moving to Florida

[Sueb]

Hi all,

We have just come back from a three week holiday in Orlando (and believe me I am depressed) and spoke to someone who had moved from Britain to Orlando and had been there for 1 and a half years but she said to get US Citizenship she and her family had to stay in America for five years and were not allowed to leave in that time unless it was for a funeral, does anyone know if that is true. We are seriously looking into emigrating there with our two children aged 14 and 12 and would not like the thought that we could not visit England for five years has my parents are still here.

Anyone that could answer the question for me I would like to thank in advance.

Sue

[Robert5988]

If you do a search on this site you will find many posts - especially by Esprit - on the dificulties involved in even getting to live & work in Florida on a Visa, let alone get a Green Card or US Citizenship.

Short of divorcing your husband and marrying an American[msnwink]it is all but impossible for a family to all get US Citizenship.

[pepsi]

Someone my husband knows has just emigrated to Orlando. He has owned a house there for a number of years but the only way he could move was to leave his building firm still in operation in the UK and set one up in Orlando. I do not know the ins and outs of how he has done this though. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Sueb
Hi all,

We have just come back from a three week holiday in Orlando (and believe me I am depressed) and spoke to someone who had moved from Britain to Orlando and had been there for 1 and a half years but she said to get US Citizenship she and her family had to stay in America for five years and were not allowed to leave in that time unless it was for a funeral, does anyone know if that is true. We are seriously looking into emigrating there with our two children aged 14 and 12 and would not like the thought that we could not visit England for five years has my parents are still here.

Anyone that could answer the question for me I would like to thank in advance.

Sue
[/quote]

You need to be in the USA for 5 years to get Citizenship..if you get a visa that leads to Citizenship that is.. a lot do not..they don't not let you leave.....but you can't go back to the UK for months or years on end...its a long hard job to get a visa for most people...I can send you a link to a site about moving to FL....

[esprit]

Firstly just because you were depressed leaving Florida after being on holiday here does not mean that you would necessarily like living here. I have said it before and I will say it again, living in Orlando is not like being on holiday, you work and you work some more and you see less of the sunshine, the pool and the parks in a year than some people on holiday do in three weeks, instead you see garbage, the bottom of pools and other peoples toilets. You may say we have the weather, but it can be very difficult working in the mid summer heat and humidity. OK it depends what you do but the people on business visas all just seem to work and work, we had just Xmas Day off and then we were on call, no other day off over the holiday not even New Years Day. I have taken about 4 days holiday in three years. The cost of living is expensive here when you have to insure cars etc and the cost of health care and health insurance, well I dont even want to go into that.

If you want to do it, train to do something that will get you a job here like nursing which will get you a green card or join a US company in the hope of getting transferred out. The business visas are getting really problematic and difficult to get now, much worse than when I came out. And older children can lose their right to remain with you at 21 and have to go home so much as kids love it here, bringing older kids with you has its own problems. The people you were talking to were almost certainly in the middle of adjusting status to green card, possinbly after family sponsorship. It is not true you cannot leave, just you need to apply for travel papers called parole documents yearly so as to be held not to have abandoned your green card application in leaving the country. Once you have your green card you need to wait almost 5 years before you can apply for citizenship ( three if you married an American).

[LiesaAnna]

what a kerfuffle!! if we could've we would love to have lived in florida! well America, its a great place, but imagine working there and no playing!! crikey, its like you imagine everyday as a holiday!! but so wrong! the health insurance would scare me alone!!

but others have done it! i have friends just waiting for the right time to go live the dream in Austrailia, everything is in place visa's activated, but there is always another reason as to something stopping them!! now waiting for the 3rd eldest to finish his apprenticship, then there will be another reason! and another,

would leave this counrty if i could!! or would i come the crunch?

[Mags]

I think most people feel a little depressed after returning from holiday and think they would rather live there than where they live now. That is the point of a holiday to get away from the usual humdrum of our lives.
We have lived in many places due to my husband's job at the time and every new place felt a bit like a holiday at first but the novelty soon wears off and becomes just the same as home, school for the children, work, housework, cooking, running the children around. When we lived in Cyprus which was lovely our family and friends would come out to visit and say how great it was, but they were just there for 2 weeks holiday and doing the normal tourist things like sightseeing, swimming and sunbathing.
As Julie says when it is red hot doing the everyday tasks of just a normal day it is exhausting, you can't eat out everyday and there is a lot more washing and ironing to do than just a few holiday clothes. Shopping becomes the same as at home you do it because you have to not because it is a pleasure.
Having said that we enjoyed it very much, because the children went to school very early 7:30am start so we were all up very early but finished for the day at lunch time and I only worked 8:30am - 12:30pm and husband although on call would be home about 2:00pm so we had all afternoon to pretty much do what we liked but as I said earlier the mundane tasks unfortunately still have to be done.
Just a few things to bear in mind but good luck if you do decide to go for it.