Chicagoculture & etiquette

Many countries' guidance tells you to get an IDP before moving. Illinois explicitly does not recognise it, and it will not help you here — the state recommends carrying one only so your home licence is translated into English. You get 90 days on a valid foreign licence, then you need an Illinois one, and you must surrender every out-of-state licence and ID you hold before Illinois will issue.

Illinois taxes income at a single flat rate regardless of what you earn — the state constitution requires a flat tax, and a 2020 attempt to change it was rejected at referendum. Chicago levies no city income tax, unlike New York or Philadelphia. For a high earner this is one of the better big-city tax positions in America; for a low earner it is worse than a progressive system would be.

Illinois has some of the highest effective property tax rates in the country, and Cook County reassesses on a three-year cycle that can move a bill sharply in a single year. If you rent, it reaches you through the rent. If you buy, look up the property's actual tax history on the Cook County Assessor's site — not an estimate — before you make an offer.

SSA verifies your status against DHS records that lag entry by one to two weeks, so an immediate visit usually wastes the trip. Only work-authorised people qualify; everyone else files IRS Form W-7 for an ITIN. The card is free.

January and February regularly sit below -10°C with wind off the lake making it feel far worse, and snow can arrive from November through March. This is not the mild cold of a European winter — it requires an actual coat, boots with grip, and a mental adjustment. The compensation is that Chicago summers are genuinely excellent and the city lives outdoors for four months.

Chicago has the second-largest rail transit system in the US, an almost perfectly flat grid, and a numbered street system that makes navigation trivial once you learn it. Between the L, the buses and the lakefront trail, large numbers of residents go without a car — which given winter parking, dibs and Cook County vehicle costs is a sensible choice.