Pollyana

went to uni in Brighton aged 18. stayed for 20 mostly happy years till I made the misguided decsiion to marry an Australin.
Now in the process of moving back to Brighton, its a place I have viewed as home the whole time I have been away.

christmasoompa

To be fair, Brighton is quite nice. Somebody that went to uni in Stoke may not have been so keen.

Good luck with the move back, exciting times.

tht

In the UK some friends stayed in Manchester and both my younger brothers stayed in Brighton and Essex respectively. Many like me and my older brother moved to London once he was down at Sydney Sussex and had paid off his wine bill…

The US has a lot of colleges in towns with not much else. For higher tier schools I think most will move to grad school or a big city (NYC, SF, Austin, Chicago etc.) for a new role / graduate program when they are done rather than returning home…

Nbatches

I moved around a lot at that age... it was definitely tough, but looking back now, it made me so much more adaptable too. I say go for it!

Phyzz

I do not think that there are any right or wrong answers, it would vary case by case.
Is there ever a good time to move with children/teenagers? By the time you wait for everything to be perfect the opportunity will be gone.

I would add that I moved just over 8 years ago with three teenagers who were then 17, 15 and 13. All are flourishing and none of them are broken!

TaraBranson

We are in this position. We need to move to Seattle this year for my husbands work.
We have 13 year old year 8, 14 year old year 9 and a 15 year old year 10. The fear of moving my older daughter who will be going into her last year of secondary school is so real. She will not stay behind in the UK she needs to be with us, I can’t stay behind in the uk as we can’t afford to run 2 places.
it’s really promising to hear of the children that have moved and have coped well.
Any advice for us would be great lol.

Pulaski

Read this thread, as it already contains most of the advice and opinions you're going to get.

The only thing you don't mention is whether your husband is coming on a 2-3:year posting, or a likely permanent move? And if it's only a 2-3 year posting, honestly, in my opinion uprooting your family twice during the age range of 13-18 isn't worth it, and your younger two will have bigger issues returning to the UK and trying to slot back in to take GCSE and A levels.

TaraBranson

Permanent move on L1 visas.

Jerseygirl

The Visa is for temporary residency. It is not permanent until a Green Card is applied for and issued.

TaraBranson

Sorry should have said the company will start the green card process ASAP. But yes a 7 year visa to start but the move over in the companies eye is a permanent one.

Jerseygirl

7 years? The L1 is not a 7 year visa…you must apply for an extension.

Jerseygirl

Just a quick mention: Please do not assume that a visa means permanent residency….it does not, There are several reasons why you could be forced to leave the US. We even had one member who applied for a visa extension and the USCIS cocked it up and they ran out of time. This meant they had to leave the US.

TaraBranson

yes true, so basically the short of it is, it’s suppose to be a permanent move, we have teenagers at ages and school years stated above, however lots could go wrong, we could end up coming back due to any visa extension issues/green card issues we may encounter. But hubby has to come out this year… so any advice with moving children at their ages and schooling would be great. Thank you in advance.

christmasoompa

Depending on the green card category, and how prompt your attorneys are and employer is, you may find you move with immigrant visas. It's super quick via London consular processing at the mo.

I'm moving with teenagers in July, but ours is going to a British school to minimise disruption to education, so can't really help with advice on moving teens in to the US schooling system. Just bear in mind the cost of university if any of them decide they want to come back to the UK to do their degree (probably mentioned above in this thread, but just in case it's not!).

Good luck to you.

Glasgow Girl

I don’t have personal experience of this because I have no school age kids but you might want to identify which school district you are likely to be in and inquire what would be required to ensure that your daughter can graduate high school on time and with as high a grade point average as possible, particularly if she will go to college. That may involve doing some extra credit hours in her last year and will almost certainly require that you have a lot of paperwork to get credit for her UK accomplishments. It will be a lot easier to get that paperwork whilst you are in the UK. You will probably need medical records of vaccination shots for all of your kids. While I do not have school age kids, I was that kid who moved between several countries in my teenage years, and while it was not a walk in the park, I turned out just fine, and more confident and adaptable in my later life than many who had the traditional school years. You could focus your daughter on what college she might want to go to, or what kind of job she would like. That would allow her to fill any empty time and provide light at the end of the fairly short tunnel if she does have a difficult time.

There are others on this forum who have done exactly what you are proposing so hopefully they will chime in on how to accomplish it, and not focus on why you should not. For what it is worth, if you intend the move to be permanent then I think you are doing the right thing if you want to keep your family unit in one country long term. Things could go wrong with the move but is sounds like you have everything possible in your favor. Worst case is that your daughter has a tough final year at school but that won’t even be a full calendar year, and she will then be moving onto college, or a job, where everyone will be starting over anyway. Your other kids will adapt just fine. Good luck.