Anrev

Oh sorry I missed the young children part. Not so easy to visit cheaply when tied to school holidays

47candysprinklepants

We have spoken with an attorney and they have said we will be successful with our E2. We know the route to a green card will be a nightmare and know that our kids will have to apply for a visa. Regarding the E2 visa if we are granted a 2,3 or 5 yr Visa do you have to reapply after the period is up or can you leave the US for a few days holiday and get you visa stamped by immigration for any 2,3 or 5 yrs by immigration officials in customs. TIA

christmasoompa

Why do you think that? You are aware that standard holiday for most Americans is no more than 2 weeks a year - whereas most Brits get 5 weeks? And longer working hours as a general rule too.

I guess each individual's view of the weather in Florida will vary. My grandparents lived in Florida and we never visited in the summer because the weather was our idea of absolute hell then. There are times when it's better without the intense humidity, bugs, etc, but it's certainly not a climate I'd aspire to live in all year round. Give me the UK and it's benign little climate any day! Different strokes for different folks and all that though. Not sure whereabouts you are in the UK but I'm guessing it's not somewhere in the south if you think you only had 3 or 4 weeks of decent weather, so would a move within the UK achieve the same kind of change you're looking for? I'm in Berkshire and we had lots of glorious weeks of sunshine last year, but we are among the driest parts of the UK.

Best of luck with it, hope you can find a way to move permanently (hint: you need another visa, the E-2 won't do it).

Pulaski

Only so long as they own and actively participate in the running of the business - if they sell the business, or retire, there is no way they can continue to live in the US.
You will be no more able to apply for a green card based on an E-2 than you can today living in the UK. The "nightmare" is that you can't get a green card based on an E-2. Your best bet would be to accumulate $500,000 of cash to flush away on an EB-5.

Moses2013

I don't know how your work/life balance is in the UK now and where you are in the UK, but what do you expect will be better in Florida, apart from more sun? Florida is a big state and depending on area & budget, your lifestyle can be totally different. Florida certainly has some nicer parts, but there's a reason why nearly half the population are below the federal poverty level. Low-paying retail and service industry jobs are reality and not everyone lives in a villa with pool. If it's so great and the work/life balance so good, why aren't all working Americans in Florida?

Moses2013

It has been a lot wetter and cooler on average than the previous 2 summers and parts of Scotland got a lot of rain, but overall not even the North is that bad. Sunshine hours were average across the country, so I don't really know. As you say, different strokes for different folks.

zzrmark

I'd be more inclined to chance France than the US if safety is your number one priority. Check out the local annual homicide shootings in the county you intend to relocate to.
I consider us to live in a fairly nice county on the West coast of Florida - 24 homicides and 150 fatal heroin overdoses this past year! - my step-daughter lived for a short while near Clermont and it's quite a bit rougher. Have you explored the area yet, Orlando and it's outliers are, as observed by my very limited experience, considerably varied in their contrasting wealth/poverty scales.

I disagree about the views on the French weather, travel South and it has a completely different weather pattern from the North. Hot and dry in the summer with four seasons, very nice! (I lived in France for a while and found it to be more culturally akin to the UK than the US is to the UK, speaking the lingo does help though).
I haven't yet gotten homesick here and don't expect to but I do miss the changing of the seasons and it's a right palaver involved in taking a decent walk whenever I fancy, public footpaths here mean sidewalks beside busy roads or trails in the National Parks and not a lot else.

ian-mstm

With respect, your generalizations are skewed by your biased views... and are therefore unsuitable for making sound decisions.


What you don't see, is that it takes almost 82% occupancy just to break even! If an established property management business wants to sell - you really need to ask yourself why! With respect, property management in Florida is not going to give you the good life/work balance that you seem to cherish.

Ian

Pulaski

I'm sceptical that the units are even 75% occupied over a 12 month period. During school holidays the occupancy rates could be close to fully occupied, but for most of the year, when school is in session, I doubt the occupancy rates are anywhere close to even 50% occupied.
So 100% occupied for a quarter of the year, and even if as much as 50% occupied for three-quarters of the year is only 62.5% occupied.

