Thread: Will I ever get to America!!??

Hi
Im English and would do absoloutly anything to live in the States! Im just starting to think it will never happen.
I have recently started working for the Prison Service as a Prison Officer. I am realistic and think my only way to live there would be to complete a degree and gain experience over the next 5 or 6 years. But then is it even possible to work for the american Prison / Police services?
And how much money would roughly be needed??
I have no American relatives / partner. I already have a high school education and a Higher National Diploma.
Any help available?!?!?!?

Hi and welcome to Britsabroad.

Realistically, you're about right.
Advice? Go for the degree that you are talking about, get a post grad degree too if you can, gain experience and then try and seek some employment with a company that has offices in the US as well.

The HND is a good diploma, would have thought you may be able to shortcut to a degree by having that in some places?
I'm not sure about the idiocyncrasies of the UK educational system, I'm sure there are people on here that better advised than me on that... ? T?

Working as a Police officer here usually means getting a US Citizenship, that doesn't happen overnight. If you were to come here on a work related visa, you'd be looking at 5 years after they grant you your greencard before you can apply for naturalisation. (USC).
No reason you couldn't get the degree in something that was more relevant for employment in a different field and come over to work though, just remember that to get a work related visa you usually have to work for a company that can transfer you at management level.

Alternatively, you apply and get a job offer from someone in the US because you have a specialised skill that is in short supply and can't be readily filled by american workers, they then sponsor you for the visa and greencard.

All the best

purps

PS - Try www.uscis.gov

You probably have more chance of getting into america than I do getting into Australia.
Keep hammering away at getting what you want. Draw up a plan if you can with goals to achieve over that next 5/6 years. If you break it all up into little achievable steps ypou will get there.

Keep telling how you get on.

thanks purple. u certainly know ur stuff.
yes after my diploma the degree was acheivable in another 2 yrs. i did most of this but have absoloutly no interest in the subject and dropped it. may have been a silly decision but i will never want a job in that field so wud never have gained any experience and wud have been unhappy.
anyway i think i'll do the OU degree in a relevant field, such as criminal justice. shud take around 5 yrs, which will mean 5 yrs experience, and i could get to senior officer, which is a managerial role within the prison in that time. this may help, but i'm still concerned i wont be able to gain employment in the prison / police without citizenship. although i did read an article about immigrants working at a prison illegaly!

and thanks thearmchairdetective, i'll keep at it! u too!

A civillian post such as a management post that you meantion wouldn't necessarily need too involve having citizenship. ;)


Good luck with the degree, and keep at it. I know someone that recently graduated with a 2/1 in forensic computing and so far he's had a lot offers from Canadian police forces, he's looking to move to the US too though.

I wouldn't think that you have much chance of getting over here to work without very close relatives. It's very hard to get in just through employment alone unless you are a brain surgeon. Why on earth you want to anyway I can't understand because its not like in the movies or florida when you are on holidays, it's very hard work for very little compensation, minute vacation time after a year and no national health and I no very well what british who live on britain complain and moan about the NHS because I did enough when I lived there, I found lots to complain about living in the UK then but believe me ! ...... I'd love to have the security of the NHS, the holiday time off and the food etc and I don't have a bad job here, I have a very good job here but I don't have the security I had back there.
Prison jobs here instance are on the down side, more states are laying off prison offices by the hundreds over here so that job would be a no no.
Sorry if I have poured cold water on your plans but I don't want to see you on a wild goose chase.

Would you do absolutely anything? Or are you exaggerating? If it's the former, follow the well-worn path of many Brits in Florida and California. Get a round trip ticket to the USA and just overstay your visa. Go to a place with a big British expat community and get a cash-in-hand job in a British pub or with a British-run construction company. Make lots of British expat friends and build a support network, soon you'll find jobs elsewhere in the British community. Get yourself an American partner and look to get married. Within a couple of years you'll be legal. If things don't work out, no big deal. You can get divorced and keep your American passport anyway. Once you're legal you can concentrate on your career, in the prison service or elsewhere. If you try to go the legal route, unless you are an 'alien of exceptional ability', you are in for a long, frustrating wait. Good Luck!

Welcome to Britsabroad.

Originally Posted by britnews

Would you do absolutely anything? Or are you exaggerating? If it's the former, follow the well-worn path of many Brits in Florida and California. Get a round trip ticket to the USA and just overstay your visa. Go to a place with a big British expat community and get a cash-in-hand job in a British pub or with a British-run construction company. Make lots of British expat friends and build a support network, soon you'll find jobs elsewhere in the British community. Get yourself an American partner and look to get married. Within a couple of years you'll be legal. If things don't work out, no big deal. You can get divorced and keep your American passport anyway. Once you're legal you can concentrate on your career, in the prison service or elsewhere. If you try to go the legal route, unless you are an 'alien of exceptional ability', you are in for a long, frustrating wait. Good Luck!

Try telling this "story" to "ICE". In the 1996 reforms, the law relating to overstays was drastically changed. The impact of the new law on overstays are harsh. He wouldn't have a visa, he'd have a VWP. If you overstay your VWP or I-94 and they catch you, you get deported and you can never use a VWP again. If he was to even manage to get married to stay here, eventually he'd have to go back through the legal channels of the USCIS to try and get a greencard. Marriage or not, once you've overstayed by that amount of time you have little chance of anything but deportation and a ban from reentering the US for 3 to 10 years. Sure some people disappear to work illegally but they're then reduced to working crappy jobs for low money and consequently living in a low cost less desireable place, paying cash for everything and always wondering when they'll get found out. It would seem that you think that the US immigration service is completely stupid when it comes to illegal imigration.
When were you last in Florida? Because in case you hadn't noticed, there's hardly any jobs going here at the moment, especially in the construction industry, which is all but on it's knees. You make it sound like it's a land of unicorns and rainbows, with British people here running businesses everywhere and employing who they like. That's not even close to a true representation of how things are.
It would be worth noting that according to US imigration, people who remain in the US after their authorized period of stay are not able to extend their stay in the US or change their status to another nonimmigrant status. In most cases they are also barred from adjusting their status from that of a nonimmigrant to that of an immigrant.

Your so called "advice" is both irresponsible and unviable, and I would discourage anyone from taking it seriously.