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How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Old Jun 13th 2017, 5:52 pm
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Default How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Hi there ☺
Mrs.Graham here, my husband, our 7yo and myself currently live in the UK we work full time. My husband a skilled mechanic both in vehicles and agriculture machinery. I myself have experience in accounting but since our daughter, retail is more convenient. As well as full time jobs we run our own poultry business. Specialising in the very rare and pure poultry breeds. We have raised livestock to fill our freezers, both meat birds and sheep. We are familiar with guns as we like to be pro active with pest control on the farm we rent. This lifestyle suits us very well. However, when your rent is extotionate and all you seem to be doing is paying the bills the dream of living off the land here at home in the UK will see us well into our 50s before it's affordable. My husband has spent quite a lot of time recently researching emigrating to Alaska -apparently the only place left where you can homestead. He has found land, researched local schools, hospitals, property tax, even local cabin builders. He has even researched what we can do to not only be successful but to contribute to the community. According to him there is a shortage of poultry farms -which suits us. Livestock also. A lot of importing from the lower 48 and so he has even found a niche. He also knows that certain things like tools, chainsaws, machinery ect will be cheaper to bring over with us. As I say he really has done his homework. And I have told him, if he finds the money we will go.
The reason for my post is that I myself need to research the bare basics. Leaving home and family to be self sufficient, in an unfamiliar environment to quite literally start from the ground up. What am I to expect? Are new comers/ foreigners welcome, embraced even? What is community like for support? Will my daughter be accepted or out cast?
I myself don't see myself finding work as I would normally here in the UK, I believe that produce, accommodation/lodgings are just a couple of things that are popular, and I can see myself selling my wares or hosting for guests. Not for one second am I oblivious to the hardship, the time it will take to become established, the drastic change in climate, the more hands on approach to the most basic need to survive. It all sounds wonderful and exciting, but for me I need to start thinking of the realisations.
Oh and my husband has been more inclined of the anchorage area.
Any advice, negative and positive welcome. I want to hear it all, learn from your experiences...
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 5:59 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

I don't see anywhere in your post where you say what makes you eligible to emigrate... please see this post. Basically unless you have close family that are US citizens, you have a job offer etc - THIS is what you need to research first...

Pulaski's Ways: How to Live and Work in the USA : British Expat Wiki
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 6:12 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

My husband may have looked into this, but after reading your link I suppose that non- immigrant would be the only category we fall into as our business does not equate to over $150k.
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 7:41 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Despite being labelled as 'open to immigrants' for the last 50 years, the US is actually anything but when it comes down to it. Based on what you've written, it seems like a 90 day visit to Alaska on the VWP is the best that you are going to get.
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 7:46 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Originally Posted by Dollymixture1
My husband may have looked into this, but after reading your link I suppose that non- immigrant would be the only category we fall into as our business does not equate to over $150k.
But exactly which visa do you see yourselves being qualified for? There are many non-immigrant visas out there.

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Old Jun 13th 2017, 8:45 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Homesteading in Alaska appears to have been discontinued in 1988, and it was apparently available to Americans, not folks from overseas:

The Homestead Act proved to be one of the most influential pieces of legislation in development of the American west. The effects of millions of Americans picking up their lives and moving to new strange lands where they had to make a new life with little more then their own sweat and persistence has been far reaching in the history of the country. By 1988 when the last homestead land was finally conveyed, roughly 10% of the total land in the U.S. had been given away as homesteads and estimates put the number of descendants of homesteaders alive today at 93 million people (as of 2007).

Although homesteading itself is no longer a thing, some people still try to live that lifestyle of working and living off the land. We will always cherish the fact that homesteading is an important part of Alaska's culture and history.



from: https://www.alaskacenters.gov/homestead.cfm
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 9:07 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

What she said!
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 9:16 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Originally Posted by civilservant
Despite being labelled as 'open to immigrants' for the last 50 years, the US is actually anything but when it comes down to it. Based on what you've written, it seems like a 90 day visit to Alaska on the VWP is the best that you are going to get.
Based on the figures for 2013, nearly 1 million people became US permanent residents:


Of the 990,553 permanent visas Issues in 2013
Family & immediate Relatives 649,763 65.6%
Employment 161,110 16.3%
Refugees and Asylees 119,630 12.1%
Diversity (underrepresented countries) 45,618 4.6%

Of the 990,553 permanent visas
530,802 adjustments were within the United States 53.6%
459,751 were new arrivals 46.4%

Seems rather open to me. You just need a way to obtain a visa to live and work in the US.

Perhaps this couple has the ability to use the diversity visa lottery. Were either of you born in a country, other than the UK, which can participate?
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 9:27 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Originally Posted by Rete
Based on the figures for 2013, nearly 1 million people became US permanent residents:


Of the 990,553 permanent visas Issues in 2013
Family & immediate Relatives 649,763 65.6%
Employment 161,110 16.3%
Refugees and Asylees 119,630 12.1%
Diversity (underrepresented countries) 45,618 4.6%

Of the 990,553 permanent visas
530,802 adjustments were within the United States 53.6%
459,751 were new arrivals 46.4%

Seems rather open to me. You just need a way to obtain a visa to live and work in the US.

