adicosuk

Hi everybody,

New to this forum – registered today.

We are a family of 4 we are in our very early forties and with 2 x daughters 11 and 7, and at the beginning of the year we said that enough is enough of living in UK (for various reasons, from too much work, stress, and bad health service offered in this country , to various dissapointments lately, etc) and want to go somewhere with more sun, but with English as the main language – this reduced basically the countries to 2 – USA and Australia. We discounted Australia as being too far remote and not so much variety as in US – I refer to things to d and places to visit From the sunny states of US, we whittle it down to Florida (affordable property prices, nice beaches,etc)

So my question is how easy is these days to relocate to Florida – probably lots of questions already asked on this subject, but there is a twist – we want either to buy a business OR to settle as an investor – does anyone have experience of this lately? We want basically to work less and enjoy life and family more. How “strict” is the investor visa – e.g. do you really need to have USD 1 million in cash to take with you? We would have it if we sell a couple of properties we own in UK, but ideally we would like to rent these properties out and live basically mostly from the rent we get for them in UK. We would also have enough to buy a decent house somewhere like Orlando or Tampa, so to live mortgage free.

I would appreciate some advice/opinion from someone who did relocate on a similar visa.

I can also find easily highly paid jobs in US and probably come on a work-visa. I am currently at director-level in a plc and have 15-years experience in my field (that’s basically the maximum you can get in this field as this is when it all started). BUT I don’t want to work and travel as much as I currently do, looking to “take it easy”

Thanks in advance

ian-mstm

Please note that the media hype surrounding Florida is not on par with actually living in Florida (read = it's not all about the Mouse, and having fun)... and they have a number of hurricanes each year! But, that said, if you have money, it's fairly easy to relocate.


No... $500K will do it. Indeed, with $500K you can not only get an EB-5 visa, you can get green cards out of it also. Many other E visa types will not lead to a green card - and that will be very important a few years from now as your children get older.

Most of the US is still sleeping, but others will be along shortly to add info.

Ian

ian-mstm

I'll add, also, that the US is rife with "bad health service"... and Florida is no exception. Unless your employer offers health care as part of a benefit package, you actually have to pay for it out of your own pocket. For a family of 4 working for themselves, you're probably looking at close to $1000/month. Keep in mind that a single hospitalization without health care could easily bankrupt you.

Ian

Rusty Chainsaw

I don't know what the fascination with Florida is. It's horribly humid, fly-infested, swampy, prone to hurricanes and mostly populated by rednecks and crumbly old snowbirds. I'm sure it's purely because of Disney. If you want beaches, North Carolina is much nicer (cheaper too).

Ian's got all the right info regarding visas. And, regarding healthcare, the hospitals, in general, are as good as any NHS one (usually more nicely decorated), but your access to them is limited to what your insurance company will allow. In addition to the monthly premiums, there's co-pays, co-insurance, deductibles, out-of-network fees and all sorts of other financial burdens you need to be aware of. It's a minefield.

In terms of work/life balance, people in the US don't really know what it is. Most employed people don't get any more than 10 days' holiday a year and there's a culture of workaholism. If you're going to be a business owner, you'll have more flexibility, but be aware that most of the people you're going to meet will have very different ideas about work/life balance.

Personally, if it was me, I'd look at Australia again. The whole 'variety' thing is overrated if you haven't got the time to take advantage of it. It's got all the variety you're likely to want. If you want more variety, Asia is on your doorstep. Plus your kids will have a much harder time adapting to the US than to Australia - Oz is culturally much closer to the UK.

Pulaski

Stop that!

S Folinsky

I would recommend consultation with an experienced immigration law who is not connected with any particular program. Every case is different.

I used to share space with J Craig Fong who is one of G-d's gifts to the planet and quite competent.

JAJ

All these "various reasons" are negative, and all of which could be replicated in the United States or Australia.

Reality check. In general, those whose migration is motivated primarily by negative reasons are the ones who tend to want to "go home" after a year or two. At a significant financial and emotional cost.

Others have posted specifically about Florida.

Perhaps, consider what changes in life you are really looking for, and whether they might be better achieved in your own country rather than another one.

