Relocating to the US: House Renting, Banking, SSN

After my painstaking navigation through the US job market, I got my start date of Dec. 2nd🙌. I resigned from my last company which I worked for about six years. As I had no background in the US and my family had to find new tenant filling in our apartment unit in Korea. So I decided to move to Boston alone while my wife work on waiting for new tenant or so. I departed Seoul Nov. 11th and headed Boston.

International Driving Permit

According to the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea, any Korean individual can drive in the state of Massachusetts with their Korean driver’s liscence (written in English backside) or their international driving permit issued in Korea. But there are also posts saying that Korean drivers in US need three sort of certificartes (Korean passport, Korean driver’s liscense, international driving permit issued in Korea). Although I had my Korean driver’s liscence already, I additionally applied for international driving permit. There are many sites where you can get IDP issued. I chose to get mine issued online.

⚠️ CAUTION
When you apply for your IDP online, it is sent to you as a registered mail and takes some time to get to you. Also, there is a limit of 350 for total issurance per day. It would be better choice to visit nearby police station or airport if you pressingly need IDP.

Departure

As I was going to be with no insurance plans before I start on December, I asked if I was eligible for a traveler’s insurance to the insurance seller in Incheon National Airport. But I was told that the US permanent residents are not eligible for being covered by their plan. So I could not help but stay without insurance coverage until I start my first day at work on Dec. 2nd🤔.

This was my second arrival at the US as a legitimate permanent resident. The first one was when I visited Guam to receive a temporary I-551 stamp on my immigration visa page on Korean passport. As a legitimate permanent resident I did not have to apply for ESTA. I only carried my passport with me for this travel.

Before departing, my manager kindly invited me to attend a team dinner party before my start daty. Told this, my wife insisted that I bring some welcome gifts for the team☺️. Little cute coasters with Korean traditional patterns on them. Thank you my better half. The dinner was great and now everything would go fine if I can do my best at new workplace😟.

Change Korean Mobile Provider to MVNO & Creating New US Phone Number

My existing Korean phone number was going to be less active once I move so I decied to port my number to an economical Mobile Virtual Network Operator(MVNO) plan. I chose one of SK Telecom’s MVNO plans. About US phone number, I have used Dingtone which does not require any SIM activation for my job hunting. As now I need more tangible plan, I activated a three-month unlimited plan with Mint Mobile. It was cleaver choice for me to buy new smartphone before departing, as my old phone did not support e-SIM so I would have struggled with physical SIMs if I had carried it as my main cell.

Renting a House

My plan was to rent a house or apartment unit by any means and move on to the next phases like banking and SSN. Some posts read I could lease a house in the US from Korea, and others read the November-December season housing market is less active in a year so it would be difficult to find decent place unless I search and apply at least two months before. But I was hesistant because from Korea I could not first-hand tour the properties in the US. My wife and I agreed to decide among the options at least I can physically tour. I landed at Boston, renting an Airbnb room located in Cambridge.

Searching

I used Zillow, Apartments.com, and Trulia during my search. I found any one of these is absolutely overwhelming others. Considering the units on some platform can be inavailable from others, I checked all three platforms during my search.

• Zillow
  • Basic and decent. I had no qualm in using the features but cannot pick discernable pros also.
• Apartments.com
  • If you are more inclined to Korean style apartment complexes this one is better.
• Trulia
  • The only platfrom serving filters based on proximity to T stations.

Or you can contact realtors for searching. They will help provide you with the properties on their listings. Some of them would be also willing to setup tours and accompany you.

Touring Units

If you find any units fits your requirements, the next step is to request a tour. Platforms above are usually provide features where you can directly message the property managers, realtors, or landlords. You can book tour with aid of realtors also. If your interested property is not an individual-owned condominium but a company-owned apartment, it is highly likely that there is a official website allowing you to book a tour online. Once your tour is set, you can simply visit the apartment’s leasing office or the property if you booked one for a condo. Having your passport is advisible as some properties can ask you to provide it during tour.

