Hi everyone! My husband and I would love to move to Florida, and are travelling over in a couple of weeks for 2 months to investigate further into areas etc. We have a good understanding of visa's etc and think we can make it work but are not sure where abouts in Florida to move to. We have 2 children aged 7 and 8, so if anybody has any advice or suggestions on where is a great place to live with a family that would be fantastic, thankyou in advance!

What visa will you be coming on? You need to figure that out before working out where to live.


Anyway, Florida schools are not renowned for being great, but some areas are better than others. Check out Greatschools.org for reviews.

Welcome to BE! Usually location is governed by the job opportunity. What kind of visa are you eligible for? That will dictate everything else. If you search the forum, you will find a lot of threads about the pluses and minuses of FL.

Hi, thanks for your info! My husband has his own web design business so location for him is quite flexible! We will be using that for a visa, I'm not sure what it's called, it's my husband who has been speaking to the lawyer and sorting it all out!

I would verify what you've been told regarding visas. Unless he is opening up a new branch of his company while maintaining the UK branch, or he has hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, I'm not sure there is a visa opportunity there. I'm no expert though.

Fairly sure you can love anywhere as long as you're not too public about it.

My husband has been speaking to a lawyer over there and it's all fine, I don't know the ins and outs but I know it can be done. All I'm asking for is advice on area thankyou

Plenty of folks say that and find the reality not so much...so people do like to make sure they're not wasting their time.

Reality usually is, location will be dictated by the job.

If you're investing a boat load of cash in a throw away franchise, then it's less of a issue. If you're looking to set up a new office of your business to transfer yourself over, then you might want to see where potential clients are going to be, but that'll depend on your own network and any niche skills you bring to the table.

If he's hoping to find a employer to sponsor him for a visa, then you'd not be able to work, so that would affect the budget and likely suggestions people would have for locations.

End of the day though, advice is only going to be as good as the info you give.

Someone suggesting a place on the lakes because they love boating and fishing won't be as helpful if you prefer hiking in the mountains kind of thing. So you looking for big city life and night life or a smaller town? Want to travel and want to be near a airport or prefer to be near the coast?

Sounds like an E-2, which makes the stay impermanent (and with renewals necessary every few years) -- and less than ideal with children who will age out at 21. It also doesn't sound as if this is a business that will offer jobs to Americans, or even need bricks and mortar premises, criteria of the visa. A second opinion might be in order -- this attorney could be telling you what you want to hear.

I would suggest you educate yourself on what visa options are available and whether you actually qualify for any of them (and what they mean for your children in terms of their ability to stay in the US permanently, since some of those options won't cover them once they turn 21). You don't want to throw away money at a lawyer who is telling you what you want to hear. There are basically 2 options I can see for you - one is an investor visa which involves putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into a business (your children will have to leave when they turn 21 or get their own independent visa through work/marriage), the other is that your husband sets up a new office in FL while keeping the existing office running in the UK (L visa) but as he sounds like a freelancer, that doesn't sound feasible either.

I've heard the gulf coast has some lovely towns, around Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota. A friend just visited Manasota Key and Boca Grande and highly recommends (for vacation). I have a friend who lives just outside Tampa in Apollo Beach who loves it there.

We just booked a trip to Fort Lauderdale for early July and we'll stop off in St Augustine for a night on the way (we like the Miami, Fort Lauderdale area but I wouldn't want to live there).

If you have two months you'll find all the nice spots!

Great thankyou, will check that out!

Lol. You are making an awful lot of incorrect assumptions there that you have no knowledge about! As i have said previously, visa is not what i am asking for advice on!

That definitely gives us something to think about and places to investigate, thankyou very much!

Do you? Good.

Ah! So the "we" does not include you?

Assumptions have to be made because you are not providing the information required to best answer your question. Despite prompts, you seem to want to play some sort of question game.

What's the big secret?