USA Retirement Visa
 

this was posted on my Floridadays site...may be of interest to others

Hi everyone,

A while back we Brits in The Villages were trying to get the reinstatement of a 1999 Bill for a 4 year renewable Retirement visa. The lady who was going to support us and take it further changed her mind at the last minute (to cover her backside and keep her job I suspect). I think we got the support of Jeb Bush and alot of hard work went into getting hundreds of signatures down at the Town Square.I think other Brit clubs in Florida maybe got involved too.

Well, we thought it would be dead in the water but this week we had the usual Newsletter from the Brits Tea Club in The Villages. Apparently the issue has come to the fore again.

The lady who runs our club has been in touch with Brent Woolfork, the assistant of Senator Bill Nelson in Washington (A senator in the Federal Government who has an office in Orlando). At his request she has sent a copy of the original Retiree Visa Bill of 1999 and she has asked us all to send an email to Senator Nelson to try and get him to take up resubmission of this original bill. We sent ours a couple of days ago.

She has also asked us to get our other Brit colleagues in the US and American friends to support this effort. So if you have the time to write an email in support of this Retiree Visa we would be very grateful. All us Brits have to stick together.

I think we got to the site by typing www.billnelson.senate.gov. On the right hand side on the same line as the date there was a link saying "Send Bill an email."

The lady who runs the Brits Tea Club said we had to use a particular heading but it was too large to go in the "Subject" box of their form, so we just quoted it at the beginning of our email. The heading should read RE-SUBMISSION OF THE RETIREE VISA BILL OF 1999, THEN NUMBERED HR184.

When we wrote we pointed out that the UK have granted Americans this renewable 4 year Retiree Visa and it would be nice if the US afforded us a reciprocal gesture.

We also pointed out that we owned a property in Florida, would not be looking for work, we would not want to take any benefits from the US whatsoever and were fully financially independent and would have our own health cover. We just wanted to be able to use our home in America for longer periods of time.

We also stressed that it would make a considerable difference to the economy of Florida (and local businesses in particular) with so much extra money being spent on homes, furnishings, food, cars, gas, taxes etc. etc. etc.

If you have any lovely friends who are pro Brits we would also be grateful if you could persuade them to send a letter on behalf of us all. I know this is asking a lot but if you could spare a few minutes of your time to push this for us we would be very pleased!

Sorry this is so long but I had to set it all out to explain.

http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Re: USA Retirement Visa
 

Hi everybody, first post so if the subject has already been posted just point me in the right direction and I`ll go away. The USA retirement Visa is of real interest to me as we had hoped to move over to USA on permanent basis to watch the grand children grow up, but Health Insurance probs as over 65 and immigration process frightened us off. So question is, has anybody had any problems using the B1/B2 visa in making frequent trips to the USA for the current maximum periods then back to UK for a couple of months and then coming back again, whilst it is legal not sure how the immigration guys at POE who glare at you look on these frequent visits. The provision of a USA Retirement Visa would be great news Any experiences good or bad ?.

Re: USA Retirement Visa
 

As an OAP or close ....you will have no problem getting a B-2 and coming over for the 180 days per year... thousands do it.. especially here to Florida
during the Nov-April period.... If you are of working age you are unlikely to get the B-2 and would use the Visa waiver for 90 days instead.
The health issue is a problem for most people...

Re: USA Retirement Visa
 

Ray, thanks for that, have had our B1/B2 Visa`s since 2001 and made many trips over and never had any problems, now being retired we hope to make longer trips(180 days), return to the UK for a couple of months and then return to the USA for another similar duration trip whilst we are capable of making the trip, is there a minimum period you must be out of the USA before you can return under the B2 Visa conditions.

Re: USA Retirement Visa
 

The basic rule for all snowbirds is 180 days in (actually make it 178)
and then 180 days out .... more than I think 183 days in the country and the IRS will require you to file with them as well....