Crackhead.Cosby

Hi all,
My name is Sal - I'm actually a Texas ex-pat whose been living in Northern Ireland for over 8 years now.

I came across these boards by chance, and they look like a good way to get some advice.

To make a long story short, after some discussion, my wife, who is from Northern Ireland, and I are seriously considering moving our young family back to the States.

We simply want to ensure that we give ourselves and our two young boys a better standard of living that what we currently have here in Northern Ireland. We realize that if we are going to seriously contemplate moving, we should aim to do it this year or next, when it appears that the economic situation back home in the States may start to see more and more recovery.

I am really wanting to relocate us to the greater Washington DC metropolitan area.

And I am hoping that some of you members on these boards are also currently living in this part of the States.

At any rate, I would like to appeal to y'all's sense of "do-goody-ness", and post back in reply to this opening thread.

I am hoping to 'meet' some of y'all who may be able to provide me with practical advice on issues such as: when to start considering selling your property in the UK if you want to move to the States; how difficult is it to find employment in the greater DC metropolitan area; what are house prices currently like in the greater DC metropolitan area, or at least where are the more affordable but nice areas to live in, close to good school districts etc.

I realize that not everyone has the ability to remain in these boards infinitely, posting stuff for hours on end. But I would like to offer that, after an introduction or two, I would be more than happy to literally make a phone call to wherever you are in the States for a chat!

I know it sounds very forward on my part, but its something I wouldn't mind doing - if one of you out there doesn't mind either - if it means I will be able to get to find out practical information to help my wife Clare and I make the best choice for our life from herein, as a family.

Well, I best be getting on now, but again, I hope some of you who read this opening post are not shy about posting something in reply.

I am very excited about joining these boards, and I hope to hear back from some of y'all soon.

Have a good one!
Sal
a.k.a. Crackhead.Cosby


* EDIT *
Oops! Sorry y'all - I literally just read the site rules a few seconds ago and noted #5 re: not posting or asking for others' personal info. My apologies - I was so excited about posting on the boards that I totally ignored that part of the forums. My bad!

However, what I will say is that, hopefully, I will become well acquainted with some of y'all soon that we may be able to also chat via email, and hopefully allow me to pursue any further questions or advice that way. Again - mea culpa!

Bob

Welcome to BE

There's a few people in and around DC that might be able to help, certainly worth having a search of past threads to see what you can find.

Also have a read through the immigration side of the forum as well as the wiki as they do answer a lot of the questions you might have.

Have you gotten your UK citizenship yet? Worth getting before moving back to the US.

I'd also knock the crack habit, doesn't go down to well with immigration

meauxna

Hey Sal, welcome.

I'm going to suggest you put your specific questions right into the USA Lifestyle forum here, and check out the marriage based visa forum for the immigration questions.
The link in my signature will help you with some of the details of that part, and a couple of searches will help you find DC info in the US forum.

Crackhead.Cosby

WOW - my first reply!!

Hi Bob,
Hope you're doing good! Thanks for the pointers.

Sure, I'll see if I can use some of this weekend to browse through previous threads - are there any in particular that you recommend I start through first? For example, a thread specifically focusing on the DC greater metro area?

And yes, I'll check out the wiki and the immigration threads as well.

UK Citizenship, no, not yet bud. I am actually still waiting for the UK Border Agency/Home Office to hurry up and send me my certificate thingy that officially endorses me as a permanent resident. I submitted that application on January 30th 2009 - and I'm STILL waiting! (I'm sure you don't miss that aspect of British public services, LOL!)

Anyway, my wife thought that we should apply for my naturalization as a British Citizen; if we go the Irish Citizen route, it apparently takes 14-18 months - and we don't want to be waiting that long for it!

Yeah - I know, I should have chosen a more respectable forum name - but I was listening to Chicken Fried Radio at the time I registered and I thought the name was as good as any!

So, how detrimental would it be if I didn't get British Citizenship before moving back - are you think from the point of view of use of the NHS for serious healthcare problems later?

Thanks again for the reply, Bob!

Crackhead.Cosby

Hi meauxna,
thanks for the welcome hamper!
that's good - i'll look into the lifestyle threads as well.

thanks in advance!

