u/Antique_Garlic_7740

I was hoping to do a quick survey of experienced tugboat crew on how you evaluate a job opportunity. What are the things that are most important to make you stay at your current spot and what would make you consider moving to a new company? This is what I’ve got and my personal order. Tell me what I’m missing or if you think I’m wrong about the order:

1. Pay and benefits (Easiest to quantify and as much as I like my job if I won the lottery tomorrow I would never step foot on another tug)

2. Company culture and management (Does the office treat guys in the field with respect, is crew morale generally high, is safety prioritized)

3. Quality of the equipment (Are you working on relatively new vessels or well maintained older boats. Are repairs taken care of quickly and correctly.)

4. Schedule (Can the company guarantee a set schedule or is it seasonal like working in Alaska or project based like some dredging and construction.)

5. Weather and area of operation

6. Company reputation (Is the company well known and respected in the industry)

I (US citizen) have been living abroad for about seven years with my non citizen wife. We have two kids who were born abroad but are US citizens and my wife holds a 10 year B1/B2 VISA but we never applied for her US residency because we didn’t think we would ever be returning to the US. Turns out we were wrong and I’ve been offered a position in the US starting in September. It’s a temporary, project specific role that should last about a year but I expect that we will stay permanently.

My plan is to enter the US and tell the agent the exact truth: I’m going to be working in the US for the next year, my kids are going to enroll in school and my wife will be staying home taking care of the kids. I was planning on bringing proof of income showing she doesn’t need to work to support the family as well as return tickets for December to show that we plan for her to leave before the 180 day limit.

Am I correct that nothing about this plan violates any laws or restrictions on her current visa? Would I be better off telling a story and saying we are just visiting family?

My wife and I have been living abroad for the past 7 years but a new job opportunity may be bringing us back to the US, specifically Seattle. We still haven’t made a decision but one thing that’s come up is preschool for our soon to be 4 year old. I just starting to educate myself on the preschool situation in Seattle and it seems very restricted as far as availability. The public option is only available to Seattle residents and as of now we don’t know where we would be living exactly and the earliest we would know would be mid July with an eye at actually moving mid August.

I guess I’d like to know if there is anything we can do right now to secure a spot for her or if we need to wait till we have signed a lease to apply to a program. We are especially worried about this because although she is bilingual, English isn’t her primary language and we want her to be completely immersed and socialized prior to beginning kinder garden next year.