retire to florida

[lynn56]

hi i would love to retire to florida gulf coast area
what do we need to do my husband retires in 7 yrs so have plenty of time to sort and make right choice [8D]

[flyrr100]

Good health insurance!

[steph_goodrum]

There's no such thing at present as a Visa that will let you retire to FLorida. If you have a business that you could open a branch there, that may eventually lead to a Green Card.
There are options but they involve lots of money (500k or $1m).

[chrizzy100]

Yes there is no retirement visa...the easiest thing to do is snowbird..

[Albert the Frog]

We looked into this and as stated the big problems will be getting a Visa and affordable healthcare-snowbirding seems favourite to us!

[florida4sun]

How do you get around health insurance?

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Albert the Frog
We looked into this and as stated the big problems will be getting a Visa and affordable healthcare-snowbirding seems favourite to us!
[/quote]

[esprit]

There have been some rumblings again about what they call a Silver Visa. The first time this was tried was in 1999 and it didnt get much support and died a death and then the person who was behind it, sorry forget his name, wasnt re-elected. There has been some lobbying going on recently in Washington to ascertain support for it if it were introduced again. The USA hasnt exactly been doing well over the last couple of years and an injection of capital from abroad wouldnt come amiss, especially as there would be no recourse to benefits of any sort so a win-win situation, and it would also mop up some of those foreclosures. Having said that, immigration is still a bit of a hot potato and the current government doesnt seem to have any great interest in immigration reform, or at least sees it as down on the list of priorities so dont hold your breath. A LOT of support is needed to get a bill through Congress and then through the Senate and lobbyists cost money. If the realtors association threw in behind it with some hard cash then maybe it will start to go somewhere.

As someone living in the US and in her late 50s and with no access to Medicare, I can honestly say though that even if there is a retirement visa at some stage in the future, health insurance is a major issue. Two of us in relative good health in our late 50s pay $400 a month in health insurance but pay the first $7000 a year in claims ourselves as there is an excess. The rate seems to go up quarterly. By 70 years of age, it would be totally unaffordable. That is why medicare exists and why so many American elderly people work part time in places like WalMart which cover them for for top up healthcare. As a retiree, you will have no access to anything like that. People knock the NHS but you don t know what you have got till it is gone.

[SteveandJan]

I do agree with you Julie, we would live eventually to retire in Florida but know realistically it isn't possible (even if it were legal in the US), due to the health care. We hope that we still have our home by the time we retire and spend the 6 months of our winter in Florida and the summer in the UK or possible somewhere else like France. Who knows, but we do at least have our free (well at the minute we do) healthcare and as you get older you get more problems unfortunately. Our previous MC told us how expensive their healthcare was and we were quite shocked.

[Albert the Frog]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by florida4sun
How do you get around health insurance?

Originally posted by Albert the Frog
We looked into this and as stated the big problems will be getting a Visa and affordable healthcare-snowbirding seems favourite to us!

/quote]The travel insurance we have covers us for unlimited trips of up to 45 days duration=by paying a premium we can extend this to 90 days but in truth 45 days is ample for us

[blott]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by SteveandJan
I do agree with you Julie, we would live eventually to retire in Florida but know realistically it isn't possible (even if it were legal in the US), due to the health care. We hope that we still have our home by the time we retire and spend the 6 months of our winter in Florida and the summer in the UK or possible somewhere else like France. Who knows, but we do at least have our free (well at the minute we do) healthcare and as you get older you get more problems unfortunately. Our previous MC told us how expensive their healthcare was and we were quite shocked.[/quote]Be very careful where you live outside the UK and for how long because entitlement to NHS treatment stops after three months in a non EU country if you're not intending to live in the UK permanently.

You also need to 'de-register' with your GP if you're leaving the country for three months or more.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/E...able/DH_074374