Relocating from London to Silicon Valley for a higher salary at 35?

What type of visa you get shouldn’t affect your salary. Big advantage of O1 over H1B is that you can apply outside the yearly H1B lottery schedule. Pre pandemic the lottery was about a 1 in 4 chance to get a place. Qualifying for an O1 can be difficult though.

Whichever initial visa route you take make sure your employer starts your green card application as soon as they can.

SF doesn’t feel like a big city in the way NY or London does (LA is the major city in California.) There is substantially less cultural life here. If you work in Silicon Valley (best jobs are there) you’ll be working in an office park 30-50 miles from downtown SF.

The hardest thing I’ve found is the 8 hour time zone difference makes staying in touch with friends and family harder. Can’t just call someone in the evening.

Even if you live and work in SF you’ll probably want to get a car so you can easily get out and see California. There is outstandingly beautiful nature around here.

Do you want to live in Silicon Valley? Because if not this seems like a really inefficient way to get pay rise.

Why not buy property and make additional income from being a landlord or something? You could even try to start a side project if you're willing to take the risk?

I live in the UK and I thought about moving to the states a few years back, but being close to family and friends at least for me is worth more than the marginal pay increase.

You could also improve your quality of life moving out of London. Contracting rates are quite flat across the UK. I own a lovely house in the South West, but if I were living in London I'd probably only be able to afford a small flat. But it's not just housing everything is cheaper here. In London you can earn very good money but still feel relatively poor which might be part of the problem here.

Sorry, I know I'm not really answering your question. Just some things to think about. =)

Take a look at Seattle too. Lots of tech jobs, reasonably high pay that is slightly lower then the Bay Area but cost of living is lower and we don't have the state taxes of California. I've found it to be the best tradeoff. Only issue is the weather, but if you're coming from London, it's basically the same

Interview with a bunch of companies and see what kind of offers you get. Now is a good time because all the interview processes are remote, so you're not limited to traveling to the Bay Area for interviews and can do as many of them as your schedule & stamina allows. Many companies are also going remote, so you may also be able to stay in London and work for a Silicon Valley company (my Coinbase interviewer lived in London, for example). The company would probably sponsor your visa if you do move.

My gut is that if you're good and interview well, you could probably pull in $300-400K including stock compensation (maybe $150-160K salary), which would easily make it worth your while. The final word is always the offer letter, though, so get as many offer letters as you can and play them off each other.

If you are already in London, I would stay put. Major FANG companies like FB are already making major inroads to build out offices in the UK. And they will likely disrupt the UK/EU salaries quite a bit in the coming years.

Look for contacts in those companies and try and land a gig there. Far easier than relocating and dealing with Visa issues in the US.

Have you considered moving to a EU country, especially from eastern EU, to pay lower taxes? For example, where I live, I only pay around 230 EUR per month for an income of 7k EUR/month (of which half of it is for pension and 50 eur for medical insurance).

In your case I think you'll be paying around 8% because you have a higher income and you'll need to start an actual company.

£160k? Holy crap. Any tips on how you got to that level? Sounds really good even for contracting - how many weeks a year do you work?

[WARNING: unfiltered and raw] I'm in the valley. Have been here for 20+ yrs. Worked for FAANG+M and startups. I was a hiring mgr eventually turning into prgm mgr due to ceilings I met described below. Here's my 2cents raw.

The valley generally holds ppl with VISA hostage and they prefer cheaper caught in visa trap workers. Unless you bring extraordinary knowledge and skillset, in particular Sr dev/Scientist/PhD in AI/ML/CV. Coming here would be a disappointment.

You are in the "2nd" silicon valley now making good money. I would stay there and if so inclined. Best you find a position there of an American Silicon Valley based Co you could either move laterally or travel/visit. I think that's the far better way to see what's up here before leaping into the dark waters. Silicon isn't what it used to be.

The visa trapped people are generally chinese/indian. Low salary, stuck for years competing in cutthroat environment. Not to sound too racist, if you're 6' white male with ppl mgmt, then silicon valley maybe your calling. An almost guaranteed meal ticket to success if you can make the right connections. PS> I'm not 6' white male. Places you would be good for if you're 6' white male: FAANG+M and startups.

Much disillusionment here.

Your "problem" isn't so much making more. It's simply getting more and that is a typical problem one faces anywhere. Best you boost your skillset, move to another Co for more pay. That's the only way you make more regardless of location.

TL'DR: Again, if you're trying to make more money, best you boost your skillset and move to different company. Countless stories of people jumping co and in few years literally make double coming back to the same Co. One can easily boost 10-20% then move BACK to for another 10-16%. It's incredulous how you can make the earth move while at the company, but companies are unwilling to move your salary instep. However, you can move out increase your skillset a tad, then move back only get 20% more. Why? Because NO company will give you a 20% raise. NO company. However, you coming in from outside with bit more experience in new stuff. Some reason they will pay whatever you want.

PS> Didn't address your age. 35 is pushing it. here in the valley, at 35, your boss may be at least 5yrs if not more younger.

PPS> You must be single, regardless of age. Wife....ok, kids...you won't get hired

Do I sound bitter? Biased? Full of Resentment? yup :) If you're a minority w no EQ but plenty of IQ, there is a glass ceiling made of gorilla glass v99