With Realtors

If you are less experienced in renting a house in the US, or if you want to lease an apartment outside of the US but somehow want to see how your interested unit looks like, you can contact realtors to be your proxy. I contacted some Korean realtors from South Korea and they were willing to support a live tour for me. You could also get their help after arriving US regarding tours or leasing contract. But you need to keep in mind that in such case you could be charged additional broker fee which usually amounts to one month’s rent.

It would be great if you can be free from the broker fee whatever property you are interested in. But if you contact an individually owned property and there are a specific realtry company dealing with it, you cannot avoid broker fee unless the listing says “you would not be charged any broker fee”. I heard from a realtor that usually the broker fee is paid by tenants for better-quality units, or by landlords vice versa. I have no statistic clue about this but it seemed reasonable that the landlords would not be willing to burden more while they property is nice and so there are already many potential tenants lined up🫤.

ℹ️ Broker Fee Disclosure Form
While you are involved with realtors in touring, you could be asked to sign a form named Broker Fee Disclosure Form. It is basically a documents stating the unit you are going to tour is going to be associated with the realtor and you would be charged the broker fee if you are going to go for the unit and sign the lease agreement. Usually a e-document is sent to you and you can sign it back to brokers with a few clicks.

Visiting Leasing Office

Company-owned apartments usually operate their own website for potential tenants. You can book for a tour there. Once a tour is arranged, you can just visit the leasing office then their staff would be ready for tour. But it is still okay for you to just walk-in any leasing office and ask if they are available for tour on spot. Some of them could ask you to make an online appointment but usually the leasing offices are going to try to show their available units unless they are doing pressing works.

Tours could be in-person or self-guided. The only difference is that for a self-guided tour no leasing office staff will accompany and you are allowed to freely roam around your interested units, the apartment’s amenities and facilities.

Apply for Your Beloved One

Once you chose a place to be your cozy home. You need to apply for that one. Application process is quite straightforward for company-owned apartments - they serve online application system you can process. One thing you need to aware is that each individual adult over 18 who are going to reside should complete their own application.

One more thing worried me was that as a new immigrant I did not have any credit to provide. When I said this, I was told I could still be approved by proving that

• My pre-tax monthly income exceeds 2.5-fold or 3-fold of monthly rent
• (Otherwise) I am able to provide balance certificate amounting to 3-years of rent

I was worried about meeting the second condition because most of my liquidity was bound to the Jeon-se agreement (a Korean style rent agreement where usually the security deposit amounts to dozens of years of montly rent, allowing the tenants to pay quite low or practically no monthly rent for their landlords) for the apartment unit I rented in Korea. Fortunately, I was able to find decent one and be approved by meeting the first criterion only.

Paying Move-In Costs

If you applied and your landlord or leasing company approved your application, you should pay them your move-in payment💰 to sign a lease agreement with them. A good thing of leasing an apartment is that there is usually no broker fee involved. In my firsthand experience around the Greater Boston Area, move-in cost requested to me was as follows:

• with Brokers
  • First-month rent
  • Last-month rent
  • 1-month rent as security deposit (subject to refund)
  • 1-month rent as broker fee (unless mentioned to be broker-fee-free)
• Leasing apartment directly
  • First-month rent
  • 1-month rent as security deposit (subject to refund)

I heard that paying last-month rent is a norm but it was not for my case in leasing apartments. I am not sure if this is usual in renting an apartment unit or not🧐.

I was told that the landlords or leasing office collects above payments only by certified ways such as money order or cashier’s check. They do not accept cash or allow you to tap/slide/insert your card in their office. I paid my move-in costs via money order. It was not so easy for me, as I am going to outline in next section.

Money Order

Money order is a sort of pre-paid check you can buy with cash or debit card. You literally buy them from the sellers so you pay more (money order fee) than the value of money order you would like to buy. Basically a money order is a sheet of paper which certifies that a given amount of money can be transferred from a sender to a receipient. You can write down your name and the recipient’s name on them and then it becomes valid, allowing your recipients to cash it.

