United States · North America
Moving to Phoenix
Phoenix quick facts
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North America
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World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in Phoenix
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 an Arizona ID
There is no post-arrival registration step in the US: your I-94 record is your status, and the 'admit until' date on it governs your stay rather than the expiry printed in your visa. The first weeks are about a Social Security number if you are work-authorised, or an ITIN if not. Arizona then differs from most states in not giving a day count — it defines residency, and once you meet the definition you are expected to hold an Arizona licence.
Read the full step-by-step guideFour countries that skip the tests, a licence that lasts to 65, and driving in a haboob
Arizona requires a licence once you meet its residency definition, with no published grace period. Valid unexpired licences from Canada, Germany, South Korea and Taiwan are exempt from both the written and road tests; every other country takes both, and a certified translation is required if the licence is not in English. The local driving hazards are specific: summer heat destroys batteries and tyres, and monsoon dust storms require a manoeuvre most drivers get exactly wrong.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening an account and building a US credit file from nothing
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 credit problem is the standard American one — no file scores worse than a bad file — and here it bites first on car finance and on the summer utility deposit, since a Phoenix electricity account without a credit history usually requires money up front.
Read the full step-by-step guideAHCCCS, heat illness, and the desert infection newcomers get
Coverage comes from an employer, from AHCCCS — Arizona's Medicaid programme — if your income qualifies, or from a marketplace plan. Arizona expanded Medicaid, so adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level are covered and there is no gap below the subsidy floor. The two distinctly local clinical issues are heat, which kills hundreds of people in Maricopa County every summer, and valley fever, a soil-borne fungal infection that disproportionately affects newcomers.
Read the full step-by-step guideA US number with no credit history, and a phone that survives 45°C
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. Locally, two things matter: handsets thermally shut down in direct summer sun, and coverage drops away fast once you leave the Valley for the desert and the mountains people drive to at weekends.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe lowest flat rate in America, a 1% property tax cap, and no rental tax since 2025
Arizona taxes personal income at a flat 2.5%, the lowest flat rate in the United States, applied to a state taxable income that starts from federal adjusted gross income. No Arizona city or county adds an income tax. Property tax on an owner-occupied home is unusually light because Arizona assesses it at 10% of full cash value and the constitution caps primary property taxes on owner-occupied homes at 1% of that value. And since 1 January 2025 there is no city tax on long-term residential rent.
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
Reading a list isn’t learning it. Globe Quest turns these into a trainer — hear each phrase spoken, drill them with spaced repetition, and get scored as you say them out loud.
What to know before you go
Ask whether the unit has refrigerated air or an evaporative cooler — it is the single most important question
CriticalEvaporative 'swamp' coolers work by adding moisture to dry air. They are cheap to run and perfectly adequate in May, and they stop working when monsoon humidity arrives in July and August, exactly when it is 43°C. Phoenix City Code 39-5 requires rental units to have permanently installed cooling capable of cooling every habitable room to no more than 82°F where there is refrigerated air conditioning, or 86°F where there is evaporative cooling, measured three feet above the floor at the centre of the room — so a swamp-cooled flat is legally permitted to be four degrees hotter, in the worst month of the year. Ask, look at the unit on the roof, and treat this as a dealbreaker rather than a detail.
Cooling is an essential service under Arizona law, with real tenant remedies
CriticalA.R.S. § 33-1364 names air conditioning or cooling — where such units are installed and offered — among the services a landlord must supply. If it fails and the landlord does not act after written notice specifying the breach, you may buy reasonable substitute cooling and deduct the actual reasonable cost from rent, recover damages based on the reduced rental value, or take substitute housing and be excused from rent for the period. Note the limit on that last option: any excess cost of the substitute housing above the rent excused is recoverable only up to 25% of the periodic rent, rising to the full periodic rent where the landlord's failure was deliberate. Put the notice in writing, keep the receipts, and know the remedy before July rather than during it.
A flat 2.5% income tax, and no local income tax anywhere
CriticalArizona levies the lowest flat individual income tax rate in the country at 2.5%, applied to a state taxable income that starts from federal adjusted gross income. No Arizona city or county levies an income tax on top. Combined with a residential property tax that is unusually low — Arizona assesses owner-occupied homes at 10% of full cash value and the constitution caps primary property taxes on them at 1% — this is one of the lightest overall tax positions of any large US metro.
Arizona abolished the tax on residential rent on 1 January 2025
ImportantUntil the end of 2024 most Arizona cities, Phoenix included, charged a transaction privilege tax of roughly 2–3% on residential rent, collected by the landlord and added to your monthly bill. State law abolished it for long-term residential rentals from 1 January 2025. If a lease or a listing still quotes 'plus city rental tax' for a stay of 30 days or more, that is out of date — question it.
