I would also add that coming here from the US (anywhere outside the EEA really) involves a few extra hurdles. Primarily, you need a Kennitala (Icelandic social security number) in order to do much of anything, including fill out the residence and/or work permit applications, and it can take a couple of months just for that step.
There's this bizarre catch-22 where you need a Kennitala to get a residence permit so you can live here, and you have to live here to get a Kennitala. In my case, the workaround was to let the health insurance company apply for a Kennitala on my behalf, and since you have to purchase private insurance for your first six months here anyway, that seemed to be a fairly common way to do it. Maybe there's a faster way to do it -- my employer hadn't gone through the process before and didn't really know all the steps involved. But it took me about two months to get the Kennitala and another 1.5 or so to get my permits approved, so it's worth making sure you have all that lined up as quickly as possible.
