So here we are again, cold, wet, miserable January in Swindon, UK. The three of us, me - I'm Geoff, a third of a century old, the wife is Gerlie - she's a little older and hails from the Philippines - and Sam, our two year old son. I've been doing a load more research into moving to the US and some of the reading has been blogs which have been useful reading. So I thought, why not? Give a little back and all that lark.
Let's rewind a little, back a year or two. we'd been having thoughts about moving, either closer to my parents' home in Essex, or abroad to the Philippines where I set up a business, she carries on nursing, nice lifestyle, sorted. Except nothing is ever that simple. So we've been having these thoughts on and off for a while, ideas, plans, etc. This was until we went to the US in October 2009 where we met up with G's relatives for a few days in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Now, I've been to LA before and not particularly liked it, but this time I was shown the local's view rather than the poor tourist that a previously was, so we saw it in a different light.
Of course, this now gets the thought processes in motion again. The US is in a bad recession and laying off staff, including nurses. But G's an Intensive Care (ICU) nurse and those still seem to be in demand. What's more, she could earn double the salary that she gets in the UK. Possibly a lot more, but let's be conservative and say double. I'm a Technical Authority (a what?), allegedly somebody who knows something about something and can give guidance to others. In my particular case, bridging the gap between software engineers and railwaymen, so that ordinary software engineers can write applications for the railway environment without needing to be an anorak to do so (that's my job). Anyway, I manage people and have been doing this for 12 years now so I guess I've got a bit of experience. And G's uncle has his own software business and has asked for my CV.
Ok, no harm in doing so but let's not get our hopes up too soon. Posted off and he says he's got a couple of possibilities he is mulling over. It feels a bit cheeky asking him for a job but considering the hoops we both would have to go through to get there, if I succeed then he must think I've got something worth jumping through hoops for.
On with the research... I'm writing about past events here so my first few blog entries are going to be catch-ups and I know vaguely what I'll be writing next. Coming up: H1B visas.