Pulaski

Several people have responded to this already, but to follow on from their advice (that poor, or even not-so-poor people don't have health insurance), the next question might be what happens if I get an acute medical condition, say, appendicitis? The ambulance will come, take you to hospital, perform emergency surgery, patch you up and send you home. ..... Then send you a bill for $50,000 or more, ..... and bankrupt you if you can't pay, stripping you of every valuable/ saleable asset.

FWIW, three years ago, I got a small infected scratch on my arm, that turned into blood poisoning, a three night stay in hospital with intravenous antibiotics, very minor general surgery, .... and a bill for over $20,000. Despite having what I had previously considered to be good health insurance coverage, I was left with 10% of the bill!

plugy

What is wrong with wanting to try and WORK FOR a better life for my family.
All the negative comments im getting are looking at me as some sort of racist THAT I AINT, i have no problem with people like myself wanting a better life, but being prepared to WORK FOR IT NOT SPONGE I think the US has got it spot on not accepting anyone so all others have to pay for them, this is what im sick off.

I have worked very hard all my life and so has my family, some now very ill not getting the correct treatment due to lack of funds but the next bed an immigrant speaking no English gets its all is this fair.

We are giving everything up as a country, giving money away we cannot afford, no school places overcrowded hospitals, no policing, and we have more immigrants due in soon.

I was always taught you get what you pay for, and if you haven't got the money you don't have it, the us policy.

Maybe on our next trip we will delve deeper into the infrastructure, jobs, attitudes over migrants (English ones)

Sorry rant over.

civilservant

The irony is that from what you have told us you've got little chance of a path to a visa, so you're also one of the riffraff that they won't accept

plugy

Seams that's the price you pay for being honest and wanting to work?

Maybe changer tactics come in illegally and claim asylum that seams to work

christmasoompa

Why shouldn't the immigrant 'speaking no English' get treatment at a hospital?! For all you know, he's been living in the UK for 10 years and earning £250k a year, putting far more tax in to the system than you are. Speaking English is not a requirement for NHS treatment thankfully.

If you really don't think that the comments you're making like the one above are slightly racist, then no wonder you don't understand why people think you have an issue with immigrants.

Just as EU nationals can easily move to the UK and get NHS treatment, so you can also move anywhere within the EU and do the same - it does work both ways you know!

Cardienscarf

I can understand your frustration with the problems you've mentioned above but the US has plenty of its own. While it does have much to offer, it isn't the land of milk and honey that many believe it to be.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to work hard and have a good life but to be able to do it in the US 1) you have to be eligible for a visa, 2) you have to understand how difficult it can be being so far away from friends and family, not to mention how you feel when one of your children decides to return to the UK at age 18 as has happened to many of us, and 3) you have to at least acknowledge the pitfalls of the US. The health care industry is only one of them. Read through some of the other threads and you'll find plenty of discussions about serious issues facing Americans and expats.

Someone step in and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think working hard in the US is going to give you more/get you further than if you're willing to work hard in the UK. Why not go on lots of holidays to the US. A 2 or 3 week vacation (and vacation time is a whole other issue) to a lovely place in the US is nothing like living there.

You'll find expats who love it and expats who hate it and many in between but you at least have to take off the rose tinted spectacles to see it for what it is rather than what you think it is or want it to be.

On the subject of immigrants in the UK, I think someone mentioned on this thread that only 6% of foreign nationals claim benefits. The rest - and probably some of that 6% who have fallen on hard times rather than being scroungers - came to the UK for a better life. They are also prepared to work hard for a better life. Did you happen to follow any of the US immigration debates recently? There's one famous clip of a Native American chastising a group of white Americans demonstrating against illegal immigrants.



I would be really interested to know where and how you have witnessed the US taking good care of the elderly and veterans as it hasn't been anything I've seen. You can pull up any number of articles relating to murders and suicides by soldiers returning from Iraq because there isn't the support system to help them transition from war zone to grocery shopping. As for the elderly, if they or their family can afford it, they go into assisted living or a nursing home which costs $$$$$ /month or they live with a relative.

