Scared - Advice Please

Hi Everyone,

I have posted a few times and always found your advice invaluable. Perhaps you can help with this one.
We are planning on spending the summer in Orlando - 11 weeks from June to September. Like many others our dream is to settle in Florida. An important piece of advice given to us was to 'try it out' first before starting or should i say attempting to start the immigration process, we may not even make it but we should at least give it a try.
So we decided to spend the summer there, we figure if we can stand the summer heat we can stand anything (have been to Florida on several occasions many times during the summer).
My worry is (and its near hysteria after reading the Daily Telegraph today), when we present ourselves at Immigration state side, we could get someone on an off day who doesn't want to let us stay for three months for whatever reason he chooses and thats the end of our plans.
Do u have any 'tips' to help us get through. We have never had any problems before, but i wonder how they are with tourists wanting to stay 3 months? Obviously we will have an address to show them, but i am concerned that our entire summer lies in the hand of one man (or woman) on the day.
Thanks for listening
SheilaF

hi Sheila
Why not apply for a visa or at least contact the american consulate here before you go.I'm assuming you have return tickets. One thing though I wouldn't take all your belongings such as birth, marriage and qualification certs etc or htey may assume you are going to stay and kick you out.
good luck
benfilo

Sheila,
be honest and friendly and you shouldn't have any difficulty. I think you'll breeze through.

Do just say you are going for a vacation, I wouldn't recommend you mention your long term plans as they may think you might stay on illegally. Otherwise be polite, pleasant and friendly and we have never had any problems.

Even if you have any sort of visa, you can still be refused entry if the INS person at the airport doesn't like the look of you!

All I've ever been asked on a visa waiver is when I'm returning to the UK - as long as you give a date within the allowed 90 days, you should be fine.

If you have a return ticket that gets you home before the 90 days are up, then you should be fine. If you are on an E-ticket, make sure that they print you the return half at the UK airport. Snowbirds stay for 90 and 180 days (on a B2 visa) in the Winter all the time. As Fiona says, don't mention any plans to live in the US whatsoever. You are on vacation and lucky enough to be able to stay for 90 days.

It might help if you took a letter from your employer explaining that you are on extended vacation, just in case. I also used to take evidence that I was paying a mortgage in the UK too.
If you are already retired, then they won't be surprised that you can stay for 90 days.

Have a great Summer. Wish I could do that.
:D:D:D:D

Sheila, Fiona is right - the most unhelpful INS people we have come across (and we do the US 2-3 times per year) are in New York (even b4 9/11) Just smile be polite you will be ok. My sister even got on without the correct time left on her passport - after a big smile and a brummir joke !!!

Tony & Gerry

I'd definitely agree with your New York statement. The guy I encountered at Newark is the main reason that I now have a B1/B2 visa! I was passing through, last July, on my way to Albany to see friends for a few days, and I thought that he was going to refuse me entry. I'd been in the USA 3 times already in 2003 (never for more than 11 days at a time) and he wasn't a happy bunny. I did get in though.
:D:D:D

Thanks to everyone for their sound advice. I have always been polite and nice and dare i say it on here, reasonably smart. That sounds awful i know but does it matter? I wont mention long term plans, my hubby is retired and i am presently not working so that shouldn't pose a problem. I will make sure i get the 2nd half of our ticket, we do have a fixed return date (boo-hoo).

We have booked to return within a week of the 90 days so we have a couple of days leeway should anything arise, delayed flights etc

I am so excited i can barely contain myself. The thought of the entire summer in fabulous Orlando is bliss. As we are planning to take a short trip to NY I will remember the advice and smile extra sweetly !!!!
Thanks again
SheilaF

Even if you have any sort of visa, you can still be refused entry if the INS person at the airport doesn't like the look of you!

<span style="color:blue">Yes Blotti you are spot on there, when we went for our B2 6 months visitors visas,( which we have now reveived) a couple of weeks ago, the INS officer made a point of saying, " Even though we have granted you a visa which allows us 6 months vacation stay,in any one year, that when we arrive in USA the INS office can if he is not completely satisfied that we have enough information on us to show we have definate ties and that we intend going back our own Country, that, they can still refuse you entry, or shorten your stay.</span id="blue">

