United States · North America
Moving to Dallas
Dallas quick facts
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Cost of living in Dallas
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 a Texas ID
There is no post-arrival registration step in the US: your I-94 record is your status, and the date on it governs your stay rather than the expiry printed in your visa. In the first weeks you need a Social Security number if you are work-authorised, or an ITIN if you are not, because payroll, banking and credit all key off one of them. Texas then gives a comfortable 90 days for the driver licence, but demands lawful-presence documentation that Oregon and Washington do not.
Read the full step-by-step guideNinety days, five countries that skip the tests, and the tolls nobody mentions
You may drive on a valid foreign licence for up to 90 days after becoming a Texas resident, then you need a Texas one. If your licence is from France, Germany, South Korea, the UAE or Taiwan, Texas waives both the knowledge and the skills exam outright. The other half of driving in Dallas is money: the Metroplex has one of the most extensive electronic toll networks in the country, and driving it without a transponder is significantly more expensive.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an account and building US credit before you need a car loan
Federal rules let a bank identify a non-US person by passport number and country of issuance, so you do not have to wait for a Social Security number to open an account. The harder problem is credit, because you arrive with no file and American underwriting scores a file rather than a person. In the Metroplex that bites immediately, on car finance, because there is no version of this life without a vehicle.
Read the full step-by-step guideHealth cover in Texas, and what Parkland actually does
Employer coverage is the normal route and in Texas it is close to essential. Because the state never expanded Medicaid, adult eligibility is extremely restrictive and there is a band of income too high for Medicaid and too low for marketplace subsidies. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the country as a direct result. Dallas County's counterweight is Parkland Health, a large public hospital district with a financial assistance programme that is genuinely underused by newcomers.
Read the full step-by-step guideA US number with no credit history, in a metro you drive across
The US has no SIM registration requirement at all: numbers are not tied to identity documents, so a prepaid SIM or eSIM works the moment you insert it. The only friction is postpaid contracts, which run a credit check you cannot pass on arrival — prepaid sidesteps it and usually costs less. Home internet in the Metroplex is unusually good by US standards, with fibre widely available across the northern suburbs.
Read the full step-by-step guideNo income tax, a property tax patchwork, and the exemption you must claim
Texas levies no personal income tax and no city income tax, which makes the filing itself the simplest in this US set — one federal return and nothing else. What replaces the revenue is property tax, assessed by county appraisal districts and levied by a stack of overlapping jurisdictions, and sales tax at 8.25%. Because the Metroplex crosses six counties and dozens of school districts, two houses a mile apart can carry meaningfully different 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.
Essential English phrases
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What to know before you go
Which side of a county or city line you live on changes your tax bill by thousands
CriticalThe Metroplex spans Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Rockwall and Ellis counties, and dozens of independent cities and school districts overlay them. Your property tax rate is the sum of county, city, school district, community college and hospital district levies, and it varies materially between two houses a mile apart. Combined effective rates in the area typically land around 2.2–2.5% of assessed value. Look up the specific address on the county appraisal district site before you commit — 'Dallas' on a listing may mean Plano ISD, Richardson ISD or Highland Park ISD, and they are not the same.
No state income tax, but the property tax is the highest-profile bill in Texas
CriticalTexas levies no personal income tax at all, which is the headline reason people move here from California and New York. Property tax replaces it. If you rent, it reaches you through the rent; if you buy, it arrives as a five-figure annual bill. The school-district homestead exemption rose to $140,000 after voters approved it in November 2025, and there is a 10% annual cap on how fast a homestead's taxable value can rise — but only if you file for the exemption, which is free and which newcomers routinely forget for years.
Texas gives you 90 days for a licence, and five countries skip both tests
CriticalThat is the most generous window of any big state in this app — California gives ten days. Better still, 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 at all. Book the DPS appointment on arrival anyway, because Metroplex offices run weeks out.
Texas never expanded Medicaid, and it has the highest uninsured rate in America
CriticalBecause the state declined the ACA Medicaid expansion, there is a band of income too high for Texas Medicaid — which for working-age adults without children is close to nonexistent — and too low for marketplace subsidies. Texas uses the federal HealthCare.gov rather than running its own exchange. If a Dallas job offer does not include health insurance, price the alternative before you accept it. Dallas County residents do have Parkland Health, the county hospital district, as a genuine safety net.
Get a TollTag in your first week
ImportantThe North Texas Tollway Authority runs the Dallas North Tollway, the President George Bush Turnpike and the Sam Rayburn, and TxDOT runs dynamically priced TEXpress managed lanes on top. There are no toll booths. Without a transponder your plate is photographed and you are billed by post at a significantly higher ZipCash rate, with administrative fees stacking on unpaid invoices. Out-of-state plates and rental cars are where this bites hardest.
