scrubbedexpat097

Even worse, you could have been run over by a bus the day after you won the lottery.

tom169

Meh. Nothing.

I didn't own property in the UK and now I own a house (with all the American challenges) and to top it off have a great relationship with the wife.

I'm young enough to embrace it all. I'm looking to gaining citizenship and plan to spend the rest of my working life here.

I am in for the long run and not detracted by short term politics.

I earn double my UK pay and have better prospects.

Some may say "the American dream."

zzrmark

Regular face-to-face contact with my two independent-living daughters. Empty nester syndrome hits hard when you're 3,000+ miles away.

Pulaski

A life sentence, 17 years served. Good behaviour is expected, so even that doesn't get me time off.

username.exe

Some close friendships and the ability to spend time with family.

Still, I wouldn't change my decision for all the tea in China.

SultanOfSwing

I didn't really sacrifice anything. I left things behind, for sure but I can go back and visit friends and family, so that doesn't really count.

I spent a year unemployed due to delayed paperwork for my EAD, so maybe I sacrificed a bit of money but we made it work.

I moved here to get married though, which is vastly different to moving for work or study, so I'd argue that my wife made more sacrifices than I did in the early days, given she had to support me until I was allowed to work.

Orangepants

Hey I understand where you are coming from. We too started on a path that took a long time to travel, which included 4 years of me living in Cayman and him living here with little to no hope of it being resolved after my L-1 fell through. But we made the best of it and both got to enjoy Charlotte living and Island living simultaneously.
I have never regretted for one moment anything, we made those choices and just got on with it, we got our green cards in Feb of this year. Even the 2 "awful" years I had to work for Wells Fargo overseas I look back on as character building and led me to where I am now.
If I'd had a crystal ball in 2005 then we too would not have started the USA journey. Good Luck.

md95065

I guess I was lucky because I really don't feet that I "sacrificed" anything.

But, then, I never really embarked on what you describe as an "endeavor to obtain a green card".

My primary goal was never to "get a green card" or even to "live and work in the US" - I was looking for a more interesting job than the one that I had in the UK and I got an offer from some people that I knew who had a small software company in California. The job sounded interesting and, when I visited I liked the place and felt instantly at home.

Those were the days (1987) when an H1-B visa could be obtained in a few weeks so I accepted their offer and moved to the US about 2 months later. The green card application happened a year or two later and was just uneventful paperwork ...

30 years later and I am still here.

tom169

How times have changed.

Neat story though.

markonline1

Apart from a 6 figure salary, my own cool batchelor pad, Friday and Saturday nights down the pub with my mates, sky tv, curry and kebabs....... nothing.

KK85

I'll be interested to learn what my answer to this question will be in a year or two from now.

For now, a few weeks before I'm due to move to the USA, my main concern is (and always has been) that I am going to miss my family - my father and my very young nephews, particularly - beyond a level I can imagine tolerating comfortably. My poor husband has really taken the brunt of many resentful rant from me when it comes to that stuff (I stopped being a baby about it a year ago, but in the run-up to making the decisions as to who would move where, he certainly took a lot of crap from me!).

I have only just graduated from university, though I'm in my early thirties, so I don't feel I'm sacrificing anything on the career/financial front. In fact, I am hopeful that I will use this move as a board to leap from, and start completely afresh. I am also, of course, very excited to finally be with my husband and to start our lives together, make a family, buy our first home, all that stuff. I am too preoccupied with the excitement for what I'm gaining, to be concerned with the sacrifices I'm making, but I'm sure that's quite natural for a person at this stage in the game. Again, let's see where I sit in a year. I might really miss Branston pickle, or be livid because I miss the First Great Western railway.

Edit: I feel the need to also point out that I was never in this adventure in order to 'obtain a green card', so my sacrifices are more ones that I'll be making to be with my husband. The green card is just part and parcel of that. Were it not for meeting and falling in love with an American, moving to the USA would never have been on my radar.

mrken30

I did give up being legally able to drive above 70 mph, but I also gave up speed cameras. This is State specific.

SultanOfSwing

Jesus, even Illinois has 70mph speed limits outside of metro Chicago (and Wisconsin went from 65-70 recently as well).

It's ****ed that it isn't at least 80 across the board though (ideally more), since cars are now much more suitable for driving at high speeds than they were 45 years ago when they dropped it to 55. Speed limits on motorway-style highways are not about safety anyway, it's all revenue generation.

chawkins99

Cars, yes. Driver, not so much.

Back in my younger days when I was doing 50-60,000 miles a year up & down the UK, I felt safer driving at 90+ than at 70 as I was much more attentive looking out for the bizzies. At 70mph, the mind starts to wander and lose concentration.

SultanOfSwing

Well, I suppose the argument could be made that if the driver isn't capable of driving at highway speeds, they shouldn't be driving on the highway ...

But you'll always get some arsehole sat in the left lane at 20 below the flow of traffic, as is tradition.