reverse visa journey

[kaffy 2]

We lived in Australia for a year before coming (back) here. My husband has his Aussie PR (and I will retain my citizenship) so we are keeping our options open!

[Dan & Juan 12]

If I could speak and read Chinese, I'd move there in a heartbeat.

I totally agree with you as much as I love USA and all China was just like so different from how I pictured. I pictured much less modern, but alas I hope to learn as much Chinese as I can but realistically her adjustment to USA with a huge Chinese population everywhere here is more obvious

[Dakine 26]

I tried it for awhile but without me being able to know what's going on around me as I can't speak the local dialect I don't care for it that much.

Besides that I love the Philippines. Month or so vaccations will have to do. We do own a 4 houses there which our family lives in three. Other is for us when we visit.

[Sprailenes 47]

Before I moved here he told me he would love to go back to Canada, but now that I'm here I don't think he really meant that, and now calls Canada depressing.

Go figure.

[Jon&Lindsey 0]

I doubt we'll ever live in the UK. My parents are leaving to live in France, and I have no other close family there. In the veterinary specialty I am in, it is much easier to get a job/start a practise here than in the UK. I can make the same working here as in the UK, but with better quality of life. Hubby is self-employed and works from home, so could really work anywhere, but would rather stay here because of his son, who is still in college. I confess I'm really not bothered at the thought of never returning to the UK, I like living here. We are considering splitting our time between France and the US (or at least long visits there), but that's a long way in the future, when I have citizenship and we have more money.

[Nessa 23]

ugh...I feel like I need some hand sanitizer or something. I would never move to a third world country for someone.

i doubt you'd say that after speding a couple weeks in brazil

[msu17 0]

it probably would have been easier for me to stay and him to move here, we definitely would be living more comfortably. despite that, i'm looking forward to the change in culture and the experience of living in another country. we may well move back here one day though.

Really? We'd take a HUGE lifestyle hit. Here we have a house, there we'd be living in a tiny apartment. Here we both have cars, there we couldn't afford one. Even if I could find a job there in what I want to do relatively easy, I'd still take a pay hit. The cost of living in the UK is just WAY too high.

[Jasman0717 9]

We plan to stay part of the time in the RP when I retire just because our living standard will be much higher than here. I can buy a lot there for 60 pesos that I can't do ####### here on a buck

[Niels Bohr 72]

I can stay in my wife's country, Cambodia, for as long as I desire. Warranted that I have a job that pays the same over here.

[Teacher Mark 53]

I'm going to give it the old college try early next year. Just got the ticket the other day. It remains to be seen whether the second portion of the ticket will be used or not. As it stands I have 2 months to see if I can make a living in Vietnam teaching English. Thank God I'm in a profession that always needs warm bodies, but my current employer would probably have a spot for me if I come back with my tail between my legs.

[rebeccajo 14]

it probably would have been easier for me to stay and him to move here, we definitely would be living more comfortably. despite that, i'm looking forward to the change in culture and the experience of living in another country. we may well move back here one day though.

Why didn't you then? Great Britain is lovely.

several reasons. firstly the housing market wasn't doing so badly when we applied. secondly there are some personal things that meant it was appropriate for us to move there at the time of application but things have happened since then to change our situation. hindsight is a wonderful thing. i also don't like the cold.

Ah, ok.

I guess I got confused about the bit where you said you'd be living more comfortably over there than here. As you can see from some of the other responses in this thread, most Brits say they are more 'comfortable' in the US (meaning financially). I guess I never 'saw' the huge differences in cost of living when I visited - but my husband is from Northern Ireland where they say cost of living isn't as exorbitant as the mainland.

I view a lot of the social safety nets available in the UK as 'comfortable' - health care, unemployment benefits, housing allowances, etc. I also enjoyed the public transit and the physical proximity of geography. I didn't find the typical UK 'smaller' house to be a bad thing compared to US overmortgaged behemoths.

We live here in the US because of my son and parents. Period. I don't know what we would have chosen had I been as footloose as Wes. I guess I'm disillusioned with my country and have been for a long time now. I do think the US is a great country - but I don't think it's the be-all-and-end-all. I think you can have a good life in other spots also.

[tallcoolone 102]

Do any of you think it would have been a better decision to stay in your beneficiary's country instead of brining them to the US? Just wondering......................my husband was upper middle class over there and here were are just kinda like trash(LMAO)..........................we keep thinking on going back to Philippines ............................at least there I would have a maid LOL! I am just curious what are your thoughts about this issue? And has anyone else experienced the same thoughts? thanks!

Very Often, especially with this colder months in the USA.

