Moving to America

[derek gibson]

Please can you help us, we are hopefully moving to Davenport area in the next 2 years we are in the middle of buying an business and we need help in finding schools we have three children aged 9,12,18,what ages do they have to attend etc

with me and my wife buying a business how's the best way of getting a green card or visa for all of us and how long before we know we can get one or not?

How does my wife stand on getting a job once we move there, can she get a job anywhere

The business that we are in the middle of buying employs two Americans that we will still employ.

[esprit]

Where do I start???
Your child of 18 will have to attend school or college or they will not be included on the visa. A child is a dependant up to 21 and included as LONG AS THEY ARE IN FULL TIME EDUCATION. Not otherwise and they would not be able to get a job anyway and cannot work for you. The final age at which they are bound to educate you at school level is 21. If your child has good A levels, I would get them to sit SATS or ACT and send them straight to community college to do an associate degree or Uni if you can afford it ( see the other thread on this).. If not, then get them into high school so they can graduate and get a high school graduation certificate and a GPA. The amount of time they will need to attend school in order to graduate will depend on their GCSE and AS level results as they will get credits for those and will need to do what they have missed in order to graduate. My son who arrived at 17 with AS levels in science and maths had to do one year of American history, politics, constitution and govenment, American literature, economics and games in order to graduate. And suprisingly has thrived doing this!!
Davenport puts you in zone for Haines High which is miles away. I aint saying naught on open forum about this, but I rented my Davenport home out and bought on Celebration to get my kid into Celebration High.
The two younger ones would go to school locally and I dont think they would have much problem, I know people with young kids here and they settle and have time to catch up on their system,

If you are buying a business, you would likely get E2 or L1 is possible if you have a big business in the UK and buy the USne through this. I will add the UK business must continue to trade!!! Buying s business does not get you a green card per se unless you invest $500,000 in a business in an area of low employment or $1,000,000 anywhere else. This causes big problems when your kid reaches 21. Unless by then he/she is a graduate and can get a job on H1B, they will be back to Blighty or your next visa renewal if not before. I heard of a kid here since the age of 6 years deported at 18 because he didnt go to college, Must have been as American as apple pie, poor kid. Yes it is totally cruel and heartless, You have to live with it as you elected to come here. I rant and rave occasionally but it is totally pointless, you cant buck the system.
College fees for a visa holder are $7000-$13,000 pa. Free or up to $2500 for an American or green card holder. No one told you this was easy!!
Your wife can work providing you arrange your US holding company, 49% to her and 51% to you. You then get E2 and she is a dependant without a visa in her own right. She can then apply for a dispensation to work ( anywhere) as a dependant. This is a new law and some websites still say you cant. My friend just got hers through after around 6 months. If you arrange the company 50%/ 50%, you both get visas so it means if one leaves, dies etc the other can stay, but then neither can work for anyone else except the E2 company.

Final point. You say you are buying s business but appear to know nothing about visas and seem to have done no research. Just to say the word business and green card in one breath tells me that. Do you have an attorney, escrow closing agent, accountant to do a due diligence?? You sound severely unprepared to me and believe you me, even the prepared can come unstuck big time with buying a business in the US. If you dont have an attorney, contact Lesley on www.investorvisausa.com. How long doee it take to get E2? The application itself is currently taking 3-4 months. The preparatory work before it goes in takes the time.
Reading your post again, are you hoping to buy this business now and run it from the UK relying on US employees to run it for you here. If so, from my experience, dont even go there as you wont have a business in three months unless you are very lucky.

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by esprit
Where do I start???
Your child of 18 will have to attend school or college or they will not be included on the visa. A child is a dependant up to 21 and included as LONG AS THEY ARE IN FULL TIME EDUCATION. Not otherwise and they would not be able to get a job anyway and cannot work for you. The final age at which they are bound to educate you at school level is 21. If your child has good A levels, I would get them to sit SATS or ACT and send them straight to community college to do an associate degree or Uni if you can afford it ( see the other thread on this).. If not, then get them into high school so they can graduate and get a high school graduation certificate and a GPA. The amount of time they will need to attend school in order to graduate will depend on their GCSE and AS level results as they will get credits for those and will need to do what they have missed in order to graduate. My son who arrived at 17 with AS levels in science and maths had to do one year of American history, politics, constitution and govenment, American literature, economics and games in order to graduate. And suprisingly has thrived doing this!!
Davenport puts you in zone for Haines High which is miles away. I aint saying naught on open forum about this, but I rented my Davenport home out and bought on Celebration to get my kid into Celebration High.
The two younger ones would go to school locally and I dont think they would have much problem, I know people with young kids here and they settle and have time to catch up on their system,

If you are buying a business, you would likely get E2 or L1 is possible if you have a big business in the UK and buy the USne through this. I will add the UK business must continue to trade!!! Buying s business does not get you a green card per se unless you invest $500,000 in a business in an area of low employment or $1,000,000 anywhere else. This causes big problems when your kid reaches 21. Unless by then he/she is a graduate and can get a job on H1B, they will be back to Blighty or your next visa renewal if not before. I heard of a kid here since the age of 6 years deported at 18 because he didnt go to college, Must have been as American as apple pie, poor kid. Yes it is totally cruel and heartless, You have to live with it as you elected to come here. I rant and rave occasionally but it is totally pointless, you cant buck the system.
College fees for a visa holder are $7000-$13,000 pa. Free or up to $2500 for an American or green card holder. No one told you this was easy!!
Your wife can work providing you arrange your US holding company, 49% to her and 51% to you. You then get E2 and she is a dependant without a visa in her own right. She can then apply for a dispensation to work ( anywhere) as a dependant. This is a new law and some websites still say you cant. My friend just got hers through after around 6 months. If you arrange the company 50%/ 50%, you both get visas so it means if one leaves, dies etc the other can stay, but then neither can work for anyone else except the E2 company.

Final point. You say you are buying s business but appear to know nothing about visas and seem to have done no research. Just to say the word business and green card in one breath tells me that. Do you have an attorney, escrow closing agent, accountant to do a due diligence?? You sound severely unprepared to me and believe you me, even the prepared can come unstuck big time with buying a business in the US. If you dont have an attorney, contact Lesley on www.investorvisausa.com. How long doee it take to get E2? The application itself is currently taking 3-4 months. The preparatory work before it goes in takes the time.
Reading your post again, are you hoping to buy this business now and run it from the UK relying on US employees to run it for you here. If so, from my experience, dont even go there as you wont have a business in three months unless you are very luc

[derek gibson]

a friend of ours who lives out there and is going to retire in two years time and has asked us if we would like to bye it, so that's why i am asking all these things .I havent talked to him a great deal as we plan to go and visit him soon , but we are so keen and its our dream ,and fingers crossed we can do it with some kind help and advice many thank

[esprit]

Speak to that attorney I mentioned. It isnt as simple as just wanting his business. For E2 for example, he will have to show tax returns with an owner benefit of $60,000-70,000 pa. He may need to start setting that up now as most Americans have tax returns showing little or nothing because they write everything down. Come out for a holiday and shadow him. Would you like to do what he does for the rest of your life?? Working here isnt like it looks from afar. We rarely see the sunshine as we are working all the time. I had a dream also but the rose coloured glasses do come off pretty quickly. You also need to think hard about that child of 18.