Hi,

I wonder if anyone could assist me with a few questions I have about shifting base from UK to Texas.

I understand the rules about ESTA - 2years validity/90 days max stay.
Apparently the same applies to the "Non-Immigration Visa" [please feel free to correct me if I am wrong ;-)].

My dilemma is this;

I wish to purchase a house in Texas and retire there, permanently.
I have no objection to hopping over the "border" either North or South to requalify, but think that a frequency of every 90 days is simply staggering.

Do I need to apply for a Green Card?
Or do I need to naturalise and become a US Citizen [if the last case is valid, can I retain my UK citizenship - the reason for asking this is simply that my Military Pension might be affected].

Any assistance/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheese Grommet

Max ;-)

You can not hop the border so that route is out anyway.

A GC would be the obvious way, there is no need to naturalise.

Getting a GC is another issue, you can not through retirement, do you have a route? Usually people posting such a question in this way have no options other than to visit occasionally.

Rules about the ESTA - 2 year validity.
Rules about the VWP - 90 days maximum stay. Which nonimmigrant visa? There are many types. None of which are 'Retirement Visa'. Yes, you have a dilemma - you can purchase a house, but you'll need an immigrant visa to retire there permanently. There is no immigrant 'Retirement Visa', either. Not so staggering, as you won't be able to do it more than once, if that, before being denied entry. Regards, JEff

By "non-immigrant visa", do you mean a B-2 tourist visa? If so, then no...the rules are different.

Purchasing a house is easy. Retiring to the USA permanently is going to be the hard (if not impossible) part.

This isn't allowed, anyway, so you can rule that out.

If you want to live in the USA permanently, you need a green card, yes. The problem is, what plan do you have for applying for one? You need to either have USC relatives who can petition for you, a US employer who can petition for you, or enough money in the bank to invest or "buy" your green card yourself. Which route can you do?

You cannot naturalize until you've been a US PR for 5 years. So don't worry about naturalization just yet...your first concern is how to immigrate to the USA.

Rene

Six months maximum stay on a B-2 visa.

Can't do it anyway, what they're looking for is non-immigrant intent which clearly you wouldn't have. The law specifically states you must have a residence you intend to return to outside the US.

Yes.

Naturalization wouldn't affect your pension, but it would be taxed in the US.

If you're retired the only route is EB-5 immigrant investor center, unless you've got children who are US citizens who live in the US and can sponsor you.

EB-5 requires a $500,000 investment in an approved regional investment center and there is a quota of 10,000 visas a year (which has never been hit to date but I think this FY might be the one). The investment is at-risk (although to date no-one has ever lost all their money), the real trick though is selling the investment after you've gotten full permanent residency, you're initially granted conditional residency and can apply for full LPR status after the investment is considered to have created ten new jobs.

Hi & Thanks to all ;-)

The advice received is excellent and has certainly cleared up a lot of grey-areas.

Basically it is a "No-Go" as i do not have US Relatives and would be over 60, so probably not-employable for an Employer to sponsor me.
6 months max stay is attractive, but that still leaves me with 6 months out of either UK or US.
Obviously this requires a lot more thought.

That said, many thanks to you all.

Cheese Grommet

Max ;-)

I wouldn't advise Texas as a place to retire to anyway because property taxes are considered to be high, but anyway assuming you can afford that, the usual thing people do is get a visa and spend the winter in the US. It's hard to get a visa if you qualify for the VWP but if you can demonstrate to the consular officer that you are retired with vacation property they will usually grant it.

If you do this, remember to file form 8840 with the IRS every year.

For shame. BE'ers are falling down on the job.

No One Advised Him To Marry a USC !!!!!

This seems to be the mantra for the group for all single men and women who want to move to Florida and don't have a means to do so. Perhaps you don't think the US needs another single Brit in Texas

I would say the biggest issue for retirees is healthcare. And you would not be covered in the USA. Even if you got PR, your healthcare costs would be high and only get higher as you aged.

...... and you won't qualify for Medicare so would need to purchase an individual health insurance policy ....... which could be expensive even with the exchanges (even if they would insure a temporary resident?)

All the nice girls love a sailor.

Max stay on B2 is one year but normal admission is 6 mo. The OP should be aware that's tourists must maintain a foreign residence so dumping the foreign residence and only having one in TX would eliminate VWP and B2.

Also, the health care would likely cost more than the house.

I assumed he was married from his OP. But it's pretty common for Canadians to do this to get the social security.

Why? That post contained nothing but "I", not a single "we". Most married posters will write 'we', even when they should be writing either 'I' of '[s]he'.

Regards, JEff

Location says 'live with Partner in Portsmouth'. Although that could be like the John Lewis Partnership I suppose