Thinking of moving to Florida, need help!

JaneLane00

Hi, can anyone help me. Myself, the boyfriend and my daughter are thinking of moving to Florida, but don't know how to go about it. We would be looking at buying a house, possibly renting it out for a few years first.

We need to know about how to live, work there legally, the laws about buying houses etc. Is it possible to take out a loan/mortgage in ireland to pay for a house over there or do we have to go to an american bank, and if so, does our credit rating transfer to their banks?

Is it easy enough to find a job, are their special circumstances for Irish people to work in america, such as there is for americans in Europe?

Any and all information is helpful, as these plans are completely up in the air at the moment.

tink2

Hi my cousin lives in Florida and I visited her last year. There were numerous signs for forclosure sales and she said kids are being pulled out of school every week as their parents are moving state as there are no jobs. This was in sarasota.as far as I know you can only work in the states if you have a green card. If you have jobs here I would think long and hard about moving. If you lost your job in the states there is pretty much no welfare system either. you need medical insurance or else you won't receive treatment. it can cost 11000 dolars for a family for insurance.I think you need to find out if it's possible to get a green card first and if it is weigh up things carefully as you could possibly end up worse off over there if you lose your job.good things are property is cheap, you are not taxed on your individual income, good lifestyle and the weather!!!good luck.

devereaux17

MIGHT AS WELL MOVE TO SOUTH OF SPAIN, EASIER AND WEATHER JUST AS GOOD.

JaneLane00

devereaux17 wrote: »

MIGHT AS WELL MOVE TO SOUTH OF SPAIN, EASIER AND WEATHER JUST AS GOOD.

Believe me, I would, but none of us speak Spanish so it would make things difficult when reading small print of contracts when buying our house and looking for work and schools. also, we can't afford over €100,000 and are looking for a 3 bed detached house with a pool and a decent sized garden which is not in a complex, as we want full rights to do what we want with out house, inside and out. Affordable in Florida, not in spain unfortunately.

JaneLane00

tink2 wrote: »

Hi my cousin lives in Florida and I visited her last year. There were numerous signs for forclosure sales and she said kids are being pulled out of school every week as their parents are moving state as there are no jobs. This was in sarasota.as far as I know you can only work in the states if you have a green card. If you have jobs here I would think long and hard about moving. If you lost your job in the states there is pretty much no welfare system either. you need medical insurance or else you won't receive treatment. it can cost 11000 dolars for a family for insurance.I think you need to find out if it's possible to get a green card first and if it is weigh up things carefully as you could possibly end up worse off over there if you lose your job.good things are property is cheap, you are not taxed on your individual income, good lifestyle and the weather!!!good luck.

Its the weather and property prices that's its main merit! The boyfriend is the one with the job, and its low paying at that. Forgot about their medical insurance system, thats a worry. I have a qualification in tourism and business, very eager to work, but my daugher is 3 and needs to be in childcare if i'm to work. any ideas of creche prices?

how are people taxed if its not individual?

devereaux17

sorry yeah i understand where you're coming from, also its kind of hard to find a perfect place in spain, many parts where british/german/irish people buy seem to be souless resorts with good weather.

JaneLane00

devereaux17 wrote: »

sorry yeah i understand where you're coming from, also its kind of hard to find a perfect place in spain, many parts where british/german/irish people buy seem to be souless resorts with good weather.

Exactly, would be trying to avoid mini ireland! If we're emigrating, we're emigrating!! I did think about spain, but I think the language barrier would be too much for my partner. I would adjust as I have Italian and I know they have English speaking schools, but I need to suggest places that would attract him, and he can be quite introverted if he feels different.....

whitey1

Dont even think about it. I lived there and it sucked.

Its probably the last place in America I would move to if I had a kid.

Fr Tod Umptious

JaneLane00 wrote: »

Hi, can anyone help me. Myself, the boyfriend and my daughter are thinking of moving to Florida, but don't know how to go about it. We would be looking at buying a house, possibly renting it out for a few years first.

We need to know about how to live, work there legally, the laws about buying houses etc. Is it possible to take out a loan/mortgage in ireland to pay for a house over there or do we have to go to an american bank, and if so, does our credit rating transfer to their banks?

Is it easy enough to find a job, are their special circumstances for Irish people to work in america, such as there is for americans in Europe?

Any and all information is helpful, as these plans are completely up in the air at the moment.

Well the first thing you have to figure out is how to work there legally

There are a couple of ways

Apply for the Green Card lottery (google search for DV lottery). If you are luck enough to win one of the 150 or so that go to Ireland each year it takes about 2 years to process

Get a work permit (H1B), this is where an employer in the US sponsors you for a work permit, essentially you would have to find a job and a company that would be willing to sponsor you. And seeing as unemployment is high in the US right now there are not many companies sponsoring.

If one of you were lucky enough to get any of the above then there is no guarantee that the other would be allowed live or work in the US seeing as you are not married.

If you get a visa and do live over there you will be a few years building up a credit record before you would be able to take out a mortgage or something substantial like that.

BTW - Why Florida ?

JaneLane00

it's beginning to sound increasingly impossible.... maybe we should look closer to home!

We picked florida because we were on daft.ie looking at houses in ireland and don't have a huge budget, so with 250,000 we could get a pretty average 3 bed terraced house in Cappagh Road in Finglas, or with that money we could get 4-5 3 bed semi/detached house in florida with a pool on the complex, not that we would buy 4-5 houses!

Europe is very expensive, we can't really afford what we're looking for in europe. ideally we want something under 100,000, detached, on about an acre, pool or we could put one in, somewhere with pretty much year-long sunshine! Keep dreaming i suppose....!

whitey1

If you are determined-one of you should come over for a month and sus things out-ie accom, work, day care, transportation.

If you are illegal its going to be tough if not borderline impossible.

biko

The most important thing is work, once one of you have a proper job the rest will fall into place.
Start making preparations for employment, then go over and see if you like Florida (I don't) and take it from there.

JaneLane00

ok, well i'm not willing to be there ileagally, ill just have to get more money and stick to europe i suppose!

not many people seem to like the area.... maybe its just one of those places thats nice for holidays, not to live???