Originally Posted by Wintersong

Too true - this is what my husband's company are doing to him. He has achieved 100% on his last three annual appraisals and last year was promised a promotion if he continued to work as well as he was doing. He got 100% again this year and guess what... no promotion. Other people who are less qualified than him and, to be bluntly honest, less good at their jobs are at a higher level than him because they have green cards and so could take their skills elsewhere. He hates it there but his hands are tied Pretty shortsighted of the company though, because as soon as he gets GC he'll be out of there like a shot.

Originally Posted by dbj1000

I'm really sorry to hear that, and the dreadful thing is that it's all too common. Isn't it amazing that companies which are otherwise quite respectable/reasonable can turn into monsters when confronted with an employee who is "at their mercy"?

One issue to watch out for is that companies sometimes think that they are not allowed to promote workers on H1B visas, because of the visa stipulation that the sponsored worker must work within the job description for which the visa was issued. I don't know how your husband's company works, but in mine I find that I usually have to educate senior managers on the finer points of my visa status when these kinds of issues occur.

Originally Posted by Wintersong

I'm sure that's not it - this particular company have loads of employees on H1 so I'm sure they've come across it all before. The excuse that was given to him was that they "couldn't afford it". Yeah right. I'm not going to name names, but this particular company is right up there with the big IT guys so they're not short of a few bob!

Originally Posted by dbj1000

Well in that case they're just a wunch of bankers!

Originally Posted by Francisco

We have our Embassy interview (is that when they ask me if I'm a sarcastic nasty Brit or a terrorist, and if so how should I answer?) next week.

Originally Posted by Duncan Roberts

Hey, Mr. Newton never let a small detail like that get in his way!

Originally Posted by MightBe

I think the Figlet got jilted at the alter by a Brit.....

Originally Posted by Francisco

Hi there. This is my first post, its a long, so you may need to go for dinner and come back later. Please bear with me, and advance apologies to anyone I may inadvertently offend. I am also taking bets on how long it takes for this thread to be
a) highjacked by a passive-aggressive, secretly obsessed interloper
b) completely, thoroughly and intentionally misunderstood
c) criticised for high levels of "I" and "S" ( I would type those words but I know I'm being watched).

Anyway, I am typing this from a place somewhere in between Reading, Newbury and Basingstoke. I believe I saw Newbury on someone's post?
My husband has a new job (already commuting!) in mid-town Manhattan, so we are looking to buy a property in North New Jersey, in between Madison and Maplewood on the commuter line (Chatham, Summit, Millburn etc).
We have just returned from 2 weeks out there looking around and there are some lovely ( and expensive!) houses. Our house here is on the market but its very slow at the moment.
We are hoping to place our 6 yr old son in a local public school, most of which in that area appear to be pretty good (he is currently in a Reading private school). So if anyone know those areas any comments gratefully received.

And now for my two-penneth (think he'll know what that means? Yeah, 'course he will). I have browsed various expat sites/chatrooms, and am most impressed with the entertainment level on this one of late. Everyone (well almost everyone) seems helpful, amusing, sarcastic and ironic etc which is great and completely normal. Without wishing to sound too (insert "S" word), I am now getting slightly disturbed that a certain contributor persists in (as others have said), scanning all threads for signs of "anti-Americanism", then really doing nothing much but say "aren't you lot nasty" etc. There have been a few useful and informative bits but vastly out weighed by criticising the community here.

I haven't had time to read all threads, but haven't read anything out of the ordinary for British expats discussing their host country, as they would do wherever they are living. Think about the recent London bombings - undertaken not by outsiders coming to blow us up then leave, but by people who live (and many born) here, secretly dispising us (which is up to them) BUT THEN PROCEED TO BLOW INNOCENT PEOPLE UP. Thats anti-British. 9/11 was anti-American. A few Brits having a moan about stuff they don't like is not by any stretch of the imagination anti-American.

So to any American who dislikes the things they read on this site (to repeat earlier and repeated advice): Don't visit the site; I don't need your input; its not useful or constructive to me; its extremely repetitive, one-dimensional and hasn't helped me one jot so far.

