United States · North America
Moving to Atlanta
Atlanta quick facts
United States at a glance
North America
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Atlanta
Can you move to United States?
Pick your passport to see whether you can enter United States — and what it takes to stay.
Entry rules come from github.com/imorte/passport-index-data, updated 17 February 2026. They change without notice — confirm with the official immigration service before booking.
Getting set up in United States
Status, Social Security number and Georgia ID
There is no post-arrival registration in the US: your I-94 record is your status. In the first weeks you need a Social Security number if work-authorised, or an ITIN if not. Georgia gives 30 days for the driver licence, but defines residency by acts — accepting employment, enrolling children in school — rather than by elapsed time, so the clock starts sooner than people expect.
Read the full step-by-step guideThirty days, reciprocity for some nations, and America's worst traffic
Georgia requires a licence within 30 days of becoming a resident, and residency starts the day you accept employment. Georgia maintains reciprocal agreements with some nations whose licence holders are exempt from testing; drivers from countries without an agreement take the written, road and vision tests. A genuine convenience: non-citizens are allowed to keep their out-of-country licence after receiving a Georgia one.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening a bank account and building US credit from zero
You can open a US account without a Social Security number: federal rules let a bank use your passport number and country of issuance, or an ITIN, as the identifying number. The credit problem is the standard American one, and in Atlanta it bites first on the car — which you will need in month one, and which carries a large upfront titling tax on top of the finance.
Read the full step-by-step guideGeorgia Access, and Medicaid with an 80-hour rule
Employer coverage is the normal route. Beyond it, Georgia is distinctive twice over: it left HealthCare.gov for its own exchange, Georgia Access, live since 1 November 2024; and rather than expanding Medicaid it runs Pathways to Coverage, offering Medicaid to adults aged 19 to 64 up to 100% of the federal poverty level who complete and report at least 80 hours of qualifying activity each month.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a US phone number with no credit history
The US has no SIM registration requirement, so getting connected is trivially easy: buy a prepaid SIM or eSIM and it works immediately. The friction is postpaid contracts, which run a credit check you cannot pass on arrival. In a metro this car-dependent, coverage along your commute matters more than coverage in the city centre.
Read the full step-by-step guideA flat 4.99%, stepping down, and no city income tax
Georgia replaced its progressive brackets with a single flat rate, currently 4.99%, legislated to continue stepping down in future years subject to revenue conditions. Atlanta adds no city income tax. Combined with a moderate cost of living, this makes Atlanta one of the more tax-efficient large US cities — meaningfully better than New York, California or Massachusetts for a high earner, without Texas's very high property tax.
Read the full step-by-step guideEach guide has verified costs, timelines, required documents, and the non-obvious gotchas — sourced from official government pages. Last verified August 2026.
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What to know before you go
Georgia has no ordinary Medicaid expansion — it has Pathways, with an 80-hour rule
CriticalInstead of expanding Medicaid, Georgia runs Pathways to Coverage: adults aged 19 to 64 with household income up to 100% of the federal poverty level can enrol, but must complete at least 80 hours a month of qualifying activity — work, study, training or approved volunteering — and report it, to keep coverage. No other state in this app conditions coverage this way. If your income is low, understand the reporting obligation before you rely on it.
Georgia left HealthCare.gov — use Georgia Access
CriticalGeorgia Access went live on 1 November 2024 as the state's own exchange, replacing the federal marketplace. Open enrolment for 2026 opened on 31 October 2025. Any guide, broker or bookmark pointing you at HealthCare.gov for a Georgia plan is describing a system the state no longer uses.
Thirty days, and your foreign licence comes back to you
CriticalGeorgia requires a licence within 30 days of becoming a resident — and residency is triggered by accepting employment or enrolling children in school, not by a waiting period. Georgia has reciprocal agreements with some nations whose drivers skip testing; everyone else takes the written, road and vision tests. Usefully, non-citizens are allowed to keep their out-of-country licence after being issued a Georgia one, unlike Illinois which confiscates.
A flat 4.99% state tax and no city income tax
CriticalGeorgia replaced its progressive brackets with a single flat rate, currently 4.99% and legislated to keep stepping down. Atlanta levies no city income tax. Combined with a relatively low cost of living, this is one of the friendlier tax positions among large US cities — and materially better than New York, California or Massachusetts.
