Best Laid Plans Bite the Dust

So frustrated right now.  Short story is son is leaving for UK July 25th and staying with MIL where we will all be living eventually.  He is starting Year 9 in September- husband was supposed to go in February and my daughter and I were going to go next summer so she could start 6th Form.  We planned it this way because of the timing for the school. We meet the financial requirement with savings, we've been married for 18 years, I've lived in England before and I love it - never really wanted to come back to the US (but that's a whole other story).  Suffice it to say I was really excited to be going back and everything seemed to be in place to do so.

Any way the issue now is that we just found out that my husband has to be working in the US for 10 years in order to collect his social security benefits.  We had no idea.  That means that he can't leave until January 2019!  Ugh!

So now we'll have the added stress of getting ourselves and our kids back and forth for visits to help our MIL since she only signed on for 6 months of sole responsibility for my son which will now be a year and a half - plus my daughter when she goes over next summer.

It's just not ideal.  An already expensive process is going to become even more so.  God only knows what the VISA fee will be by 2019 or how the financial requirement may change - more stress but will try not to think about it too much just now.  I'm still too heartbroken about knowing I will not be able to go back for good next summer. and will have our family separated even longer.

Sorry to ramble - I'm just so frustrated about this!  Thanks for letting me vent

Yeah, that blows!  But you are wise to wait for qualifying for social security. 

The UK you have to pay in for 40 years now which won't happen for me and it's a fraction of what I'll get for the 10 years I did pay into ss!

But vent away.  It's one of my favourite pastimes!

The UK you have to pay in for 40 years now which won't happen for me and it's a fraction of what I'll get for the 10 years I did pay into ss!

It's not that bad, yet! Currently you need 35 qualifying years for the full pension but you get a proportion for anything 10 years or over.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

It's not that bad, yet! Currently you need 35 qualifying years for the full pension but you get a proportion for anything 10 years or over.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated

Cool, I didn't realise that.  But the state pension is really small and is the same for everyone, isnt it?  It's not based on what you paid in?

Cool, I didn't realise that.  But the state pension is really small and is the same for everyone, isnt it?  It's not based on what you paid in?

Yes, it's tiny. 

And yes, the max you can get is the same for everyone, no matter if they were earning/paying in a lot or not.
It used to be simply down to the number of qualifying years you have (may still be) but they've changed it all up recently so I don't really understand it any more.

This is off topic from pensions, but back to best laid plans.  Irregardless of my husband and my delay, my son will be going to the UK at the end of the month as he has a school place for Year 9 in September.  We don't want to cancel that as it's an important foundation for GCSE's.  Now I'm worried that he'll have issues because his U.K. Passport is expired (we never renewed it because we knew he needed to travel back and forth with his US passport.  My plan was to have him take his birth certificate and expired U.K. Passport with a letter explaining he's returning to live with his grandmother until we are able to return and that he will renew the U.K. Passport asap - I've already filled out the app and he's taking it with him as well so my MIL can mail it in.

Since my plans haven't worked out so far, I'm worried that he'll have trouble when he arrives.  I really don't want his first experience traveling alone to the U.K. To be a horrible immigration nightmare.  Am I just being overly worrisome?

This is off topic from pensions, but back to best laid plans.  Irregardless of my husband and my delay, my son will be going to the UK at the end of the month as he has a school place for Year 9 in September.  We don't want to cancel that as it's an important foundation for GCSE's.  Now I'm worried that he'll have issues because his U.K. Passport is expired (we never renewed it because we knew he needed to travel back and forth with his US passport.  My plan was to have him take his birth certificate and expired U.K. Passport with a letter explaining he's returning to live with his grandmother until we are able to return and that he will renew the U.K. Passport asap - I've already filled out the app and he's taking it with him as well so my MIL can mail it in.

Since my plans haven't worked out so far, I'm worried that he'll have trouble when he arrives.  I really don't want his first experience traveling alone to the U.K. To be a horrible immigration nightmare.  Am I just being overly worrisome?

Can you renew it before he leaves? As he's not entering as a visitor, he really needs to enter on his UK passport.  Unfortunately none of us will be able to predict what his experience will be like on the day.  He may sail through, he may not.  Do be sure that whomever he is traveling with has a letter of consent for him to be traveling with them.

For your son, you really need to renew his UK passport before he flies to the UK.

I believe it takes about 4 weeks for a passport renewal from the US.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can you renew it before he leaves? As he's not entering as a visitor, he really needs to enter on his UK passport.  Unfortunately none of us will be able to predict what his experience will be like on the day.  He may sail through, he may not.  Do be sure that whomever he is traveling with has a letter of consent for him to be traveling with them.

