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My name is Sarah and im from Bonnie Scotland (20 mins from Glasgow).
Im thinking of moving to the US, preferably the South. States i am interested in are TX, TN, KY, NC, SC and GA
Im not sure if there is much difference between these states but i dont want to live in a really poor state with lots of gun crime etc...
Sarah
I really think you may want to stay in Scotland. It is beautiful there, friendly, low crime, and your family is there. Other than the weather, why would you want to leave? America is in pretty dire straits right now, politically, socially, economically, and educationally. Why, I wish I could move to Scotland!
Hi, I dont think my accent would be a problem as mine is pretty easy to understand, its not harsh or hard to understand. Im well spoken as such and living with my boyfriend its turned a bit weird. lol ( I never had any problems when i was over there)
Regarding a visa would be no problem as my boyfriend and i are very close and are in a serious relationship = marriage in the future.
Im not sure for definate what im going to do but I really like it when I was over in America, it was different and laid back which i like.
Actually I think he brought up a good point...a lot of Americans have trouble understanding a Scottish accent. I work with a Scottish fellow who has been in America for 8 years and his accent is very mild, but I find myself having to interpret for my colleagues.
Before I lived in the UK, I could barely understand Scottish people. I watched Trainspotting with the closed-captioning on...ready-made subtitles.
I would really look into the visa aspect of things. Even before Sept 11th marriage based immigration was a costly process. It can take months or even years before you can obtain a greencard. It's even worse now as the system is so backlogged.
Marriage-based greencards are very easy to get for UK citizens when done by direct consular filing. I got one for my ex and it took 14 months, but I think that was mainly due to his foot-dragging. I know people who got theirs within six months.
Applying for the green card within the US itself can take a while (usually up to a year), but if you're on a tourist visa (it is legal to marry here on a tourist visa if you did not enter the country for the purpose of marriage) you can get permission to work while your visa is being processed. Same for K-1 (fiance) visa holders...you can get what's called an EAD (employment authorization).
You are right about one thing though...it IS costly. However, a green card for a spouse should NOT take years to process unless you either get caught in FBI namecheck hell or you're just slow about getting your paperwork together.
Im in the aviation industry and hoping to pass on these skills as an aircraft dispatcher and work over there, i know my starting wages would be around $20,000 - $30,000 per year, is that ok? My boyfriend would be moving too and earning around $40,000 per year. I just really want to know the good and the bad places. I've been all over the South i liked Columbia, SC Charlotte, NC Myrtle Beach, SC
Sarah
The money you mentioned you can make is nothing. 20,000 or even 40,000 is nothing if you live here. Housing has become really expensive, gasoline is expensive, everything but the clothes and food is expensive.
I might be in the wrong place, but I lived in Arizona, NY and CT and it has become really difficult to earn extra money. You spend almost everything you make.
I am European and even after 8 years I can not get used to the so called American lifestyle. No offense, pls do not misunderstand me, I am not badmouthing US, I just regret that I left Europe.
Now we are thinking about the possibility to move back to Europe.
My name is Sarah and im from Bonnie Scotland (20 mins from Glasgow).
Im thinking of moving to the US, preferably the South. States i am interested in are TX, TN, KY, NC, SC and GA
Im not sure if there is much difference between these states but i dont want to live in a really poor state with lots of gun crime etc.
I live in a really nice place in my own country which is really good, the only reason i want to move is because of the weather here but other than that i have a really good quality of life here. We dont see much crime in Scotland and have no guns really like in the US. I have a good paying job and i dont pay alot of tax.
My boyfriend is from MS and moved here with me, i wasn't too impressed with MS as it was dead and there was alot of uneducated people there more so ignorance compared to living here as its a modern country with alot of diversity.
Im in the aviation industry and hoping to pass on these skills as an aircraft dispatcher and work over there, i know my starting wages would be around $20,000 - $30,000 per year, is that ok? My boyfriend would be moving too and earning around $40,000 per year. I just really want to know the good and the bad places. I've been all over the South i liked Columbia, SC Charlotte, NC Myrtle Beach, SC
I really dont want to give up here to move to somewhere that i'll regret when i have alot to lose here, especially leaving my family behind as i am really close to them.
