snowbunny

With regards to the three-year stay in the UK, if the teenager goes alone: the regulations stated that the stay had to be for "reasons other than pursuing full-time education." I am guessing that this is obviously to keep students who've been at uni for three years from applying for "home" rates.... but wouldn't the attendance of boarding school equate to the same thing -- there for full-time education? It sounds from your experience that it does not, but I wondered.

Perfumdiva1

I have a friend who has sent her daughter to boarding school in Scotland for this very reason

By the way, the daughter is absolutely loving it....

I have a problem with this, my husband went to boarding school for years and loved it, but I just cant bring myself to send my boys there, even though, and God help me, the temptation is so strong sometimes, I am nearly booking their place there

Another friend of mine used to call a pretend boarding school in the Uk when her son was playing up and say, Is that St Bartholemew's.. do you have place for a naughty 10 year old, and that was enough to send James into good behaviour for at least 2 weeks LOL

I am so exhausted with the whole thing here, that what will be will be,

Wal-Mart here I come, and if I am a good girl, then maybe it will be Tarjayy

PD

snowbunny

Oh, they are even more scarey here, they are called military schools....

Here's one I've toured which is nearish me:

http://www.mma-tx.org/default.htm

BTW, the American kids are soooo disappointed when I break it to them that there are no boarding schools like Hogwarts in the UK.

jjmb

I think EM got around this by having a house in England and still being on a L1/2 which is a non-immigrant visa . Once you get the GC, then you have to re-establish residency.

Perfumdiva1

Oh No, no Hogwarts, wait til I tell the American boys,

Hermione is their heroine LOL

snowbunny

Ah... yes... was wondering if on a GC or L1/2. If I read rightly, a teen could go back to the UK and work for three years and THEN would be granted home status; or I guess s/he could just become a chav. Whichever is easier. But a three-year gap in between finishing high school and uni? Wonder if you could do part-time courses as it states "to pursue being a full-time student."

Hey, I've spent my life figuring out ways to defeat various bureaucratic systems, or I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have

Englishmum

The only place which queried this was Southampton University. The three other unis she applied to (you can actually choose 6 on the UCAS form) offered her places as a Home student without even asking for proof of residency/ties to the UK! I think that with her being at school in England probably helped somewhat (but what do I know) as she had UK exam passes as opposed to US qualifications.

We have to decide next year whether or not to go for the GC ourselves...decisions, decisions.....????

Some Scottish expat friends of ours sent their kids to Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, and another family sent their boys to Rannoch Moor (sister school of Gordonstoun)...initially they liked it there but it was so isolated in the Winter that they changed to Fettes (back in the UK now, husband is the MD for Tetrapak)...the eldest is now going around the world on his Gap Year and starts at Glasgow uni in the Autumn.

mandpete

Just thought I'd reply to the original question.

We cut our ties with the UK apart from some money in the bank and a few insurance policies. We sold our house in the UK the week we moved here. We didn't expect to sell it the day the sign went up and complete 6 weeks later. To be honest we needed the ready cash to buy large items - cars and all our electrical stuff. My husband's company paid rent for us for 12 months and in that time we put a deposit on a brand new house and moved in 18 months ago. We do not regret our decision and if we have to go back to the UK then so be it, we will just have to sell up here and live with my parents until we find a house in the UK. We did enquire about renting out our UK house but we didn't want the worry of what the tenants were like or things having to be repaired or renewed.

We have a much better standard of living in the US than we did in the UK and even if we don't get our green cards we can always say we took the opportunity and loved every minute of it.

Our children are now 13 and 8 so the question of university is on our minds for our son. If we do go back to the UK we were wondering whether he could still come back to the US to study (he loves it here).

I am authorised to work here but haven't done so yet but if the children do want to go to college here I had better get a job. I have been a housewife on and off for the last 13 years and the thought of applying for jobs and going for interviews over here frightens me to death but I am also bored being at home now so I will no doubt be applying for a job soon.