Any regrets?

  I'm getting ready to move to the UK with my family. My wife misses home.  Does anyone have major regrets for moving to the England.  I have been on holiday several times, despite the weather I enjoyed it.  Long term effects of the weather do have me concerned. I spent a majority of my adult life in Florida.  We will be living in the North Midlands.  I thinks the people are really friendly. Sorry but I had some probs with Londoner's.

Hi there! Good luck with your move!
I don't have any major regrets, but I do miss home. England is beautiful, but the weather can get a bit old at times. I lived in FL for five years too, loved it!
I miss the shopping, for normal things.
I miss friends and family, it seems a little difficult making friends here, but maybe it is just my experience, or maybe the area I am in.
We are both really wanting to move to the states, but from what we have read on the embassy site, it looks like it may be long and drawn out and possibly not so simple.
Hope that wasn't too much negativity! There are lots of good things here, just not enough to spend the rest of my life here.
Take care!

Oh well, I didn't move to England, I moved to Scotland   

Well I Love my life, its a good one!  Love the people, have a great group of friends, play in a few bands, love my allotment, just enjoy it all! Plus I've done amazing things here that I would have never been able to do in the US - I've recorded in Abbey Road Studios for example! Amazing. 

I would not say that I regret moving here, but, it was A HECK OF A LOT HARDER than I thought it would be. In several very unexpected ways.

And, in many ways, it still is... I very much miss having my core support group of very close friends around, and let me tell you, I really could have used them here!

Some of the struggle I am referring too had to do with my career, and the economy, rather than simply relocating to England.

Moving country *in mid-career, during a bad economy* and expecting everything to just snap into place... was rather naive of me.

I've only been here since May 2011. But, I don't regret it.



 

Oh well, I didn't move to England, I moved to Scotland   

Another one for Scotland, here.
With absolutely no regrets at all.  I moved here a LONG time ago, before immigration got really difficult/expensive.  I settled in, got a job, made friends, got married, learned to drive, got divorced and just basically have a normal, average-joe kind of life.

For me, I'm not sure what there would be to regret, as I didn't have anything worth holding onto in the US anyway.  My relationship with my family was in tatters at the time I emigrated, and has actually got better over the last 20+ years by having some distance between us.

And the weather is one of the things I like most about living here. 

I would not say that I regret moving here, but, it was A HECK OF A LOT HARDER than I thought it would be. In several very unexpected ways.
...
Moving country *in mid-career, during a bad economy* and expecting everything to just snap into place... was rather naive of me.

I feel much the same way.

I don't regret having moved to Scotland.  This is where my husband needed to be, for now, and I don't regret anything that lets us be a family.

I think it's fair to say that I regret the necessity of moving.  That is, I think he and I both wish circumstances had been different, so that he could have moved to the U.S. instead (which had sort of been our original plan).

For me, though, aside from the economic/career stuff, the biggest problem has been that I miss my family.  So I can really sympathize with your wife.  The problem with any international couple, though, is that no matter where you settle, someone's missing something.  Their friends, their family, their favorite beer...whatever.  Someone always has to give something up.

So, again, aside from the economic/career considerations, the only thing I would recommend that you be aware of is your own relationships with your family/friends.  I'm not saying you shouldn't move, or anything like that.  Just be aware that, if you're close to them, it's probably going to be harder than you think to be away from them.  Which I'm sure your wife would confirm.

None whatsoever. I wanted to move back more than my Brit husband. We are retired, and have a far better life here than we would have in the US.

At age 64 my parents tried to make me feel guilty for leaving the us again (1st time was in 1993). A bit difficult, particularly at my age, but we did what was best for us. Make the UK "home", not just 'where you live' and life will likely be great.

I miss my family back in the States, and a few things about New Hampshire, but that's about it. I love my life here. So no, no regrets. It definitely is harder than I imagined it would be...but more so on my daughter who is 13. She had a real hard time adjusting to school and is still questioning whether she wants to head back to the states to be with her dad.
Good luck with your move! The midlands is a nice place to be...centrally located to everything.

We have only been here for about a month, but we love it.  We moved with 3 small children and everybody is doing well.  no regrets at all!   

It's been a roller-coaster for me, and after three years it continues to be one, really.

The first year was almost wall-to-wall regret (or at least it felt like that at the time -- looking back on it I have managed to excise the painful memories and find stuff to enjoy there, in retrospect).

Second year was a little easier and the third year has been quite fun. We still don't really have PEOPLE here, but we love our surroundings (Brighton area) and there is no shortage of stuff to do. Whole months go by now when I don't scan the US job ads at all, which would have been unthinkable back in 2009-2010.

Just recently I have started having twinges of wanting to head back to the US, though. It might be because we are coming up on our three year mark (we had originally decided we'd try it for three years before we made any decision). Also, we are about to embark on our first trip back to the US since we moved over in 2009 -- we're flying out to Toronto and then spending some time in upstate NY for a family wedding. It'll be very interesting to see how the US looks after so much time away, and to think about how the UK feels from a distance.

I wouldn't say I regret making the move, all in all, but it has been a tumultuous and at times quite painful process.