You can buy money order from Walgreens, CVSs, and US Postal Services. I have known that I can buy money orders using my Korean debit card, which was a problem. All the CVSs I visited told me they do not sell money order. One of three Walgreens said they do money order but I need cash for that.

Fortunately, a clerk in one of the Walgreens advised me that most of the stores once sold money order do not do it anymore but Star Markets are likely do it for me. I rushed to nearby Star Market. They said they accept debit cards but still couldn’t make my Korean debit to work😰.

As a last choice I visited USPS. One USPS branch told me they had some system issues preventing them from selling money orders. Finally I arrived a small USPS branch, where I still found that Korean debit card cannot make payment to buy money orders.

Only after that I gave up using my debit card and strolled around visiting ATMs to collect cash. On the next day I visited the USPS again and finally was able to by my money orders. I am not sure if that was the issue of my debit’s payment limit or simply any money order sellers cannot do their work with foreign debit cards. It would be safer for you readers to bring some amount of cash to avoid troubles as I got through.

ℹ️ You can pay the fee though
Once you have cash, you can pay the fee involved in issurance with your Korean debit. At least it works.

Setting up Utilities

Finally I could receive my rent agreement and sign it, after I delivered the money orders to the leasing staff. After sending signed agreement the leasing staff told me I need to contact Eversource to set up my electricity for my unit. I found it was avilable online, thought it should be a piece of cake🙃, didn’t set it up right before the day of my my move-in.

Gallantly in high spirits I entered Eversource’s website, only found that a form asking me my SSN. I couldn’t even skip the step. I stumbled to search “Eversource electricity without SSN” and it read that I need to contact their customer center for further aid.

I was still nervous communicating over phone but the customer service staff was patient enough. I explained my situation and they sent me a form where I could upload a scan of my Korean passport. Eversource told me my service would start two days after my move-in, which I asked to the leasing staff if it is fine or not. The staff told me it is fine as they will provide electricity in the apartment’s name and then will charge that portion to me.

As a result I received an email confirming that my Eversource account was set up. With the account number provided I am now able to log in to Eversource site and find my bills.

Opening a Bank Account (BOA)

I was constantly told that I need permanent physicall adress in the US to open a bank account, so I deprioritized visiting bank until I sign a apartment lease agreement. After signing an agreement I shortly visited a Bank of America branch with my leasing agreement and job offer. They told it was good for me to bring the lease agreement and job offer did not matter. I was approved for opening an account and noticed my physical debit will arrive my apartment within seven days. I also activated my mobile card which can be used before I receive the physical one.

Applying for New SSN

The very last step was applying for my new Social Security Number (SSN). I made an **online appointment**, and was told a date to visit nearby SSA. When I visited SSA there was a X-ray scanning machine as if it does in Airports or US embassy in Korea.

It seems that new SSN issurance task can be done only with prior online appointment. There were already many people waiting in SSA. Shortly after waiting an officer came forward and announced that only those who made online appointment would be able to get their work done. Some of the people already having waited got mad hearing that, complaining they could hear like that when they called or visited website before😠. Officers explained the situation and said they were sorry but they were doing what they were told to do. It took some time for the air to settle down.

Once again I proceeded to the desk with my passport having immigrant visa with temporary I-551 stamp. I tried to bring my arrival/departure record or I-94 form also, but it was not successful as the I-94 site kept failing in displaying the records for me. Instead I was able to access different menu in the site and some alternative page showing my list of arrival/departure to and from the US. The SSA officer interviewed me once asked me if I have I-94 form I provided that. As the officer told me that the page I gave to her was not the exact one, anyway I was able to receive a confirmation that my SSN will be delivered within a couple of weeks to my address.

Closing

There are so many things still needs to be done! I will update this post as I complete them one by one🤗.