My wife family had 2 helper/maids. 30 dollars per month is all it cost. They cooked, cleaned, shopped, etc.

If I could do it backwards I would be in PI in a heartbeat.

Hopefully by next Christmas my wife will have her AOS completed and we will be able to spend winter time in PI.

I hope to be living in PI on a part time basis in a few years, and then in about 10 years I plan to be on a full time basis.

I love my American Heritage and would never give it up, it just nice to be able to have an option and it comes with being an American.....

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

No, his family is dirt poor, and I lived in Jordan for 10 months, not the life for me

[NickD 202]

Do any of you think it would have been a better decision to stay in your beneficiary's country instead of brining them to the US? Just wondering......................my husband was upper middle class over there and here were are just kinda like trash(LMAO)..........................we keep thinking on going back to Philippines ............................at least there I would have a maid LOL! I am just curious what are your thoughts about this issue? And has anyone else experienced the same thoughts? thanks!

A maid sounds good, wife had one in Venezuela for over a year and gain trust in her. With all those bars, triple locks, guarded gates, etc., wife trusted her and gave her the keys, came home one night and her condo was cleaned out. Police were worthless and her ex used the insurance money to buy booze, she was screwed.

The concept of hiring an impoverished maid in seemingly a wealthy environmental with plenty of toys to play with can lead to temptation, even for the best of them.

Not sure if I could live in a country where there is extreme luxury and poverty, in Caracas, living right next door to each other, not sure to call the impoverished mountain people or the area they live in ant hills. No official numbers on the ratios of extreme poor to better off, my guess is the Caracas area is at least 70% in extreme poverty. Homes without doors or windows stacked on each other, not sure how they get around without walking through someone's bedroom room. Was told was not safe for the census people even to go up there.

But living in a nice condo wasn't so nice either, been in prisons, not as a prisoner if I may mention that would be easier to break out of. Guarded gates, and 3 or 4 different keys just to open your two doors with the outer looking like a cell door with bars, felt I was in jail. Wife was constantly concerned I would be robbed or kidnapped, what a way to live, but I still roam alone, ha, when approached on a dark street, whoever was coming preferred to cross the street. But I was not planning on robbing or kidnapping anyone, just a constant living in a state of fear.

Like being home now, can see my pretty trees without looking through bars, feel my wife was more anxious to come home than I was, she feels safe here.

[DanielParul 50]

Do any of you think it would have been a better decision to stay in your beneficiary's country instead of brining them to the US? Just wondering......................my husband was upper middle class over there and here were are just kinda like trash(LMAO)..........................we keep thinking on going back to Philippines ............................at least there I would have a maid LOL! I am just curious what are your thoughts about this issue? And has anyone else experienced the same thoughts? thanks!

A maid sounds good, wife had one in Venezuela for over a year and gain trust in her. With all those bars, triple locks, guarded gates, etc., wife trusted her and gave her the keys, came home one night and her condo was cleaned out. Police were worthless and her ex used the insurance money to buy booze, she was screwed.

The concept of hiring an impoverished maid in seemingly a wealthy environmental with plenty of toys to play with can lead to temptation, even for the best of them.

Not sure if I could live in a country where there is extreme luxury and poverty, in Caracas, living right next door to each other, not sure to call the impoverished mountain people or the area they live in ant hills. No official numbers on the ratios of extreme poor to better off, my guess is the Caracas area is at least 70% in extreme poverty. Homes without doors or windows stacked on each other, not sure how they get around without walking through someone's bedroom room. Was told was not safe for the census people even to go up there.

But living in a nice condo wasn't so nice either, been in prisons, not as a prisoner if I may mention that would be easier to break out of. Guarded gates, and 3 or 4 different keys just to open your two doors with the outer looking like a cell door with bars, felt I was in jail. Wife was constantly concerned I would be robbed or kidnapped, what a way to live, but I still roam alone, ha, when approached on a dark street, whoever was coming preferred to cross the street. But I was not planning on robbing or kidnapping anyone, just a constant living in a state of fear.

Like being home now, can see my pretty trees without looking through bars, feel my wife was more anxious to come home than I was, she feels safe here.

I agree, Daniel talks about getting a maid/male servant (hate that word) from India (mum's maid's sister or somebody whose family/background is known) coz it will help us with the baby later but I know how much responsibility and headache that can be coz I've dealt with them all my life and seen mum too. In India its a lot easier to handle them too, if something happened here, I wouldn't know what to do. Its both ways - they use you, run away or somebody uses them. In the end we will be responsible and answerable. Not my cup-o-tea