Can anyone help? I need some very general advice and observations.

My US born girlfriend and hopefully soon to be wife would love to move back to the US away from what she calls gloomy ugly England. I think the weather and the fact that no one seems to be English in London gets her down. Anyway thats an aside, I need some advice on emigrating to the US and whether I will improve my lifestyle/standard of living.

This is my background.

I am a 37 year old Police Officer working in London although I am certainly open to other career options if they came my way. My earnings last year were £55,000 which included working a not insignificant amount of overtime. I retire at 55 and get free travel to work. The downside are obviously dealing with not very nice people and working pretty unsocial hours. Education wise I have a law degree and some experience in other finance related work. I have never considered moving abroad and even if it was on my agenda I dont think that the USA would be a country that I would have considered.
My main concerns/questions concerning the US that I would appreciate comments on are......

1) The healthcare system - My other half comes from a wealthy family who have hit upon hard times and have had to cancel their $1500 per month (can that be right) health policy. Is the US system something to be feared?

2) Americans live to work. Sure the weather will be better there but whats the point if I am stuck in an Office for 10/11/12 hours a day and then too tired to do anything at the end of the working day? Whats the work ethos? Whats commuting like?

3) Is it true that American workers get a lot less Holiday time per year?

4) Does the extreme patriotism and obsession with the waving the flag ever irritate us more reserved/modest Brits? Im a little concerned that small children have to pledge allegiance to the flag at the start of every school day according to my other half? The Americans do seem to assume that if its American then it is the best, whether it is their television, cars, electronics etc etc

5) Although every American seems to go on about their "freedoms" at every opportunity my experience in just 24 hours made me think differently. I remember crawling along at 50 miles an hour on the widest road I have ever seen. When I asked about speeding up he replied that there will be unmarked police cars hiding to trap motorists to raise revenue. There seemed to be a real sense of accepting that the police are there to persecute motorists......Anyway, we then arrived at the liqour store to buy a few cans of beer for the film night we had planned. Not having 14 forms of identification I was barred from buying. I then gave $5 to my friend who had his ID towards the purchase but on seeing this the cashier declined to serve him because I was "part of the purchase"?? So we had to go outside! On the way back I dared to open a tin of beer. My driver reacted in horror saying hide it hide if the cops see you you will get a ticket? For a passenger sipping from a can of weak beer? We then return back to his gated community to find three motorcycle policeman on his private road pulling in yet more motorists for what were no doubt heinous crimes. Is this typical? Is the US so crime free that the police there just concentrate on motorists? Moving on....

6) How accepting is the US of UK workers/qualifications etc etc. Would I find it hard to arrive in the US, tout my CV around and find good work?? My fear is that without relevant experience/qualifications I will end up in some dead end job working more hours for less money albeit in a sunny country? Has anyone else just gone over to the US without a job lined up?? I would be there on a marriage visa so a job would not be a requirement of going.

7) A total lack of public transport. A car is essential. What happens if you cant afford one? Its not as if Gas is getting cheaper.

8) Whats the cost of living over there? I actually think that a lot of products in the supermarket are more expensive than here? I overheard my other half's dad talking about property taxes and a $600 a month gas/electric bill?

9) How does US TV compare to the UK?

My positive feelings include how polite and friendly everyone is;great service; a perceived lack of low level anti social crime - or maybe its because I only went to wealthier areas when there;the weather!

Observations and advice would be appreciated.


James

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Pulask...ork_in_the_USA

Yes, $1500/month is probably right... and yes, the US healthcare system is mind-bogglingly crazy!


Americans don't seem bothered by the situation. Generally speaking, folks in the US are hard working, and don't mind a 1-hour one-way commute each day. My wife and I are on the road for 35 minutes each way... but we're lucky, we don't live in a congested area.


Oh my, yes!


Yes, I'm sure it does!


Yes - every day in school.


That is what they are brought up to believe, so why would they assume differently?


To be fair, that depends on where you live!


That's illegal. Didn't you research US law before arriving?


Yes... but you'll get used to it.


Not very!


Probably, yes.


Many of us have, yes.


Then you don't get around much. Actually, public transport is excellent in the larger cities... but almost non-existent elsewhere.


The US is 40x larger than the entire UK. The cost of living changes by city and state. It's relatively inexpensive to live in Wyoming... but expensive as all hell to live in Hawai'i.


