asamum

Hi everyone, I am looking for any advice on my situation. I am a British citizen and I have been living out here in the US since 98, I have 3 kids, my oldest was born in the UK and my other two were born in the US. I understand they are considered British by decent. How does it work if I want to bring them back to the UK to live? Do I have to apply for visas or as they are my children are they automatically allowed to live in the UK? My Husband is a US citizen and so I will have to apply for a visa for him, is it a long and difficult process? My Husband is concerned about how well his education and work experience will translate in the UK and if he will be able to find a job easily. Does anyone have any advice about the transition for kids, I am a little concerned how my children with find living in England, but I really want them to grow up near family, i'm hoping by having close family nearby it may help with their transition. Any advice is greatly appreciated, I miss my home so much, the longer I am away the more homesick I get! I am under no illusions that it will be the same place I left, but its still the place I want to call home

penguinsix

You might want to check out the counterpoint of this site which is for US expats living in the UK. It's chock-a-block with Americans who have moved families over to the UK, often mixed with one parent British and the other an American.

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/

They have forums on immigration and education adjustments and discussions on where to find decent Mexican food. I would also suggest glancing at their Homesickness forum so you can prepare for some of the likely cultural adjustments you can expect (it might actually surprise you how similar their problems are to UK expats living in the US).

Good luck

roaringmouse

You haven't given enough information to determine if your overseas born children are British by descent. Were you born in the UK, or outside the UK?

Squirrel

The visa process for a spouse is very quick compared to the US version, you should be able to get the visa in a week if you pay extra for expediting.

Regulations may change from April 2012 with higher minimum income requirements, are you moving before or after then? Before might be easier.

What does your DH do? Generally moving US to UK is easier than UK to US as the UK isn't so set on having a Bachelor degree for almost any half decent job. My DH has never found it difficult to get office work, he does have a Bachelor degree anyway though.

asamum

I was born in the UK and lived there for 23 years, I only moved out to the States as I married an American.

asamum

My Husband at the moment is in the USAF, he has his bachelors degree and he wants to work in Emergency Management, which in the US is something like FEMA or department of homeland security, we are not sure what the equates to in the UK. If we do move, it won't be until late 2012 maybe even 2013.

asamum

Thanks for the info, I will check it out

Mummy in the foothills

It looks like the rules may be changing about moving with a non UK citizen spouse theres a whole talk about it going on here somewhere, you may want to apply for his visa before the changes take affect so you aren't stuck with the new rules on financial ability or something.
I'm pretty sure there are emergency services in UK too, they would have to be. Maybe something to do with the Police/Fire/ambulance services.
For the children you just have to apply for their UK passports we got our boys the registration of birth abroad just in case they needed more proof of citizenship in the future, but many people don't bother.

asamum

Okay thanks, I will look into the passports. If you are northern Cali, you could be near me

Mummy in the foothills

We are in the foothills. East Of Lodi.

asamum

[QUOTE=Mummy in the foothills;9751312]We are in the foothills. East Of Lodi.[/QUOTE

We are in Fairfield, so a little ways off from you

Squirrel

Something to do with national security in the UK might require employees to be UK nationals.

MartynK

Must admit, we didn't bother when our kids were born in South Africa. They just applied for British passports when they grew up, with the supporting documents, and received them after a couple of weeks. It's probably a good idea though.