Bob

Oh nothing like that...just means if you end up not liking the move back to the US or whatever comes up, you'll have the flexibility to move back without a problem to anywhere in the EU, other wise you'll have to go through all the ball ache and expense again, so why not when you have the opportunity. Plus quite a few people who have been ex-pats for many years end up struggling with a move back "home" so leaving the door open is well worth it

JAJ

Sometimes life has to compromise between what we want and what is best for the long term future.

First, something is wrong here ... how have you managed to live in Northern Ireland for 8 years without getting ILR a long time ago? On what status did you arrive in the United Kingdom?

You should apply for both British and Irish citizenship, once eligible, but if any of your time has been illegal that won't count:

- British, as soon as you have your ILR, if you have 3 years legal residence in the UK;

- Irish, you don't need the ILR but you do need 3 years legal residence in Ireland/Northern Ireland (and they don't count time on student visa), you must have been married for those 3 years, the spouse must have been Irish for those 3 years.

British citizenship is quicker to process than Irish. of

bizzymum

You are picking a good area to come back to.DC is always booming...well depending on what you do for a living, but I have many friends who live there and they have no complaints. Also in Texas the jobs are plentiful. They are building and booming all over the place. Even my small city is going crazy with all the building and construction of widening the roads and such.

Crackhead.Cosby

hi all, just logged back onto these boards for the first time since my original posts, so:

@bob:
thanks for the tip, bud - yes, it will be useful to obtain citizenship by naturalization for one or the other - it would be useful to have, but, we expect that once we make the move back home to the States, that it is a permanent switch and that we don't put ourselves in the position to have to retreat. y'know?

@JAJ:
well, when i decided to move to the UK, we got married here and applied for my leave to remain by way of exercising her right as a EU National / dual national (UK/RoI). Basically, by applying thru her RoI passport, I was able to enter NI as the spouse of an RoI national, and was given leave to remain for 1 year period; then had to renew for a 'extended leave to remain' for a period of 5 years, which ended in Feb 2009. by the stage, i was eligible to apply for ILR - and that's where i am now: have submitted my application since end of Jan 2009 to get the shiny piece of paper that says i am already possesing ILR but have yet to hear back. i am still without my US passport for a while year tomorrow, and my wife is without her RoI passport, and its not funny anymore - i want my stuff back! i feel so immobile right now.

by her exercising her Treaty of Rome rights for freedom of movement within the EU, entering NI through her RoI passport meant that i was able to live/work in NI/UK from the moment my passport was endorsed in NYC in 2003.

if we would have gone thru the fiance visa BS direct through the Home Office, it would have meant so much more hassle before i would be able to begin work. and at that time, we needed for me to be able to work so that we could earn money and live etc.

plus, going thru the EU channel meant i was not liable for any application fees!

@bizzymum:
yeah - DC seems to be the place for me to target alright!!


ooops! sorry y'all - my laptop's battery ligght indicator is burning up i better post before i lose it - i willl log back in tomorrow and check feedback! until then, thank you to all of you who've posted on my thread with advice - thank you so much!!!!

JAJ

I am very aware of the "cult status" of using the EEA application route, but it looks like you have made a series of bad choices.

If you were married before moving you could have got a spouse visa, not a fiance one.

EEA route is "free" but you've discovered processing is much slower and you also had to wait 5 years to get permanent resident status, not the 1 year that would have been available back in 2003.

Had you taken the normal route, you would have become a British citizen long ago.

As it is, you actually acquired permanent resident status at the 5 year mark since arriving in Britain, about 2008 or so, and the next bad choice was not realizing that you could have applied directly for naturalisation. You don't need the EEA3 stamp if going for citizenship.

Third bad choice was not understanding you could have gone for Irish citizenship as soon as you had 3 years legal residence in NI, about 2006/07.

How to resolve the mess? Something has gone wrong with your case if you are still waiting a year. Perhaps the Home Office have lost your file. Follow-up:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/eu...r-application/

Once you have your stamp you can make a belated application for naturalisation. By any chance, did you keep copies of your passport and other documentation?