Perhaps this couple has the ability to use the diversity visa lottery. Were either of you born in a country, other than the UK, which can participate?
UK *except* Northern Ireland, I think you mean!

It looks like an E-2 would be doable if they can invest enough money. Their 7yo would age out at 21 and would never be able to work though, and they'd have to leave the US to retire.
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 10:25 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Originally Posted by Rete
Based on the figures for 2013, nearly 1 million people became US permanent residents:


Of the 990,553 permanent visas Issues in 2013
Family & immediate Relatives 649,763 65.6%
Employment 161,110 16.3%
Refugees and Asylees 119,630 12.1%
Diversity (underrepresented countries) 45,618 4.6%

Of the 990,553 permanent visas
530,802 adjustments were within the United States 53.6%
459,751 were new arrivals 46.4%

Seems rather open to me. You just need a way to obtain a visa to live and work in the US.
Well thanks for stating the blindingly obvious

My point (which you already know and just chose to ignore for your own ends) is that not everyone who wants to pick up and move can.
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 11:53 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

The U.K. is even more open then. Over 500,000 moved there in 2011 and, considering the size of the country and the population, that's more "open" than the USA. When people are used to such movement of people (as we Brits are) it's hard for them to grasp that other countries are not so open.
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Old Jun 13th 2017, 11:58 pm
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Originally Posted by Dollymixture1
Hi there ☺
Mrs.Graham here, my husband, our 7yo and myself currently live in the UK we work full time. My husband a skilled mechanic both in vehicles and agriculture machinery. I myself have experience in accounting but since our daughter, retail is more convenient. As well as full time jobs we run our own poultry business. Specialising in the very rare and pure poultry breeds. We have raised livestock to fill our freezers, both meat birds and sheep. We are familiar with guns as we like to be pro active with pest control on the farm we rent. This lifestyle suits us very well. However, when your rent is extotionate and all you seem to be doing is paying the bills the dream of living off the land here at home in the UK will see us well into our 50s before it's affordable. My husband has spent quite a lot of time recently researching emigrating to Alaska -apparently the only place left where you can homestead. He has found land, researched local schools, hospitals, property tax, even local cabin builders. He has even researched what we can do to not only be successful but to contribute to the community. According to him there is a shortage of poultry farms -which suits us. Livestock also. A lot of importing from the lower 48 and so he has even found a niche. He also knows that certain things like tools, chainsaws, machinery ect will be cheaper to bring over with us. As I say he really has done his homework. And I have told him, if he finds the money we will go.
The reason for my post is that I myself need to research the bare basics. Leaving home and family to be self sufficient, in an unfamiliar environment to quite literally start from the ground up. What am I to expect? Are new comers/ foreigners welcome, embraced even? What is community like for support? Will my daughter be accepted or out cast?
I myself don't see myself finding work as I would normally here in the UK, I believe that produce, accommodation/lodgings are just a couple of things that are popular, and I can see myself selling my wares or hosting for guests. Not for one second am I oblivious to the hardship, the time it will take to become established, the drastic change in climate, the more hands on approach to the most basic need to survive. It all sounds wonderful and exciting, but for me I need to start thinking of the realisations.
Oh and my husband has been more inclined of the anchorage area.
Any advice, negative and positive welcome. I want to hear it all, learn from your experiences...
You've obviously done a lot of good research, but, as others have said, all that is moot without a visa to live and work in the US, and the most obvious route to a visa, albeit a rather unattractive visa for the reasons mentioned by Rjps, is the E-2. However the E-2 specifically excludes "subsistence businesses" and living off the land in Alaska is pretty much a subsistence existence.

I imagine there is a good reason for the lack of poultry farms in Alaska - if there was a fortune to be made in poultry farming in Alaska you can be reasonably certain that one or more of the big poultry producers would already have moved in and cleaned up.

A lot of the problem with doing business in Alaska is that a surprisingly large percentage of the population leaves for the best part of six months of the year, so if you set yourself up to feed the summer population of Alaska with fresh locally raised chicken, .... what do you do in the winter when 30% of your customers have left?
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Old Jun 14th 2017, 12:23 am
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

Originally Posted by Nutmegger
roughly 10% of the total land in the U.S. had been given away as homesteads and estimates put the number of descendants of homesteaders alive today at 93 million people
This is one of the issue that gets me pissed off at those complain about entitlements and welfare recipients, and the, "I pulled myself up by my own boot straps" brigade. I suspect that demographic is the same demographic as the 93 million living off the results of free land.
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Old Jun 14th 2017, 1:45 am
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

How much are you looking to invest in a business.

As I understand the Poultry business it is independent that raise chickens but they are royally screwed by the big distributors.
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Old Jun 14th 2017, 2:42 am
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Default Re: How to make my husband's dream come true - homesteading in Alaska

It ain't chicken feed!
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