Moving Back to the US

Every relocation guide tells you how to leave. Almost nothing tells you how to come back. Maybe your parents are getting older, your kids are about to start school in a system you don't know, your career has hit a ceiling, or the move you made two years ago just isn't working. You've read the forum threads with hundreds of replies from people who moved back to the US, and they contradict each other. If you've already landed, you may be finding out the part nobody warned you about: home feels foreign. Moving Back to the US: Reverse Culture Shock, Taxes, Credit, Health Insurance, and Jobs After Living Abroad: Decide If It's Time to Move Back Home, Plan the Return, and Rebuild Your Life is a complete guide to the second half of the round trip. It is not a guide to moving abroad, a visa book or a generic moving checklist. It follows the return from the first serious "should we?" conversation to the end of your first year back. It is written for long-term expats, for recent leavers whose move didn't work out, for retirees coming home for healthcare or family, and for the foreign-born spouses and kids who come with them. Inside, you'll learn: How to tell homesickness from a real signal, and how to use the Return Ledger to reach a decision you can both live with How to run a scouting trip that tests real life instead of a vacation, and how to keep a door open to the country you're leaving A six-month Return Runway that puts documents, notices, shipping, pets and money moves in the right order What to know about a foreign spouse's immigrant visa, your kids' citizenship papers and the sponsor rules that trip up returning couples How to handle the split-year tax return, foreign-account reporting, a dormant credit file and moving your savings home without surprises How to avoid a gap in health coverage, including the Marketplace and Medicare timing traps that older returnees face A 90-day Landing plan for ID, housing, a car and a phone number, and how to sell your years abroad to US employers Why reverse culture shock often hits harder than culture shock did, how long it tends to last, and how to help kids who have never lived in the US Coming back isn't a failure, and it isn't going back in time. With a clear plan, you can bring home the best of who you became abroad and build a life that fits the person you are now.

Imad Muratspahic is an independent author of practical how-to guides, technical handbooks, history and fiction. The books aim to be clear, honest and useful from the first page.