Need lots of Advice! Oregon to UK by myself

The easiet route to British citizenship now, is the spouse visa. Quite a few seem to meet online.

The only thing I would caution with that is that you don't want to be looking for just anybody willing so that you can fulfil this requirement (I'm not saying anybody here did or that Meg would or that this is what's even being insinuated here). I imagine the home office can probably smell that type of stuff a mile away based on the evidence required and, as many of us know, it's still pretty costly and is not the type of thing you can just go your separate ways on while remaining in the country (legally). If that was the end game, you'd need to commit to MANY years of that (and I would never personally advocate for marrying just for a visa unless under dire circumstances).

I agree though that it definitely seems the easiest way towards the path to citizenship.

Yeah, I met a guy online 3 years ago.  We got really close and i stayed with him while visiting.  He turned out to be not that nice of a guy.  So meeting a potential husband online is probably not a route i'd take.  maybe if i met someone there it'd be ok.

It is different when you live somewhere.  But that doesn't mean you won't love it.

Ksand, our resident visa guru is British and has an interesting journey in wanting to live in the USA.

Yep, my journey was as follows:

- grew up loving America (through reading American YA books and watching US TV shows)
- Aug 1995: 4-week trip with my family to visit my aunt in the US (age 12)... loved it and decided I wanted to live in the US 'when I grew up'
- Aug 1998: 5-week family visit to my aunt in the US (age 15) - loved it
- Aug 2000: 4-week family visit to my aunt in the US (age 17) - loved it
- July 2001: 4-week visit on my own (age 18) - loved it
- Mar 2002: 5-week visit on my own (age 19) - loved it
- Aug 2003-Jun 2004: moved to the US on a study abroad year (age 20-21) - loved it
- July 2006: 2-week family visit to my aunt (age 23) - loved it
- Jan 2008: moved to the US on a 4-year student visa to study for a PhD (age 24)... I was finally living my dream - HATED IT!
- Aug 2008: left the US and moved home (age 25). Decided I never wanted to live in the US again.
- Jan 2010: 2-week visit to the US (age 27)
- Jul 2011:  2-week visit to the US (age 28)
- Nov 2011: 2-week visit to the US (age 28)
- Nov 2012: 2-week visit to the US (age 29)
- Sep 2014: 2-week visit to the US (age 31)
- Sep 2015: 2-week visit to the US (age 32)
- Sep 2016: 3-week visit to the US (age 33)
- Sep 2017: 2-week visit to the US (age 34)

Basically, I quickly realised that the things I love about the US are visit/tourist-related things:
- travelling around
- experiencing cool US traditions
- eating out
- sightseeing
- seeing my relatives

Whereas, the actual realities of living in the US were:
- lonely
- hated the PhD research I was doing
- no friends
- no immediate family within 1,000 miles (my aunt) or 5,000 miles (my parents)
- lack of history and culture
- the live-to-work mentality
- expensive healthcare
- the politics
- unfamiliar cooking ingredients and recipes
- lack of familiar foods (things taste different in the US...the milk, the bread, the cheese, the chocolate etc.)
- annoying, too-frequent TV commercials
- confusing banking
- the laborious task of filing taxes
- lack of ability to get around without a car
- expensive groceries
- expensive cable TV/broadband
- expensive mobile phone contracts

So, while I love to visit the US, I will never live there again. For me, the UK is my home, it's where I'm comfortable, and where I belong. It might be cold and grey and wet half the time, it might be 'boring' on occasion (compared to the 'glamour' of the US), but I wouldn't give it up for the world.

Doesn't mean I spend all my time in the UK, though - I'm lucky enough to have secured a job that allows me to travel A LOT. For the last 4 years, I've spent 3-5 months per year working overseas, sometimes in remote corners of the world that few people ever get the chance to travel to. Just in the last 12 months, I've lived on two continents (Europe and Antarctica) and travelled to 11 countries on 5 continents (US, Italy, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Chile, British Antarctic Territory, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand). If I'd stayed in the US, like I'd dreamed of doing most of my life, I would never have had the opportunities I have now...I wouldn't have been able to travel so much and I'd probably be stuck working in academia right now (and hating it)!

all the reasons you listed why you hate the US are pretty much the same for me.  My family all got cancer and died so I don't have any family anywhere (cept my mom, who is planning to move to costa rica).  i spent all my time taking care of my family and had no time to make friends... but i've made some very close friends in the UK.  i don't like american culture. our lack of history. our politics. our humor is awful. our police are insane (i was once arrested for selling lemonade without a permit... charges dropped eventually, but still, that was unpleasant).  etc....

and especially in my area, the political discourse has become violent.  i've had my car swarmed by mobs of angry violent people while trying to get home from work.  and they seem to be getting worse day by day.  smashing business windows, starting fires, attack drivers and people in the street.  i genuinely fear for my safety here.  there is no reason for me to stay anymore.

Yeah, I met a guy online 3 years ago.  We got really close and i stayed with him while visiting.  He turned out to be not that nice of a guy.  So meeting a potential husband online is probably not a route i'd take.  maybe if i met someone there it'd be ok.

I definitely didn't try to meet a Brit online... It happened on accident due to very disappointing New Years and a Cthulu reference. Haha. I certaibly never expected to end up over here.

