For a relocation package at $30k, OP is definitely middle management, not an entry level developer. Have had a similar package and like I said, it worked out to a ~$10k loss. No regrets, was happy to eat the cost for what I got out of it.
Moving a family IS NOT the same as moving an individual. Whole different kettle of fish. I see folks saying that there is a sense of entitlement - that is an opinion.
Here is what I can think off right off the top of my head.
+ visas: $1000 TN/TD + accompanying visas ie spouse + child; 3x$160 for application, 3x~$100 to issue, total of app. $1000
+ legal & other fees $2000 medicals, paperwork for immigration especially for spousal / child visas etc (medicals for example, are $300-500 a piece!)
+ airfares: $3000 (go return - cheaper than 1 way + you set up your first visit back home), app. $1000 each, $3000 total
+ moving: $5000-$10000 $5k, you pack, someone ships; $10k - full service. Full service is way way better.
+ vehicle move $2000 assuming two cars, about $1000 each
+ storage $1500 Plan of taking out a storage unit for stuff you do not want to bring but do not want to dispose of yet
+ insurance $1000 move + storage + personal after you quit but before you start work at the new place
+ 2 months rent/hotel $5000 Assuming 2 bedroom minimum; this is not your final home, this is where you stay while you find a home. For SF, this is LOW!!!
+ real estate $3000 a broker to find a home (neighbourhoods, schools etc), you can do it without an agent but your work / life will suffer
broker
+ career services (spouse) $2000 get your spouse into the workforce
+ house selling costs $5000 small repairs, painting etc: you get this back when you sell but you need it upfront
+ first 60 days $3000 For day 0 to day 4/5-ish, you are bleeding cash, buying everything! Toothbrushes, meals, meds, plan on at least 30 days before life stabilizes then big money on taxis/car to see houses + schools etc
living costs , appropriate clothing
Re: taxes - for Canada, you do not reduce income amounts to reflect taxes paid, CRA offers a credit but full income must be reported.
Some Canada -> elsewhere specific gotchas that you need to think about. These caught me the first time, wish I had known.
-> exchange rates: get your package in the currency of the country you are going to, not Canadian. $30k canadian is a 40% discount on US and you will be buying services in US
-> metro homes are much smaller than the typical canadian home even in the GTA, unless you are in a condo. Stuff from your 3000 sq. ft. home will not fit in the 1500 sq. ft home you will end up in. For example, dont bother with a king size bed. Or a large couch. They won't fit and will end up on the street.
-> with kids, first find the school then find the house. Not the other way around. Schools have waiting lists, make sure you talk to them and make sure they will admit your child before you start looking for a home.
-> for houses, try to visit when kids would be home so that you can understand if your kids will be make friends. When we were searching, one place had a grass courtyard surrounded by houses, off the street, with more than 10 kids out - bikes, tennis rackets. We knew we were taking the house even before we saw the inside.
-> Proximity to transit, especially what you will take to work, is everything in a metro area.
-> if you are going to a metro area, bring your bikes, not so much the car. Or maybe one car. The one that can do more.
-> one benefit of full serve service move is they hold your stuff for up to 60 days while you find a house. If you move yourself, you have to put things in storage then get the out later then move then into new house. So, you essentially move house 3 times in 60 days. And where you are going, you have no friends. Just you and the spouse. I suggest that this may be bad for your marriage.
Drop me an email if you want more info shnm at 8t4t dot net
A little on the low side given all you have to do with it. Made a 'similar' move about 2 years ago from Canada, in the end, with about the same amount spent, we found that it ended up being a loss of about $10k. Can provide more details if you like, send me an email.
One key recommendation that no one seems to have noted here, don't sell your house or belongings yet or buy new stuff. The comment about the role not working out and then having to figure out what's next from x0x0 is coming from someone who knows what they are talking about. Give yourself at least 6 months to understand if the job will work out before buying at your new location. This is especially true given that you will be on a visa. With the job gone, you will have 3 months max to unwind and leave the US.
A little on the low side given all you have to do with it. Made a 'similar' move about 2 years ago from Canada, in the end, with about the same amount spent, we found that it ended up being a loss of about $10k. Can provide more details if you like, send me an email.
One key recommendation that no one seems to have noted here, don't sell your house or belongings yet or buy new stuff. The comment about the role not working out and then having to figure out what's next from x0x0 is coming from someone who knows what they are talking about. Give yourself at least 6 months to understand if the job will work out before buying at your new location. This is especially true given that you will be on a visa. With the job gone, you will have 3 months max to unwind and leave the US.
tl:dr version - companies hire software developers to solve business problems, not to write software. Most of the time, good enough is all is takes. You do not need PhDs working on your corp software to get good enough.