Im looking to work as a flight dispatcher at an airport but i'd like to be close to the country and not far from a nice sized town like back home.
Thank you very much
Sarah
Sarah,
First of all, you need to do what is in your heart and not listen to everyone else (or even me!). But I do have a few comments which may be of some help. In regards to the "gun culture". I do not notice it, perhaps because I am used to it or perhaps being that it is overplayed in the media. I am not sure how often it is talked about in the UK media, but if one is trying to look down their nose at the US, this is certainly a topic that one could use for this purpose. True, there are nightly reports of shootings if you turn on the nightly news of any big city in the US. I must report that I never watch the evening news, so again, I rarely spend anytime thinking about this.
Our "outdated" constitution has done remarkably well for 230 years and much of it was in response to the efforts of the English King to use the colonies as the major source of their income to fund wars against the Spanish and French (popists). Various English kings in the years preceding the formation of the US had removed arms from political oponents (King James the II disarming Protestants so as to reduce political opposition). Thus, the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution was created as a response to this, forced conscription at sea of Colonists by the British to serve in the English Navy as well as an extension of the English Bill of Rights of 1689 included the provision that "the subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions, and as allowed by Law." The words "as allowed by Law" indicating that this was a qualified rather than an absolute right. However this provision, along with many other pieces of ancient law, is now effectively obsolete .The English Bill of Rights should not be equated to the United States Bill of Rights. As you know, in the United Kingdom, Parliament, is the ultimate authority and legislation is not constrained by a central codified constitution like that of the United States. Thus, over the years, Parliament has fundamentally changed the UK Parliamentary position. This includes very substantial restrictions on any right to bear arms. The United States continues to argue over the meaning of the right to bear arms as to whether it means in a militia or on a personal level. This will continue to be unsolved.
Despite the above, there are many ways to be killed and the majority tend to be from those you know if you look at the statistics.
In regards to where to live, I have lived all over the US as well as traveled to all but 3 states. I grew up in Northern California, went to University in Seattle, worked in San Francisco, Phoenix and Hong Kong right after graduating from College and over the past 18 years I have lived in the Colorado Springs/Denver area , Seattle (again) as well as spend the majority of my time in Washington DC. I have also traveled throughout Southern England and Europe. This does not make me an expert on where to live, but I do have opinions.
I loved living in the San Francisco Bay area, but it is so expensive ($1 million for a average house) as well as high state gas tax, state income taxes, property taxes and sales taxes that I will not return. There are cheaper parts of California, but they are more rural and will likely not have a large enough airport for you to work. The weather is fantastic, especially in Southern California, where Northern California has 2 seasons, a cooler rainy season and six months of no rain and temperatures moderated by fog at the coasts with a very hot inland central valley. Culture in California, not really much history other than old Spanish Missions, and Gold Rush related. People are ecletic. I was in the '89 earthquake which was not fun, and you never know when another one will be around the corner. You probably need to make at lease $100K per year to live there at least marginally comfortably.
The Pacific Northwest has 2 climates: West of the Cascade Mountains, dreary and drizzly in the winters and mild and sunny for 3 months in the summer. Most of the people live in the western half of Oregon and Washington. The eastern half of the states are hot and dry in the summer with less people. The largest city in Eastern is Washington is Spokane 200K people with a pretty big airport. They get about 300 days of sun a year with some snow in the winter, and high temperatures in the 30s Fahrenheit. Cost of living outside of Seattle not bad.
Phoenix: sunny and hot, hot, hot. It is a dry heat but it is intense. I in fact do better with low humidity, as at least your sweat evaporates, but it is routinely 115 F in the summer. Tucson is a nice town to the south, a pretty big city higher in elevation and a somewhat milder winter. A big airport there as well as in Phoenix. A really nice suburb of Phoenix is Scottsdale. Cost of living not bad.
Denver/Colorado Springs: Sunny, dry with low humidity in the summmer, but afternoon thunderstorms. More to do in Denver 500K people or so, 200K people in Colorado Springs with nearby mountains for skiiing in the winter and summer hiking. 250 sunny days or more in both summer and winter. Arts, museums, sports etc in Denver. Big Airport in Denver, decent sized one in Colorado Springs.
