emz100

Hello new to forum so please be nice!

Well I am here hoping someone can offer me some advice.

I'll explain our situation a little bit. Two years ago my sister married a US citizen and moved to Palm Coast Florida. After spending a fortune on holidays to visit her we have decided we would like to move out there to be near her.

My husband is a painter and decorator here in sunny (not!) N Ireland. We have about thirty thousand pounds tied up in our house.

My parents are hoping to move out with us and as they are a lot better off financially my father offered to go into partnership with my husband and invest in a business to get our visas. Hubby is a bit worried about investing in a business and would prefer to get some kind of job offer out there but considering he is not a doctor or computer whizkid i am under the impression this would be very unlikely is this right?

My sister is not yet a citizen so cannot sponsor us and I have heard this is a very lengthy process anyway.

My hubby had a spot of bother when he was young and stupid and got into trouble with the law he has one conviction for fraud (please don't jump to conclusions he made a stupid mistake). For this he received a 2 year suspended sentence. This incident occurred about 12 years ago. I was wondering if anyone on here had any experience of obtaining a visa with a conviction.

The other worry is that I have only just found out that under the visa waiver scheme used when we have holidayed in the states he should not have been entering. Is this going to cause another problem? We have just applied for a record of his convictions so that we can obtain his holiday visa.

The internet is proving to be a minefield of misleading info and I am hoping someone on here can help me a bit more.

Thanks in advance and sorry its so long!

scrubbedexpat099

The short answer is that you are wasting your time.

You could look at an E2, does not sound that suitable, you would need at least GBP100k for start up costs and of course all the other costs of moving, and it is a temporary visa lasts as long as the business would.

And your children would have to leave when they hit 21 and your Parents when they retired.

http://www.investorvisausa.com/visareqs.html

Also check out http://www.thefloridaforum.us/.

It used to be run by a very nice guy, but I believe he sold it. I can not speak for the new owners.

However your Sister can sponsor her Parents when she becomes a USC, assuming that is her intent. Not quite sure anybody can look to retire to US unless they have LOTS of money, no NHS.

CarlM

This is me being polite and helpful:

I honestly dont think you have anything to offer which would allow a you to obtain visa. The US just allows immigation, but either for humanitarian reasons, or for financial reasons, It seems you arent in need of the first, and cant offer the second.

Try Canada? Its much easier there, and you could visit Florida a lot cheaper flying from there than from NI.

Ray

Read this link ....
http://britishexpats.com/articles/us...rk-in-the-usa/

ironporer

I suppose as they are in NI, there would be a chance for a diversity- lottery visa, no?

Ray

yes...You may win the Alabama lottery as well .....

scrubbedexpat099

The Colorado one requires you to be at least legally resident.

Mentioned on every advert.

I always wondered why.

Ray

Thats easy .... TAX...................

scrubbedexpat099

Can they not tax it before you get it?

Ray

only if you have a SSN ....no SSN ..no winning for you .

Look at the condition on any competition you see ...
rule 1 .. must be a legal resident of the USA

scrubbedexpat099

But being legally resident does not always get you a SSN.

OK in a small minority of cases.

And conversly there are people with SSN's who are not here legally.

Ahh well.

Ray

As long as they can get their cut ..they are happy ..

emz100

Thanks for the replies everyone. I know it is going to be hard to get there but we are going to at least try and give it a go.

Canada isn't really an option for us as the reason I want to move is to be near my sister and although I might be nearer in Canada I just don't see the appeal of it. I had relatives lived there before. Someone had told me that we could try immigration to Canada and try and get to USA like that but I don't feel that is an option either as I think it would be too much upheavel for children.

I have been in touch with an immigration lawyer who I think I have seen reccommended on these pages. She seems to think we may get in based on the amount of money my father has to invest in a business is a considerable amount and if he gifted it to me here it would be able to count as part of our savings.

Anyway we will keep trying other people have got in so while I understand it won't be easy I feel its something we have to try.

englishnurse

i have to ask
what about the problem that your hubby has probably broken visa law by entering the usa without declaring a conviction?
regardless of money, he may be ineligable, you prbably need to check this bit out first before you go much further, as you may be wasting an awful lot of money and time
good luck.

emz100

Thanks englishnurse I spoke to immigration lawyer about this matter and she says the first thing we need to do is apply for his holiday visa and see what they say about it. She said this will give us an idea as to how they are going to treat his conviction. We have just applied for his record of conviction from PSNI but like everything this can take a while to come through.