Reading about what has been happening over the past years in the UK while sitting in the US is really strange. Sometimes it feels like reading about a cartoonish banana republic in a novel aimed at young teenagers.
that's funny as that's exactly what we think about the US (especially its political system)
this was particularly terrifying to watch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-63417249
What I have realized since living in the US is that every state is wildly different. Even regions within states are wildly different. Of course, I knew this before moving here, but it's a different thing entirely to experience it.
There are definitely big issues in US politics, at the federal level, at the state level and at the city/regional level. But if you don't like somewhere, you can move. I live in Seattle, for example, where a significant number of LGBTQ+ young adults move from all over the country.
The UK in comparison feels incredibly homogeneous, diversity of regional accents aside. London dominates the entire country both politically and economically. The impacts of poor governance at the country level are felt everywhere and cannot really be offset by regional authorities.
Reguonal authorities seem to have just enough power so that central government can blame them when something goes wrong, but nothing of substance.
The pinnacle of their day seems to be a pay dispute with the bin collectors or blocking someone from converting their loft because they submitted the request on the wrong kind of paper.
The only chance for UK to turn around is constitutional change, for example federalisation
All these things in the news are very real but you only really feel them when you live there and your bills are higher than last month, etc
It’s quite strange feeling like a “foreigner” in your home country but I suspect you will feel it just as I did when I visited last year.
It's a bizarre feeling. I visited the UK in 2014 after being away since 2007. I felt so odd and displaced there, I couldn't wait to leave again. Not a reflection on the place, although I was disappointed by how unfriendly people were - almost like all the friendly Brits have left and are the ones I meet overseas.
'Analysts believe that the return of 'Bambo' Johnson, the controversial strongman whose protectionist policies have been criticised for the country's sluggish growth rates, will bring little respite to the troubled country.'
I have lived in countries that are so corrupt and incompetent where I wonder how anything ever works at all and yet I never read how terrible these places are in the media?
The very foundadtions of the country are being removed. How do you run an economy when there's no one educated enough to do it? Even if we drop 1% of the future leaders, business owners, start up founders, and whatever .... what is the UK then? I don't think we'll be fine, we're slowly sinking and everyone is banging pots for the NHS and saying 'keep calm!' and selling their houses to AirBNB lettting agents and NOT VOTING and we still have the most stupid voting system on planet earth so nothing can change.
I'm not sure who's worse off.
Took a position with 2/3 of the US salary but actual tangible security.
Re: food- Fresh produce in the PNW is incomparable imo. Never had anything like it in the world. In the UK I was largely limited to Sainsbury's etc., which have pretty poor quality food and produce.
Here in the PNW the variety (and quality) far exceeds what was available to me in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Greater London (not sure about other parts of the country).
It's a very pleasant luxury to not be limited to supermarkets.
Increased risk, increased reward. And if I'm fired, laid off, or deported, worst case I just go back to the UK having already earned hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I would have in the UK.
Even at within the same firm, for the same job, it seems like UK engineers are usually paid much less than US ones.
About to go through the process, any tips would be greatly appreciated.
I-765 was approved for me after 32 days, the day after I went to give my biometrics. This was important for me because the new legal team at my company were dropping the ball quite a lot with my L1 extension at the time (it was later approved with 1 day to spare...)
Although I got the I-765 card, the I-131 petition has not even been looked at yet, so although I applied for Advanced Parole, in practice the petition will just be cancelled/voided because the green card will have been issued before the I-131 has a chance to be adjudicated.
This seems to be in line with a recent change in USCIS policy to prefer producing individual I-765 and I-131 cards vs. the previous preference to issue combo cards (which took longer).
The I-485 and I-130 petitions were approved on the same day after 154 days of processing time, and surprisingly my wife and I were not called for an interview.
Hope this helps!
USCIS I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status