Pulaski

Agreed. ..... Anyone who thinks that immigrating to a foreign country is a solution for "stress" is likely to find the reality of life in a new country rather ugly.

ottotheboar

The $500,000 will get you and your family green cards invested in a successful EB5 project in a TEA ( Targeted Employment Area).
On to of that will be legal fees, relocation costs, accommodation, cars and health insurance to name a few.
I would figure on closer to one million US dollars for the whole investment and relocation package.

Pulaski

Agreed.

To be clear, I (we) think you need $1 million of free cash to make the move via an EB-5 scheme. If you don't have a net worth of at least $5 million, or better still $10 million, you are going to flush away a high percentage (>20% if you have less than $5 million) of your net worth just to move to America.

I am generally pro-America, but life "back home" would have had to be horrible to have made it worth flushing away $1 million. It wasn't (that horrible).

Sally Redux

I don't get it either. With $1m knocking around, couldn't you just ease off what you're doing now anyway and take holidays in nice places?

JAJ

In addition, anyone with that kind of net worth needs to think very carefully before subjecting themselves to the U.S. tax system. Unless they really want to become American, and have done the appropriate tax planning beforehand ...

Including consideration of the Expatriation Tax provisions for "long term" green card holders.

The EB-5 visa leads to a conditional green card, so careful attention is also needed to the process to remove conditions. Otherwise, permanent resident status can be lost.

adicosuk

thank you all for the replies.

I do appreciate all the stuff to think about, of course its not easy and of course there are lots of things to consider. But what I don't understand is why most of the messages only highlight the negative bits? Is it really only negative things to happen in Florida and to a greater extent, in America? If thats the case, and with all due respect to anyone here on the forum, why are you living in America?

Of course I will do my homework and consider the tax implications, the private medical care, and so on. But what I have asked is IF anyone has experience on relocating on an investor via. And it does seem none of the replies so far came from people who did not come on such visas. And although I do appreciate the answers and recommendations (lots of food for thought), I am still hoping to get that person who's done as I am thinking of doing it.

Yes there are hurricanes sometimes, yes it is humid (like it's not humid in UK...),but there are a lot of positives - these I am looking forward to.

Thanks again to everybody who offered advice and ideas

Adrian

Pulaski

You mentioned the negatives that you are trying to get away from but seem unaware of the negatives here in the US, of which there are plenty. On balance I like it, and have no intention of returning to the UK (BTW my wife is a USC, and many BE'ers are here because of a US spouse), but there most certainly are negatives. Your suggestion that there is "too much work" in the UK is laughable when the US is a nation of involuntary workaholics, where 10 days holiday per annum is the best that most people can hope for, plus some of the bank holidays. Many people get nothing, or just a week in the summer and Christmas when the "works" closes. Many people work two jobs to make ends meet; three jobs is not unheard of - the healthcare law has meant that many employers only offer part-time work, upto 30 hours, with no benefits. ..... And in white-collar/ management jobs it is very common for people to not take all their alloted holiday, and to brag about that! Taking holiday seems to be interpreted as a lack of commitment or ambition!

There are very few investor immigrants from the UK. Most investor immigrants are currently coming from China, most of the rest from Russia. I don't know of a single regular poster here who came here on an EB-5 visa.

There is a thread somewhere, that gets posted to occasionally, specifically and exclusively about EB-5 visas and related "investments". I recall one poster who made the investment, but I think for medical reasons went home and never even got his family's green cards, never mind staying long enough to become citizens.

You are aware, aren't you, that there is every chance that your EB-5 "investment" will not only not make a profit but is also likely to be a total capital loss? .... I read a few years ago about a tyre recycling venture, trying to turn them into oil, that was soliciting EB-5 investments for a fourth "pilot plant". They had the cheek to brag of a consultant who described the investment as being "as good as solid gold". If it was really that good don't you think that Wall St would be all over it?

To answer your "buy a business" question, you can do that on an E-2, but there is no direct route from an E-2 to a green card. If you're going to get a green card it has to come via another route, and you must leave the country if you sell or close the business, and your children "age out" at 21 and either need their own visa or must leave the country.

Sally Redux

Because if you're going to spend a minimum of $500,000 to have the right to live somewhere, it should be an order of magnitude better to where you currently are.