The US can be a great place if you have money but working hard doesn't necessarily equate with having money. I'm sure the people who work at McDonalds or in an office 40+ hours a week will tell you they work hard but I bet the ones who tell you they have the money they want to do all they want to do are few and far between.

Lbjen

Instead of taking all the comments as unfounded negative knocks on your character, why not step back and take a second to think about whether there may be some merit to all that has been said?

All the things you have complained about are going on here too. People who work really hard who are dying because they don't have health insurance, while illegal immigrants get free healthcare and welfare assistance. Schools are overcrowded. Policing isn't what it should be. And if immigration reform is passed, there will be more immigrants. You just don't see it when you're staying in your villa and going to Disney and eating breakfast at Perkins and drinking at the British bar at night.

Sure, it isn't fair that people who work hard don't get stuff handed to them. But that doesn't mean the US has to give you a visa sadly.

nun

.....neither is paying tax. I'm sad that today the simple New Testament Christian and socialist principle of giving to those according to their need has been totally forgotten and replaced by the mean spirited and uncaring philosophy of Ayn Rand.

The OP has little to no chance of getting a work visa in the US. If he wants to leave the UK I would look at other EU countries, Canada and Australia.

Pulaski

I hope you're right, because trying to generate sufficient income from an investment of $150,000 to support a family of five in an attractive standard of living (broadly equivalent to what they have in the UK) is almost certainly not possible. With the costs of housing and health insurance a family of five should be looking for gross income of around $100,000 per annum, of which taxes will take about 25%, medical insurance will take about 25%, housing costs (rent/ mortgage plus utilities and basic repairs and maintenance) another 25%, leaving about $25k for everything else. How often would you envisage buying flights home to the UK for a family of five?

plugy

Seams i have come to the wrong place for some positive and helpfull advice, instead of being a whipping boy?
Every one taking negative on how bad it is and hard to make a living etc.
If it is that bad why are you all still there?

civilservant

Because we didn't arrive on an E2, with little funds to live on after investing.

You come on here, spouting racism about immigrants to a bunch of immigrants, and expect a positive response?

Ichigo-chan

Reality sucks'

Derrygal

I came here with my ex-husband 23 years ago. He is a Brit - it was a job transfer for him. Unfortunately the marriage ended 10 years ago. I have two children who have since grown up and married Americans and now I have 3 grand-children. That is the only reason I am still here. The US is a great place if you have a really good job and earn a high salary. If you don't, it can be a very scary place. I am 60 years old and I worry a lot about losing my job, my health insurance and my home. I have discussed this with my children and they know if I were to lose my job, not be able to find another one within 6 months or so, I would move back to the UK. I think about going back a lot, but I am close to my children and grand-children and know that I would miss them tremendously if I moved back. I feel very torn at times. It isn't the land of milk and honey here, the streets aren't paved with gold. It is work work work with very little vacation time. I know that I will have to work way past retirement age to make ends meet, whereas many of my family members and friends back in the UK are already retired. I am here because of my children and grand-children - that is the only reason I am here. If they weren't here, I would have moved back when I got divorced 10 years ago.

Pulaski

Personally I have nothing to say about what you said about immigrants to the UK, and I suspect that they may have been taken out of context. But aside from that several of us have tried to give you some objective figures and advice (BTW I edited my post above), but you just dismiss that as being negative.

If you took a step back, instead of just assuming that we're just being deliberately and unnecessarily negative, you might actually come to realise that the advice actually IS helpful.

Pulaski

Many are on employer job transfers, which by definition are at a manager or senior specialist level, so on "good money", with health benefits. Some were hired directly for their specialist scientific or technical knowledge, often in IT, engineering, or medicine, and therefore also well paid and with benefits. Others, such as myself, are married to a US citizen, BUT, for me at least, although the visa was a formality we only relocated to the US when I was able to secure a career job similar to the one I had in the UK.

Personally I do like it here, I am better off, and enjoy the life style and what we can afford, but I also have my own business in addition to working a full time job, so in some sense I am doing what it sounds like you want to emulate. (?) But there is NO WAY, I would have considered arriving in the US with a wife, three children, and $150,000 in my pocket and expected to make a decent living. If that is what you really believe, that is a wholly unrealistic expectation, and I hope for the sake of your wife and children that you are not given a visa.