I'm in the same boat. 17 years here. Masters plus 15 years of experience. Getting paid >$500k per year yet I'm dependent on my employer to stay here legally. I'm still a temporary worker. I cannot take a sabbatical or take up side gigs (consultant). If Canada weren't so cold, I'd already be there.
If you're getting paid >$500k, would it be possible to do a bit of Mr Money Mustache and then get some kind of high net worth visa. At >$500k a year, that can't take more than a few years.
Of course you can. That's around $25,000 a month in income after taxes. $5000 in rent, $1000 for food, $1000 for utilities and public transit costs, $2000 for misc expenses. That leaves $19,000 a month!
I'm pretty sure that the person you reply to had a crazy lifestyle inflation and is now unable to live "simply" again with less than 20k$ a month. This is everything that MMM warns about.
Bay area have a problem trust-fund-baby mr mustache smug comments will never grasp: living around people who love crazy lifestyle inflation.
If people living around you keep paying more and more for expensive lifestyle, eventually you will be paying 5mil for a 2bd house in a so-so neighborhood. Because everyone already paid 7mil for the houses with 3bd.
Sure, you will pay 5-6k$ in rent (let's even say 8k$). But since you are making 25k$ a month after tax instead of 10k$, you are still coming ahead. Unless if you also need to buy a Tesla Model S like your cool neighbors.
No, I don't have that lifestyle. Except for house everything is paid off. Live relatively frugally except for eating out a few times a month (no expensive restaurants $12/person max)
I get that SF is expensive, but 10K/mo is $120k/yr. At 60 hrs/wk that's, what, $33/hr for a nanny? That seems on the high end even for SF and if your needs are that high you should be looking into an au pair.
I admittedly have never lived in SF with kids, but this seems like a series of choices and likely some exaggerations. If one of you is making >$500k and both of you chose to work, have kids, and you don't have the option to shift morning/evening so nanny/daycare is only 40 hours these are all choices.
Even at the rate you quoted it doesn't seem unreasonable to be able to stash away significant amounts of money. The problems are very similar, but the solutions are a lot more enviable than most of the US.
10k a month is the extreme end for a nanny and would be 65+ hours a week for 2 kids, taking em places etc. (Dont forget anything over 45 hours is time and a half. Plus 10% payroll tax plus other expenses)
4k a month is probably average for an over the table nanny at 45 hours a week with 1 kid.
Au pair is an inexperienced person which is fine, but not for the type of nanny work someone may need if they are working a lot of hours.
I believe you should be able to save serious money at 500k if you dont over extend yourself on a large apartment, but things add up very quickly so I can see how it might not be much left over with 2 kids.
That is patently untrue. I live in Silicon Valley, a few miles from one of the big tech giants. I live in a 4 bedroom house (with three roommates) and our collective rent is $4200 a month. Rent is expensive, but $5,000 for a one bedroom is absolutely not the norm.
OP was talking SF, not the wider SV. That is a good rent though. That's 2009 SF prices. We were paying $4100 for four bedroom apartment back in 2009. That same apartment is going for double that now.
I just took a look at Park Merced to see what apartments and townhomes are going for there right now. You can get 3 bedroom homes there for under $5000 a month. Is it a trendy neighbourhood? No, but it does meet the criteria of being in SF. I'm sure you could find similar deals in other non-trendy areas like the Outer Sunset if you take the time to look.
Yeah, but Walnut Creek is the same travel time to downtown. And it gets more than 10 days of sunshine a year.
But even if my figure is wrong then it's only because I accidentally posted it from three or four years in the future. But I suppose it's good news that a one bedroom is only $40k a year rather than $60k. At the moment anyway. And if you made 100k, then it's only 2.5 times more than taxes and leaves you a full 40% of your salary to thrive on, so that's nice.
Lol wut, I have a 2 bedroom in the most expensive city in the Bay Area (San Francisco) in one of the most popular neighborhoods in the city and my rent (not rent controlled) is 4300.