Washington DC: 3 major airports Reagan National, Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International. Tons to do in this area with museums, sports teams, close to the Appalachian Mountains (3000 foot hills in the mid-Atlantic area). But it is expensive in the major metropolitan area. I am not a big fan of the hot, humid summers, but I do like the four seasons. I am very interested in Colonial History as well as the South, and the people are jerks at times in the DC area, much more hospitable in the South.
If I could live anywhere in the US, for me I would like to live somewhere there was significant sun, but close to the ocean, but not too humid nor too expensive in an area with culture. So far, I have not found such a place, other than California ( but a little low on the culture in CA). I do think that I will retire in the South someday, but not for many years. I have always been intrigued by Asheville, as they have cultural activities, 4 seasons and cooler summers, but I have yet to visit there.
I do not know if any of this helps, but one thing that is nice about the US is that you have so many options.
Oh, come on! You don't seriously want to move from Scotland, do you?! I've been spending the past TWO YEARS researching colleges and visas and green cards and Gaelic and all sorts of stuff so that I can move to Scotland!
You wanna know why? Because I find the attitude of a great deal of Americans to be self-righteous, stupid, and condescending. I grew up on my mother's horror stories of religion and education and healthcare in the South and I'm scared to death of it. We have something called "separation of church and state" that nobody's quite gotten the hang of yet - try this: Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard - News .
He was commended for apologizing to her - he shouldn't have ignored her in the first place! When's there going to be a non-Christian president, that's what I'd like to know!
And then there's Congress telling everybody that we're the free-est country to live in while stealing our rights out from under our noses with stuff like the Patriot act! (Actually, the Netherlands are the most free country to live in). Everybody says that there are a heck of a lot of rights that we have that the UK doesn't - what are those?
I do support freedom to bear arms, though: even if they did make it illegal to have a gun, criminals would still have them. Breaking the law is sort of a job requirement. (Paraphrased from Terry Pratchett). I don't have a gun myself, but just so long as one has it registered and intends to not use it, what's the problem with having on locked up in a gun safe out of the reach of children? Besides, there will always be drugs and violence, and always has been. Hells, it kinda goes along with civilization, doesn't it?
Last edited by Tauri; 11-12-2007 at 06:08 PM..
Reason: Didn't make much sense, really...
Move to upstate NY. We just had figures come out and we're attracting more European immigrants than anyplace in the country. But do come legally as they're really tough on illegals.
You'll get snow and woods and lakes, you'll be close to Canada, people in general are educated, and if you don't live in a city center for the most part you'll find little crime.
Tauri,,,What makes you think Holland is the `most free country to live in`?? I have a brother who works there on a regular basis and he will tell you a totally differant story..Anyone over the age of 14yrs has to carry ID at all times or risk the law. That`s something we don`t even have in the UK,,,Well not yet anyway!!!
Of the cities you listed, Denver is my recommendation over North Carolina given your preference for bars. The entire south is generally Christian, and "loads of bars" isn't the general norm.
I guess this does not include Tennessee. We have loads of bars, pubs etc. Night life and such.
As far as Atlanta...No. It's pretty rough at times. Actually my husband and I were looking at real Estate in Scotland and Ireland. But the cost of living far outweighs the US. Unless we win the lottery. I'm staying right here in my little paradise in Tennessee.
That's what I've been assured many times by experienced figures in my life (e.g., humanities teacher 10th grade, social studies teacher 7th grade, mom, dad, ect.). I guess there was some sort of rating system that made it out that Holland was the
free-est and an Asian country (not China, starts with a 'B', can't really remember) had the harshest government... or something like that...
I suppose that someone living there would know better than a load of strangers who rate the government on, like, banks or something... please excuse my ignorance (my teachers should probably know better, too...)
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Thoughts
Actually my husband and I were looking at real Estate in Scotland and Ireland. But the cost of living far outweighs the US. Unless we win the lottery. I'm staying right here in my little paradise in Tennessee.
