glittababe

Good Luck from here in Suffolk! I'm STILL confused over what to do, where to live etc! Hubby keeps telling me oz is good for a holiday but living there, he felt not at 'home'! I think what we need is to sell this place and have a fresh start somewhere else in UK. Afterall, its a big and beautiful country with lots of other idyllic villages! Mind you thats my feelings today, tomorrow it'll change!

Aqua2778

I dont think you can put a price on happiness, and fullfilment... sure it may be a struggle for the first few months or so, trying to get a job, buy a house etc etc but at least you have the government/DSS payments to help you through in the mean time (if required and if your a british citizen) until you get a job (im not saying be a dole bludger before people nag me!) and as for houses that one good thing about the UK in that most banks will lend you 3- 5 times the amount you earn for a house.. (as long as you have the income and dont over commit yourself thats a help in it'sself, not like aussie banks!)
Life wasnt meant to be easy.... i cant wait to go home!! But this stuff doesnt worry me as much as some as i know i'll be able to get a job etc eventually.

I see it like business, you have to make a loss before you make a profit

Roadhog

So, I have been reading some of these posts. My family and I are planning on returning back to Blighty after 10 years of being in the USA. I have been looking for jobs back there, and having 20 years IT experience I was hoping it wouldn't be too difficult to find something, but I wonder if I have too much experience.....

I have been looking at monster.co.uk and that appears to have jobs arranged by Recruitement Companies mainly. Is there anywhere else I should be looking for jobs. I would really like to have a job before moving, but as someone else mentioned that may not be possible.

Also concerned that once we get back, that we may feel that it was a mistake and want to return to the US. But I think once we move that will be it. We will loose a lot of money by returning, and will not be in a position to come back here. Even if I can find a job, the salary will be a lot lower than what I have here.

One of the biggest thoughts, is that we have a large house (3600 Sq FT) with a little over 1/3 acre of land, 2 vehicles which are fairly new, etc. But once we have paid off the mortgage and move over we won't have much to play with, and certainly not enough to buy a property in the UK.

We also have 5 kids ranging in age from 3 to 11. So that concerns us too. I can see us living in a 3 bedroomed house with wall to wall bunk beds.

Any advise you guys could give us? Any ideas would be gladly accepted. TIA. Colin.

psb182

brilliant init

Roadhog

You're not kidding.

dunroving

Well, the Waltons did it and they turned out OK.

No, I'm not being facetious, really. I'm just saying that if it's the right thing for you and your family, being cozy won't be a big deal. I've said before (on this thread) that money isn't everything, and neither is a big house, etc.

Things may not seem rosy right now, but just hang in there, rally the family around and stick together.

Some of the most screwed-up kids are the ones who have everything - in the long run, yours will be just fine. Decent values and strong family are much more important than the size of your (insert whatever material possession you want here).

Not really practical advice, I know. Just trying to say you'll be OK.

Have you looked at Scotland? I was just looking at Dundee (there was a job ad for Abertay University). Seems like a decent place to live and the data I saw indicated the average house price was 60,000 quid.

callé

Hi Colin,
We will all be losing quite a bit of money it seems. The main thing you have to ask yourself is what is most important to you. While I can only imagine it will be rough, I cant see myself ever being really happy here in the US. So to me the people, culture and just being home is more important. You just need to look really close at the pros and cons of both. good luck on your decision and welcome to the forum. There is lots of fantastic advice on here.

psb182

[QUOTE=dunroving]
good advice......we are heading home and will be in a smaller house cars etc but we will all be together back with our family and friends......."stuff" means nothing it's just "stuff"........can't wait to go out on the weekend with the wife to the local,or drop by a friends house without making an appointment,can't wait to watch good telly,and to talk to people who can understand me......get me outa here

Roadhog

I know what you mean... I even get one person at work who at every July the 4th tries to wind me up. Of course it doesn't work, I just say that 50% of the British side were Americans and that seems to shut him up a bit. Anyway, we don't feel we belong here, even after 10 years we don't really call the US home. We have been feeling the home-strings pulling for the past few years, and we are now finally admitting to ourselves that we want to go home (UK).

Roadhog

Hadn't really thought about Scotland. Although I was informed that there some companies there are offering relocation, don't know which ones, but that was the rumour(notice the 'u', I will not change my spelling - I am a Brit!) anyway. I was aware that housing was cheaper, but didn't realise quite by how much.

My parents are in Somerset, and my wife's are in North London. I was born and bread in West London, so, we naturally have had the thought of London as the place to move to, but we recently went there for a holiday and saw some house prices, and well, I needn't say any more. They were just way to high for us. So we have thought that we can move further away and if I get a job in London, I will just have to let the train take the strain - boy haven't heard that phrase in awhile.

Don't really know about Scotland. My Step Grandfather was from Edinburgh, but we have no family ties there. But hey 60,000 quid. Even we could afford that. Where did you see the job, was it on the net, or elsewhere? Was it an IT Teaching post. Might even consider it if it was.

I have a friend in IBM and he is looking there, but I don't hold out much hope. But we'll see.
Thanks.

immunise

Edinburgh house prices are very very high! look at www.espc.co.uk and you'll get the idea. I'd be home right now if it wasn't for the house prices!

dunroving

The job was a college professor position. Site is www.jobs.ac.uk - there may be IT jobs advertised there, I'm not sure (not my area). Worth a try - good luck!

I lived in Glasgow in 2000, loved it. Distance from England can be a problem, but with trains it can be a nice day trip, read the paper, whatever on the way.

JAJ

If you've not got US citizenship, think very hard before you leave the US. A suprising number of people do wish to return after discovering 'home' is not what they thought it was. Your green card will expire very quickly once you leave the US.

Even if you do settle well at home, it sounds from the timelines like your oldest child was not born in the US, while your younger kids were. This can be a source of real problems later on if the oldest decides he'd like to go back to America and is ineligible to do so (which will generally be the case without US citizenship), while his or her younger siblings may have that option.

You could always make a point of naturalising, and then checking out the UK. Naturalisation does carry an obligation to keep filing for US tax when overseas but that does not cause most American expatriates a problem.

Jeremy

Roadhog

Jeremy, you have mentioned one of the subjects that we have talked about. We have no intention on becoming US Citizens. I don't know what it is, but we just feel that we don't want to give up our British Citizenship. I guess we always felt that we would return to the UK, and having British passports, etc, would enable us to just pop over to Europe without worrying about Visas and stuff.

We have been having discussions on the move back for most of the afternoon today, and we have decided that it is time. So, I saw a job posting and have sent my CV over to it, and applied. Don't know whether anything will come of it, but I guess our path is at least clearer, and are now planning for that eventual move.
Thanks though. Colin

JAJ

Why do you think becoming US citizens would cause you to lose British citizenship? It wouldn't.

Here's a good site which explains the US position: http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

The US naturalisation oath does not have any effect under British law and the US doesn't care about you keeping British citizenship provided you deal with US authorities as if you were solely a US citizen.

As I've noted - if you have had kids born in the US they are American citizens even if the rest of the family are not, and if you don't sort this out before leaving this could well cause a lot of discord later on.

Jeremy