The Core Goal

Of course finding the right company is your core goal, but you also need to have some added criteria in your search and selection process. The recommendations on this web site are based on a conservative approach, but are not necessarily hard line rules, it's just how much of a calculated risk you are willing to accept.

The Right Lawyers

You want to find a company that deals with competent lawyers. You owe it to yourself to be safe and read up on as much as you can (which is why you're reading this in the first place), but the lawyers handle the bulk of the legal work. The lawyers my company dealt with, I pretty much had to educate them on what a TN-1 VISA was, the classification that I need to be put under, and had to email them chunks of the NAFTA agreement showing that I match the required qualifications. That whole process delayed my arrival time by two weeks (my previous employer was cool enough to extend my work time, because I was already factoring in not working for one week, and three weeks off would have been too hard of a financial hit).

You want a company that will do all the legal work for you, it costs a lot of money to hire lawyers to do this on your own (though you can do it completely on your own if you do enough research). If the lawyers are competent they'll be aggressive in doing all the pre-INS work and making sure everything is going to be cool. On top of that, if you plan to stay in the U.S for awhile you'll want to take it to the next level by getting an H1-B and then a green card. A lot of these Californian lawyers and companies deal a lot more with immigrating people from overseas which is a whole different ball game compared to immigrating Canadians. The U.S has different rules, and queues for different countries. A lawyer has to know this, and know how to take advantage of it.

Relocation Plan

To make the move easier, and realistic (unless you're loaded) depends on the kind of relocation plan they have. This is a combination of relocation budget and signing bonus. Some companies just give a one time cash bonus that you can allocate however you wish, some companies take care of it completely and everything gets billed to them. I'm really weary of companies where you have to take the cash hit and they pay you back later. The cost of the airfare, moving, a new apartment, possibly a new car all in one month is really expensive if you have to handle it all yourself and only get your money back a month later. Also remember that your savings are worth 45% less because of the conversion rate (though that shouldn't panic you, because if you have a car loan your payments become 45% less when you're making American dollars).

I would definately opt for just the flat out cash/signing bonus if it's significant enough. That gives you some options, you can save a lot of that cash by selling your car and not having to transport it (the savings alone are a down payment on a new car). You can also choose what you want to have moved. It's generally a buck a pound. A car is $2000-2800 (so your car has to be relatively new to make it worth it, note that new cars here are 40% cheaper). Also bringing in an out of state car assumes some registration hassle. I didn't have much to move, pretty much just one bedroom and the car totalled around $5000. A full house is over $12 000. Though there's a price drop if you have enough stuff to fill up an entire truck. You can of course just UHAUL it yourself too (if you like driving). If it's not a large cash bonus, be sure to get some hotel and car rental time, as it takes about two weeks for your stuff to get to California from Ontario (though I have a friend who moved during the off season, and they moved his stuff from Ontario to Portland in a week).

Medical/Dental Plans

Make sure that your company has good medical and dental, especially if you have kids. Like I wrote elsewhere, coming to California is a window of opportunity that you have to do while your young. It's awesome, but it comes at a price. Medical costs can be outrageous here, and you need to have a company that has 100% Dental coverage, and 95-100% Medical coverage, which most high tech companies do.

Salary Expectations

If you're a single person you can live comfortably at $70K. Possibly $65K. I know a guy from Ottawa who started here at $55K and paid off a brand new Maxima GXE in one year (taxes are low, and cars are cheap). $80K you're living very comfortably, and $90K+ you've got it made. Then there's stock options, and bonuses. I give 0 weight to bonuses because they can fluctuate, stock options on a pre-ipo is a gamble (if you're taking a pay cut at the smaller firm), so you have to decide.

Company Location

Location can be an important thing too. If the company is in downtown San Francisco, and you're going to be living outside of it, expect a massive drive time. There's three areas, the Penninsula which is the west side of the bay, Silicon Valley/South Bay which is the heart of the high tech action, and the East Bay. The further East or South you go, the cheaper it gets. So the Penninsula and the core of Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto) are more expensive to live in. If you plan to live further away (which most people do) such as in the East and work in the Penninsula, you might have to cross a bridge which increases your drive time. Rush hour exists because everyone from everywhere is going towards Santa Clara/South Bay. So if your route goes against traffic that's a bonus, and there's less traffic the more east your company is. Of course I'm just talking about the Bay Area. There's places up North that have Toronto style cost of living like Petaluma, Sacramento, etc... Los Angeles and San Diego are less expensive as well. Santa Barbara is not too bad either, beautiful place, and no traffic.