogany dining table when you know you’re permanently moving to the U.S., and if that’s the case for you, thank you for choosing an article from American Lifestyle to help you plan your move.
6. Visiting Friends and/or Families
Everyone coming from abroad will have some kind of a tie to their home country whether it be their friends, family members, or memories. You’d be more likely to travel internationally than the average American. When you’re on vacation, pretty much everyone else in the nation is too, and international travel can get pricey. Don’t ditch the ties to your home country unless you have to for whatever reason, but plan well ahead of time to find the best travel deals.
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