claire said:
JJ - how did you get a green card if you dont mind me asking, what is your story? Do you miss the UK?
Hi, Claire,
Sorry not to reply sooner. You could search on my user name to look at my earlier posts for some of my story. Not quite sure what I've said before. :
We came to Texas in 1998 with DH's job, an intra-company transfer, which was on L1 visa for him and L2 visas for me and the kids (now teens). We came on the understanding that the co. would sponsor a green card application for us. We hesitated on the green card application at first, it seemed like too much of a commitment until we had decided to stay at least for a few years. (You can stay for a maximum of 7 years with 'L' visas - 3 year original term plus extentions of 2 x 2 years.) Eventually we applied, and it took almost 2 years from the original application until we actually had the cards in our hands. (9/11 intervened during that time.) Now that we have green cards we are eligible to apply for naturalization from the point that we have had the green card for 4 years and 9 months. At that point we will have
actually lived here for almost 10 years as the time before the green card comes through doesn't count.
I do sometimes miss the UK but on balance I prefer living in the US, I must do I'm still here, aren't I? I miss my family and friends, the countryside, being able to travel cheaply and easily to mainland Europe. Lots of things, actually....
Don't be too caught up with the idea that life in the US is
so much better or cheaper. There are a number of costs here which are
way more than those in the UK. In Texas, property taxes and medical insurance for starters. Plus, don't ever think about not having personal liability insurance in the US, you would be wiped out in a heartbeat were someone to sue you. As REWahoo! has already indicated life in Texas is very different
I found it a
total culture shock coming here. We lived in Germany and the Netherlands before coming here and they are far closer to the UK in attitude/culture than the US, a fact that I totally underestimated.
Only come to the US if you would be 'well off' - being poor in America is not fun. You need to be financially secure to consider it, or coming to a very well paying job.
I would welcome any links to good sites which deal with expat issues of pensions, dual taxation etc. as we have pensions all over Europe and really have no clear idea how they will be taxed if we stay in the US after the kids have left HS/college. We have a number of years to go before pensions are available to us, but I like to plan (like everyone else on this board!
) Also discussions about UK taxation, pension legislation, IH taxes, capital gains, dividend taxes etc. are interesting and show how behaviour is moulded by the government strictures we are bound by in any particular country.
This is enough for one post, please come back with more questions.