civilservant

That was risky - you could easily have broken up in the intervening time, leaving you high and dry with a company that wasn't willing to sponsor your GC.

hungryhorace

If we had broken up, I would have returned to the UK when my initial 3 year transfer was done. Also, I'm sure my employer would have sponsored me for LPR after a couple of years, I would just have needed to talk with my boss.

For me, I just take the view that sometimes you just have to take a chance...for us everything has worked out perfectly.

civilservant

Oh I agree, the leap is sometimes unavoidable - indeed I think I'm still flying through the air after mine!

Bob

IA on the cars apparently do have some second hand options, someone mentioned recently, but it didn't seem like they were a good deal.

Getting finance on a car is a good way of building up credit history though and at least you'll have a figure worked out before you arrive. Other wise, all those adverts you see flying around, well you won't be getting those rates as you have no US credit history.

Also because of that, expect to be asked to put down a deposit, anything from $50-600 per utility, mobile phone etc. You might not need to, but best to budget that in.

Second passport isn't worth doing unless you know you'll travel a lot and fill it in quickly or go to countries that require a visa. If the passport is close to expiring or being filled, it's worth renewing while still in the UK because it is a lot cheaper to do so. You'll get as much as 9 months worth of any valid time you have left added onto the 10 year amount of the renewed passport.

The kids and uni. The eldest is 12 and if you stay for 4 years, would put you back in the UK a year shy of the 3 year EU residency requirement to get UK rates and student loans. This can make a big difference, not so much with the rate, but with the ability to get the loans and not be required to pay up front.

g1ant

Just remember the most important decision you have to make.
Here's the answer.......
49ers Yes..... Raiders Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Guindalf

National League or American League?

kodokan

Plus you'd be moving a 15/16 year old who wouldn't have any GCSEs, or would have to join the final year having not studied the earlier material.

We moved here with an almost 12 year old, and it's worked out brilliantly - he did 6 months in 6th grade in elementary, made some good friends, moved up to middle school with them, etc. He's now almost 14, and will be off to high school next year, and I can already see how tough it would be to go back into a UK system halfway through: he's no longer studying Maths, he's doing Algebra and hasn't even touched Geometry as that's next year; he'll do each Science sequentially so if we moved him at 15 after 9th grade, he'll have done Biology to death but not opened a book on Chemistry or Physics; he'll have studied American 20th Century Literature but not even heard of whatever the GCSE set texts might be.

I'm all for shuffling kids about during primary, they're ever adaptable, be alright in the wash etc - ours are on their 3rd schooling system so far, one of which was in French, and they've done nearly a year of homeschooling along the way too. But even I wouldn't like to try and move them between 14 and 18 unless it was absolutely unavoidable, or you/ they were prepared to accept an extra year's schooling along the way to do core GCSEs at 6th form college.

So yes, really, really push the GC thing, using your kids' ages as an explanation of why it's so important. Hubby's company were perfectly happy to accept that as a reasonable justification of why we wanted the GC application to start pretty much as soon as we landed; that it wasn't reasonable to trade a permanent European job for a temp US one at this stage in our kids' lives. We got ours just over a year after we arrived here, and it's been very 'freeing' in terms of really being able to settle into life here, buy a house, not make the kids live under a leaving deadline, etc. Since you've already been working for them for years, they shouldn't necessarily see you as a flight risk, and will probably put in a GC payback lock-in if you leave within a couple of years anyway.

We're now here for 10 years+, to see both our inconveniently-four-years-apart kids through high school. We always knew when we adopted jaunting round the world as a lifestyle that we'd have to stop for this decade, to let the kids finish school and have some solid friends and continuity in their teenage years.

Homeiswheretheheartis

I second discussing what to do if it doesn't work out. I came over when my kids were 8 and 10. My DD aged 8 has never settled and has become a shadow of her former self. No one can prepare you for this, people just kept telling me 'kids adapt, make friends easy'. It affected my DD so much she ended up with mental health issues. I don't want to scare you and my DS aged 10 settled fine. It would have just helped if we had discussed what to do if it didn't work out. We are now returning to the UK in 3 weeks after 2 years in the US. Both kids were looking forward to the US before we came.

Something to consider on the education side is that kids in the US don't graduate until they are 18, so if you stay for a few years and then decide to return. Depending on school year, the kids may leave without graduating in the US and to late to take UK exams at 16. There are ways around that, so its something to consider as well.

The education system is very different for the UK, its different state to state. Just to give you an idea, my DS is 12 now and his school day consists of - maths, English, band, science, history, reading - yes that's it. There is no language, no PE, no Biology, no Chemistry, no RE, no Geography and no RE. For people who are going to stay in the US this isn't a problem, but for anyone who may return to the UK, it can be an issue.

Sally Redux

What there is of language teaching doesn't even start until age 14 - far too late. Suddenly changing from a wide curriculum to the same 6 subjects in the same order every day was a big shock for my 12-year-old when we came. "How was your day today?" I asked after school. "Same as every other day."

kodokan

Another example day, for my 8th grade 13 year old: 6 periods consisting of English, Science, Technology, Social Studies, PE, Maths. Every day the same timetable, in the same order.