I think that one of the main point here may be being lost.
Most of the arguments I read here argue the point from the programmer's perspective.
What is the employer's perspective? They hold most of, if not, all the cards? And the story is about employers not acting to tap a resource (this PhD) that clearly should be valuable to them.
Businesses hire programmers to write software to solve business problems. In most cases, these business problems are operational in nature - managing information to run a process.
Writing software for software's sake is not the primary objective of most businesses.
This means that most businesses are more than happy with good enough.
Systems do not have to be especially robust, they just have to be good enough to run business operations.
In the case of companies like Google (whose primary business objective is to sell ads so as to make money), the software is complicated because they way they sell ads is complicated. The software has to be robust because it is used by many users simultaneously, is run on multiple machines at the same time (for many definitions of machine from Google Glass to phones to desktops to tablets to Nest thermostats) and needs to be integrated across all of this in a way that makes the whole much greater than the sum of its parts by many many software developers (PhD. or not).
This need for a complex set of systems to function in a fast and reliable way is the reason that coding quality is a key issue at play.
Software is the primary asset for these orgs that allows them to make money and they manage it carefully and spend big money on it.
In hospitals, it is staff, equipment and drugs - that is where the money goes.
In schools, it is meant to be teachers (and kids) but we have that one wrong.
For most other businesses, there is some other asset that is key to success and the money will always go there, not to software. Businesses typically make the decision to have just good enough for software to run ops especially if this software is running on in house systems for use by staff.
Moving a family IS NOT the same as moving an individual. Whole different kettle of fish. I see folks saying that there is a sense of entitlement - that is an opinion.
Here is what I can think off right off the top of my head.
+ visas: $1000 TN/TD + accompanying visas ie spouse + child; 3x$160 for application, 3x~$100 to issue, total of app. $1000
+ legal & other fees $2000 medicals, paperwork for immigration especially for spousal / child visas etc (medicals for example, are $300-500 a piece!)
+ airfares: $3000 (go return - cheaper than 1 way + you set up your first visit back home), app. $1000 each, $3000 total
+ moving: $5000-$10000 $5k, you pack, someone ships; $10k - full service. Full service is way way better.
+ vehicle move $2000 assuming two cars, about $1000 each
+ storage $1500 Plan of taking out a storage unit for stuff you do not want to bring but do not want to dispose of yet
+ insurance $1000 move + storage + personal after you quit but before you start work at the new place
+ 2 months rent/hotel $5000 Assuming 2 bedroom minimum; this is not your final home, this is where you stay while you find a home. For SF, this is LOW!!!
+ real estate $3000 a broker to find a home (neighbourhoods, schools etc), you can do it without an agent but your work / life will suffer broker
+ career services (spouse) $2000 get your spouse into the workforce
+ house selling costs $5000 small repairs, painting etc: you get this back when you sell but you need it upfront
+ first 60 days $3000 For day 0 to day 4/5-ish, you are bleeding cash, buying everything! Toothbrushes, meals, meds, plan on at least 30 days before life stabilizes then big money on taxis/car to see houses + schools etc living costs , appropriate clothing
Re: taxes - for Canada, you do not reduce income amounts to reflect taxes paid, CRA offers a credit but full income must be reported.
Some Canada -> elsewhere specific gotchas that you need to think about. These caught me the first time, wish I had known.
-> exchange rates: get your package in the currency of the country you are going to, not Canadian. $30k canadian is a 40% discount on US and you will be buying services in US
-> metro homes are much smaller than the typical canadian home even in the GTA, unless you are in a condo. Stuff from your 3000 sq. ft. home will not fit in the 1500 sq. ft home you will end up in. For example, dont bother with a king size bed. Or a large couch. They won't fit and will end up on the street.
-> with kids, first find the school then find the house. Not the other way around. Schools have waiting lists, make sure you talk to them and make sure they will admit your child before you start looking for a home.
-> for houses, try to visit when kids would be home so that you can understand if your kids will be make friends. When we were searching, one place had a grass courtyard surrounded by houses, off the street, with more than 10 kids out - bikes, tennis rackets. We knew we were taking the house even before we saw the inside.
-> Proximity to transit, especially what you will take to work, is everything in a metro area.
-> if you are going to a metro area, bring your bikes, not so much the car. Or maybe one car. The one that can do more.
-> one benefit of full serve service move is they hold your stuff for up to 60 days while you find a house. If you move yourself, you have to put things in storage then get the out later then move then into new house. So, you essentially move house 3 times in 60 days. And where you are going, you have no friends. Just you and the spouse. I suggest that this may be bad for your marriage.
Drop me an email if you want more info shnm at 8t4t dot net