If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times: visas are tough to get. The UK (and most of Europe for that matter) are making it tough for Americans to live here. Each year that we have applied for visas, it's been with added hurdles. The process is slow moving, always changing, increasingly expensive and never guaranteed.

Our hope is to continue staying here in London. We love our lives here and we find a lot of purpose in where we work and live, but the only issue is... the UKBA (UK Border Agency) doesn't care that much about our hopes and dreams. So we have been spending the good part of the last year working with attorneys and my (amazing) boss to help us get visas to stay here.

The process has been long but I'm so glad to say that after months of sweating about it and a full day trekking out to Birmingham for our appointment, we've been issued visas that should help us stay long enough to get Indefinite Leave to Remain. (You know, assuming they don't change legislation in between here and then.)

If you're looking for advice on how to move overseas, all I can tell you is that there is no shortcut to get here. The only routes that I know of (after talking to SO MANY EXPATS) is through attending a UK school or by being transferred by a company to live here. Otherwise, they have made it really impossible for Americans to move here in order to accommodate for the EU rights allowing citizens of the EU to freely move between countries. By not allowing Americans (and of course, other nationals that aren't EU) in for jobs, they can save these positions for those with first legal right to work here.

We would love to stay long enough to get citizenship and pass that privilege along to our children. It would be so nice for them to be avoid so much of the stress we have faced, but on that note- we also feel so fortunate that they are American citizens! No bad answer there.

Anyway, I get asked about moving here a lot, what our plans are and if we are going to stay. I've been a bit quiet about our plans simply because.... well, I didn't know! We have always wanted to stay, but it was a bit of holding our breaths until it was all settled. But now that I've received my resident permanent card in the mail- I can officially let the world know: Here we will be until further notice. :)

If you have questions on immigration, Im opening up the comments below for people to ask and other people (not me!) answer them. My brain is tired of thinking about it, and beyond that- I'll probably tell you something wrong. It's too complicated. ha!