Hail is the insurance risk nobody warns you about
ImportantNorth Texas sits in one of the most damaging hail corridors in the world, and spring storms regularly write off car roofs and roofs of houses across whole suburbs in a single evening. Comprehensive auto cover and a covered parking space are not luxuries here. Check the roof age and the deductible structure on any home insurance quote — many Texas policies now carry a separate, percentage-based wind and hail deductible rather than a flat one.
Top industries & employers
Corporate headquarters & professional services
AT&T, Texas Instruments, Toyota North America, McKesson, CBRE, Jacobs, Fluor, Caterpillar
The Metroplex has one of the densest concentrations of Fortune 500 headquarters in the US, much of it drawn by no state income tax and cheap land along the northern corridor from Plano to Frisco.
Finance & capital markets
Charles Schwab, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, Comerica, NYSE Texas, Texas Stock Exchange
The 'Y'all Street' cluster is real — Schwab moved its headquarters to Westlake, Goldman built a campus in north Dallas, and both NYSE Texas and the new Texas Stock Exchange are headquartered here.
Airlines & logistics
American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, DFW International, BNSF Railway, Alliance Texas
American is headquartered at DFW and Southwest at Love Field, and DFW airport occupies more land than the island of Manhattan. The inland port at Alliance makes the region a national freight hub.
Semiconductors & electronics
Texas Instruments, GlobiTech, Diodes, Raytheon, Elbit America
Texas Instruments was founded in Dallas and its Sherman fabs north of the metro are among the largest analogue chip investments in the country.
Healthcare & life sciences
UT Southwestern, Baylor Scott & White, Texas Health Resources, Tenet Healthcare, Parkland Health
UT Southwestern has produced several Nobel laureates and anchors a substantial biomedical research base — a counterweight to a state health system with the country's highest uninsured rate.
Energy trading & services
Vistra, Energy Transfer, Pioneer alumni firms, Hunt Consolidated, NexTier
Dallas is the finance and trading end of Texas energy where Houston is the operational end — pipelines, power markets and private capital rather than refineries.
Where to go in Dallas
Deep Ellum
Nightlife · East of downtown
The city's live music district since the 1920s blues era, now a dense grid of venues, murals and late bars.
Local tip: The murals along Main and Elm change constantly and are the reason to walk it in daylight. At night, park in a paid lot rather than on the street — the neighbourhood is fine, the towing is not.
Klyde Warren Park
Landmark · Between downtown and Uptown
A five-acre deck park built on a bridge over the sunken Woodall Rodgers Freeway, stitching two districts back together.
Local tip: It is the clearest illustration of what Dallas is trying to do about its freeways. Come on a weekday lunchtime for the food trucks; the free programming — chess, yoga, films — is genuinely good and almost entirely used by locals.
Bishop Arts District
Neighborhood · Oak Cliff, south of the Trinity
A walkable few blocks of independent restaurants, bars and shops in a historically Latino neighbourhood south of the river.
Local tip: Oak Cliff is the part of Dallas that most surprises newcomers who have only seen the northern suburbs. Take the streetcar from Union Station rather than driving — it is free and it crosses the Houston Street Viaduct with the best skyline view in the city.
Fair Park
Culture · South-east of downtown
277 acres holding the largest collection of 1930s Art Deco exposition architecture anywhere in the world, plus the State Fair each autumn.
Local tip: Everyone comes for the fair in September and October and nobody comes the rest of the year, which is when the architecture is actually visible. The Hall of State and the Esplanade are extraordinary and usually empty.
White Rock Lake & the Katy Trail
Nature · East Dallas and Uptown
A 1,015-acre lake with a nine-mile loop trail, and a separate rail-trail running from downtown through Uptown.
Local tip: The lake loop is where Dallas runs and cycles, and it is busiest at dawn in summer for good reason. The Dallas Arboretum sits on the east shore — go in the last week of February when the tulips are out and before the crowds arrive.
Trinity River Audubon Center & the Great Trinity Forest
Hidden gemNature · South Dallas, 20 minutes from downtown
A 6,000-acre bottomland hardwood forest inside the city limits — one of the largest urban hardwood forests in the United States — with a nature centre built on a former illegal dump.
Local tip: Almost no newcomer knows this exists, because Dallas's reputation is concrete and the forest is on the wrong side of the river from the money. Trails, herons, bobcats and beavers, twenty minutes from downtown, and quiet on a Saturday morning.
Emergency numbers in Dallas
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