United States · North America
Moving to Austin
Austin quick facts
United States at a glance
North America
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Austin
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 Texas ID
There is no post-arrival registration step in the US: your I-94 record is your status. What you need in the first weeks is a Social Security number if you are work-authorised, or an ITIN if not, since payroll, banking and credit all key off one of them. Texas gives a comfortable 90 days for the driver licence, but requires lawful-presence documentation that some other states do not.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe Texas driver licence — 90 days, and possibly no test at all
You may drive on a valid foreign licence for up to 90 days after moving to Texas, then you need a Texas licence. If your licence is from France, Germany, South Korea, the UAE or Taiwan, Texas waives both the knowledge and the skills exam — you simply apply. Everyone else takes the tests. A separate quirk worth knowing: the requirement to prove 30 days of Texas residency is waived if you surrender a valid out-of-state licence.
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 harder problem is credit. You arrive with no US file, and no file scores worse than a bad one. In Austin it bites first on car finance, because you will need a car and a lease or loan without credit is expensive.
Read the full step-by-step guideHealth cover in Texas — the state with the biggest gap
Employer coverage is the normal route and, in Texas, close to essential. Texas never expanded Medicaid, so adult Medicaid eligibility is extremely restrictive and there is a band of income too high for Medicaid but too low for marketplace subsidies. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country as a direct result. If a job offer here does not include health insurance, price the alternative carefully before accepting it.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a US phone number with no credit history
The US has no SIM registration requirement: numbers are not tied to identity documents, which makes getting connected trivially easy compared with most countries. Buy a prepaid SIM or eSIM and it works immediately. The only friction is postpaid contracts, which run a credit check you cannot pass on arrival — prepaid avoids it and generally costs less.
Read the full step-by-step guideNo state income tax — and the property tax that replaces it
Texas levies no personal income tax, which is the single largest financial reason people move here from California or New York. The state funds itself through property tax instead, at effective rates around 1.8–2.2% in the Austin area — among the highest in the country — plus 8.25% sales tax. If you rent, the property tax reaches you through your rent; if you buy, it arrives as a five-figure annual bill that surprises people who only compared income tax rates.
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
There is no state income tax, but the property tax is among the highest in America
CriticalTexas funds itself through property tax instead, and effective rates in the Austin area run around 1.8–2.2% of assessed value annually. On a $600,000 house that is roughly $11,000–13,000 a year, and it is baked into your rent whether you own or not. The no-income-tax headline is real, but it is not free money — the trade is visible the moment you look at buying.
Texas never expanded Medicaid, and it shows
CriticalTexas has the highest uninsured rate in the country. Because the state declined the ACA Medicaid expansion, there is a coverage gap: people earning too much for Texas Medicaid — which for adults is extremely restrictive — but too little for marketplace subsidies. Texas also uses the federal HealthCare.gov rather than running its own exchange. If your job does not come with insurance, price this carefully before you accept an offer.
You get 90 days to get a Texas licence, and possibly no test at all
CriticalTexas is the most generous of the big states here: 90 days from becoming a resident, against California's ten. Better, Texas has reciprocity with France, Germany, South Korea, the UAE and Taiwan — a valid unexpired licence from one of those means no knowledge test and no skills test. The 30-day residency proof requirement is also waived if you surrender a valid out-of-state licence.
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 arriving on day two usually means a wasted trip. Only work-authorised people qualify; everyone else files IRS Form W-7 for an ITIN. The card is free.
Rents actually fell here, which almost nothing else in the US did
ImportantAustin permitted and built apartments at a rate no other large American city matched, and asking rents dropped materially from their 2022 peak rather than continuing to climb. It is the clearest natural experiment in US housing supply of the last decade. Practically: negotiate, ask for concessions, and do not accept the first number — free-month offers are common in new buildings.
You will need a car, and the summer is genuinely severe
ImportantAustin is a car city — public transport covers a fraction of it and the sprawl is real. Summers regularly run above 38°C for weeks, and the February 2021 grid failure is a live memory that shapes how people prepare. Check that any rental has functioning central air conditioning, and treat it as a dealbreaker rather than an amenity.
Top industries & employers
Semiconductors & hardware
Samsung Austin Semiconductor, NXP, Applied Materials, Infineon
Samsung's Taylor fab north-east of the city is one of the largest private investments in Texas history and has pulled an entire supplier ecosystem with it.
Technology & enterprise software
Dell, Oracle, IBM, Indeed, Atlassian, Cloudflare
Dell in Round Rock is the long-standing anchor; Oracle moved its headquarters here in 2020 and a wave of Bay Area companies opened large offices in the years after.
Electric vehicles & advanced manufacturing
Tesla Gigafactory Texas, SpaceX (Starbase and Bastrop), Firefly Aerospace
Tesla's Gigafactory east of the city changed the region's manufacturing labour market and drew a supplier base with it.
Music, film & creative industries
SXSW, Austin City Limits, Rooster Teeth alumni studios, Austin Film Society
The 'Live Music Capital' branding is real in venue density, though musicians will tell you the cost of living has made it much harder to sustain a career here.
Government & higher education
State of Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School
Austin is the state capital, and the combination of state government and UT provides the stable employment base underneath the tech cycle.
Health & life sciences
Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare, Dell Medical School, Luminex
A younger cluster than the tech sector, growing around Dell Med, which only opened in 2016.
Where to go in Austin
Barton Springs Pool
Nature · Zilker Park
A three-acre spring-fed pool in the bed of Barton Creek, holding 20°C year-round.
Local tip: It is genuinely cold on a 40°C day, which is the point. Go early morning when entry is free and the crowds haven't arrived. The salamanders are endangered and the reason the water quality is protected.
Barton Creek Greenbelt
Nature · South-central, running west
Twelve miles of trail, limestone cliffs and swimming holes cutting through the middle of the city.
Local tip: Twin Falls and Sculpture Falls only have water after real rain — check recent rainfall before promising anyone a swim. The Spyglass entrance has the shortest walk in.
Franklin Barbecue & the East Austin barbecue belt
Food · East Austin
The most famous brisket in Texas, and half a dozen genuinely comparable places within a few miles of it.
Local tip: The Franklin queue is a multi-hour commitment. LeRoy and Lewis, Interstellar and la Barbecue are the local answers when you want the same standard without the pilgrimage.
South Congress
Neighborhood · South of the river
The postcard strip — boutiques, the 'I love you so much' mural, and the Capitol framed at the end of the street.
Local tip: Very much a visitor street now. The good move is to walk it for the view north to the Capitol at dusk and then eat somewhere off it, on South First or Manchaca.
Congress Avenue Bridge bats
Nature · Downtown
The largest urban bat colony in North America — around 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerging at dusk from March to October.
Local tip: Watch from the Statesman Bat Observation Center on the south-east bank rather than from the bridge itself. Arrive 20 minutes before sunset; the emergence is weather-dependent and some evenings are a washout.
McKinney Falls State Park
Hidden gemNature · South-east, 20 minutes from downtown
Waterfalls over limestone shelves on Onion Creek, with a 500-year-old bald cypress and trails, inside the city limits.
Local tip: Almost every visitor goes to Zilker and the greenbelt instead. This is a full state park fifteen minutes from downtown with camping and a swimming hole — book a day pass in advance at weekends.
Emergency numbers in Austin
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