ghsam,
your job prospect would depend on your field but I cant see you'd have too much problem with the field you're in. However since I'd assume laws and regulations would be different in the US, you might have to do a bridging course of some sort. that would be my guess. My husband's a Biomedical Scientist (called Medical Technologist in the US). In Australia once you graduate from uni you can go ahead and start practicing. However in the US anyone who wants to work in that field needs to take an exam and be registered with ASCP (American Society for Clinical Pathologists). Without it one simply cannot work. My husband had already taken that exam (during our past attempts to get in to the US) and is now registered. So it might be a good idea to get into touch with an Accounting Body/ Association of some sort to find out the requirements for overseas qualified individuals. (I've got a degree in media but won't be working for a while as we have a young family. So work hasnt been an issue for me personally). Also we've decided that unless we find work while we're still in Australia we won't be going anywhere. It's just not wise to move a young family to uncertainty. However we can widen our area of job search (right now we're only focusing on Austin, Texas) if nothing comes up in Austin.
For rents again it depends on the state you're looking at. I've done a massive amount of search on housing. I love this one website oodle.com You can look up rentals for anywhere in the country. Go on to yahoo answers and have a look at past questions and answers and find out about which suburbs are good in the city you're planning on moving to. It is true that the answers aren't always objective but you still get some idea. I mean if 49 out of 50 people say that Round Rock or Cedar Park in Austin, Texas is a good family area and such and such areas are the ones you need to stay away from then that's a fair stat for me. And then I start looking for rentals in those areas.
Government schools are free. Again there's a whole lot of info online. look up reviews on school districts in the area you're planning on moving to. I mean I love Seattle area but I've never read anything positive about public schooling in seattle (over populated classrooms, not enough funding etc etc) I've read a news article the other day and it was talking about how because of budget cuts they've decided to have 4 day school weeks instead of 5 days in some areas in South Dakota :/ just things like that. again yahoo answers is pretty good
Apart from these I researh other things. How much cars cost, interest rates on car loans and how much my repayments would be per month. How much the car insurance would cost per year. What would be the the cost of utilities, electricty, gas, internet, mobile phones etc etc. of course you cant bring it down to last penny but you can get a fair idea with a bit of research. Dont laugh but I've even gone onto big supermarket websites (you know large chains like Tesco or Asda in the UK) and looked at their catalogues and things, just to get a feel for what food costs in comparison to Australia
Hmmm maybe I should start up a business
All the best to you. It's all very exciting