Visa considerations aside, spending the Summer here on a visa waiver and still on holiday will not in any way prepare you for living and working here permenantly. It is not only the weather considerations to be looked at here. That is the least of your worries when you move here. I could have lived here for 6 months on a B visa and would not have known what it was like trying to make a living here. The reason being quite simply that on a B visa or visa waiver, you cant work, you dont have a social security number, you still rely on your UK income and credit rating and you probably still have UK travel insurance so dont need US health insurance ( in fact, cant get it). You are going to have a great extended holiday and will probably be raring to come back to settle at the end of it. But it doesnt in any way give you a true picture.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by esprit
Visa considerations aside, spending the Summer here on a visa waiver and still on holiday will not in any way prepare you for living and working here permenantly. It is not only the weather considerations to be looked at here. That is the least of your worries when you move here. I could have lived here for 6 months on a B visa and would not have known what it was like trying to make a living here. The reason being quite simply that on a B visa or visa waiver, you cant work, you dont have a social security number, you still rely on your UK income and credit rating and you probably still have UK travel insurance so dont need US health insurance ( in fact, cant get it). You are going to have a great extended holiday and will probably be raring to come back to settle at the end of it. But it doesnt in any way give you a true picture.
[/quote]

The first 6 months of moving over still felt like a holiday ....then the extra money you had from selling up in the UK flies out the window....and you have to live on wages alone......thats the day you work out living in the States is not a lot different from living in England.....I don't think any one should be put off trying to move over.....but the problems in the UK are the same ones you'll face in the USA......but with extra costs.....

Too true. We both keep telling people it is as dear to live here as in the UK if you are earning in dollars ( as we both are). It is great for those earning in £ with usch a great exchange rate at present. We earn in dollars and treat each dollar like a pound and we are about right.

Julie.
If I did that the wife would still get all the money!It's a bank holiday today so I might get extra pocket money for an ice cream!!!

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by esprit
We earn in dollars and treat each dollar like a pound and we are about right.
[/quote]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by esprit
Too true. We both keep telling people it is as dear to live here as in the UK if you are earning in dollars ( as we both are). It is great for those earning in £ with usch a great exchange rate at present. We earn in dollars and treat each dollar like a pound and we are about right.
[/quote]

Thats what we do........thats why I think $300k is a lot to pay for a home......its like paying out three hundred thousand pounds on a home in England.......

Chrizzy - you've been gone toooooo long, around London you can barely buy anything for £300K

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by caroline
Chrizzy - you've been gone toooooo long, around London you can barely buy anything for £300K
[/quote]

I keep reading on the BBC news that people can't afford to buy homes in England anymore.....

A lot of local people in Orlando are going to be in the same boat soon.....the only good thing is a lot of Brits are not interest in the older homes that are still selling at normal prices.......and Brits are not buying up houses outside STR areas....keeping those price affordable for the locals.....my husband is on 4 time the average wage for our area in Mass.....but he would still find it hard to find and then buy a nice house right now at todays prices.......without a large deposit....living in a holiday area is becoming a nightmare for local people who are selling up and moving on.....its OK for us we have homes we were lucky to get before the prices doubled over night in both Mass and FL......but our kids could never get a foot on the ladder.....and thats when the house of cards comes crashing down....if you have no starter home buyers......then everything comes to a stand still......unless you have outsiders coming in.....when they stop buying house prices fall...if my Cape house had carried on going up in price like it was say 7 years ago..it would be worth $700k by now....but prices fall in the USA very quick...people stopped buying rental homes on the Cape...so prices fell.....now our area is rising in price again...making our home worth $340k......but we can only get that kind of money from retired outsiders......no one on the Cape brings home the kind of pay to buy a house much over $175k.....and you'd not get a garden shed for that........a house is only worth what people can pay for it.....I just worry whats going to happen to people who paid a lot for a FL home if the people from England stop buying......maybe people from out of State.....but they'll only buy cheaper homes because most have moved to FL because they are out of work and can buy a home outright there....if the houses cost to much......those people will look somewhere else......most STR homes are way out the pockets of locals....to keep the prices going up.....the buyers from England can't dry up because if it does.....there'll be no-one who can afford to buy the homes.......... but thats just my 2 cents.....only time will tell....I'm all doom and gloom cus its raining here and it just like being in the UK again.........but without Eastenders and custard creams........

[msncry][msncry][msncry][msncry][msncry][msncry][msncry]

Much the same as over here chrizzy a two up two down is around £110,000 My kids will be living with us for years to come rent of the same property is around £450 a month the bubble will have to burst some time. I only hope my kids the same as yours have the same opportunity that we had and can afford to buy their own.… I think I sould have dm this to you. sorry for anybody if I have taken up a slot.
May add its cheap where i live.
Beryl

Its raining here too Chrizzy though at least its warm rain!!

