CelticRover

As a newcomer to this particular forum and longtime expat who set out at the tender age of 17 I have enjoyed reading your posts and would like to hear of your comments and experiences on the following topics:
1. Would you do it again?
2. Were the hard times worth the material success you have achieved thus far?
3. Have you made a lot of US friends or merely aquaintances along the way?
4. What made you leave home in the first place and was it really justified?
5. Will you return back to the old sod to retire?
6. Would you encourage others to come to the US?
Thanks.

Walkingman

1. Yes
2. There haven't been hard times
3. Half of my closest friends are US citizens
4. Boredom and wanderlust. Yes.
5. Not unless Alzheimers' kicks in first
6. No, there are enough people here already

Noorah101

My now-USC Iranian husband would answer as such:

1. Yes.
2. The hardest time was just the long wait for the visa (14 months). Not much material success achieved so far, but more emotional success.
3. No close US friends so far.
4. Wanted to marry and live with my USC fiancee, and yes, it was justified.
5. NO!
6. No...USA is not the land of milk & honey, streets paved with gold, and money growing on trees that everyone back home thinks it is. Sometimes you're better off where you've got a good settled life already.

Rene

SpoogleDrummer

1. Definitely. My son alone makes it worth the hassles
2. What hard times?
3. None at all. People around here are only interested in trucks where as I'm interested in computers :s
4. I got married and my wife wouldn't move to the UK. I've only been married 4 years so far so ask me in another 20 and if we're still married then I'll say yes.
5. Possibly, though in all honesty I'll be surprised if I live long enough to retire.
6. Nope, the UK is certainly an easier place to live just so long as you don't want a big house.

lisa67

1. yes, definitely
2.Hard times have been missing family back home, but I feel the life we have is worth it
3.We have some really good US friends
4.work...short term contract that changed into long term.
5.not if we can help it
6.I would encourage anyone to try anything once, life is too short to worry about the "what ifs"

N1cky

1. If it was the 1st time still Yes, again No.
2. Yes
3. No US friends what so ever
4. Intercompany transfer offer too good to turn down
5. Hopefully many years before I retire
6. If the opportunity arises for them yes, don't live saying 'what if?'

Bob

1- Naaa....eventually, but later in life if I had a do over
2- What material success? I'm more skint and have less shit than back in blighty
3- Mostly acquaintances, a couple of friends but I doubt they'd be there to bail you out at 3 in the morning if shit hit the fan
4- The missus, we were young and thought it an adventure...not really justified, I had good job offers in the UK and took a couple years to get a job in the US
5- No idea, but probably if there isn't healthcare sorted in the US or if we never make it to a warmer state
6- Yeah, of course, it's a good adventure, though only if it's for that reason rather than the greener grass reason, and to open their eyes to things, but still go do it.

Englishtart

1. been sitting here 5 mins wondering how to answer this one, I would marry the hubby again but move here again, if I had a choice?... I guess the response right now is I'm really not sure
2.They are usually, and will be again once we are living in the same house again.
3.Have USC friends in other States that I keep in touch with, a couple here, but not 'real' friends.
4.Met and married USC military guy, actually never had any interest in living here, but no choice
5. I doubt it, but I wouldn't be unhappy to go back
6.Not right now, unless they had a good paying secure job (guaranteed) and good benefits.

mekadag

HI

1. yes i would because i was about to be unemployed and obtained a job on the internet in california. I would have liked to come over here when i was 10 years younger.
2. I have not had any hard times yet - although i am moving back to california from tulsa and no sale of the house so have a mortgage to pay as well as rent and my twin daughters are at university. Hubby is staying for a while.
3. I have made some real friends here but have also kept in touch with my friends back in london and they have visited me and i spent most summers in london staying with family and friends.
4. yes i was facing unemployment -
5. I have been thinking about this one because i am moving towards 60 I intend to stay in the US for the moment because retirement in england will be difficult living on a low income. I have always worked but my pension in local government is limited - working part time and looking after children etc. If my daughter comes over here i will stay. I am not sure my siblings miss me and vice versa.
6. I would only encourage people to come to the US if they are professionals because to be poor or in a low paying job in the USA is a nightmare - no healthcare this is the brutality of the US.

