To go or not to go

Hi!
Though this is not related to Tier 1 visa directly, but I am very confused and hence putting it here.
The background is that I have a valid Tier1 which I got in Feb 2010. I have not travelled to UK as I was planning to come to UK for 2-3 months after resigning from my job. After informing my company that I am quitting they are offering me L1 my current client is in US. So basically they are saying that we can apply for your L1 and you can move to US. Now I am in a fix as I see there are pros and cons of both.
Pros (UK) -

1. Permanent residency is easier compared to US
2. I am not bound to a specific company to keep me in UK
3. UK is close to India so travelling can be frequent

Pros(US)-

1. Job security, even if my project is scrapped I can always come back to India
2. I dont have kids so if we plan for that, my kids can get US citizenship if they are born in US

I know that decision has to be mine, but your suggestions can help me in taking that
PS : I have been to both UK and US on short trips and enjoyed both
Thanks a lot
Shailesh

shail_v wrote:Hi!
Though this is not related to Tier 1 visa directly, but I am very confused and hence putting it here.
The background is that I have a valid Tier1 which I got in Feb 2010. I have not travelled to UK as I was planning to come to UK for 2-3 months after resigning from my job. After informing my company that I am quitting they are offering me L1 my current client is in US. So basically they are saying that we can apply for your L1 and you can move to US. Now I am in a fix as I see there are pros and cons of both.
Pros (UK) -

1. Permanent residency is easier compared to US
2. I am not bound to a specific company to keep me in UK
3. UK is close to India so travelling can be frequent

Pros(US)-

1. Job security, even if my project is scrapped I can always come back to India
2. I dont have kids so if we plan for that, my kids can get US citizenship if they are born in US

I know that decision has to be mine, but your suggestions can help me in taking that
PS : I have been to both UK and US on short trips and enjoyed both
Thanks a lot
Shailesh

In my opinion, you're bang on the money - the decision is yours and yours alone. It's pointless asking people for their opinions in this matter, since people don't know your situation or your circumstances, your aspirations or your future plans. They also can't tell what field you are working in, or if you have a spouse or not, what your hobbies are etc.

It's paramount to me posting a message on this forum saying: "what do you think I should do with my life?".

Sorry if this message is a bit blunt, but such blunt question deserves a blunt answer.

Well, everybody who applies for Tier1 visa has a different experience. I cannot compare my experiences with someone else,but still people ask for suggestions and information. So I am just asking. And many people go to career counsellers for getting answers to "what they should do in life". I dont think its blasphemy to ask someone for advise.
Regards
Shailesh

shail_v wrote:Hi!
Though this is not related to Tier 1 visa directly, but I am very confused and hence putting it here.
The background is that I have a valid Tier1 which I got in Feb 2010. I have not travelled to UK as I was planning to come to UK for 2-3 months after resigning from my job. After informing my company that I am quitting they are offering me L1 my current client is in US. So basically they are saying that we can apply for your L1 and you can move to US. Now I am in a fix as I see there are pros and cons of both.
Pros (UK) -

1. Permanent residency is easier compared to US
2. I am not bound to a specific company to keep me in UK
3. UK is close to India so travelling can be frequent

Pros(US)-

1. Job security, even if my project is scrapped I can always come back to India
2. I dont have kids so if we plan for that, my kids can get US citizenship if they are born in US

I know that decision has to be mine, but your suggestions can help me in taking that
PS : I have been to both UK and US on short trips and enjoyed both
Thanks a lot
Shailesh

comments!

1. UK permanent residence may not be easy as it is at the moment. A sweeping change is expected sometime in 2011.

2. You have renew the VISA again, if you are not on job or you do not have enough points, you will not be able to renew the visa in the UK

3. You have 3 years of Tier 1 Visa validity. How long is the L1 Visa valid? Will that be for 3 years..Then the money spent on Tier 1 Visa is gone and when you plan for UK, after 3 years, you have to apply for a new VISA and the immigration rules at that point would be applied.