Brits would use this site for extremely obvious reasons; part of the character of a Brit is to use irony and sarcasm and to moan to let off steam. Long shall I continue to do so. But similarly to when I converse with British people who have no sense of humour; don't like sarcasm; are politically correct or sensitive about particular issues, I moderate how I interact with them, as others on this site have said.
I don't imagine Fig Newton or anyone like him, if living in Britain, would behave in an inappropriate manner whilst at a dinner party surrounded by Brits. But that doesn't mean when solely in the company of other Americans he wouldn't ever criticise things or people or systems around him, because that would be wholly unnatural, unless of course he was simply delighted with every aspect of British life. He and his friends would of course be entitled to their views, and to express them within the safety of his companions. Which is exactly how I see people behaving here. If you don't like the heat GET OUT THE KITCHEN.
Sorry if that was too long but I needed to express myself!

Originally Posted by Wintersong

Forget about your own business until you have the Green Card (although if you're returning to the UK in 3 years, why even bother applying? If you do, by some miracle, get it within that time you'll only lose it when you go back to the UK anyway).

The embassy interview is dead easy. All you have to do is show proof of marriage. Mine was a total breeze. I was all geared up to be asked loads of questions about my relationship with my husband and his job etc. but all they asked me was when we got married and how long I'd spent in the US during the previous year. It's a flipping long wait though, so take a book.

Originally Posted by elfman

I believe Englishmum lives in Short Hills - right in the area you're looking at. We live about 15 miles further north, and the Mrs commutes into the City on the same line (for the moment - baby due in six weeks). That area is indeed expensive - a 3-bed "Cape Cod" style house that needs work will probably set you back $500,000. The further out you're prepared to live the cheaper the houses will be - in our neighbourhood you can get a 3-bed house (albeit one with minimal garden) for $350,000. Commuting time is about 1hr 30mins on the train into the city from where we are.

Schools in the Short Hills area are apparently excellent - so much so that someone my Mrs works with recently moved house from Maplewood to Short Hills (and took out an interest-only mortgage in the process) just because the kids are approaching school age. Not that there's anything bad about Maplewood schools.

Originally Posted by dbj1000

I haven't got much to add to the other excellent H4/H1B related replies, but we're in the same boat with me on an H1B and my wife on an H4. To illustrate just how completely an H4 holder cannot work:

Last year my wife was offered a project management position which would be carried out entirely online, for a European company with no presence in the US, for a project taking place entirely within Europe, paid in Euros and... well you get the point.

The response back from our lawyer (highly respected, many years experience, expensive etc., etc.) was that no she could not do the job from the US. Nor could she spend a few weeks in the UK doing the job and then return to the US. She would have to leave the US and have established residence in the UK or another European country before she was free of her non-working-visa chains.

It sucks, but that's the law and we're not going to be exploring any "grey areas" of immigration law while our presence here is dependent on the good will of the BCIS!!!

Do also take the advice to start a Labor Certification (PERM) application, followed by a Permanent Resident application (Green Card) as soon as possible after arriving on your H1B/H4. The process takes many years, and can become pretty stressful if you're running out of time on the H1B. If you think there's any chance that you'll want to stay beyond 6 years then make sure the H1B-sponsoring company commits in writing to supporting such a GC application before you even get out here. That way you won't be left like so many H1B holders, with the company using GC sponsorship as a trump card with which to keep the sponsored employee in check!

My company has been absolutely excellent, and has done everything in their power to get my GC application up and running, yet two years after arriving here we are no further along in the application process than when we arrived. I know of other H1Bs whose companies have used the GC support issue as a reason to deny pay raises, threaten the employee and generally make their lives miserable.

Oh, great first post by the way. You'll fit right in here

Originally Posted by Wintersong

Too true - this is what my husband's company are doing to him. He has achieved 100% on his last three annual appraisals and last year was promised a promotion if he continued to work as well as he was doing. He got 100% again this year and guess what... no promotion. Other people who are less qualified than him and, to be bluntly honest, less good at their jobs are at a higher level than him because they have green cards and so could take their skills elsewhere. He hates it there but his hands are tied Pretty shortsighted of the company though, because as soon as he gets GC he'll be out of there like a shot.

Originally Posted by Wintersong

Believe you me, we've called them much worse in the past couple of months