Please tell us how you really feel.

ill be happy in NY then. don#t like orgranised religion, gay marrages don't bother me. Military not bothered about and id rarther just blame bush for americas problems. and high taxs you just got to live with it.

[I assume this description of the blue states is in response to my comment]

Hey, wait a sec! I said:
Red = communist, oh, wait, right wing (Republican, conservative, evangelical Christian, etc. etc.)

(The communist part being a joke.)

I guess you take offense at right wing being equated with Republican, conservative, evangelical Christian, etc. etc. Since when are those offensive?
I may have been over-generalizing by equating right wing with evangelical Christian, sorry.

By the way, I'm from a blue state and I'm all for religion. State religion. Atheism. (That means I'm kidding).

left (ie. less right) wing, Democratic, less conservative (liberal, what's that?), Jewish, Catholic, quiet Protestants, & misc. Don't forget those unions.

Edit: Please don't take offense. Pretty please. This applies to my previous posts. Try and guess my political leanings.

dark blood... before coming to America, I suggest you spend more time reading the Omni forum here. It's a lot like your post has just become. You may just want to relax, ignore the hijacking, and stay put...

But if you really want to continue, there's only 2 legal ways -- get married to a U.S. citizen or get a work sponsored visa.

The OMNI forum is now "hidden" to members who have less than 180 posts and have not been members for 180 days. Thus dark blood can't read or post to OMNI.
Don't ask me why this was done.

Dark Blood, I recently looked very seriously into moving to the US.

The easiest way into the US is via a fiancees visa. You will of course have to satisfy all the rigorous checks placed on this kind of visa and should the relationship break down your visa will be revoked within a certain number of years. Don't enter into this lightly though, it does require some sacrifices.

The other way, the one I persued was a work visa. My company very kindly offered to transfer me to our office in Orlando, but again there are rigorous checks i.e. can an American satisfy the job spec. The bonus with this over the fiancees visa is parole, you can come and go as you please through immigration (I believe?). With a fiancees visa there are restrictions, and you may need to apply to leave the country otherwise your green card application may have to be started over. Of course, finding someone to sponsor your visa maybe a problem as they are quite expensive, you would have to be a worthwhile candidate for the job.

In fact, don't bet on either route being cheap.

If you're keen to live in the US I would strongly recommend spending some (a lot) of time there, it's not everyone's cup of tea. For me, the decision not to go to Orlando was kinda helped along by the four hurricanes that blitzed Florida so my fiancee and I reside in the UK for the time being.

Also, there are a number of ex-pat websites out there.

Yes, it is expensive. My workplace makes the person applying for a visa pay for the lawyer for all the paperwork (unless they really, really want the person). The cost for this can be as much as $5000

I have been to church a grand total of 2 times in my life. But I have nothing against religion. Stop believeing everything the NY Times tells you, not everyone who votes Republican does so for moreal issues.

But this is definitely a good way to try to win more votes, insult the people you are trying to win over....good plan, it's been very effective so far.

I was informed that they're not legally allowed to pass that cost onto the applicant. I was also informed that the visa cost is $1500 so some lawyer is making a lot of money on that deal!

As I understand it, the fees that the gov't charges for the filing of the various forms cannot legally be pushed onto the applicant from the employer.

As to legal fees, the employer can do so, as the use of a lawyer to process this stuff is not required -- but highly desireable.

(RBCal...thx for the Omni heads-up... I thought newbies could at least read it!)

There is one other way to get a work visa is through the Green Card Lottery. Every year they offer 50,000 work visas through a lottery. However, you have to be from an eligible country and I don't think the UK is since countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants over the last five years are excluded. Northern Ireland is included in the lottery as well as Australia. I think UK citizens can easily get Australian citizenship? This would be a very round-about way though and would take several years.

I didn't know you needed a visa to move to Arkansas.

It is the country of birth, not current citizenship that determines eligibility.

i can find someone for you to marry, if you can find someone for me.