hdsbob

First of all, I would like to offer thanks to anyone offering me advice. I have searched this excellent site for information on what I expected to be a fairly common situation, but I was surprised not to find anything. So here goes!

We are fast approaching a stage in our life when we are close to chucking working as my wife and I will be 60 next year. Cutting to the chase, our only son moved to California a couple of years ago to work & live. For him life is looking just perfect, which for my wife and myself is fantastic. Naturally we all want our children to be doing well and be happy, but the issue is (and especially if/when marriage/grandchildren happen) we would like to be physically closer to his life - just like any other a normal happy family really. That is the core reason for posting this i.e. any ideas how do we do that?

To hopefully help, I will try and give the background story. His Green Card is being delivered this month, just in case that makes any difference. Without going in to too much detail as it's largely irrelevant, he will be running his own company in a matter of weeks, which will see him earning very good money i.e annually $500k to $1m is realistic. He shares an apartment with his girlfriend who is an American citizen and marriage could be on the cards within a couple of years. Basically, that's the story of our son.

Currently we visit using an esta and that works fine as we are both working and holiday time is therefore limited, but going forward 90 days in a two year period doesn't seem enough when we give up work. I have considered the possibilty of moving over there on a permenant basis, but for several reasons, mostly financial (healthcare & a decent house being the big ones!) that doesn't look feasible although our son is offering to help fund the move if we really want to relocate. For the sake of trying to complete the picture, we have just under a £1m to last us the rest of our lives if we cashed in all our assets if we stopped working today. That sum would last five minutes in CA given the cost of houses, leaving too little left to live on unless of course our son chipped in - which is possible but can not be guaranteed. Life isn't that certain is it? Things unforeseen happen.

So given the picture, what do others do who are in a similar situation?

The B2 tourist visa would appear to be the obvious option, but I am not sure if there are other options that would work for us? That would appear a decent enough option, assuming we can't live there permanently, but I would be worried that the officer at the airport thinks we are trying to live in the USA and kicks us out because we visit too often. Incidentally I believe in playing by the rules and wouldn't consider trying to abuse the system, or do anything illegal. We like to sleep at night! But from what I have seen on the internet, there is a bit too much of "if the officer is in a good mood, you will be fine" for my liking! We would want to stick to their rules and be honest all the time, but if, as it seems, the rules are changed on the whim of an officer who is having a bad day, then visiting is going to be a bit scary every time we arrive at LAX or SFO!!! Pity they didn't have a scheme where we could give advanced travel info and they could decide if that's ok or not before we book flights.

I would envisage us going out to see our son for about a month to six weeks in the winter and then perhaps a few shorter trips the rest of the year. That pattern could continue forever. Staying in hotels for long periods would be a non starter as it's too expensive and staying in the same house as our son every day for more than six weeks would probably result in him kicking us out! Yes, we all love each and get along just fine, BUT we don't really want to live with each other day after day. He has his life an we have ours!

One last bit of info just in case it happens to be in some way relevant to facilitating a possible move to the USA. Although I have no desire to continue working, I do happen to own 96% of the shares in a small I.T./Communications company. That compnay is my main employment and has been trading over 30 years and capable of carrying on for the foreseeable future. My plan is to pass it over to my co-director, although I have not finalised how I am going to do that yet. I know that there are options for people that have companies etc.... which is the reason I have mentioned it. I also have noticed that it's complicated!

As an aside regarding the issue of health insurance. I know it costs a fortune, but I have heard of some people who stay in the USA on a Green Card and still use the NHS. I assume that they must still retain a UK address to do so. In practice they go back to the UK for anything serious and medication is sent out to them presumably by a friend or family member. Is that workable? Clearly it won't do in an emergency situation, therefore is there a basic "emergerncy insurance" available in the USA to deal with extreme emergencies only? I am just curious if that is a workable solution, or what I have heard is just nonsense.

Thanks a lot for any responses to my dilemma!

tht

You have no issues, you are allowed multiple trips up to 90 days. The 2 years is only how long the ESTA is valid for assuming nothing changes in terms of the answers you gave when applying for the ESTA.