Apply for your Social Security number about ten days after arriving
CriticalSSA verifies your status against DHS records that lag entry by one to two weeks, so an immediate visit usually wastes the trip. Only work-authorised people qualify; everyone else files IRS Form W-7 for an ITIN. The card is free.
You will need a car, and the traffic is genuinely among the worst in America
ImportantMARTA's two rail lines are useful along their axes and irrelevant to most of the metro. Atlanta consistently ranks among the most congested US cities, and the Connector at peak is legendarily bad. Choose where you live by commute, drive it at the real hour before signing, and treat 'inside the Perimeter' as a meaningful quality-of-life goal if you can afford it.
Top industries & employers
Airlines & logistics
Delta Air Lines, UPS, Norfolk Southern, Hartsfield-Jackson
Hartsfield-Jackson is the busiest passenger airport in the world and Delta's home. Logistics is the region's structural advantage — most of the US population is within a two-hour flight.
Fintech & payments
Fiserv, Global Payments, NCR Voyix, InComm, Greenlight
'Transaction Alley' — a very large share of US card payment volume is processed by companies headquartered in metro Atlanta, a cluster that grew out of the 1970s banking technology industry.
Film & television production
Tyler Perry Studios, Trilith Studios, Marvel, Netflix, Warner Bros.
Georgia's transferable film tax credit made the state one of the largest production centres in the world. The industry is real but the credit is perennially debated in the legislature.
Corporate headquarters
Coca-Cola, Home Depot, UPS, Delta, Southern Company, Chick-fil-A
An unusual density of Fortune 500 headquarters for the city's size, which gives the white-collar job market real depth beyond any single sector.
Public health & bioscience
CDC, Emory Healthcare, CHOA, Boehringer Ingelheim
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is headquartered here, and Emory's research campus around it makes Atlanta a genuine global public health centre.
Higher education
Georgia Tech, Emory, Georgia State, Spelman, Morehouse
Georgia Tech anchors the engineering pipeline, and the Atlanta University Center is the largest consortium of historically Black colleges and universities in the world.
Where to go in Atlanta
The Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail
Nature · Old Fourth Ward to Piedmont Park
A former rail corridor turned linear park, lined with murals, breweries and the Ponce City Market food hall.
Local tip: Start at Krog Street Market and walk north to Ponce City Market, then up to the Skyline Park on the roof. The Westside Trail is quieter and shows a different, less gentrified Atlanta.
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park
Culture · Sweet Auburn
Dr King's birth home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the tomb he shares with Coretta Scott King, all free.
Local tip: The birth home requires a free timed ticket from the visitor centre and they go early. Ebenezer's original sanctuary, with the recording of Dr King's voice, is the part that stays with people.
Piedmont Park & the Atlanta Botanical Garden
Nature · Midtown
The city's central park with the best skyline view, and a botanical garden with a canopy walk through the trees.
Local tip: The view from the Oak Hill meadow is the postcard shot. The Botanical Garden's winter light installation sells out — book weeks ahead if you want to go.
Sweet Auburn Curb Market
Food · Downtown
A 1918 municipal market that has fed the city through segregation and renewal, now a mix of butchers, Caribbean kitchens and new stalls.
Local tip: Grindhouse Killer Burgers and the Jamaican counter are the reliable picks. It is a working market rather than a food hall, and it is a short walk from the King historic site.
Buford Highway
Food · North-east, outside the Perimeter
Miles of strip malls holding the best Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican and Ethiopian food in the south-east.
Local tip: This is the single best eating in Atlanta and almost none of it is in a guidebook. You need a car. Plaza Fiesta and the Chinatown mall are the anchors — go hungry and follow the queues.
Cascade Springs Nature Preserve
Hidden gemNature · South-west Atlanta
120 acres of forest, a waterfall and the stone ruins of a 19th-century spa, plus Civil War earthworks, inside the city.
Local tip: In a city where everyone goes to Piedmont Park, this has a genuine waterfall and almost nobody on the trails. Free, open daily, and ten minutes from downtown.
Emergency numbers in Atlanta
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