Just want to echo Julie's comments. An extended vacation is really just that. If it were possible to volunteer to assist someone in the kind of business you might be interested in buying for at least half of your vacation stay, that would be extremely valuable. Pay careful attention to Julie's advice as she has walked the road you are contemplating. If relocating to Florida is a serious prospect, the very least of your concerns is how the immigration official will treat you.

Florida property values are escalating and certainly much more quickly in the last couple of years than previously. But I don't think it is a bubble, Chrizzy, as Florida is a magnet for many wealthy Americans planning to retire as opposed to Massachusetts. UK buyers aren't driving up the price as much as American baby boomers beginning to retire and relocate to Florida. The most direct effect is on the coast, especially east coast, in which even affluent UK buyers have been priced out of the market. Many UK E2 visa holders I know are surprised at the increase in the relative cost of everything and how tough the business environment is in Florida. So, please, carefully do your homework before making the decision.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Seminole
Just want to echo Julie's comments. An extended vacation is really just that. If it were possible to volunteer to assist someone in the kind of business you might be interested in buying for at least half of your vacation stay, that would be extremely valuable. Pay careful attention to Julie's advice as she has walked the road you are contemplating. If relocating to Florida is a serious prospect, the very least of your concerns is how the immigration official will treat you.

Florida property values are escalating and certainly much more quickly in the last couple of years than previously. But I don't think it is a bubble, Chrizzy, as Florida is a magnet for many wealthy Americans planning to retire as opposed to Massachusetts. UK buyers aren't driving up the price as much as American baby boomers beginning to retire and relocate to Florida. The most direct effect is on the coast, especially east coast, in which even affluent UK buyers have been priced out of the market. Many UK E2 visa holders I know are surprised at the increase in the relative cost of everything and how tough the business environment is in Florida. So, please, carefully do your homework before making the decision.
[/quote]

Remember I live on Cape Cod...the playground of the very rich.....and I've been told the bubble busts here on and off........ and people expect to pay over the top prices to have the kennedys as neighbours.....

If the baby boomers stopped buying on the Cape...our house would drop in half in price over night...and it has done in the past.....and many people from here....who are well off...are now not buying a second home in FL like they used too because of the cost......more people are also buying to retire on the Cape because they are more willing to pay the larger prices for a Cape home then they are for one in FL......

Abosultely right Seminole. This isnt a cheap country to actually live in , especially with gas ( petrol) now at $2.08 and worse to come apparently, Yes I know it is still cheap by UK standards but we do miles more mileage here than we ever did in the UK. Other expensive things are gas and electricity, insurances of all types and health insurance. And the supermarket prices are going up and up with the low echange rate now seriosuly starting to affect the price of imported food and goods.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by esprit
Abosultely right Seminole. This isnt a cheap country to actually live in , especially with gas ( petrol) now at $2.08 and worse to come apparently, Yes I know it is still cheap by UK standards but we do miles more mileage here than we ever did in the UK. Other expensive things are gas and electricity, insurances of all types and health insurance. And the supermarket prices are going up and up with the low echange rate now seriosuly starting to affect the price of imported food and goods.
[/quote]

Our gas is at $1:70
Bills.....enough said.........:(:(:(:(

If I had a warm winter home it would cost me over $350 a month.......

Julie, more and more small business owners in the US are grappling with profound increases in the cost of doing business. I know you've dealt with the absurd cost of mandatory worker's compensation insurance premiums. Health insurance is simply driving many people out of business now. If you are self-employed in the US, your monthly premiums can be more than your mortgage payment. I am aware of one gentleman with a non-life threatening "pre-existing condition" that the health insurer will cover but he has to pay nearly $20,000 in premiums for coverage for his family and himself as a self-employer. In the last ten years, employment law has become a ridiculous tangle and largely incomprehensible to small US employers let alone someone coming from the UK on an E2 visa. The benefit of a non-union environment is off set by the numerous rules and restraints on non-discriminatory work environments and you can imagine that a UK visa holder must be extremely careful in dealing with employees who may feel that your status can give them certain "liberties" in the work place.

Dont get me on the topic opf workers comp. Funnily enough the business brokers never mention its exitance so I knew nothing of the fact that it was an huge problem umtil I arrived. It is like that with everything. Business brokers are on commission. They are hardly likely to go out of their way to tell you, are they?