An overstay of more than 90 days will be a big issue, so keep trips to maybe 80 days max. And the general advice is to be out more days than you are in. So 1 longer trip of the 42 days you noted and 2 or 3, 2-week trips should not cause an issue.

If you are worried about being admitted in SFO/LAX fly via DUB in Ireland where they do pre-clearance.

TheKingOfHearts

So without writing a whole essay, a couple of initial thoughts spring to mind.

1) It isn't 90 days in 2 years on the VWP (ESTA) the ESTA is valid for 2 years, but it's 90 days at a time, that said, this doesn't mean you can do 90 days, leave for 2 then return, that's a great way to find yourself with denied entry. But being of retirement age and doing 90 days here, 90 days in the UK shouldn't cause too much concern.

2) As above most folks won't qualify for the B2, but those who are of retirement age that can demonstrate that their primary residence is in the UK and that they have a holiday home or similar in the US with no intention to work are regularly issued B2's, that would give you up to 6 months at a time (the general recommendation of staying out as long as you stay in applies here too, though)

3) Whilst he could sponsor you as a green card holder for an IR visa the wait will be extremely long, it may even be faster to wait until he becomes eligible to apply for citizenship, receives citizenship and THEN have him file for an immigrant visa on your behalf, someone else will likely be along shortly to advise the timelines around this.

4) As a US permanent resident (green card holder) you're ineligible for use of the NHS for anything other than emergencies whilst you're visiting the UK as you are not a permanent resident in the UK. Do people continue to exploit the NHS regardless of this rule? Sure, but should you? No.

5) Is there scope to expand your IT company into the US? If so, you could form a US entity and potentially transfer over on an L1 visa, but, the UK company would need to continue operating and you would be expected to show growth of the new US entity. If you're planning on strictly retiring, this isn't really for you.

6) If you're TRULY a visitor (think below 90 days) then comprehensive travel insurance will cover you for anything disastrous in regards to healthcare, but keep in mind they'll try and find any excuse to not pay out and many have a restriction on the amount of days you can spend in country (I recall 30 days being common)

7) You can be physically closer to your son without being in CA, there are various western states with great connectivity to LA that are drastically cheaper (Think Nevada, etc) it'd still be a long road trip or a short flight on the occasion you want to see you son, but you're right in that £1M (~$1.2M) for a couple to buy a house and live off of for the remainder of their life WITH full insurance premiums etc isn't going to go all that far in most parts of CA.

tht

Noorah101

Your plan of visiting 4 to 6 weeks in winter and then a few weeks a couple of other times per year sounds well within the use of VWP. I see no issues.

Rene

scrubbedexpat099

AT 60 the cost of Travel Insurance is probably not too bad but it will get more interesting as you get older.

He needs to naturalise to sponsor you so you would be looking at late 60's to go that route, the sponsorship requirements are tightening but if he earning that much probably not an issue. However you have raised many points why that would not be practical for most.

From what you have said trips on the VWP, the biggest issue if you want you own place would be cost, anything in most of the CA will cost big time.

hdsbob

Thanks a lot for your replies. Much appreciated.

Interesting information about the esta as I really thought it was for a total of 90 days over 2 years, not up to 90 days for any single visit.

Realistically the VWP should probably do the trick, but if we feel the need to have longer visits at some point then a B2 would be a potential option.

Thanks again.

civilservant

I would just continue ESTA visits now that you know what the 2 years/90 days rule actually means rather than what you thought it means

shiversaint

E-2 is an option if you wanted to establish a U.S. base for your company, but it would need to be doing proper/substantial business. If that activity can be delegated to an employee of yours who would also like to move out, that'd given you a pretty solid, reasonably long term avenue for being in the U.S. Not officially permanent, but as long as the business keeps up and employees some USCs/LPRs, it should be renewable indefinitely. Your initial investment is in the 50-100k region, so a pretty modest way to do things. You/a UK citizen would need to remain majority shareholder of the business. Just another option - may or may not be attractive.