Ok,
So I will just state what I feel and see from there.

I have just received paperwork for the DV lottery. I am very excited to say the least. My wife isn't happy about it at all, saying I went behind her back to apply ( I did tell her last year I had applied )and I go on about USA since our first holiday back in 1992.

I am 48 and she is 42, I am a caretaker at a college with no further job promotions until I retire, we are in job related accommodation which is connected with the college and we have no other property to be concerned about.

I am a diabetic for some 9 years now and am greatly concerned about medication in the US and costs for medical care poss. later on in life.

Housing, we could buy outright a really good house, no probs there but in getting a new job at 48, with so many Americans doing just that as well.
The recession going on right now as well. I am very doubtful about going forward now with this whole thing.
I sit here looking at the paperwork thinking so many thoughts of what could happen, is this a sign to go for it, is it a wake up call to what I have right now and by doing this blowing it all away.

My wife recently lost her mum and now has her dad to think about, what would happen to him she said... I was thinking about our future as a couple when I applied for this last year.( mine are both in their 70's )
I can't talk to her as she has such negative views on anything I do or think, and always twists it around so I look the total Div for opening my mouth.

Is this green card a load of bull or is it the chance for a better life..

If I go ahead with this what happens in the future, can we come back to England with the green card and return to the US to meet its status, is it green card now, there to stay for 5 yrs and then see what happens, I am so upset and angry, mostly confused right now... over to you all.

Just popped across to your other thread for a quick read, so congrats and all on getting your name pulled.

Can't help you with your (potentially) biggest hurdle (your beloved, and her thoughts on all of this) - but would chime in and say look very carefully into the medical insurance part of things. If you move over here as unemployed you will need to buy your own medical insurance and this can be very expensive (several hundred dollars per month - ball park figure). Also would your diabetes be excluded as a pre-existing condition? (I have no idea).

Without insurance meds are expensive. When I moved over here I used to pay in full at the pharmacy counter and then claim back, and my bog-standard asthma inhalers and a supply of heartburn tablets came to nearly $500 a month. Not sure if it's possibel to Google your meds and see U.S. prices or whether they'll have different names over here.

Good luck.

Things that are an issue in the UK, will not go away in the USA.

Methinks you have some problems and life decisions to make that may be more difficult and painful than moving to the US!

Why would you think that the green card is a lot of bull? It doesn't guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and wealth. It offers the opportunity to seek all that in the US just has you have sought it and apparently found it in the UK.

You sound as if you have a great life in the UK. Tell us why you want to move to the US. What is your dream and thoughts as to what the US represents to you and for you in your future.

As for your medical issues, the drugs for diabetes are good here and I know that first hand as a diabetic. However, even with medical insurance it is very expensive. While I only have to pay a co-payment for drugs and medical care, my co-payments add up over the year to more than $1,200. This includes the monthly blood testing, drug and doctor co-pays, etc.

Finding a blue collar job for a 48 yo is not going to be easy. While it is not impossible, a lot will depend on where you chose to live. Hell you could probably get a job as a janitor in a school and make about $25,000 a year or work for a lawn care concern making even less. I have no clue what your qualifications for employment are other than being a caretaker/janitor/??

You can always accept the Diversity Visa if you are approved at interview and activate the visa by coming to the US, living here for a short time (say a long vacation) so that you have an address to receive the green card in the mail and then apply for a re-entry permit which would allow you to return to the UK to sought out your life for up to 2 years and then come back here to the US to live and find work. You have to be in the US to apply and need to be here to go to the biometrics for the form. It can be delivered to the US Consulate where you can go and pick it up.

It is a big decision for a middled person and particularly for a family where one of the members doesn't want to move.

I'm an American and I can tell you that life here is as hard, if not harder, for the middle class here in the US then in the UK. At least you have steady employment, free housing, medical care, and a host of other benefits. You need to think about the whys and wherefores before you take this big step.

An update on this so far,
We have had a chat about this over lunch just now, and I'm going on with it and my wife approves on this, we all have arguments from time to time.

She does see it as something I do want and now have the special chance of following it with this Lottery, meanwhile I am plowing through all the neg stuff I see in this move to try and justify it being something we want for a better life.

Tonrob, thanks for that, yes I am looking into very closely the info on meds, but I am in control of my diabetes, and I am very healthy apart from that, also I am thinking about my health in general which is very good and hardly ever go to the doctors anyways.

Cindyabs, yes agreed with that and this is something very difficult in terms of seeing eye to eye on, but thats what marriage is all about.

Caleyjag,
So do I, but we have been through a lot together and started with nothing at all to where we are today, very comfortable indeed, its never all wine and roses, but she was laughing at lunchtime with me and we are going ahead with this at present.

Thanks for the input guys...

Rete,
Thanks for that,
"You sound as if you have a great life in the UK. Tell us why you want to move to the US. What is your dream and thoughts as to what the US represents to you and for you in your future."

