United States · North America
Moving to Miami
Miami quick facts
United States at a glance
North America
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Miami
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 Florida ID
There is no post-arrival registration step in the US: your I-94 record is your status. In your first weeks you need a Social Security number if work-authorised, or an ITIN if not, because payroll, banking and credit all key off one of them. Florida gives 30 days for a driver licence and, unusually, makes the exchange itself easy — but it will not issue any licence without proof of lawful presence.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe easiest licence exchange of any US state
Florida gives you 30 days from establishing residency to get a Florida licence, and the exchange itself is genuinely simple: a new resident presenting a valid out-of-state or foreign licence is required to pass a vision and hearing test only — no written exam, no road test. Set against California, which waives nothing for anyone, this is a different order of difficulty. The catch is documentation: Florida requires proof of lawful presence and two proofs of address, and Miami-Dade service centres are busy.
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. Miami is the easiest big US city in which to do this, because its banks serve Latin American clients as a matter of course and branch staff are unlikely to be confused by a foreign passport. The credit-history problem is the same as everywhere: you arrive with no US file, and no file scores worse than a bad one.
Read the full step-by-step guideHealth cover in Florida — no Medicaid expansion, the biggest marketplace
Employer coverage is the normal route. Beyond it, Florida presents a contradiction: the state never expanded Medicaid, so adult eligibility is very restrictive and a coverage gap exists — while at the same time Florida has by far the largest ACA marketplace enrolment of any state. Practically, that means the marketplace is a well-supported and heavily used option here, but it will not catch you if your income is below the subsidy floor.
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 by international standards. 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 — prepaid avoids it and usually costs less.
Read the full step-by-step guideNo state income tax — and the insurance bill that replaced it
Florida levies no personal income tax, and that is the main financial reason people move here — the state constitution prohibits it, so it is unusually durable as policy. The offsetting costs are property insurance, which has been the most expensive in the country, and car insurance, which is close behind. The genuinely new fact is that property insurance is coming down: Citizens announced an average 8.7% reduction from Spring 2026 after litigation reform and lower reinsurance costs.
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
The licence exchange here is the easiest in the country
CriticalFlorida gives you 30 days from establishing residency, and a new resident exchanging a valid out-of-state or foreign licence needs only a vision and hearing test — no written exam and no road test. Compare that to California, which makes every foreign driver take both. If you are choosing between US states and dread the DMV, Florida is the softest landing.
There is no state income tax, and the trade-off is insurance
CriticalFlorida levies no personal income tax at all, which is the main financial reason people move here. The counterweight is property insurance, which has been the most expensive in the country. The genuinely new development is that it is falling: Citizens Property Insurance announced an average 8.7% premium reduction from Spring 2026, with over 150,000 policyholders getting cuts of 10% or more, after litigation reform and lower reinsurance costs. Almost everything written before 2026 describes a market that has since turned.
If you are renting or buying a condo, ask about the milestone inspection
CriticalAfter the Surfside collapse, Florida required milestone structural inspections and fully funded structural integrity reserves for condo buildings. Associations that had underfunded reserves for years responded with special assessments running into tens of thousands per unit. Before signing anything in a condo — including a lease, since costs flow through — ask for the milestone inspection report and the reserve study.
Spanish is not a second language here, it is a working one
ImportantAround seven in ten Miami-Dade residents are Hispanic and a majority speak Spanish at home. In much of Hialeah, Little Havana and Doral, Spanish is the default language of business and daily life. You can live here comfortably in English, but you will be a visitor in your own neighbourhood if you do not pick some up — and it is genuinely easy to learn in an environment this immersive.
Florida never expanded Medicaid, but has the country's biggest marketplace
ImportantAdult Medicaid eligibility in Florida is very restrictive, creating a gap for people earning too much for Medicaid and too little for subsidies. At the same time Florida has by far the largest ACA marketplace enrolment of any state, through the federal HealthCare.gov. If your job doesn't include insurance, the marketplace is a real and heavily used option — but check your subsidy eligibility before assuming affordability.
Plan for hurricane season before it starts, not during
ImportantThe season runs 1 June to 30 November, with the peak in September. Renters' insurance, a documented inventory of your belongings, a supply of water and non-perishables, and knowing your evacuation zone are all things to do in May. Flood damage is not covered by standard property insurance — it needs a separate policy, and that distinction ruins people every few years.
Top industries & employers
Finance & investment management
Citadel, Citadel Securities, Blackstone, Millennium, Elliott Management
Citadel's move of its headquarters from Chicago to Brickell in 2022 anchored a genuine relocation of trading and asset management to Miami, and the cluster has kept growing since.
Latin American headquarters & trade
Regional HQs for Visa, Microsoft, Oracle, Telefónica; PortMiami
Miami functions as the business capital of Latin America — companies base their LatAm operations here for the timezone, the language and the flight connections.
Cruise & maritime
Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC
The three largest cruise companies in the world are headquartered in the Miami area, and PortMiami is the busiest cruise port on earth.
Health systems & biotech
Jackson Health System, Baptist Health, University of Miami Health, Nicklaus Children's
The hospital systems are among the county's largest employers, and UM's medical campus anchors the research side.
Real estate & construction
Related Group, Terra, Swire Properties, Lennar
A defining local industry rather than merely a large one — the condo development cycle drives a substantial share of the regional economy and its politics.
Technology & crypto
Blockchain.com, MoonPay, OpenStore, Kaseya, Rokk3r
The 2021 'Miami Tech' wave produced a real if smaller cluster, weighted towards fintech, crypto and LatAm-facing software rather than deep tech.
Where to go in Miami
Little Havana & Calle Ocho
Neighborhood · West of downtown
SW 8th Street — domino players in Máximo Gómez Park, ventanitas, cigar rollers and the centre of Cuban Miami.
Local tip: Go on a weekday morning for the real thing rather than Viernes Culturales, which is excellent but heavily visited. Order a colada at a ventanita and share it — that's the point of the format.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Culture · Coconut Grove
A 1916 Italianate villa on Biscayne Bay with formal gardens and a stone barge in the water.
Local tip: Book a timed ticket in advance; it sells out. The gardens are the better half and most people rush them to see the house.
Wynwood Walls
Culture · Wynwood
A former warehouse district turned into the densest concentration of large-scale street art in the US.
Local tip: The paid Walls enclosure is a fraction of it — the free murals on the surrounding streets are as good. Second Saturday art walk is the local night, not the weekend crowds.
Key Biscayne & Bill Baggs State Park
Nature · Across the Rickenbacker Causeway
A barrier island fifteen minutes from downtown, with a 1825 lighthouse and the calmest beaches in the county.
Local tip: Crandon and Bill Baggs are far better than South Beach for actually swimming. Go on the causeway at sunrise — it is the best view of the skyline there is.
Coral Gables & the Venetian Pool
Landmark · Coral Gables
A 1920s planned city of Mediterranean revival architecture, with a public pool carved out of a coral rock quarry.
Local tip: The Venetian Pool is spring-fed and drained and refilled daily. It closes in the coldest months — check before making the trip.
Deering Estate
Hidden gemNature · Palmetto Bay, south Miami-Dade
450 acres of protected pine rockland, mangrove and hardwood hammock on the bay, with a Tequesta burial mound and a fossil pit.
Local tip: Almost no visitors get this far south and it preserves the ecosystem that covered all of Miami before the city. Book the canoe trip through the mangroves rather than just walking the grounds.
Emergency numbers in Miami
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