British Expats - First Time Post (Again!)

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First Time Post (Again!)

I hope this doesn't sound naive but can anyone recommend a good US immigration website that runs through the requirements of each of the immigrant visas available. The sites I've seen tend to either just quote the regulations or want to charge you for anything more than basic information.

By way of backgroung I'm a UK chartered accountant looking to buy a property in Florida. Obviously there is nothing to stop me from doing this but I would like, in due course, to live and work in the US and I don't want to go back into a large international practice in the US to do this. If anyone out there has practical experience of what I'm trying to do I would love to hear about it.

Paul

www.usavisanow.com is pretty good, but DO NOT sign up with them to represent you, they aren't that good and will take your money just to fill out some documents. The advice they give is usually inaccurate as well.

Best
GJB

Re: First Time Post (Again!)

Quote:

Originally posted by jemetpl
I hope this doesn't sound naive but can anyone recommend a good US immigration website that runs through the requirements of each of the immigrant visas available. The sites I've seen tend to either just quote the regulations or want to charge you for anything more than basic information.

By way of backgroung I'm a UK chartered accountant looking to buy a property in Florida. Obviously there is nothing to stop me from doing this but I would like, in due course, to live and work in the US and I don't want to go back into a large international practice in the US to do this. If anyone out there has practical experience of what I'm trying to do I would love to hear about it.

Paul

Hi Paul,,

try thi simmigration site

http://www.immigration-service.com/USA/visas.htm

Hope this helps - probrably have more sites to help you but puter playing up at the minute!!!

Thanks for the info. I'm ploughing through the sites but it really isn't that easy for a Brit!

Probably the best route for me will be the $1m investor route in a few years time as I will have a quite a large inheritance.

Does anyone know what the definition of 'work' is for immigration purposes? I would imagine that there's no problem in issuing instructions to staff from the US if an issue blew up in your business at home. However, suppose you have a tax return business like I do where most of the work comes in through the internet. Would there be likely to be a problem receiving enquiries and doing this work whilst being in the States on the visa waiver programme and living in my own property? I would hope not given that the work I do is for British citizens who, generally speaking, don't live in the US.

I realise this is an unusual question and I'm pretty sure other people do what I'm thinking about. However, I am keen to eventually live in the States and I don't want to jeopardise my chances of doing so by breaching the regulations.

Paul

Quote:

Originally posted by jemetpl
Thanks for the info. I'm ploughing through the sites but it really isn't that easy for a Brit!

Probably the best route for me will be the $1m investor route in a few years time as I will have a quite a large inheritance.

Does anyone know what the definition of 'work' is for immigration purposes? I would imagine that there's no problem in issuing instructions to staff from the US if an issue blew up in your business at home. However, suppose you have a tax return business like I do where most of the work comes in through the internet. Would there be likely to be a problem receiving enquiries and doing this work whilst being in the States on the visa waiver programme and living in my own property? I would hope not given that the work I do is for British citizens who, generally speaking, don't live in the US.

I realise this is an unusual question and I'm pretty sure other people do what I'm thinking about. However, I am keen to eventually live in the States and I don't want to jeopardise my chances of doing so by breaching the regulations.

Paul

I think what you are describing qualifies as working in the US.... illegally. Particularly b/c you'd be using the internet you are also leaving a trail of evidence to prove what you were doing, if it ever came to that.

Thanks for that. Unless anyone comes up with different comments, I'll either change my (very early) ideas or take formal legal advice. It's very important to me that I don't do anything which is likely to be considered illegal.

Paul