TimandRae

Hi everyone,

After lurking for a long time, I thought I’d finally post to say hello and introduce myself.

My wife and I have been married for just over two years now (she’s the USC and I’m UKC) and she’s just got her Indefinite Leave to Remain for the UK. We’re going to go for naturalisation as soon as we’ve got some more money together and after a lot of talking about it, we’ve finally come to a (sort of!) decision that once we’ve ticked that box, we’re going to make the move stateside.

We’re still some time away yet (probably looking at a September 2012 move), but we’re going to start getting things in order so we can go for DCF once the timing is right.

I’ve learnt a huge amount reading through this forum (and thank you for all of the really helpful information), but I guess one question that I have got is: when did you tell your family that you’re making the move? And if you were going to do things again, would you do them the same?

I’m sure I’m going to be popping up quite a bit.

All the best

Tim

Rete

Welcome to BE Tim and Rae

Glad to see that you are no longer lurking. Don't be strangers to the forums. If you have yet to decide where you will like to live in the US when the time comes, ask questions, read the wiki about the various states and cities. BE is home to some very lovely and helpful people and those expats who have experienced what you are thinking of doing and they will be move than happy to answer your questions.

Rete

TimandRae

Thanks Rete, I've been really impressed at how helpful the BE denizens are - maybe the benefits of shared experiences?!

And don't worry, I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions as we get closer, and have no hesitation about asking!

The Boss is from just outside Boston - and has made it clear that she's a New England Girl - so we'll probably be making a move to that part of the world.

Thanks for your quick response!

Tim

lisa67

Hi and welcome
Can't really remember how we told everyone we were moving....it was 10 years ago and different situation in that we thought we were only comeing for 2 years.
My parents were devastated (we have their only grandchildren) but knew it was going to be a great experience for us all. They've pretty much come to terms with it.
My SIL is married to a USC and lives just north of Boston....wonderful part of the world.

Rete

As is our esteemed mod "Bob". He just moved to a new town outside of Boston and having so much free time on his hands, he is the first to venture out and about finding the best places to eat, shop, tour, etc. His wife is from Maine and they lived there for a bit before moving "south" !

I love NE but am more familiar with the Berkshires of Massachusetts then Boston.

avanutria

By the time we told DH's parents his mum had pretty much guessed that we wanted to move back to the US. His brother was in the process of moving to Japan too so we weren't the first to leave the UK nest. We told them when we filed for DCF.

Bob

Welcome to BE!

As for when to tell...depends...if your folks wont' blab, tell them soon that you are considering it, tell really close mates too.

The rest, a few months before you bugger off or plan to bugger off and depending on work, as soon or as late as possible.

TimandRae

Thanks for the welcome everyone - great to know there's this wonderful resource available!

Half excited and half nervous about the whole concept and now we've actually come to something close to a decision, I'm definitely going to be glued to this site more than ever. No danger of me being a stranger, Rete!

We're probably going to be telling the folks fairly soon - mine have done quite a bit of travelling and have lived in their share of strange places, so I don't think they'd be too surprised. We're probably going to be living with the inlaws for the first few months we're there, and they'll be over the moon about my wife moving home, so there'll be no complaints there!

I'll keep y'all posted on how we're getting on!

HumphreyC

Hi mate; welcome to the site. I actually just moved to the Boston area to where my mother in law lives; a town called Fitchburg which is er.. post industrial and probably rates as a 'complete shithole' on the Bob-scale. See:

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=165351

It does however, have the redeeming characteristic of being cheap so I can save money to move somewhere a bit more decent and my wife is pleased as punch to be back with her family. As I say i'm fresh off the boat but should able to help with some MA questions.


Good idea to move in 2012 as the economy here is pretty shite at the moment. I ended up transferring my UK job over but my wife has struggled to find much beyond temp work. She's now going into teaching so i'm crossing my fingers and hoping the republican candidate doesn't get in and start slashing jobs.

TimandRae

Hahahaha, I know Fitchburg - the Outlaws live not too far from there in a place called Townsend. Good description of the area.

HumphreyC

Cool, I've been through Townsend a few times - one of my wife's relatives lives there down in the Townsend harbor part. I like the look of the town and wouldn't mind living there but it has something of a rep for heroin problems in it's school system. The wife used to live in Ashburnham when she was a kid so will probably end up there at some point. It's a bit hicky but it shares a school system with Westminster which is a nicer, more expensive town.

The 'burg' despite recent improvements (rehabs of historic buildings, new parks, downtown festivities and a new mayor who seems to know what she is doing) - is a bit of a dump which never really recovered from the great depression. The real crime in MA happens in places like Roxbury, Lawrence and 'Murder'pan but you do get the odd bit of excitement down here like an epic police chase which went right up the New Hampshire border and back again. Most people in the twin cities area elect to live in Leominster which is made up of refugees from Fitchburg.

Overall Worcester county suits me pretty well. I'm a homeworker so don't have to be near Boston -with the associated living costs- but it's close enough that I can go in occasionally.

Bob

Haha

I'm just down the road from you now....and at least you've a highstreet, with more than hair saloons and vacuum repair stores

HumphreyC

Whereabouts are you ? I figured it must be Northborough or somewhere a little further out from Framingham. I live in a condo development on the edge of the Greektown area of the Burg which, as it's name suggests is full of Greeks on Sundays when the Orthodox church opens up. Just south of me is the Ghetto proper (Cleghorn) and hooker alley though there is surprising amount of development - the factories are being made into apartments etc.. My wife is currently teaching in the town of Harvard.

Yeah poor old main street isn't doing too badly these days. Got nuked by the malls in the 50s and 60s but it's made something of a comeback. The cocktail bar is doing surprisingly well as is the cigar lounge. The old hotels became apartments and there is now a kooky UFO nut running a bookshop on upper common. We even have UFO experts coming to town now to do book launches. Course I don't go there a lot as my suburbanite inlaws cannot handle the concept of not being able to park right next to a shop before you go in there.