That's not unusual.


Shitty!

Ian

I think the answer to a lot of questions is "it varies". The US is economically and socially a lot more diverse with a lot more variation than the UK, even though the UK is actually made up of four nations, rather than just states.

For instance, where I work and live in NYC and its suburbs we have great public transport and we still haven't got around to getting a car after more than a year. On the other hand our property taxes (included in our rent) are through the roof and the cost of living is generally pretty high - but I get paid a lot more here and personal taxation is lower.

I don't work any longer hours than I did in the UK, and now I've been with my company for more than three years, and they recently upped our vacation allowance, I now have as much holiday time as I did in the UK, but I think that's a factor of being in an industry (IT) and location (NYC) that currently has a very competitive job market.

So it is very relative. Whereabouts in the US is your g/f from, and is that where you'd be looking to move to if you do?

Almost everything you've listed here is a valid concern or mild annoyance for me in California. The health insurance issue is the most serious. Number #4 doesn't really bother me much, but there's not much rabid patriotism in West LA.

Do remind her that *you* will be a foreigner with a funny accent if you move to the States!

It's impossible to predict how your job-search would go. I didn't have a job before arriving, and I have one now, but I had to target my search at companies where international experience was seen as a plus. I didn't have much luck with basic office work.

I believe that in many (but not every) mid-level positions, if an employer is offered two equal candidates, one American and one foreign, they'll go for the American. It just seems easier and less risky. As a Brit, your qualifications will be unfamiliar, you won't have any experience or job references in the States, and there'll be this vague, underlying worry that you won't understand the way things work and will need a lot of hand-holding. This impression is something you'll need to be aware of and overcome. In my experience, Americans are very friendly to Brits, but when it comes to hiring staff you're still a foreigner.

I'd say that American TV at its best is as good as British TV at its best, but that average quality here is worse overall. Mind you, at the risk of being accused of fogeydom I think British TV is a pale imitation of what it once was. But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe you!

Why do I have the sudden urge to lick the road clean with my tongue?

Ian

Looking at your list, I think you know the answers and are just looking to get your opinions validated.

Which is fine, of course - I'm guessing you are checking to make sure you aren't colouring your impression of what it would be like to move over with your natural trepidation about making such a big move.

Pretty much every bad/annoying scenario you list can be answered with a negative reply:

yes, the healthcare situation is horrific;

yes, you work more with less time off;

yes, commuting in the cities is generally dreadful and unless you are in one of only a very few cities, there is no public transport worth a damn;

yes, patriotism and religion (or rather crypto-Christian "family values") play a much bigger part in day-to-day life;

yes, the myth of 'freedom' here is rather sad now - the strictures on daily living, the virtual police-state situation is increasingly suffocating the life out of us.

Crime is extremely dependent on where you are - but bear in mind the US population is about 4x the UK, and the UK had 42 gun homicides last year, the US 9000 (thank you Jon Stewart for that fact!);

the TV is generally awful, except for the small percentage of good stuff which is the best in the world, so this is a net gain for the US

so... if all you care about is high quality television and you can afford HBO, come on over!


I am a little ray of sunshine this morning!

Other career options would be a necessity were you to move to the US. Generally, you would be unable to continue policing until you made citizen, and this would take around 4 years from arrival in your circumstances

Did your UK job require that you move to NYC? If not what made you decide to move to the US?

Thank you - That is my concern. If I was 18 with no job Id have nothing to lose in moving and giving it a go but I have so much to lose now. Where in West LA are you? My gf lived in Pacific Palisades/Malibu

Im not really interested in continuing in law enforcement - 13 years is enough for anyone! In fact I have had enough of being disliked by criminals, the government and the general public as a whole, kind of gets you down!

A general question.....

Do you find most expat brits have moved because their UK jobs have required them to move and they thought "why not" or they have retired there? Do many people go just for the American way of life and a better standard of living? Are people working "average" jobs with average lives better off than their equivalents in the UK?

My GF was genuinely surprised that I had reservations when she mentioned us moving to the USA. She said something along the lines of "but everyone wants to live in the USA, its the best place in the world"

I'm married to American, and we decided after ten years in the UK for her, it was my turn to do the immigrant thang. My work happened to have a New York office so I negotiated a transfer, with myself doing the spousal immigrant visa. having a job to go to did make it a lot easier!

I'm in exactly the same situation, except in DC