The decision is yours always taking into consideration of all the points

shail_v wrote:Well, everybody who applies for Tier1 visa has a different experience. I cannot compare my experiences with someone else,but still people ask for suggestions and information. So I am just asking. And many people go to career counsellers for getting answers to "what they should do in life". I dont think its blasphemy to ask someone for advise.
Regards
Shailesh

I assumed from your original post that you have the Tier 1 visa already. As you mentioned you have a valid Tier 1 since Febuary.

Indeed many people go to career counsellers to get answers to their questions. But using your analogy, career counsellers are there to give advice about how one would go about achieving their career goals, once the career counseller has been told what the goals are. Career counsellers do NOT tell you what should do for your future. You post is comparable to the latter. Now, if you asked: "which country is more established in my industry, so I can achieve X in my career?", or "I am looking to start a family, which country will provide a better level of education for my children?". Those are answers that people can give constructive opinions on. On the other hand, you have simply asked: "which country should I go too?".

As I said, I apologise if my post was blunt, but your question was similarly blunt. Sure it isn't blasphemy to ask for opinions - it's just becomes a pointless post if you don't give a frame of reference for which people can work up opinions to give you.

It seems you are hell bent on proving that my post is pointless. Even if it is you may choose not to post any replies. May be my question was not clear, but you are doing no good to it either. There could be information which is missing, but you could have asked for it or simply would have mentioned the same.
If you want to prove that I am one of those directionless people who do not know what to do in life, I accept it. I also assume that you would be kind enough and won't request the moderator to stop people like me from posting here.I hope this satisifes you and you would enjoy your weekend now.

shail_v wrote:Hi!
Though this is not related to Tier 1 visa directly, but I am very confused and hence putting it here.
The background is that I have a valid Tier1 which I got in Feb 2010. I have not travelled to UK as I was planning to come to UK for 2-3 months after resigning from my job. After informing my company that I am quitting they are offering me L1 my current client is in US. So basically they are saying that we can apply for your L1 and you can move to US. Now I am in a fix as I see there are pros and cons of both.
Pros (UK) -

1. Permanent residency is easier compared to US
2. I am not bound to a specific company to keep me in UK
3. UK is close to India so travelling can be frequent

Pros(US)-

1. Job security, even if my project is scrapped I can always come back to India
2. I dont have kids so if we plan for that, my kids can get US citizenship if they are born in US

I know that decision has to be mine, but your suggestions can help me in taking that
PS : I have been to both UK and US on short trips and enjoyed both
Thanks a lot
Shailesh

Unless you already have a job in the UK, I'd keep your job. Although you were already ready to face the market in the UK, now you have an assignment in a new country provided by your current employer which offers a security blanket that you won't have when you come to the Uk on your own. You can apply for tier 1 again from the work you do in the usa provided it meets the income threshold. You reasons to go to the UK are pretty weak. If you don't have a job not being tied to an employer is irrelevant, PR is not easier than the USA. The UK is closer but so what, have your friends and family visit. Going to the USA is weak too. To say your kids can get citizenship when you don't have any and is not even on the event horizon is just pointless.
The only good argument is that you company offers job security which a lot of people wish they had.

Republique's comments pretty much sum up the answers (Even though they are slightly blunt). Here are my opinion for the questions

1. Permanent residency is easier compared to US

This has been answered by VKS and it is directly related to question number 3 also. In case ILR is required, it mandates a stay of 5 years in UK with a maximum time of 180 days out of the country (as I recall). So traveling frequently might not be a option especially for longer durations. In my opinion there are lots of people queued up for Green Card in US and for PR in UK which puts both the countries in the same boat.

2. I am not bound to a specific company to keep me in UK

With the kind of business models running globally, Offshore-Onsite models, I doubt whether UK economy will see huge growth to cater for everybody out there in the market searching for job. I think Job hopping is not a common phenomenon as in India as the pay for a certain experience more or less remains the same.

3. UK is close to India so travelling can be frequent

First question and third question are interrelated. Unless the journeys are planned far in advance, the cost of traveling might be on the higher, especially if it is with family.

