To wish it was easy to move to the USA

[Highway65]

I've been watching The Pioneer Woman on Sky the past few evenings. It's utter drivel but I LOVE it!! It's this blog writer/cook living in Oklahoma and it just looks ace! All cowboys, horses and massive ranches. I want to live there.

Infact, there are loads of places in America that I would like to live. Europe has plenty of highlights too of course. Not where I live, it's just grey!! But I reckon I should have been born American.

I have family living in California. They both married Americans to get their green cards. I would be up for that if I wasn't happily married

YADNBU - I would love to live in the US, but short of winning a Nobel prize or finding a family that look exactly like us who want to live in the UK, it is nigh on impossible in our line of work. I take it you aren't a brain surgeon, rocket scientist, olympic athlete or oscar winner then Highway? Me neither...

I'd sell my granny to live in New York but it's never going to happen

None of the above DoJo Still in with a chance of winning the lottery though! We can apparently retire to the US if we have millions in the bank

You should see the houses you can buy for what our house is worth here They even come with front porches and swinging chairs. My dream.

YABU. I see the beauty of the country but can't get past their gun laws and the fact that you can still be killed legally for committing certain crimes.

If you have a spare half a million you can 'buy' a green card through investment. Big if though.

The ridiculous thing is that I know lots of people in the USA who would love to live in Europe but have no hope of getting a visa. I think you should be able to find a family that matches your own in size etc and swap.

A friend of mine moved. Her and her dh set up a franchise, if you're taken on by a franchise company then you can work. You have to renew your visa every two years but I think after so long you can get a green card.

You'd think that seeing how we're supposed to be their bezzie mates they'd have special visas for us Brits, wouldn't you? . We could live out our US fantasies - I want to be a litigator in Chicago like the Good Wife - then leg it home when the cold reality of US life hits; health care bills, lousy holiday allowance, no employment rights, little maternity leave ...

It's not like on TV!

I knew someone would mention the gun laws. It's always all over Piers Morgan's twitter feed It's serious, but awful things happens here too.

Legion I think that's a brilliant idea.

Viva I had no idea about the franchise thing. Which one did they move with?

I had a green card, as did my now-DH, and we lived there for a couple of years and decided it wasn't for us. No regrets at all that we chose England over the US (not originally from here).

I can see why wishing it was easier to make your dream real, but as someone born and raised in the US with US citizenship, I wouldn't go back to living there and I do not see the appeal. I often hear Brits gushing about how they'd love to live there (it seems to be some's natural response to my accent) and in the ten years here I've yet to come up with a suitable response.

Sure, the picture shown is all glitz and glamour, but the news of human rights abuses, reproductive rights being slashed, the lack of safety net for the poor and disabled, the issues with the judicial system from police brutality to Supreme Court, the mortality rate across the board, the expense of all forms of health and so on and so on aren't exactly a secret. It's everywhere. Amnesty International has sent in observers and investigators, there are police brutality related deaths and maiming stories constantly going around (what with an unarmed black person being shot by US police every 28 hours). I just can't see why anyone would want to visit let alone live there. As much as I get nostalgic for childhood foods and pine to go to an AIM event and admire the advocates risking their lives, I have no desire to return, ever. I can't imagine feeling safe living and raising kids in the US.

Where in the US did you stay Rusticated Do you have kids?

I admit to having a ridiculously rose tinted glasses view of American suburbia where my two boys play baseball and fly about on their bikes like in the film E.T

highway. No idea of the company name but not a well known one. They did/do kitchen improvements.

Dh got offered a transfer to Houston and went for two months. Didnt like it and came back. I was gutted.

Does it not depend where you live in the US Spork Like comparing inner cities here with the West coast of Scotland for example.

YANBU

I have a certain fascination with the USA too. I love having a little look on goggle earth and dream about living there.

Yes bowler I was just looking up houses on realtor then google street viewing them

Mostly Boston, then rural Massachusetts. No, we didn't have children then.

Yanbu. Saving up here to go back to California on holiday, I do realise though living there and holidaying there are two different things but I should have been born a rich Californian really.

I wouldn't live in the States if you paid me. I've spent a lot of time there through work. I could cope with a year in a big coastal city, but other than that, no way.

It's oppressive - religion is used to attack the rights of women, and to excuse prejudice of all sorts. The welfare state is appalling, with no compassion for those at the bottom of the pile - it makes our lot look like bleeding heart liberals. Gun crime is terrifying, and any debate is fed through the same right-wing religious filter until it makes you want to cry. The massive opposition to Obamacare, which is just basic humane treatment of people in need of medical care, speaks for itself. Drug problems are rife, with some cities being virtually no-go.

On a more mundane basis, a lot of the food is vile. The TV is moronic apart from the few good things that get sold abroad. It takes years and years to make proper solid friendships despite what seems to be immediate social interest. Debates about current events are a struggle; I've met college professors who can't name a single country in Africa.

Don't get me wrong. I have American friends, who would agree with most of what I've written, and have met some very interesting and caring people there. But don't get sucked into a tourist image of what it's like there. You have so many privileges living in the UK.

The ridiculous thing is that I know lots of people in the USA who would love to live in Europe but have no hope of getting a visa. I think you should be able to find a family that matches your own in size etc and swap.

I like this idea. I'm now in the UK, but I'd be willing to donate my right to live in the US since I have no intention of going back.

Me too Tinkerball

Alpaca all of that sounds horrible to be honest. Not a downer but a reality maybe? But surely not all places are like you describe?

I honeymooned in California 10 years ago. By far our favourite place was Napa Valley. (Not just because of the wine!!) I have family that live there and they say it's safe and has very good neighbourhood schools. Costs an absolute fortune to live there mind you!

You know what though? Life is basically the same, wherever you live it. And I say that as a dual US/UK citizen who's lived in both countries long-term, plus I've also lived and worked in Italy and France. Life is life.

If the grass looks greener elsewhere, tend to your own grass.