Julia

md95065

+1

made of kent

yes
not really out of the woods
some friends many aquaintances
Yes for me not hubby maybe? I have no close family to speak of, yet do, brother in army, for 20 years now been away for most of that time, parents dead mum coming on 12 years dad almost 6 years. lot of other family I miss but not in the really close way, I have a granddad of 90 also but he is so proud of what I am doing as his grandfather moved to England in the 1890's from Germany and he thinks it is the way of the world?
yes I kind of think I will return home? but if we are here more many years, and my children find their home here then no! I think it is completely normal for children to leave parents, it takes the No choice senaro the other way, what ever age of you children, And I have seen many good people on here make that decision, god! I admire them and hope I will never have to that but if I do, it will be for the wrong reasons, not for my childrens (as I extremely selfish, their best interest) but mine
yes my cousin Jay , who has an American dad living UK an American grandad USA he is doing a forenic computing degree, his sister NO! bar manager! and criminal record. (drunk and disorderly)
his half brother also American dad deceased and grandad deceased yes if he sorts himself out only 16! very clever but determined since 10 to screw it up (dad died when he was 2 1/2)

cluedweasel

Oh well. Here goes nothing

1. Definitely not.
2. Success? Not any so far. I'm finally up to 50% of what I made in the UK 8 years ago.
3. Not any that would bother to piss on you if you were on fire.
4. My wife wanted to return home after 9/11. That lasted 6 months before she wanted to go "home" (she is a USC).
5. Totally. I'd rather trust myself to the NHS than the crooks who run things here.
6.Only if I really didn't like them.

MrEmjoy

1. Would you do it again?
Yes

2. Were the hard times worth the material success you have achieved thus far?

I don't have material success, yet, and I don't really long for material things other than my ipod, (sad) I have a world of immaterial joy that is a wife and a baby though so that's worth any hardship I've been through.

3. Have you made a lot of US friends or merely aquaintances along the way?

Yes in a sense, my neighbors are really nice people and wherever I've lived in the past I've tried to be a good neighbor and reach out to them, my wife didn't know anyone in her area until I moved hearer and now we cant take a walk without stopping to talk to people. my Mother In Law was shocked by this change in her daughter. Even mor so when people started giving us gifts for the baby. I also managed to get some of them to cut the two yard stretch of lawn that was in my property but joined their lawn, that pissed me off for a long time but now the trend has spread a few doors up.


4. What made you leave home in the first place and was it really justified?
A three month trip that turned into something else.

5. Will you return back to the old sod to retire?
Dunno

6. Would you encourage others to come to the US?
Depends on the circumstances.

What about you?

LynannC

1. Would you do it again?
Yes, but now that I know more I wouldn't do it the same way. I came on a CR1 and would now have used a K1.
2. Were the hard times worth the material success you have achieved thus far?
I'm a stay at home wife, so material success doesn't apply. My USC hubby does have to work long hours with little annual leave to pay the mortgage etc, but even with South Florida house prices we probably couldn't manage such a nice house in the UK.
3. Have you made a lot of US friends or merely aquaintances along the way?
This is a difficult question to answer. People are friendly here, but more as aquaintances. I've relocated many times in my life and never found it this difficult to make deep friendships. I think in part it is because everyone is sooo busy all the time over here. Nobody has time for deep friendships.
4. What made you leave home in the first place and was it really justified?
My hubby, and yes it was worth it. He's the love of my life and I'd live anywhere to be by his side.
5. Will you return back to the old sod to retire?
No
6. Would you encourage others to come to the US?
Only if they knew they were going to have a good job with benefits, it can get very expensive for just life's basics over here.

Lyn

celticgrid

1. Yes
2. Neither hard times nor material success worth mentioning
3. No real friends yet - are "aquaintances" those who greet you with "how are you?" and are out of earshot before you can get out a reply?
4. Family needed a change. Was move to the UK or move to the US. US won.
5. Hopefully not.
6. Entirely depends on the individuals concerned - it is right for some but not for all