Thanks
Raghavendran G

Thanks for your replies . Probably I am thinking too much about other factors but I guess job security could be an important factor here.
About the citizenship AFAIK a child born in US is entitled to citizenship (even if the parents are not US citizen). This is not the case in UK. So this could be another factor which I should consider.
Thanks again
Shailesh

shail_v wrote:Thanks for your replies . Probably I am thinking too much about other factors but I guess job security could be an important factor here.
About the citizenship AFAIK a child born in US is entitled to citizenship (even if the parents are not US citizen). This is not the case in UK. So this could be another factor which I should consider.
Thanks again
Shailesh

Again, ridiculous to consider if you are not already pregnant.
And even if you were so what, is your only purpose in life is to give your children us citizenship. Think about what your situation, not your non existent children.

shail_v wrote:It seems you are hell bent on proving that my post is pointless. Even if it is you may choose not to post any replies. May be my question was not clear, but you are doing no good to it either. There could be information which is missing, but you could have asked for it or simply would have mentioned the same.
If you want to prove that I am one of those directionless people who do not know what to do in life, I accept it. I also assume that you would be kind enough and won't request the moderator to stop people like me from posting here.I hope this satisifes you and you would enjoy your weekend now.

Wow, you're taking a lot of offence from a post that simply states: "Give us a point of reference, then a person can reply a more constructive opinion."

Did I not state: I apologise for the bluntness - But give us a point of reference from which one can derive some opinion? Yes, I could have asked you many questions, but there are so many questions that could be asked, because your question involves life, and all its aspects. I could list quite literally 20 billion questions and that wouldn't even scratch the surface.

Again this is not a personal attack on you, but you need to calm down and stop being so sensitive. The purpose of a forum is to provide opinions, I had the intention of giving you my opinion, but one would need a frame of reference to provide that opinion. Alas, that cannot be done.

But as a courtesy to you, I will stop posting in your thread. What I thought was giving constructive advice to you, turns out with you biting my head off and what I consider biting the hand(s) that feeds you. Funny thing is, I actually posted example questions in both my posts, and you haven't even answered them. All you've done is ripped a new one out of me.

Good luck is all I can say.

GeneNZ wrote:

shail_v wrote:It seems you are hell bent on proving that my post is pointless. Even if it is you may choose not to post any replies. May be my question was not clear, but you are doing no good to it either. There could be information which is missing, but you could have asked for it or simply would have mentioned the same.
If you want to prove that I am one of those directionless people who do not know what to do in life, I accept it. I also assume that you would be kind enough and won't request the moderator to stop people like me from posting here.I hope this satisifes you and you would enjoy your weekend now.

Wow, you're taking a lot of offence from a post that simply states: "Give us a point of reference, then a person can reply a more constructive opinion."

Did I not state: I apologise for the bluntness - But give us a point of reference from which one can derive some opinion? Yes, I could have asked you many questions, but there are so many questions that could be asked, because your question involves life, and all its aspects. I could list quite literally 20 billion questions and that wouldn't even scratch the surface.

Again this is not a personal attack on you, but you need to calm down and stop being so sensitive. The purpose of a forum is to provide opinions, I had the intention of giving you my opinion, but one would need a frame of reference to provide that opinion. Alas, that cannot be done.

But as a courtesy to you, I will stop posting in your thread. What I thought was giving constructive advice to you, turns out with you biting my head off and what I consider biting the hand(s) that feeds you. Funny thing is, I actually posted example questions in both my posts, and you haven't even answered them. All you've done is ripped a new one out of me.

Good luck is all I can say.

Interesting!

LET THIS GUY DECIDE!

Please stop replying for advice as it seems no merit to the original question.

Cheers

shail_v,

If I'm in your shoes I'll go for US, UK is a shithole compared to US
plus it's rather safe for you to go there as you'd have a job and everything
so my vote is for US

GeneNZ and others
I am sorry.
Its a big decision for me to take. I should have been more clear and specific. I need to learn more.
Thanks to all
Shailesh

If I were you I would take the US offer, atleast you are sure you have a Job, you may or may not get a job in the UK. As of now getting a citizenship might not be difficult in the UK, but getting a job is!