…has been the topic of this mornings daydreaming session. I only ever daydream in private so on this occasion I thought I’d publicise the content for better or worse.

It goes like this;

Land on the east coast of the USA, probably NYC, somewhere with a lot of interesting people and potential for social interaction.

I’ll sell my van before I leave and have enough to buy a day van of some kind and a couple of grand left over. I’d get voluntary work somewhere. Do they have the bike recycling places like we do? I could easily hang around fixing bikes and meeting cyclists all day for a week or two.

Obviously at some point I’d need to find some kind of cash in hand employment. That’s the bit I’ve never done before but I’m sure I’d work it out. Just enough to put food in my belly and gas in the tank.

I want to head for the sun drenched paradise of so-cal but obviously there’s a lot of country between those coasts and potential for adventure. I’m willing to take detours in the name of work opportunities and romance. Ideally I’d meet an incredible woman in NYC who had to travel west for some kind of family commitments. So I’d have attractive and intelligent company on the road. When we get to California it turns out her parents live in a secluded mansion in a golden, leafy part of rural wherever. Dad is a real petrol head and there’s a couple of old cars and bikes dotted around the place.

The old man is getting on a little so I offer to help get the place back into shape in exchange for room and board. I spend my days off running around the network of trails between the beach and the mountains.

I haven’t got much further than that. Maybe I’d spend my time at the ranch writing a screenplay to sell downtown.

The first time you get stopped by the cops you are jailed and then deported.

Other than that, sounds lovely 🙂

Can I play you and have Jennifer Connelly as the mystery woman?

Good luck getting through border control when you tell them your plans…

The first time you get stopped by the cops you are jailed and then deported sent to gitmo.

The first time you get stopped by the cops you are jailed and then deported.

I dont think there’ll let you back in again either!

I met a guy in New Zealand who had done something similar. He’d lived there for a few years until one day when he crossed a state line they chose to check his identity and that was it. He was on the next flight home.
He left a wife and kid back in the US..

Pfft! If you’re not going to cut your way in through a Mexican border fence with a shed load of nose-candy, it hardly seems worth it

Hmmm..you can almost read the headlines in the Beauregard Daily News in 2024:

“English tourist kept as sex slave in Louisiana man’s cellar for ten years!”

He left a wife and kid back in the US..

In Britain, he’d only need a cat in order to stay.

Not an ideal plan and if when you are stopped by the police you will have a problem. Working is a big no no. If you do get deported you will never get back in.

That being said my partner stayed 12 months beyond the end of her visa before we both left voluntarily (i was working there with proper visa but as we were not married she couldn’t get one), she’s never had a problem getting back in on multiple visits since.

When you arrive you will have to tell them you are on holiday, show then you have money and probably a return ticket. If you like a bit of adventure and “sod the consequences” you can do it but the risks are pretty great.

I would not want to be illegal.

Just go on a holiday visa, meet the girl and get married in Vegas.

Crossing the Channel is easier, cheaper and legal. You’ll also find the ladies are more attractive and above all, not American.

When you apply for your ESTA you have to provide a return departure date. If you cannot satisfy the immigration guys as you enter the country that you will return with three months you’ll be on their radar. They’ve heard it all before.

I tried to get a Visa for a four month stay, at the Embassy they gave me the third degree. They cited every trip I had made in the previous few years and asked of the relationships I had with those they named I had stayed with.

Even providing bank statements, return tickets and evidence of employment here it was touch and go whether they’d issue my visa. In the end they gave me a year long visa, but said all future visits would only be on a visitor three month visa waiver basis.

I was happy to have had that conversation in London and not over there.

Things were slacker twenty years ago when my brother went over. He worked in NYC then drove someone’s car across to LA where he overstayed his visa.

He returned to Scotland without any hassle and hasn’t had any bother getting back in.

Your post has no doubt already been intercepted and extradition proceedings are under way.

Your post has no doubt already been intercepted and extradition proceedings are under way.

I suspect they’ve just scheduled a drone strike. Much cheaper than hiring lawyers…

You’d not be able to buy the car – or you could, but unable to register it in your name, so it would show up in the system soon enough. If you ended up more than a few states away from the registered one it would really stand out to the police.
How you’d cross the Atlantic to land on the East coast is a bigger issue.

I went the the States in ’96 on a university exchange to spend a semester at a US uni. For reasons I can’t remember we ended up flying out on 3 month tourist visas (with the blessing of both universities – the UK one and the US one) and overstayed by about 8 weeks.

Went back to visit some friends a few months later and was asked by the border guy ‘and just how long are you planning on staying this time?..’. They let me through though. That said I don’t think they would be so lenient these days.

A guy who I was sat next to on another trip there got held at Newark airport once also. Apparently he was actually going to get married and was a pro-photographer and intended on doing some work and had a good deal of kit with him but his story was that he was just a keen photographer who wanted to do the whole NY thing.

Grilled him for two hours whilst he was sh*tting bricks and it turned out the issue was that in those days the visa waiver was just stapled in your passport as you filled it in on the flight. He had been previously and they had taken it out of his passport on departure but never processed it.

Their records showed he had never left the States and it took some persuading apparently that he must have left at some point as he had just got off a flight from the UK.

He ended up marrying his girl though…

Have you actually been there? Just that while LA etc look lovely in films, in practice they are polluted too hot places where you have to drive to do anything and unless you’re quite rich, live miles from the beach or in a horrible area where people shoot at you. San Francisco is a proper place and is nice but not hot.

There are tons of places that are nice and hot in Europe, you don’t have to break any laws to go and work there, and you might have a chance of living somewhere within walking distance of the beach. They talk funny languages, but most of them talk English also, and you might well learn the language anyway if you live there.