The English seems fairly typical of what he'd be doing in the UK, Science is a combined science at this stage but will split into Biology/ Chemistry/ Physics from next year onwards with one each year, Technology is an elective/ option spanning woodwork to robotics, Social Studies is history and citizenship (geography is an optional high school course), PE is 18 different sports done one each week, Maths is Algebra with geometry, more algebra, pre-calc, trig and more calc to follow in high school.

Next semester, he'll drop the PE in favour of another elective (a Fine Art one, Sculpture and Ceramics in his case). The Tech elective is a full year one; otherwise he could swap in something else artsy/ music-y at this point. Spanish is also available as an elective from 7th grade (12 yr olds) onwards, but he's going to do his mandatory 2 years of language in high school.

My daughter's elementary is starting a full-time Spanish language immersion program from kindergarten next year; she'll be in 5th grade then so will miss it (but given she went to school in French for 3 years, I don't mind).

So the offerings can really vary from state to state, and school to school. My son's high school, for example, has a non-college track aimed at more vocational kids, who can combine their core academics with qualifications and apprenticeships in welding/ hairdressing/ mechanics, etc in the afternoons, so when they graduate at 18, they have a useful skill. The girl who cuts my hair did this track in high school, in order to be able to earn money to put herself through college. She's just finished her 2-year Associate's Degree at community college (like getting a HND at a local FE college), and is saving up to go to a 'proper' college to do the last two years to get her Bachelors in Business.

I really like the flexibility here, how the courses are all modular and can be mixed and matched, completed at a person's own pace depending on aptitude and finances, but it's not at all transferrable back to the UK halfway through. And even at 18, a standard US HS diploma isn't considered the same as A levels by good UK universities; they usually require 2 or 3 Advanced Placement classes (accelerated ones working a year ahead on material) to get in. Which makes sense, as UK kids are studying many more subjects until they're 18, so of course in standard classes they won't have gone nearly as in-depth as a UK Maths or Physics A level, where the kid's only doing 3-4 subjects for 2 years.

It's different, very different. Not wrong, or worse, but different.

Zez

I'll second the "it's different" and mine are ony in elementary school. We moved here 8 weeks ago and are living on the peninsula in Foster City.

Some things that strike me....

Check your kids vaccinations. I don't know what the requirement are at middle school, but my kids needed extra vaccinations in order to be let into school here.

Work out a budget as soon as you know your package....it's expensive here!!!!

iA isn't your only car option....for us it was cheaper to go through VW direct.

Get shipping quotes but make sure you check who they use on the US side. We didn't....mistake.

Anything you want to ask, feel free to shout for me!

Lbjen

I would say be prepared for it to be a lot harder than you think it will be - nobody wanted to move to the US more than I did and I was ready to get back on the plane after 2 weeks. Once we got into a more permanent home and got ourselves settled I was fine, but things were shaky for a while.

We got our GCs because it was terrifying not having it during the recession, every little whisper of layoffs at my husbands employer had us convinced we were going to be on the next plane out. The thing about the L visa is it's only for the job that brings you here and if that somehow goes then you're SOL.

kodokan

My kids' school district likes a full vac record, but will accept a 'personal belief' waiver. I'm pro-vac so didn't mind filling in gaps - my kids were lacking Hep B, and my son had the 'wrong' meningitis vac as a baby as it didn't have enough strains - but the school were happy to let me sign a waiver for the chicken pox they didn't need as they'd had the disease.

Hep B is a useful one as they'd need that for a GC medical anyway, and it's a 2-3 jab course; that one might be useful to get underway there. 11-15 yr olds need 2 jabs; younger kids need 3.

Homeiswheretheheartis

Yes, my DS does the same subjects in the same order everyday there is also no social time. He has 30 mins for lunch and no other break

The differences in US and UK schools are huge. It will give you an idea, that everything is different to the UK. That doesn't mean its a negative, just different.

The job my husband is doing means there have been a lot of other UK people who came over to the US as well for shortish periods of time e.g 3 years. The ones who have had to return with High School children in the exam years have found it to be more that difficult for the kids.

Something to consider is kids can do online extra classes to graduate early, which is what one of my friends kids did. She graduated at 16 and returned to the UK. So she had graduated in place of UK exams at the same time.

kodokan

Or summer school - it's usually thought of as catch up for being behind, but some kids here use it to get ahead. My son's working a year ahead in Math and is considering doing Geometry summer school next year between 8th and 9th grade, and going straight into Algebra 2 when he starts high school. That way, he'll already have banked two of the four Math credits he needs to graduate high school, and can likely then graduate early or have a really easy senior year and pick up a part time job.

So there's plenty of flexibility, either at the US end or the UK end (a 16 yr old could go straight to an FE college and do the obligatory 5 GCSEs in a year, then go onto A levels if that's what they want to do). Get the GC written in, then you have plenty of options depending on how your kids take to it. Mine at almost 14 and almost 10 are doing great, are completely happy here, and we plan for them to complete their education in the US system. If we hadn't got the GCs, the longest we could've stayed would be 2018 when my daughter would be 14; as well as that certain disruption, the faint worry of job loss and having to leave the country 'immediately' would have made building a secure family life difficult.