Twigstar

An E2 visa itself does not have a route to a Green card so there is no nightmare. It is what it says on the tin a non immigrant visa.
However, at the same time if one of you is more qualified than the other then maybe there is a longer way around to obtain a green card.
I have a friend in Florida who has become a green card holder having originally been a dependent on their spouses E2.The property management business was 100% in the husbands name and the wife got her EAD and went to look for a job. She was more qualified than her husband and managed to get a temporary contract for a major US company. After 2 years she was offered a permanent position and after a further 2 years they sponsored her for a Green card which the husband and son (22yrs) also now have. The son aged out and moved onto a F1 at 21yrs.
So although it wasn't the actual E2 that enabled them to get a green card it was the vehicle to it.
I have been an E2 visa holder for over 14 years now and the fact that I will never get a green card does not bother me one iota. Its not what I came here for.I run a very successful business, and have renewed the E2 every 5 years.
As long as you know what the requirements are and the rules around the visa then it is not such a bad visa to be on. I think the problem stems when people get upset and start throwing their toys out of the pram when the visa does not get you a green card.
Our intention has always been to retire back to the UK in the next 10 years or so. We brought 2 children here with us, one returned to the UK when he was 21 and our daughter now 24 is in university here in Texas on an F1.She is in a steady relationship and I have no doubts they will marry when she graduates and will go her own route in the USA.
Just my opinion of course.

Bud the Wiser

I've been an E2 visa holder ( in Florida ) for 20+ years. I would NOT recommend anyone to go this route, especially if they have children. This despite being reasonably successful and living a lifestyle that would 'appear' to be the envy of many.

fozzyb

I know everyone else has already said this, but think carefully about it.

Do you really want to move to a country where there is

* No statutory holidays
* Astronomical price for health insurance
* Where your visa status is intimately tied to the state of a small rather fragile business venture. It fails you have to leave the country.
* As a result of the above you daren't make any long term commitments (mortgage etc) for fear of being left with saddled with a mortgage on a house you cannot live in.
* Where you have no recognised means of settling permanently
* Where your kids have to leave the country at 21 unless they have found other visas to live on.

Really doesn't seem to be setting yourself up for a good work life balance there.


If its warm weather and a different culture you are after, have you considered somewhere like Singapore or Thailand?

Nutmegger

You have to return to the Embassy to apply for a new visa -- it isn't just a rubber stamp. You will need to show that you have developed the business in accord with your business plan and that you are employing Americans. If you fail at renewal, you have to leave the country. Didn't your lawyer tell you that?

By the way, I understand that one of the joys of property management is tenants calling at 3 am to say they've blocked the toilet and would you get over immediately to fix it. Now there's an enviable lifestyle!

Pulaski

Let me take a stab at answering one of the OP's questions: financial contingencies for the first six months:

• Hotel and restaurants for the first week - $1,000
• Rent, for a half-decent home in a safe neighborhood -$2,000/mth
• Rent deposit (you have no credit history) -$2,000-$6,000
• Laundry appliances, unless you want to drive to a laundromat in a poor part of town - $1,000
• Vehicles - used cars in the US are pricey, anything below $5k is junk and perhaps dangerous (there is no "MOT" in Florida), you'll pay around $10,000 for a five-year-old Honda Civic, and a minivan or 4x4 of a similar age for the family will run $15,000 and up. Don't expect dealers or banks to provide finance as you have no credit history. Dealers of older/cheaper cars may take the credit risk themselves, but expect to pay crazy interest rates for an older, unattractive car.
• Car insurance, it's pretty insane for new drivers, consider yourself lucky if you're only charged $1,000 for the first six months.
  

47candysprinklepants

Mixed information. Do any of you live in Florida, Orlando area currently or previously lived there and moved out. Our attorney had mentioned the E2 as a temporary option and had previously approved others on the E2 managing property / holiday homes. With the increase in the Disney parks over the next few years and the estimated 60-70 million visitors to Disney each year surely there are not enough properties to service all visitors needs! Hotels are more expensive if you have a large group of people travelling. We knew insurance and things like that would be high, but taxes and National insurance in the UK are very high. Do any of you personally know anybody who has managed holiday homes?