United States · North America
Moving to San Francisco
San Francisco quick facts
United States at a glance
North America
Economy
World Bank · 2025Religion
% of populationCIA World Factbook / national censuses
Cost of living in San Francisco
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 California ID
There is no post-arrival registration in the US: your I-94 record is your status. In your 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 the two. California adds one specific pressure: the state gives you only ten days to obtain a driver licence once you are a resident, far tighter than New York's thirty or Texas's ninety.
Read the full step-by-step guideThe California DMV, the ten-day rule, and why you will take the test
Two facts define this process. You have ten days from becoming a California resident to get a licence — the tightest deadline of any major state. And California has no licence-exchange arrangement with any country, so you apply as a new driver: knowledge test, instruction permit, and a behind-the-wheel drive test, no matter how many years you have driven elsewhere. Book the appointment before you arrive.
Read the full step-by-step guideOpening a bank account and building US credit from nothing
You can open an account without a Social Security number: federal rules permit a bank to use your passport number and country of issuance, or an ITIN, as the identifying number. The genuine problem is credit. You arrive with no US file, and no file scores worse than a poor one — it blocks apartments, phone contracts and card approvals. Open a secured credit card in your first month, before anything depends on it.
Read the full step-by-step guideHealth cover through Covered California — and Healthy San Francisco
Coverage comes from an employer, from Covered California, or from Medi-Cal if your income is low enough. Three numbers matter more than the plan name: the monthly premium, the deductible you pay before the insurer contributes anything, and the out-of-pocket maximum that caps your annual exposure. San Francisco also runs Healthy San Francisco, which gives uninsured city residents access to a network of clinics regardless of immigration status.
Read the full step-by-step guideGetting a US phone number with no credit history
There is no SIM registration requirement in the US: you do not tie a number to your identity documents, so getting connected is trivially easy compared with most countries. 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 entirely and usually costs less.
Read the full step-by-step guideCalifornia income tax — the highest top rate in the country
California has the highest top marginal income tax rate in the United States at 13.3%, reached above $1 million of taxable income. Below that the brackets are progressive and reach the double digits well before most people expect. Separately, State Disability Insurance is withheld at 1.3% for 2026 — and since 1 January 2024 that applies to every dollar of wages with no cap, a change that materially raised the effective rate on high earners and is missing from most comparisons.
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
You have ten days to get a California driver licence
CriticalNot thirty, not ninety — ten days from establishing residency. It is the tightest deadline of any large US state, and California has no licence-exchange arrangement with any country, so you must pass the written test and a behind-the-wheel drive test regardless of your driving history. Book the DMV appointment before you fly; walk-in waits are long and appointment slots are frequently weeks out.
California's top income tax rate is 13.3%, and SDI is now uncapped
CriticalThe state income tax is the highest in the country at the top end. Separately, State Disability Insurance is withheld at 1.3% for 2026 — and since 1 January 2024 it applies to all wages with no ceiling, where previously it stopped at a wage cap. For a high earner that change alone is thousands of dollars a year, and almost every older salary comparison misses it.
Rent control covers more buildings than people assume
CriticalSan Francisco's Rent Ordinance limits annual increases and requires just cause for eviction in most multi-unit buildings built before June 1979 — a large share of the city's housing stock. Single-family homes, condos and newer construction are generally exempt. Ask about the year of construction before signing; a rent-controlled tenancy is worth more over five years than almost any negotiation on the starting rent.
Apply for your Social Security number about ten days after arriving
CriticalSSA verifies your status against DHS records that take a week or two to sync after entry, so going on day two usually means a wasted trip. Only work-authorised people are eligible; if you aren't, file IRS Form W-7 for an ITIN instead. The card is free — nobody should be charging you for it.
The job is probably not in San Francisco
ImportantGoogle, Meta, Apple, LinkedIn and Nvidia are all on the Peninsula or in the South Bay, thirty to sixty minutes south. Plenty of people live in the city and commute down on a company shuttle or Caltrain; plenty of others move to Mountain View and regret the social trade. Work out where you will actually be five days a week before choosing a neighbourhood.
Summer is the cold season, and the microclimates are extreme
ImportantSan Francisco's warmest months are September and October. July and August are foggy and windy, and the temperature difference between the Mission and the Outer Sunset on the same afternoon can be ten degrees. This is not a quirk — it should influence which neighbourhood you pick.
Top industries & employers
Artificial intelligence
OpenAI, Anthropic, Scale AI, Databricks, Sierra
The densest concentration of frontier AI labs anywhere, and unusually these are in San Francisco proper rather than the Peninsula — which reversed a decade of the city losing companies south.
Enterprise software & cloud
Salesforce, Snowflake, Atlassian, Splunk, Airtable
Salesforce Tower anchors the skyline and the sector; enterprise SaaS remains the Bay Area's most reliable source of senior engineering roles.
Consumer platforms
Uber, Airbnb, Instacart, Reddit, Pinterest
The generation of consumer companies that defined the 2010s are all headquartered in the city, and are now large, mature employers rather than startups.
Venture capital & fintech
Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Stripe, Block, Plaid
Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park remains the centre of gravity for US venture capital, and the fintech cluster in the city is the largest in the country.
Biotech & life sciences
Genentech, Vir Biotechnology, Genentech's Mission Bay neighbours, UCSF
Genentech in South San Francisco effectively invented the biotech industry, and the UCSF Mission Bay campus has grown a serious research and startup cluster around it.
Semiconductors & hardware
Nvidia, Apple, Intel, AMD, Applied Materials
Concentrated in the South Bay rather than the city, but the reason the region is called Silicon Valley — and currently the single hottest labour market in the region.
Where to go in San Francisco
Golden Gate Park
Nature · Between the Sunset and the Richmond
Larger than Central Park, stretching from the Haight all the way to the Pacific, with a Japanese garden, two museums and a bison paddock.
Local tip: JFK Drive is permanently car-free now, which changed the park completely. Go west past Stow Lake where the crowds thin, and finish at Ocean Beach for the sunset.
The Mission
Neighborhood · Central-east
The city's sunniest district, Latino heart, mural capital and the site of its most argued-about food.
Local tip: Balmy Alley and Clarion Alley have the best murals. The sun stops roughly at Dolores Street — walk two blocks west and you're back in the fog.
Lands End
Nature · Northwest corner
A coastal trail through cypress along the cliffs, with shipwrecks visible at low tide and the Golden Gate framed at the end.
Local tip: Start at the Legion of Honor and walk to the Sutro Baths ruins. Almost everyone drives to the bridge instead and misses the better view of it.
Ferry Building Marketplace
Food · Embarcadero
A restored 1898 ferry terminal turned into the city's best food hall, with a farmers' market outside three days a week.
Local tip: Saturday morning is the real market and the one chefs shop at. The stalls inside are open daily but cost roughly double what the same producers charge outside.
Twin Peaks & Tank Hill
Landmark · Central
The two hills at the geographic centre of the city, with the classic full panorama from downtown to the ocean.
Local tip: Tank Hill, a few minutes below, has almost the same view with none of the tour buses. Go at dusk and watch the fog pour over the ridge.
Sutro Baths & the Camera Obscura
Hidden gemCulture · Point Lobos
The concrete ruins of an enormous Victorian swimming complex burnt down in 1966, on the rocks below the Cliff House.
Local tip: There is a sea cave at the far end of the ruins that most visitors never find — go at low tide and follow the path around the right-hand edge. Bring a torch.
Emergency numbers in San Francisco
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