He's traveling alone and leaving in two weeks.  ugh!  I thought there was no law stating UKC had to enter with U.K. Passport?  Anyway I know I can't get the new passport in two weeks but if I applied and sent proof of the application with him would that be better than just sending the expired passport?  I could change the flight but I used miles so will lose them which is a bummer but if it means the difference between a smooth entry and a horrible one I'll do it.  Also going to call the British Consulate here in San Diego and see what they say but appreciate your insight too

If visiting the UK, a UKC does not need to enter on a UK passport.  If living in the UK, they do.  If he is allowed in as a visitor, you enter grey area for NHS use, schooling, etc.

You may find the airline won't allow him to board without a return flight booked (I can't check in online and have to show my visa at the counter before receiving a boarding pass when returning to the UK as I travel on a US passport).

If visiting the UK, a UKC does not need to enter on a UK passport.  If living in the UK, they do.  If he is allowed in as a visitor, you enter grey area for NHS use, schooling, etc.

You may find the airline won't allow him to board without a return flight booked (I can't check in online and have to show my visa at the counter before receiving a boarding pass when returning to the UK as I travel on a US passport).

The only ideas I have at this point are these and none are ideal:

a) Book a return flight to US so he can enter on his US passport without raising any eyebrows and then send his new UK passport to him.  He would get it before school starts so nobody could question his right to go to school there - the school offered a place with just his expired UK passport and birth cert as proof of citizenship so not worried about them.

b) change his flight to UK to the end of August (roundtrip ticket) and hope we get his UK passport in time (I sent the app off today) and if we don't have it in time, send proof that it's being processed with him.

c) forget about him going this summer and trying again next summer hoping that a school will accept him going into Year 10.  He said he would be fine if they made him go into Year 9 though - my son is so reasonable!

The thing that kills me is that he has legal right to abode and here I am, feeling like a criminal because I'm trying to come up with all these convoluted ways to get him in the country!  Maybe it is time to just scrap the whole idea.  If her were meant to be there it wouldn't be so hard.   

Awww, I know it's hard.  <hugs>

Sounds like you've got some good options.  You'll get through this, I promise.

Honestly, I don't know the secondary system well.  Hopefully ksand will let you know what it would mean to enter in Year 9 v Year 10.  Ksand is British and a huge success story out of the UK school system.   

Honestly, I don't know the secondary system well.  Hopefully ksand will let you know what it would mean to enter in Year 9 v Year 10.  Ksand is British and a huge success story out of the UK school system.   

Aww, thanks .

Honestly, the important thing is to make sure he's in the UK in order to start Year 10, so that he can begin GCSEs at the correct time (i.e. you don't want to move him AFTER Year 10 starts).

I'm not sure if it's changed since I was in school (it's been 20 years since I started Year 10!), but the only thing you really did in Year 9 that had any affect on Year 10 was to choose which subjects you wanted to take for GCSEs, and for the teachers to decide which 'sets' to put you in for some of the subjects based on your Year 9 grades/performance.

It used to be that you would sit SATs (Statutory Assessment Tests) in English, Maths and Science at the end of Year 9 (in May), and your scores were partly used to determine which sets you would be put in. However, SATs for 14-year-olds (Year 9) were scrapped in 2008 and are now only taken at age 7 and age 11.

The actual work you do in Year 9 isn't really related to Year 10, since GCSE's are self-contained 2-year courses, which you start at the beginning of Year 10 and finish at the end of Year 11. So, as long as he has the basic backgrounds in the subjects he's taking for GCSEs, that shouldn't be an issue.

However, if you wanted to give him some time to adjust to the UK school system, make some friends, and allow the teachers to get to know him and gauge his academic ability, before GCSEs start, it would be worth him starting in Year 9 this coming year.

The only ideas I have at this point are these and none are ideal:

a) Book a return flight to US so he can enter on his US passport without raising any eyebrows and then send his new UK passport to him.  He would get it before school starts so nobody could question his right to go to school there - the school offered a place with just his expired UK passport and birth cert as proof of citizenship so not worried about them.

b) change his flight to UK to the end of August (roundtrip ticket) and hope we get his UK passport in time (I sent the app off today) and if we don't have it in time, send proof that it's being processed with him.

c) forget about him going this summer and trying again next summer hoping that a school will accept him going into Year 10.  He said he would be fine if they made him go into Year 9 though - my son is so reasonable!

If it were me, I would probably go with option b) - apply for his passport renewal and change the flight so he goes over in August. If you've sent the application off today, that should give you enough time to get the passport back and for him to fly over before school starts.

Option a) seems a bit risky to me, partly because it's better if he enters on a UK passport and isn't stamped in as a visitor, and it's also risky sending a passport to someone internationally - it could get flagged up at customs.

Option c) seems a bit drastic if you've already planned for him to move over and start UK school now...it seems a bit much to push his move back a whole year just for the sake of waiting a couple of extra weeks for his new passport to arrive.

Thanks for your input - I really appreciate it.  My son has his heart set on leaving on the 25th as planned so he could do some fun stuff with my friends' kids and his cousins before school starts.

I was told his passport could take 4-6 weeks and I can't do anything to expedite it. I guess I'll have to talk him into going later and hope it only takes four weeks