That is definitely not true. Cheapest 2 beds in great areas in the city at 3.7k. If you want a nice place with wd in unit dishwasher etc. They are 4.5k.
Only the new construction in soma is more than that.
Even in the Bay Area with a large family $500k/year is more than enough to live very comfortably. Maybe not a billionaire lifestyle, but certainly well above average.
$200k/year is middle class in the most expensive areas.
If you make over $500k a year, consider shrinking your expenses and living as if you were making $250k/year for a few years to gain financial independence. Raising family is expensive, but your family may be supportive of living on a reduced budget for a few years if it means removing your shackles. My 2c.
Have saved up enough that if I had my GC, I can retire today outside California and I'm less than 40. I've to keep working in order for me to stay here legally. It's not a money problem. In fact, if I had my GC, I'd only work part-time and help out poor children in my spare time.
Master's degree and making over 500k a year, so I'm going to assume you are an intelligent person and were able to understand the terms of the H1-B visa program and the limits regarding green cards 17 years ago when you intially applied for a visa.
The conditions may have their downsides but they are the ones you agreed to and in exchange for agreeing to them you were provided access to opportunities that would not have been available to you in your home country. It sounds to me like now that you have reaped the benefits you want to stop paying the price you agreed to in exchange for those benefits.
So I shouldn't complain? You vote for a senator and that person does not do what they promised to do and acts against your interests. Would you not raise your voice against them even in private about the situation? I'm still going about my job but just raising awareness here.
Have you ever tried living in a cold climate, though? I'm from Houston, and I thought I'd hate living through the winter in Washington State but actually I was totally fine with it.
Where in Washington? I grew up in Vancouver and live in Toronto. Compared to Vancouver, winters in Toronto are horrible. For 4-5 months per year it's too cold to be outside for anything more than a few minutes. Aside from the west coast, the rest of the country is as bad or worse. It sucks and I want to either move back to BC or leave the country. Why waste 1/3 of your life trapped inside?
To be fair, living in Toronto is it's own form of punishment :)
Compared to (most of) the rest of the country, Toronto has pretty moderate winters though (if a bit of wet cold off the Great Lakes). 4-5 months in Toronto being horrible though? I've lived in Vancouver a bunch, and the late fall/winter there can be a dreary mess (though I still like it).
You are right though, that much of Canada has absolutely brutal weather. I grew up in one of those places. It's help set my barometer for what really bad weather looks like.
Keep in mind there's much of the States that is way colder in winter!
Yes, there are many people like you (highly qualified, but can't get a green card due to nationality). I think people realize the situation and are making decisions accordingly. Those in tech fortunate enough to have made enough money simply get an internal transfer to EU, CA or back to India. Others just try to save for as long as possible until they get ejected.
Not sure which country you are from but I know some who came from India on a H1B around 2000 and they long since got a green card and citizenship. Maybe the wait time started increasing around that time?
There has been upward pressure on the comps by American tech companies setting up shop in Vancouver. That said, OP's salary is probably in top 10% in the Bay Area, so I just made a rough mapping based on that.
Try fractured relationship with spouse because they cannot work, uncertainty about long-term investment since I can be asked to leave the country any moment if my employer fires me, unable to take up the jobs I want, trepidation about not being allowed back in if I leave the country, not being able to travel to see sick parents if visa is currently being processed with no insight into ETA.
It sounds like you have enough money to go back to your home country (where your parents are) and retire very, very comfortably. This isn't something many people are going to feel bad for you for.
Also, there are other places to work, even if they don't pay as much as the Bay Area (but they also cost less to live in). Canada is pretty immigrant-friendly. If you don't like the weather, that sounds like some pretty petty complaining; you enjoy a lifestyle and income that most of the people on the planet would envy.
Please educate me on this. What ways do I have other than investing $500k here in a business and pray that I still get the visa when the rejection rate is >30%?
Seek out an immigration lawyer. Although legal, most of the ways are considered shady, so I don't want to go into details on here. But I am part of a certain foreign community and know it has been done.