When you come for an extended visit make sure it's partially in the winter. If you like the UK then, you can handle it year round. Though needing a sweatshirt in June just makes me sad.

oregon weather is pretty much the same as england.  mostly cold and wet, a few possible snow showers in the winter. 

all the reasons you listed why you hate the US are pretty much the same for me.  My family all got cancer and died so I don't have any family anywhere (cept my mom, who is planning to move to costa rica).  i spent all my time taking care of my family and had no time to make friends... but i've made some very close friends in the UK.  i don't like american culture. our lack of history. our politics. our humor is awful. our police are insane (i was once arrested for selling lemonade without a permit... charges dropped eventually, but still, that was unpleasant).  etc....

and especially in my area, the political discourse has become violent.  i've had my car swarmed by mobs of angry violent people while trying to get home from work.  and they seem to be getting worse day by day.  smashing business windows, starting fires, attack drivers and people in the street.  i genuinely fear for my safety here.  there is no reason for me to stay anymore.

Fair enough - I get that you have plenty of good reasons for not wanting to be in the US right now (in fact, I wasn't planning on going back over for a while because of the whole political climate, but this year's trip is a family-related thing that couldn't be put off).

All I'm really saying is that the UK isn't perfect either... so just be aware that while visiting, or even living in the UK for a short period may be really great, living here is very different from just visiting. So you want to be careful not to view the UK with rose-tinted glasses, and to be aware that it's normal to experience culture shock when you move on a more long-term basis.

There are plenty of things wrong with the UK too. To name a few:
- our government doesn't seem to know what they're doing
- the whole Brexit thing is damaging our economy and our worldwide reputation
- the NHS, while I wouldn't want to live without it, is at crisis point
- salaries are much lower here than in the US
- cost of living is generally higher here than in the US
- the weather can be disappointing and miserable half the time
- a lot of people find the short winter days cause depression
- the damp here can make you feel much colder than you would in the US
- housing is tiny and extremely expensive for what you get
- petrol prices are high
- public transport is expensive
- customer service is terrible compared with the US
- there is basically NO good Mexican food in the UK (something which I know frustrates a lot of people here on the forum )

I had already spent 15 months in the US before I moved there the second time, and because I loved every minute of those 15 months, I thought I would love moving there for real... but when I got there, it just wasn't the same at all: reality hit, and it hit hard.

I spent about 6 months there feeling miserable and depressed, but not knowing what to do because I didn't feel right there, but I also want to move home and then regret it. Then I went back to the UK for 2 weeks in July (for my masters graduation), and when I cried for 4 days straight, unable to bear the thought of going back, I realised it wasn't worth putting myself through it anymore. So I flew back, told my PhD supervisor I wanted to leave and within 10 days I had packed up my life and moved home. It's been 9 years now and I haven't regretted it for a second. The experience did make me realise that my love of the US growing up was idealistic and my view of what it was like to live there was a false representation (as depicted on TV and in movies).

I just want to chime in to remind everyone that the US has thousands of years of history, it's just not European in origin! 

I first studied abroad in the UK and really enjoyed myself.  Happened to meet a guy and took it from there.  I moved back for a year to do my masters degree and I hated it.  I was definitely depressed and really didn't enjoy my time there at all despite living with my SO.  I had no intention of living there permanently until my husband got a great job and it made more sense for us.  So I moved back, and now I like living here.  I would still move back to the US in a heartbeat (I am very close to my family), but I do like living here now.  It's taken some adjustments but it's been a completely different experience. 

I sincerely hope that you will be able to find a way here and I wish nothing but the best for you, but make sure that you familiarize yourself with the rules so that you don't do something which might hurt you later (like do any work- voluntary or paid). 

are internship programs covered under student, tier 2/5, or visitor passes?

Internships come under a Tier 5 visa .


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Internships come under a Tier 5 visa .

thanks yo! i've been looking at a few internship programs that claim they can help with job placement after 6 months.  i'll have to look into them more, but that could be promising, as a few of them are even in my current career field.  and, while i don't mean to demean the british film/tv field (i personally find it vastly superior to american), the fact that i was educated and worked in hollywood can possibly boost my value to potential employers.

thanks yo! i've been looking at a few internship programs that claim they can help with job placement after 6 months.  i'll have to look into them more, but that could be promising, as a few of them are even in my current career field.  and, while i don't mean to demean the british film/tv field (i personally find it vastly superior to american), the fact that i was educated and worked in hollywood can possibly boost my value to potential employers.

Have you looked at the Bunac Intern in Britain programme? I believe you have to find and secure the internship yourself and then the company has to sponsor you for a Tier 5 visa (this may be the case for other programmes too). The internship can be paid or unpaid, but for both you have to show you have a specific amount of money in your bank account to support yourself.

See: https://www.bunac.org/usa/intern-abroad/professional/britain


Edited:
actually for the Bunac one I believe you have to be a current undergraduate or have graduated in the last 12 months

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Yeah, I met a guy online 3 years ago.  We got really close and i stayed with him while visiting.  He turned out to be not that nice of a guy.  So meeting a potential husband online is probably not a route i'd take.  maybe if i met someone there it'd be ok.

I find it usually works out the best when you aren't intending to look for that

so, if I were to go to the uk for 4-6 months as a visitor, with proof that I had a home/job to return to in the states, would I be able to spend that time looking for tier 2 jobs? not actually applying till I get back home, but just meeting with people? I just don't see how I can convince someone to hire me without meeting them, and looking for positions from over here seems impossible.

You could do - you can look for jobs and even interview as a visitor, but you cannot start working and you must return to your home country to apply for the visa.

I have a US friend who came over to the UK specifically to attend interviews... a couple of companies were interested in hiring her, but unfortunately they weren't able to sponsor her for a Tier 2 visa (either they didn't have a sponsorship licence or they knew the job would not qualify for sponsorship)... so they were like 'we'd like to offer you the job but we can only hire you if you can secure a different type of visa that allows work'.


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