Moving to the US from Australia

Our residency index: 40/100, possible, with conditions. It is our own rating of how realistic long-term residency in the US is for Australian citizens, based on the routes the US publishes. Realistic long-term US residency runs through employer-sponsored or extraordinary-ability green cards or the EB-5 investor route; there is no passive-income, sufficient-means, or retirement visa for self-funded applicants.

The cheapest self-funded routes we track:

• Investment: about $800k (US EB-5 immigrant investor green card, USD 800,000 minimum in a Targeted Employment Area (vs USD 1,050,000 standard); figures already in USD; as of June 2026)

Check the official requirements before you apply: amounts, conditions and exchange rates change, and what a couple needs can differ from a single applicant's threshold.

For short visits, Australian passport holders need an e-visa or eTA before a visit, according to the passport-index dataset. Short-stay entry covers visits; living there takes a residence permit.

Ranked by our match model for a typical couple who both hold Australian passports, using the preset answers of our best places to live list. Your own answers would change the order. We pick the cities, up to five, by how often English Wikipedia readers looked them up over the past year.

1. 1

   1. Washington

   69% match

   Est. cost

   €4,101/mo

   Avg temp

   14°C

   Safety index

   52/100

2. 2

   2. Philadelphia

   67% match

   Est. cost

   €4,245/mo

   Avg temp

   14°C

   Safety index

   52/100

3. 3

   3. Los Angeles

   66% match

   Est. cost

   €4,401/mo

   Avg temp

   18°C

   Safety index

   52/100

4. 4

   4. New York City

   62% match

   Est. cost

   €4,640/mo

   Avg temp

   13°C

   Safety index

   52/100

5. 5

   5. Chicago

   61% match

   Est. cost

   €4,338/mo

   Avg temp

   11°C

   Safety index

   52/100

Our estimate for a couple living centrally runs from €4,101 a month in Washington to €4,640 in New York City. For comparison, we estimate €4,094 a month in Melbourne. Use these figures to compare places rather than to set a budget.

The US is in our low to medium tax tier (moderate personal income tax); Australia is in our high tax tier (high personal income tax). Tiers describe each country's own income tax. They do not cover tax you may still owe in Australia after you leave, or the treaty between the two countries, so check both with a tax adviser before you move.

• Best places to live in North America
• Best English-speaking cities to move to
• Best big cities to live in
• Best cities for remote workers with fast internet
• Best warm, dry cities to live in

• Moving to the US from the UK
• Moving to the US from Canada
• Moving to the US from Ireland
• Moving to the US from New Zealand

Every country and origin we cover

Every figure here comes from the datasets behind our city and country pages:

• Short-stay entry: the passport-index dataset (ilyankou, MIT license), which records the entry rule for short visits on each passport.
• Residency index, routes and thresholds: the OurNextCity residency dataset, hand-reviewed against published immigration rules, figures as of June 2026. It is a summary, not legal advice.
• City ranking: our match model, the one behind the quiz, run with a typical couple's preset answers and both partners holding Australian passports. It ranks up to five of the country's best-known cities: of the cities in our quiz (100,000 people or more, capitals and a few towns movers seek out, such as Faro), the five most read about on English Wikipedia over the past year. It folds suburbs into their main city and leaves out countries with a residency index under 40 and areas under a US State Department Level 4 advisory, as our best-cities lists do.
• Costs: our cost model, a country-level cost-of-living index scaled for city size, from our city dataset (last rebuilt June 2026).
• Tax tiers: three coarse bands we assign by hand from each country's top marginal personal income tax rate and overall tax reputation.