Answer: to own my own house, have a job poss without continued shift work and weekend working every week, to enjoy the weather and the people there who are so much better at being polite, than here, that just for starters.
Rete
"Finding a blue collar job for a 48 yo is not going to be easy. While it is not impossible, a lot will depend on where you chose to live. Hell you could probably get a job as a janitor in a school and make about $25,000 a year or work for a lawn care concern making even less. I have no clue what your qualifications for employment are other than being a caretaker/janitor/??"

Answer: I really have no idea what I would want to do, and have no idea on blue collar, white collar jobs and what they represent, a Janitor, lawn guy would suit me, any job really, so I am bringing in a wage.
I am qualified over here as a Health and safety specialist tech. but realise that means squat to the USA which I fully understand also, I am thinking that if they have no need for the above I would do anything required to put food on the table so to speak, but you would think the same, its the not knowing what gets ya thinking, I would like to get something within 4 weeks of arriving, as I have never been out of work since leaving school.
Rete
"I'm an American and I can tell you that life here is as hard, if not harder, for the middle class here in the US then in the UK. At least you have steady employment, free housing, medical care, and a host of other benefits. You need to think about the whys and wherefores before you take this big step."

Answer:We are a married couple without kids, who both work so we pay bills etc. Yes my Diabetes allows me free meds and prescription charges.
But we as a couple are not entitled to anything else ..period while I work here, yes we have accommodation on a College site, which rent is collected, but have nothing else to look forward to at retirement, but to go out and rent somewhere because house prices will be way too high for what we can afford, but if I was a single mum with kids in tow, the council would throw me a council house, 3 bedroom, and told not to WORK more than 24 hours a week so it doesn't affect their benefits they are on. As a couple with no kids we get nothing at all, so there is my reason for looking away from the Great Britain, we will work all our lives and have nothing to show for it, I think that would be different in the US, they seem to welcome workers!!!!!!!!!!!

I thank you for your valued input on this, I just worry a lot, and this is a huge decision to make, which cant be made lightly, but you understand that.

No offense intended but you sound has if you have very rosy glasses on when it comes to viewing the US. You can work here all your life and still have nothing and if compared to the UK it would be -0. Unless you work for a company which has a pension plan and they are few and far between these days you will only have your US social security benefits if you worked for ten years straight. Your wife as to work that as well otherwise she won't have her own social security benefits.

The US does not welcome all workers. I don't know where that thought comes from at all. They welcome all workers the same as in the UK. perhaps less so in the US if you don't have a green card and if you don't then you become a day labor like many illegals and stratch out a living on $50 to $100 a day if you can find work.

Bu you are right, it is worth a shot if your wife now agrees to come with you. If you pass the interview and can show that you have the means of support then you are sure to pass. Wishing you good fortune.

You're still underestimating how difficult/costly your diabetes is going to be over here. Most of the blue collar jobs that you're likely to find will have little or no health insurance, not to mention the fact that your illness is a pre-existing condition.

Personally, just my opinion, I think it would be a mistake for you to leave what you have established in the UK and try and start a new life in the US. From what you've told us, your reasons for wanting to emigrate are relatively weak, and you have no idea of just how difficult things could be for you over here.

Now I'm often accused on these boards of sh*tting on people's dreams of emigrating to the US, so take what I say with a pinch of salt... but I really think you're in a far more dodgy situation that you understand if you choose to make the move.

Personally I kinda like your style.


Also good point on the pre-existing condition.

True.
I think they will not only not go away but would be exacerbated.
1. you have a medical condition which means finding healthcare will be difficult and extremely expensive.
2. You have no qualifications and in this economy that means job prospects are dim
3. Your wife isn't on bpoard and the strain on your marriage would be enormous.
4. If you get a job Custodians earn a low wage what happens when the elderly parent get sick, chances are you won't be able to get back to them.
5. No idea what you are looking for in the US. But, first write it all down, look around UK and see if you can find it there. Life here isn't a Holiday, you don't sit around the pool drinking margaritas unless you are rich and retired, or on your two week holiday.
It's the same old life as UK just different scenery, you still have to clean the toilets, do the laundry and cook dinner, you just do it with no family about and no friends till you find some by chance.

Whatever you do, I wish you the very best. Its not a decision to be taken lightly and I'm sure you are doing the best research you can. Best of luck.

6. Not to mention when you get in a spot of legal bother, say with the landlord, and you find that you are liable for something daft (and expensive).....somehow the UK doesn't seem too bad anymore.....I am sure a few on here know that feeling!

Also, which state are you interested in? Because if you say Florida.........

Why would he get into a legal hassle?


Seriously, medical issues aside (and I'm not saying it isn't a big issue - it is and the OP needs to take this very seriously) why shouldn't the guy give it a try? How is he going to feel if he never does this? Don't know....and I'm not saying he should - I'm not in his circumstances. But life isn't always lived in a secure little bubble.....

I was just adding it to the list of things as to why the US is not the land of milk and honey.

In retrospect it's not a concern really at this point.


However I can imagine there have been more than a few 'Florida' type ex-pats over the years who thought that a their dream house by the beach would be the perfect life, only to somehow end up being sued by their 'polite' neighbours for having cracks on the sidewalk, or some similar ridiculous scenario that wouldn't really happen back home.