A couple questions

Hello everyone. Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this but I wasn't sure where to put it. Mods if you need to move it that's fine.

My husband (UKC) and I currently live in the States. Originally we planned to move back to the UK once both my kids have graduated. Unfortunately I think that plan is going to change. Life here for him is just becoming more and more unbearable. So now we are shooting for leaving in about 3 years. This will allow  my oldest to have graduated, we will have lived in our home long enough to avoid having to repay back the IRS and my youngest will have finished middle school.  Now here are our questions.

1: For those who have moved with school age children. How difficult was the transition from a school in the US to the one in the UK and how well did your child(ren) adapt. I know initially the kids in the UK left school earlier than here but I'm also under the impression that is changing.

2: For those who moved with a child from a previous marriage. How difficult is it to obtain the courts approval? I've put out inquires to lawyers in my area but if anyone has gone through it in the past any insight would be greatly appreciated.

3: For those who bought a house. How difficult was it to get a mortgage? We are hoping to be able to sell nearly all our items here and move with just clothes etc. We both have really good credit scores in the states but i'm not sure ow that will equate over there. I've heard of international credit scores being utilized but by which banks. Also is it worth trying to set up a bank account in the UK before moving?

Sorry for the loads of questions but we are trying to put into place a 3 year plan to make sure we can save up as much as possible with the intent of moving

Thanks for all the help/insight from anyone who can assist..

Hi,
I can't help with all your questions but will give you my eperience of moving here with a 14 year....she had finished 8th grade in the states which placed her into year 10 here in England. I think if I am right this is the age your youngest son will be.

In my opinion this is one of the easier times to move over with a teenager, a year or two later becomes more difficult. Year 10 is when they begin their two year work towards earning their GCSE's. My daughter is very academic and finds school easy in general. She adjusted very well, but she did find it frustrating in some cases. They learn some things in different orders- Maths seemed to be the biggest area for this, so she was ahead in some areas and behind in others. After the first 6 months she was pretty caught up and didn't have any academic problems. This was with help of a very supportive school. The other academic area that could have caused a problem was that all the children in her school were expected to do French GCSE....they had been taking french for many years. She had taken some Spanish, but Spanish wasn't offered. They excused her from this GCSE which allowed to her to have  a study period to help her catch up where needed.

Socially she adapted wonderfully and in fact blossomed. The kids curiosity about 'the american' made it is easy for her to quickly make friends.

After GCSE's at age 16 children here go to a sixth form or ' college ' or work...the move more now is towards all of them continuing in some kind of education and if my years are right it will be that they have to by the time your son is here.

At sixth form or college (sixth forms are usually attached to a high school while a college is a separate school) they either take vocational courses or A levels. A levels are academic courses they choose 3 traditional academic areas usually. If they are going on to University this is the route they take. It is a 2 year program.

Okay that was a lot of information--- hope it makes sense-- please don't hesitate to ask questions!

As for court permissions- can't help with that because my daughter's father signed permission for her to come over, therefore we didn't have to go through the courts.

Buying a house I also can't help since my DH was here first already owning a home.

Good Luck through all the planning

sorry one more thing to add
another good thing about moving a child at that age...making sure the move is done in the summer before year 10...they will have lived in the country for 3 years before they start university which makes them elligible for home fees instead of internation fees if they choose to attend university in England...and that is a HUGE difference!

You won't have credit when you move over.  I don't know of any banks that look at your US credit.  So you may have to rent for a few years...which is not such a bad thing as it'll give you time to figure out where you want to finally live & what your budget should be.  Right now, getting a mortgage is very, very difficult, even for people who are citizens.  My DH had very good credit and was already a homeowner when we applied for our mortgage...I had four years of very good credit here...and we put down 20%.  You may be able to find a bank who will give you a mortgage, but I think it'd be tough.

Thank you both for your replies. They help a ton. I think our biggest hurdle is going to be having either the court approve and/or my ex giving the ok. If he's smart he will do so as it won't affect anything at all. If we have to go through the court I can't see any real issues either as he already moved far away from his son and we are willing to split the cost of any flights. Past that the rest shouldn't be impossible. At least we should have nearly 3 years to save and here we only have a mortgage and car payment.

Thanks again!