Possible one year move to VI

Good day michele327,

Have you ever been to any of the islands? They are all very different.

One-year leases are possible. Housing is in short supply and expensive due to various post-Irmaria factors.

Your second question is kind of like asking “how long is a piece of string?” It depends on your family, what you prefer, etc. Check out the archives here for a whole lot of information, and we can help with some more-specific questions.

You will be able to find a yearly furnished rental, you will need to have at least one car, you will have to look into schooling, private schools are pretty expensive and public school may be a bit of a culture shock for a one year event.
It will certainly make for an interesting year for the family.
It will be a great benefit to come down for an extended Pre move visit to see at least 2 of the 3 major islands and get an idea of the areas, schools, prices, island conditions in general and consider if the family will ALL be happy with the idea and general inconveniences of island living.
You probably will enjoy the weather!

Apart from the current shortage it's certainly possible to obtain a 1yr lease on a furnished condo or house. It may not be as much of a vacation experience since those are usually short term rentals but it's probably what you would want. I'd guess your biggest factor in deciding which island would be the schools assuming you are not home schooling which doesn't seem possible for two people working from home. STJ is probably not practical for schooling and affordable rental. There's plenty of discussion in older forum threads on public vs. private schooling and there seems to be less options for private right now. Be interesting to see if that changes on STX with the refinery restarting.

Oh, and for what it's worth, in the last 10 years I've never met anyone who planned to stay for a year and actually did just that. Everyone's either left sooner or stayed much longer.

If you work from home, power outages may be a concern.
Yr. long rentals not so much but schools, depending on your budget and preferred lifestyle, may be.

Do your homework.
It's expensive to live here and you may not be able to have health insurance coverage.

Welcome! One thing not mentioned is that internet options can be slow and / or cut out frequently. If your work from home requires intensive, continuous connectivity such as video conferencing you may want to have two types of internet providers, (cable AND wireless antenna) if you can get it.

I really hope you come down. Your kids will have a blast. There are home schooling communities but I have no personal experience in that dept.

We've been homeschooling for 9 years while working from home. Internet is slow and down from time to time. If you come to St. Croix and homeschool for a year, I would just do math and reading and the rest of the time explore. Mt. Victory camp has wonderful primitive living classes and a homeschool camp. Snorkeling and diving are also wonderful.

Tammy