Your children can not attend public school while here as tourists.

Immigration authorities don't see bringing the pets and wanting to put the children in school as being an element of a vacation. They call it living here, for which a visa is required.

If you don't have a visa your holiday has to be less than 90 days. Which visa are you eligible for? Perhaps you have $500k lying around?

If you are UK citizens, you don't need visas for any of those countries except Australia. There is a significant difference between the EU and the US.

I'll put the popcorn on... this'll be good!

Ian

I can generally get a long term business visa in most countries but that isn't what I am looking for. I generally wanted to turn up, family pets & some personal effects and stay until the visa is finished. I have a friend in Florida on a 6month visa extendable to 12 months which is an option for us. The hope was that private schools being commercial wouldn't care about Visa type as long as you are paying for it and it does not come out of tax payers pockets. My good friend informs me that the maximum is 12 months so I have contradicting information now. I was looking for a friendly steer from this audience not a professional consultation so I do not expect us to work it through to the point of fail or success. I appreciate your two cents, euro's or pence

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours.

<sigh> That visa is not easy for British citz to get (because there already is a visa-free option for the same purposes). It is very much NOT automatically extendable to 12 months; if you do not have an emergent reason (like being in the hospital) you risk having the visa canceled. There just isn't a 'hang out here for a year' visa or I would have used it for my then-BF now husband.

I think I'll just join avanutria and wish you good luck with all that.

That's what I was thinking....

Always something interesting to read on BE!

As long as you're okay with being sent home almost the moment you arrive in the US with your family, pets, and personal effects... I say, go for it. Oh... if there is no flight immediately available, you'll likely all be held in detention until they can ship you home. Your pets will likely be quarantined. Also, at some point in the future when your children want to visit the US, you'll get the opportunity to explain to them why they must apply for a visa.


Perhaps people here aren't being as crystal clear as you would like. Let me explain this to you in simple terms... what you want is irrelevant. You can only do that which is allowed by US immigration law. Based on what you've written here, it isn't going to happen.

Ian

Ian:
I have tears of laughter from reading your message. I am enlightened.. I will pass on your comments along with the visa application, with instruction that I would prefer not to be probed by US border control. I will also apologise in advance to my children for such a shocking thing to try and do. Enjoy your lonely evening, box of popcorn and sleepless night, I bid you farewell and leave you to serve the next sucker.

Genuine thanks from us to all those people that gave some good comments for consideration.

Best wind up in ages this.

But for the sake of completeness, how old are the friends and what were their reasons for extending their B2's?

With a family in tow, B2 is really not likely to be given, so it's all a bit irrelevant.

A cheaper way to bring the pets is have them put down then stuffed and mounted ..you should be able to get a large dog an a few cats in the same case ... they provide quite a novelty and talking point amongst your friend

I moved from the UK to the US with two dogs. Very very easy process. All I had to do was get a letter from my vet within ten days of flying to say that my dogs were healthy to fly and we were on our way! I got airline approved crates for both of them, checked in at the BA counter at Heathrow with the dogs in tow and then they were put in the hold of the plane. When we arrived in LAX I picked up my luggage and then picked up my dogs in their crates and that was it! Of course, the UK is a rabies free country so it means that I could never take them back there unless I wanted them to endure quarantine (which I wouldnt for the world!). Good Luck!