Help with getting home
 

Does anyone know of any government assistance that might be available for expats who want to return? Assume the expat is officially a visa overstayer and the marriage has imploded. Yes reporting themselves as illegal would do it but their dogs wouldnt be deported alongside them so its a no-go.

Re: Help with getting home
 

Just to be clear, this person is a UK citizen? How long has this person overstayed? Any friends/family that could help out with an airline ticket and getting the dogs back?

Re: Help with getting home
 

Yes, British citezen. 7 years. Its a lot of money to ship the dogs, around 13K. No family help available. British embassy are as usefull as a chocolate fireguard

Re: Help with getting home
 

Why the heck should the British taxpayer pay for your return to the UK and, in addition, pay for your dogs shipment.....?

Sheesh......

Re: Help with getting home
 

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but heading back to the UK doesn't sound like a well thought out plan if you want to keep your dogs. I'm assuming it must be a lot of dogs for that amount of money, so where will you live when you get back to the UK if you don't have any family or friends that can help?

Is there any way to legalise your status in the US instead? What happened to the green card application, did you just never do it or did it just not finalise?

Do you have a current British passport? The British embassy may be able to help you get back but as you say, wouldn't help with the dogs. It may be worth contacting animal welfare charities but I suspect they'll suggest helping to rehome the dogs as they won't be able to afford the £13k either. Perhaps you could look at setting up a GoFundMe? That may help for at least some of it.

Re: Help with getting home
 

Why should it? The guy can work for his ticket back and for the shipment of the dogs if he is so insistent to get them back -- one of his earlier posts said he had 10 dogs !!
The British embassy is there for people in serious and immediate situations..... not for deadbeats........

Have you seen what he called a social services worker when she refused him jobseekers allowance some years ago....? Says it all......

Re: Help with getting home
 

It's called "entitlement".

Re: Help with getting home
 

I've seen others ask similar questions in the past, makes you wonder how the British taxpayer would react if they thought the government was funding the return of all those of us who have decided to come home, along with belongings and pets.......

As you say, let him work for the money himself, its not like he's stuck in a place where he isn't allowed to work! Maybe the US wife could help as part of the divorce settlement - bit more realistic than the British Embassy!

Re: Help with getting home
 

he said assume the expat is an “overstayer” implying no right to work legally…

Re: Help with getting home
 

Take your dogs to Afghanistan and they will be flown back for free...;)

Re: Help with getting home
 

No legal right to work doesn't necessarily mean the OP isn't working. Or have they been living off their spouse's income for the whole time period of the overstay...

Re: Help with getting home
 

That's what I was thinking. Must've been doing something all this time he's been in the US.
Maybe if she has been earning enough to support the two of them and ten dogs all this time, she could pay for him to get home?!

Re: Help with getting home
 

..... can't think of one good reason why, if my marriage had just imploded (as the OP says) one would be willing to spend money to enable one's ex (and his dogs) to leave the country......

Re: Help with getting home
 

You're probably right, but I think its probably more her responsibility than that of the British Government :D

Re: Help with getting home
 

....

..... no responsibility at all of the British government :eek:

Re: Help with getting home
 

His marriage was on the rocks in March of 2019. He was thinking of moving then to Ireland or Portugal. He works apparently from home via internet.

Re: Help with getting home
 

Fascinated to know just why you think the Embassy should have any interest whatsoever in the predicament you have got yourself into.

Re: Help with getting home
 

There is absolutely no reason why the bona fide spouse of a USC would be in this situation. Looking at your post history, you were given ample help and advice from many in here how to move to the US legally. It must be said, we spouses of USCs have one of, if not the easiest routes into the US. Added to that those of us from VWP countries can visit very easily during the process too. Yes, the wait is frustrating, the paperwork is tedious, we all wish it were faster. But the vast majority of us on this page came here that way and it didn’t kill us. At my citizenship interview, there were people in the waiting room who had waited 20+ years to come here. My 10-month process was nothing in comparison.

Yet you came without an immigrant visa and now you’re an overstayer. Congratulations. Even that didn’t have to be the case as overstay is forgiven for spouses of USCs who subsequently adjust status in country. Even illegal work is forgiven. The US government is actually very reasonable to spouses of USCs.

You had not one but two options to change your fate and for some reason you ignored both. It does read from your posts when you were in Ireland that the US was actually your goal and you married someone purely to achieve that. You were planning to marry someone you’d never even met, is how it reads (the talk of marriage and an American girlfriend came out of nowhere, very soon after you realized your situation in Ireland was not working out the way you planned and someone of such limited means that they were begging for unemployment benefits is certainly not in a position to fly off to the US for cozy dates with a lover so I assume you had not actually met in person - hence no K-1 possibility). Maybe that’s why the marriage fell apart - she realized/found out she was just your ticket to the US. Good for her that she’s not helping you get out of the mess you created.

Re: Help with getting home
 

Unless it is a life or death situation the British Embassy will not help you. Even then, in most cases, you are expected to repay the costs involved in getting you back to the UK.

Re: Help with getting home
 

Apart from this being a troll post by the OP (surely!?), this response had me in stitches! Much like if the OP followed this advice!!!

To the OP, no tax payer will have any interest in funding the b/s idea