United States

A nonimmigrant visa, including a visitor visa and the Visa Waiver Program, covers a visit. An immigrant visa or a permanent-resident card is residence. Between them sit temporary work statuses, each sponsored and each limited to its own term. Buying a house leaves immigration status as it was.

The H-1B is one of those work statuses. USCIS said on 18 July 2025 that the fiscal year 2026 cap of 65,000, and the 20,000 advanced-degree places, had been reached. Other statuses exist, each with its own rules.

The right to work is written on the status. A visitor’s status excludes work. A student may work within the limits of that status. An H-1B worker works for the petitioner, in the job approved. A spouse’s work permission is a separate grant.

Working outside the grant is an immigration problem, not a private contract problem. Changing employer can require a new petition before the work starts.

A foreign person can buy real estate. Federal law sets no nationality cap of the kind some other countries print. At sale, FIRPTA generally requires the buyer to withhold 15 percent of the amount realized. CFIUS can review certain purchases near listed ports, airports and military sites. An ordinary house outside those geographies stays outside that review.

States add their own rules. Florida’s foreign-principal statute is one of them, and it covers the buyers the statute names. The United States real estate note holds the federal rules. The state notes hold the rest. Title and the visa remain separate.

There is no national health service. Employed households usually depend on an employer plan. Others may use the marketplace at HealthCare.gov, where eligibility depends on immigration status and income. Emergency rooms must screen and stabilise under federal law. That duty is not ongoing care, and it is not free.

Insurance premiums, deductibles and the network of hospitals are a primary cost of living in the United States. A visa does not include them.

Public primary and secondary schools serve children who live in the district. Citizenship is not the admission test. The district’s address rules are. Quality and funding vary by district, which is why housing choice and schooling are the same decision in many metros.

Universities charge separately, and public universities often charge more to students who are not residents of that state. A parent’s work visa does not set that tuition.

Banks must identify their customers. A Social Security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a passport, and an address are the usual pieces. A new arrival can be refused by one bank and accepted by another. The refusal is not a federal ban on holding money.

A mortgage is a credit decision on top of the account. Without a U.S. credit history, many lenders will decline. Cash purchase remains possible. Neither is immigration status.

The IRS substantial presence test treats an individual as a U.S. tax resident if they are present at least 31 days in the current year and 183 days over three years, counting all of the current year, one-third of the prior year and one-sixth of the year before that. Days are not all counted. The page lists exceptions. Tax residence is not the visa.

Residents are taxed on worldwide income. Non-residents are taxed on U.S.-source income. States add their own income taxes, or do not. Florida and Texas state that they do not tax personal income. California taxes residents on income from any source. New York taxes individual income. The brackets are not copied.

No national index is printed. Rent, health insurance, a car and state tax are the lines that change the move. New York City can be lived without a car. Most other large metros cannot. The real estate notes on New York, Texas, California, South Florida and Chicago are the property context.

A salary quoted before insurance and state tax is not the household’s money. Those two deductions are larger here than in a country that provides care through a surcharge or a ministry.

A company is formed under a state’s law. Delaware is a common domicile and is not the place the founders necessarily live or hire. Operating in another state requires that state’s registration. Employing someone who needs a visa requires a petitioner. The company does not confer status on its owner.

The startup notes cover San Francisco, New York, Boston, Austin, Los Angeles and Seattle as labour markets. They are not immigration advice.

Airports connect the metros. Daily life inside most of them is by car. New York’s subway is the clear exception, and even there the commute is borough-specific. A job in San Jose and a home in San Francisco is a long drive or a train, not one neighbourhood.

International arrival is usually at a hub that may not be the city of work. The connection onwards is part of the move, not an afterthought.