Transcript

I'm Rebecca, and I'm with the arrivals team.

And my name is Emal, and I'm with the Travel and Housing team.

And today, we're gonna do a brief overview on securing housing prior to your arrival.

Securing housing prior to your arrival has many benefits.

Some of those being peace of mind.

To help yourself alleviate some stress and uncertainty, finding housing and knowing where you'll be staying prior to arrival would be a big help.

Time saving.

On your arrival, you will have 3 days with your arrival coordinator, and apartment hunting can be time consuming. But if you found housing prior to your arrival, You'll have some more time to spend with your arrival coordinator preparing utilities, purchasing the things for your new home, or other things that are a preference of yours.

The location choice.

Generally, you'll have some more flexibility on looking at what neighborhoods and location best suits your needs or your preferences and your budget as well.

Financial planning is also a huge plus.

Knowing how much you will be spending prior to arrival will help you plan out your budget better and where you think your finances will need to go most.

You also can avoid temporary housing cost.

You will be able to get the full amount of your housing allowance and spend that on your apartment instead of putting those towards your 10 night stay on your arrival.

Familiarity with the area.

Securing a house or an apartment before arrival will give you the time to familiarize yourself with your new neighborhood, find transportation options, and, explore new amenities.

Establishing residency.

Having a rental agreement with a local address may be required to establish residency for various purposes. Such as getting a driver's license, school registration for your children, and opening a bank account.

Smoother transition.

Securing an apartment in advance ensures a smooth transition into your new city/country.

Avoiding last-minute rush.

Rushing into a housing decision can lead to choosing an option that may not be the best for you and your needs. So having started earlier, that search and finding the perfect option is only done when you are able to secure housing before you get to US.

Last but not least, building connections.

You can start building relationships with your neighbors and the neighborhood and getting connected to your community members, before you even arrive and foster a sense of belonging.

Now you might ask how can I do that if I'm not even in US yet? There are Facebook groups, and also there's another app called Nextdoor, that's specifically designed for specific neighborhoods that you'd be living in so that way you can become a member online, kinda get a sense of the area and the sort of neighbors that you would expect. And then, there are a few things to consider while trying to secure housing.

First of all, determine your budget.

Generally, about 30% of your entire budget will be dedicated towards housing, and that's true for not only nurses coming to US, but just everybody who lives here. So consider your finances.

You also have to be realistic.

You know, you don't wanna go overboard with like housing costs. You wanna stay within that 30% range.

Define your needs.

If you're a single person, do you really need a 2 bedroom, but again consider your needs.

Also location.

Where do you wanna live in relation to the hospital? So that's another criteria you have to keep in mind.

And then you can search online by using online resources.

You can just use Google, different websites for housing such as Trulia Zillow. And the great thing about those is that they have virtual tours that you can view the entire house or apartment online.

And last but not least, you can apply online.

Fill out the application. And if you come across any kind of like roadblocks while you're trying to complete your application, you can always reach out to your travel and housing person, and we can reach out to landlords on your behalf and help out in any way we can.

That concludes the end of our video. Hope this helps you in your housing search. Thanks.