There is no fixed day count for the driver licence, and four countries skip the tests
CriticalArizona does not give you 30 or 60 days; it defines residency instead — working here other than seasonally, staying seven months or more in a calendar year, registering to vote, or claiming in-state tuition all make you a resident, and a resident must hold an Arizona licence. Valid unexpired licences from Canada, Germany, South Korea and Taiwan are exempt from both the written and road tests; everyone else takes both. Arizona licences are then valid until you turn 65, with a new photo every twelve years — the longest in the country.
The water question is real, and it is about the address rather than the region
ImportantIn June 2023 the state stopped approving new assured-water-supply determinations in the Phoenix area that rely on groundwater, after a model projected a shortfall over the mandated hundred-year horizon. Phoenix itself holds senior Colorado River and Salt River Project rights and a designated assured supply; the exposure is on the unincorporated fringe, where Rio Verde Foothills famously lost its hauled-water source in January 2023. Before buying or renting somewhere rural-adjacent, check whether the property is inside a water provider's designated service area.
Top industries & employers
Semiconductors
TSMC, Intel, Amkor, onsemi, Microchip, NXP
TSMC's north Phoenix site is part of a US investment programme the company has put at $165 billion, with Intel's Chandler campuses and Amkor's Peoria packaging plant alongside — the Valley now has one of the densest chip clusters in the country.
Aerospace & defence
Honeywell Aerospace, Boeing Mesa, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Luke Air Force Base
Honeywell Aerospace is headquartered in Phoenix and Boeing's Mesa plant builds the Apache. Many roles require US citizenship and a clearance, which is worth knowing before applying.
Healthcare systems
Banner Health, Mayo Clinic Arizona, HonorHealth, Dignity Health, TGen
Banner is Arizona's largest private employer and Mayo's Phoenix campus is one of its three main sites — a substantial and still-growing sector serving a fast-ageing population.
Financial services & operations centres
American Express, Charles Schwab, State Farm, Wells Fargo, USAA, Vanguard
The Valley has been the destination of choice for large financial operations centres for two decades — State Farm's Marina Heights campus in Tempe is among the largest office developments in the region.
Universities & research
Arizona State University, University of Arizona Phoenix, TGen, Barrow Neurological Institute
ASU is the largest university in the United States by enrolment and its Tempe and downtown campuses shape the labour market and the rental market alike.
Autonomous vehicles & logistics
Waymo, Amazon, Nikola, Lucid Motors, Carvana, Freeport-McMoRan
Phoenix has been Waymo's largest commercial service area for years, largely because the weather and the grid street layout make it the easiest large US metro to drive autonomously.
Where to go in Phoenix
South Mountain Park & Preserve
Nature · South Phoenix
Around 16,000 acres of desert mountain inside the city — one of the largest municipal parks in the United States, with more than 50 miles of trail.
Local tip: Dobbins Lookout at sunset is the classic, and the road up is open to cars. The trails on the western Kiwanis side are far quieter. In summer the city closes trails during extreme heat warnings and it is enforced — check before you go.
Desert Botanical Garden
Nature · Papago Park, east Phoenix
140 acres of Sonoran desert planting with one of the largest cactus collections anywhere, set among red sandstone buttes.
Local tip: Go at opening or for the evening programmes in summer, not at midday. The spring wildflower weeks and the winter Las Noches de las Luminarias are when locals actually come, and both sell out.
Heard Museum
Culture · Central Phoenix, on Central Avenue
The leading museum of Native American art in the country, with a permanent exhibition on the Indian boarding schools that is unflinching.
Local tip: It is a short walk from the light rail, which almost nobody uses to get there. The boarding school exhibition is the reason to come and it takes an hour on its own — do not treat this as a quick stop.
Roosevelt Row & Grand Avenue
Neighborhood · Downtown Phoenix
The downtown arts district — galleries, murals, bars and the monthly First Friday art walk that draws tens of thousands.
Local tip: First Friday is genuinely the easiest way to meet people in a metro that can feel socially diffuse. Come by light rail; parking during the walk is miserable, and the Grand Avenue end is more interesting than the Roosevelt end.
Camelback Mountain
Nature · Between Phoenix and Scottsdale
The metro's defining landmark and its most-climbed summit, with two steep, exposed routes to the top.
Local tip: This is a genuinely serious hike, not a walk — Echo Canyon and Cholla both involve scrambling and the rescue helicopter is a regular sight. Do not start it after 8am from May to September, carry far more water than feels sensible, and take Cholla if it is your first time.
The Lower Salt River & Saguaro Lake
Hidden gemNature · Tonto National Forest, 45 minutes north-east
A cold, clear river through the Sonoran Desert with a resident herd of wild horses, and a reservoir lake behind Stewart Mountain Dam.
Local tip: Newcomers spend their first summer in a pool and never learn this is here. The river runs cold year-round because it comes off the bottom of a dam, the wild horses are genuinely wild and protected by state law, and a Tonto day pass costs very little. Go on a weekday; summer weekends are chaotic.
Emergency numbers in Phoenix
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