Ever thought of returning?
 

HI,
Have any ex pats from the UK emigrated to the US ( Florida in particular) and wanted to come back home?

I would love to emigrate to the US but I'm afraid my time has passed and, as far as I can see, can never do that. I have just returned from 3 weeks over there ( my 6 th Time) and was speaking to a few retired couples who can only spend 6 mnths at a time and have to return to the UK for 6 months. I would be gutted having to return after 6 months.
How I wish I had done it years ago. BTW I am not retired, I am 57 but everywhere I look, I hit a brick wall when looking for info. Seems like the only way is to buy a business out there.
You lucky people!!

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

No, not I, though I don't live in Florida, and really don't want to.

Take a look at this recent thread for more comments from those of us who like it here. You will note that many of us who like it enough to not want to go back are married to USCs.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

I've thought of it a few times, for different reasons. I used to want to go back at all costs, then I wised up.

Occasionally my wife will wax lyrical that she thinks we should be closer to my parents so we haven't ruled it out but realistically speaking I doubt we'd ever really do it. There is now too much to give up here and I'm becoming less and less inclinded to do so, as time goes on.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Yes :lol:

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Thanks for your reply. We don't really have any close family here now, both parents have sadly passed away, but my daughter knows a guy in Tampa and he came up to see us over xmas in Florida and she is talking about transferring her uni course to a uni in Tampa and he said he will let her stay there until she gets settled. I wish that was me! I'm deperate to leave this hell hole.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

For what reason?

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Agree with Pulaski, would never want to move to Florida, but I s'pose I could see the attraction for retirement. Can't you get around the 90 day thing by leaving the country for a couple of days? I've heard people do a little 2 or 3 day cruise and can then re enter for another 90 days. Dunno if that's true, or a bit of an urban myth type thing.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Why not Florida? No, once the 6 months is up, you cannot return for another 6 months, you have to leave the country.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

We've just never really settled into life here, England is where I feel comfortable; after 9 years it still feels alien in LA. Some parts of the country are a bit easier I believe.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

UK is changing and fast! Especially now the eu borders have opened up. I hate living here.
I am thinking the only way is to sell my business and buy another in the US to allow me to live there.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

The UK is definitely changing. It's becoming a lot more multi cultural. Like America LOL

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Why not just move to a nicer area of the UK if you don't like where you live now?

Buying a business (assuming you mean a E2 visa) wouldn't allow you to live there permanently anyway, there's no direct path to a green card from an E2.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

FIFY :) Sally, you seem to have slipped into American vernacular, perhaps you should go and lie down for a while! :rofl:

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

:lol: exactly.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

'Alien' is an English word too isn't it? Alienated.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

They're all English words, but some of them get used differently in the US. .... I used to think that values were something I learned from my parents, now I discover that I can get them from a car dealer. :confused:

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

There seem to be quite a few people in the UK who have never lived abroad but think they'd like to, some citing the immigrants in the UK as the problem. Bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

You could take a look in the Moving Back to the UK section of the forum where you'll find people who have returned.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Not married to an American. No desire to move back to the UK. If I move anywhere it will be somewhere else in the US but I am happy where I am.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Imagine how the Spaniards on the Costa Del Sol feel.

I've thought about moving back, but more likely I've thought about moving away from Florida, elsewhere in the US. The climate in Florida really sucks my enthusiasm for anything away. It's lovely on the beaches, but away from that vacation mode I find it all a bit oppressive. Do you really want to wake up to 80°F and 80% humidity at 6am? Do you really want to start sweating as soon as you step outside from March - November? Do you really want 4inch cockroaches in your house (no matter what, you'll have a few)?