America has always had an imigration problem. Just ask the Indians.

+1 for lovely place to visit, terrible place to live

and the cops being pretty hard line

I prefer Canada with fewer people.

My view is that America is just too polluted with Hollywood movie hype but then I like the way they shoot people dead. Just like shooting zombie … 😆

I had a daydream like this ages ago while sitting and drinking coffee all day at work..its australia though.. Didnt pan out 😕

Dibs on jennifer connely as mystery woman

Amazing really, from a country that honours it’s diversity through immigration in it’s own anthem.

In Britain, he’d only need a cat in order to stay.

Clearly a legal professional.

“English tourist kept as sex slave in Louisiana man’s cellar for ten years!”

then sell your story

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loWFypHb48k[/video]

A lot of nonsense being talked here. The “Kiwi on next plane” story is bobbins.

if you are unhappy with not get a job as postman.

Many years ago, I was talking to Guy who did just this, excecpt for finding someone to marry, … In his case he entered the US from Canada, much easier than the airports. He then invented a social security number – needed for everything – and started to live there. Over time he collated some much background info that in effect his social security number became real. of course in those days the systems were very basic with limited checking. I suspect this approach would fail now – shame!

I find this interesting. What actually happens if you spend an overlong period? Just getting reversed via an ‘plane isn’t 2bad? No porridge involved?

Also – both the hour and the thread are probably crying out for this:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d27gTrPPAyk[/video]

An interesting link for the above.

Not an ideal plan and if when you are stopped by the police you will have a problem.

And if you are not white, you’ll quadruple the chances of been stopped – especially if in the South and/or driving an old vehicle.

I prefer Canada with fewer people

+1. Isn’t there also (or at least used to be) some sort of Commonwealth scheme where you can go to Canada (or Aus, or NZ) for up to two years as a UK Citizen?

Double post thingy

I find this interesting. What actually happens if you spend an overlong period? Just getting reversed via an ‘plane isn’t 2bad? No porridge involved?

Presumably you’re put on the list which means you can never revisit the states even as a tourist, or with a legitimate job. (EDIT: Though it’s interesting to hear of folk who have managed to get back in.)

There’s never any excuse for posting Sting videos, BTW. 🙂

There was a report on this subject last night on France 2 “Envoyé Spécial”

Some cities are very happy with illegal immigration: New York and L.A mainly. The major of a New York district was very upbeat and made it clear nothing would happen to illegals unless they broke other laws. He said illegals were good for tax revenue and good for business.

The procedure is to enter on a tourist visa then bumble around Queens. You’ll be greeted by latinos keen to sell you false documents. The going rate is $160 for the essential social security card and $100 for a driving licence. Now hunt for a job, nobody will ask whether you are an illegal. If you have a skill that’s in demand you’ll have no trouble finding work at pay rates that will allow you to live well. The programme quoted 16 000 French citizens working illegally in New York alone (less than 1% are reported to the French consulate for irregularities each year by the American authorities and a “solution” is found to allow most to stay). You won’t be able to open a bank account but there are agencies that will cash your pay cheque for a small fee. If a scruffy looking French jouro can do it so can you.

That’s like an inversion of the truth. There’s no point in getting a false social security card because a) you don’t have to show it b) if you give someone a false social security number it will “ping” as incorrect the feet time it’s entered and c) you can get a perfectly good ITIN legally and free, and it’s indistinguishable from an SSN as far as employers are concerned. Equally the one thing you can do is open a bank account as you don’t have to be a legal resident to have one.

That some French journo wandered around and bought some crap, sure.

Equally the one thing you can do is open a bank account as you don’t have to be a legal resident to have one.

No – but without a SSN you have paperwork and signatures and stuff – anti money laundering laws.
Also very hard to do a lot of other things without a recognised ID, usually a State driving license.

You don’t need a driving licence or an SSN to open a bank account. Using a dummy SSN to open an account would be counterproductive because it would ping back as wrong when checked. Getting an ITIN is not difficult.

You can use a whole bunch of other documents – illegal immigrants aren’t (universally) without any identification whatsoever. Foreign passports and matricula consular cards are just two examples – union cards, work ID, bills etc are others. Banks and credit unions in places with large amounts of immigrants of any stripe are used to this and go through it all the time. If the French journo said that illegal immigrants couldn’t open bank accounts, s/he was simply wrong.

The problem with so many articles about immigration (illegal or otherwise) is that they’re written by people whose knowledge is purely theoretical.

When the mayor of the town confirms the number of illegals he is happy to have working and the French consulate gives figures for the total I have no doubt the journalist was doing his job. The government collects the tax whether the SS number its attributed to exists or not.

The false driving licence thing is used by some Europeans. A local biker presents a false US licence when stopped to avoid points – he only has to pay the fine. The Americans are incapable of telling their own beat cops if a licence is false let alone the French police.

They interviewed a series of illegal immigrants who had been living and working in NY on false papers for years. A musician, a danser, a barman, a babysitter, a restaurant worker.

You don’t have to believe the Earth is (more or less) round, doubters. You’ll be telling people from Iraq and the ‘stan they can’t live off the state in the UK next.

The other-half’s cousin lived and worked in NY for 8 years illegally. Had bank account/union card etc. (and a very pretty girlfriend) Got caught coming back into the country from a holiday in Canada, silly sod.

The report Edukator is referring to is here: http://www.france2.fr/emissions/envoye-special/videos/rhozet_es_sujet2_20130725_62_26072013091741_F2

Unfortunately, I don’t have half an hour to spare and my French isn’t good enough that I can understand the spoken word accurately enough.