cheers

Wind song, I'm glad you are thinking of us!

windsong

Hi Cheers!!!

I am so glad to be back and indeed I have been thinking of everyone a lot! I ought to know by now that when I think of this forum it is a sign that it is where I should be.

I am no further forward in planning a move than I was a year ago. The economy and job market in the midwest is outrageous and I have been surviving with short-term contract jobs - with gaps in between. Until I get a decent direct hire job, I am stuck. It grieves me terribly because I just turned 60 and I am no further forward. I do have a company pension I can take out but I am trying to leave it as long as possible but I am not sure I can leave it any longer. In two years (I think) I am eligible for SS and wanted to move back at that time but not sure I can.

I would like to revisit how much it costs to pay in to the UK pension plan. I left when I was 23 so didn't pay in much and it might be a lot to pay in now, I don't know - and it might not be possible to do it if the laws have changed but I don't know that they have.

Are you planning a move back yet? I know you wanted to go back at some point.

cheers

Get this.
A Brit who had been living in the US for 40 years and had a home and employment there. He went back to the UK for a visit and when he tried to return to the US he was denied entry.

Bother!

The reason given was because they said he wasn't loyal to the US?

Moral of this is be careful what you say.

windsong

Cheers, is this true or are you pulling our leg?

cheers

I'm going back in June for a month.

I just got my new passport.

windsong

Oh that's wonderful You must be SO excited - and you deserve it, too!

Where in the UK will you be staying?

I need to renew my passport, too - good idea!

cheers

It's true!
Look it up.
Ref. Sir charley Chaplin

cheers

Rhyl North Wales
Beacon
North Devon
Ashford Kent

windsong

Yes, indeed he was - but he was not a citizen. Even so, I am shocked! I thought a green card was protection and I would think he had one of those.

windsong

Beautiful places! I read somewhere that you are getting four cottages, so it must be one week in each place.

Are you going to these places to consider a possible move back to the UK?

cheers

We found the State Department very efficient.

I recommend registered mail for your application.

One minor slip up. My new passport was returned to them as undeliverable. They sent it to the wrong state? They contacted me by phone and resent it overnight delivery. I thought that was nice of them. They were very pleasant to talk to on the phone. Not what I expected from the government.

cheers

"Me" wife is an American so I doubt she will leave the US perminantly. I like her a lot so what she wants I do to.
She likes most English things. The list is endless.

windsong

What has the State Department got to do with it. Don't I send the application to the British Consulate and the Consulate then returns it directly to me?

windsong

Maybe you could begin to spend more time in the UK so that you go between both countries and you get the best of both worlds

jasper123

Hello Windsong,
And its very nice to hear from you again, how are you? I dont think they had green cards in the days of silent movies you know when Charley Chaplin was a young man,
Rodney.