I could name 20+ other states I'd move to first and my wife and I plan to move to one of them in the next few years.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Too hot, humid and republican for me. Plus it contains Orlando.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

An excellent point.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Native-born Yank with a Northern Irish husband, living in Houston. The original intent was for me to get the transfer I'd been promised twice and we'd settle in the UK. The green card for him was the fallback option, and we started the process when it became clear that the transfer wasn't going to happen after all. We still intend to move "back home" but we are just going to have to work it out some way.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

I just feel it's fair, now that I've enjoyed being in the US for 15 years, to let my US wife have the experience living in the UK. At least long enough to let her get citizenship.
Plus traveling to Europe.

Then we'll see. It's all an adventure:)

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Briefly thought about it shortly after we had moved here. Have no need nor want to return.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

What part of Britain are you in?

To my mind spending winters in Florida and summers in Britain would be close to ideal. Wirral would be nice. Being 65 and retired makes a difference, Florida is inexpensive and for me living has to be relatively inexpensive. If you want to do the opposite then how about an annual house swap for six months at a time? :D If you can live on only six months a year of working income that is. You do know that to do snowbirding you have to get a proper tourist visa B1B2? Not a visa waiver.

No, seriously, as pleasant as the winters are you would not want to here in North Fort Myers in June. Hot humid and the mosquitos are out at dawn and dusk hunting for blood.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

That is nice of him. She does of course know the cost of an American College education right?

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

You think the UK is a hell hole...yet you want to live in America's armpit?:blink::confused:

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Gotcha.:sneaky:

After spending 17+ years in New Jersey and just over a month in Toronto...I'm thinking that Florida is looking like a really great place to move to right now.:rofl:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...&#post11070032

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Yeah I'd love to live somewhere where they have 'stand your ground law's.

That was another joke. :p;)

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

No. We've lived in Florida for 11 years now and New York for a year before that and have never thought of moving back. I go back to the UK for business occasionally and the odd time that I do just reinforces in me how right we were to get out when we could!

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

I don't see how zwig can have lived anywhere much if he thinks the UK's a hell hole.

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Pulaski, that's the funniest thing I've heard in a while!

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Being a seasonal resident has its advantages, you still get the NHS for example. However Florida has quite high property taxes if you can't claim the homestead exemption.

Also getting a B-1/2 visa (which means you get to stay six months at a time) is relatively easy if you tell them you're retired and are planning to winter in Florida.

It's no different in concept really to people who spend the winter in Spain, the difference is that you can't drive there or easily move your stuff there so that is an additional cost if you have to buy a car and leave it there (which you probably would).

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Yes, the B 1/2 - six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Re: Ever thought of returning?
 

Don't even think of returning just yet....

....the weather is still totally crap..

....the news items on TV seem to be obsessed with an array of ageing male celebrities (one of them having appeared in the first ever showing of "Coronation Street" way back in 1960) appearing in court on an array of lurid sexual offenses...

...Red Ed wants to completely reorganise the UK banking system when we all know he wouldn't be capable of running the till in a Women's Institute Bring and Buy Stall in his local parish hall - and the Aussies thrashed England - yet again!

Stay well put, folks!

Re: Ever thought of returning?
 

California's on fire though.

Re: Ever thought of returning?
 

I saw a funny cartoon of Kevin Webster from Coronation street, caption was "tell the bloke with the ford cortina i dont touch anyting older than 15 years" :rofl:

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Don't be silly... you just follow the example of Maine's Governor LePage and claim homestead exemption in both Florida and wherever else you live :sneaky:

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Definitely.

But the expensive part of owning a car in Florida is the insurance. And they are geared up for charging snowbirds only for the months of insurance that the car is not laid up in the garage. (As a practical matter you do need to actually keep your car in the garage and not use the garage as a storage room).

Trying to get any companies or government in Britain to understand the concept of seasonal residence however is like trying to educate [deleted].

Re: Ever thought of returning?...(moved to the Trailer Park forum)
 

Or like Bush Sr. who used a hotel letter drop box in a flea bag hotel in Texas as his primary residence so that he didn't have to claim Washington DC or Maine as his primary residence so he wouldn't have to pay state taxes on unearned income.