Questions for UK nurses who have made the move to the USA

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jan 25, 2007

What does your husband do now, can it be adapted to here?

Your quality of life will be good but it is a little more difficult for the partners to get work with a decent wage. Mine was quite frustrated at first as he thought getting a job over here would be easy and it wasnt. He works for himself now and earns an average amount of money.

Most of the non nursing partners find that employment pays very poor wages-mine initially worked for $6 per hour but you can get jobs in the supermarket for $9 an hour and up to $11.

My friend who was a business manager for a big retail company in London, is looking for a job at the moment and she had to pay $5000 for a business package to market her for employment. At the moment she is undergoing some training programs to adapt to the US way.

cariad · Jan 25, 2007

we are now in our third year now, and dh hasnt really had a proper job. he also has no formal training, he worked with adults with learning disabilities and learned as he worked in the uk.

he was offered $5 an hour for 40 plus hours a week with a 5 year old with autism, so we decided for him not to work full time as we would need to buy and insure another car and he would never be at home on my days off. so he just did odd jobs which suited us whilst we worked my 18 month contract.

since then he has been offered $10 an hour for security work and $8 an hour in the local supermarket. he was trying to do some house painting, but has let that go as we had a car crash and he is unable to work at this moment in time.

the nurse in the family has to become the main breadwinner, and we have had a very comfortable lifestyle up until now, even with dh not earning much.

there are plenty of college courses available if you have the money, for all sorts of training courses, ie...phlebotomy, nurses aide, real estate selling etc

Tanvi Tusti · Jan 25, 2007

Hi clare

what does he do in the UK? I think you will find that he will certainly not be the main breadwinner over in the States. There is a lot of competition for higher level jobs and obviously folks already over in the US with similar work experience, will be given priority, especially if your hubby has no recognisable qualifications. My husband is American so its a little different for us, but he still wouldnt earn anywhere near what I could. As a US citizen with over 25 years experience in the workplace, he was only earning around $12 an hour, that was as a driver, both cabs and delivery.

It depends on where in the States you will be as far as how long it will take for him to get a job, and what he is prepared to do. We lived in Seattle and my hubby went through a period of unemployment, it took him over a month to find a job, and that was with submitting several resumes daily, as per social security requirements in order to claim unemployment.

I lived on and off in the States for over 3 years but didnt work, if we ever go back then our intent is that I work full time and he takes up a little part time job and becomes the "house husband", as theres really little else he could do and his potential for earning is low. Good luck.

;)

Clarecartwright · Jan 25, 2007

Hi Guys

Thanks for the replys - My husband left school when he was 16 and has worked at an engineering firm ever since, he has worked his way up from sweeping the floors to becoming a press shop manager - he is a "Tool Maker" by trade and this is what he has qualifications in - he has NVQ level 4's in engineering. But my problem is he has said if moving to America he would want to do something different ? But hes not particuarly sure what, We are moving to Rhode Island if this helps in answering my questions.

Also I was told by a Family member that when we get there my Hubby wont be allowed to work for 3 years - I presume this is untrue as I have not seen anyone else on here mention it ?

Thanks again for all your help

english_nurse · Jan 25, 2007

hi claire

have you tried looking at careerbuilder.com

there are a few ideas on there, many of the companies are agencies but you can get an idea of whats around and how much the pay is

Clarecartwright · Jan 25, 2007

Thanks for that link Claire I will check it out

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jan 25, 2007

Hi Guys
Also I was told by a Family member that when we get there my Hubby wont be allowed to work for 3 years - I presume this is untrue as I have not seen anyone else on here mention it ?
Thanks again for all your help

definately untrue as he will/should get a greencard the same as you, they are probably thinking of the H1b visas as spouses can't work if they have that visa

english_nurse · Jan 25, 2007

definately untrue as he will/should get a greencard the same as you, they are probably thinking of the H1b visas as spouses can't work if they have that visa

i missed that bit in your original post, thats definately a load of rubbish as silverdragon says!!!!

Clarecartwright · Jan 25, 2007

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys :)

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jan 25, 2007

A lot of the time here the Americans dont really care what you did in your own country, thye are only interested in what you do here. A lot of the time is is not what you know but who you know so my advice would be to get involved with community stuff asap and start networking

Bibagirl · Jan 25, 2007

Hi Clare,

when we lived in London, my husband had a good job with the council, and I was in nursing. He was paid fairly well, and my nursing wages were less.

Now we've moved to America, it's been 3 years and my husband is a house husband. I work full time and I have good wages. We can live on one income, (no children), but my husband is somewhat bored. I think the quality of our life has gone down since we left England. We were both personally happier there, but trying to cope with London was getting us down, and that's why we left. It back-fired on us, and it is a hard lesson, because we can't move back to London. We could never afford to buy back into it now. So here we are, trying to make the best of it.

My advice is to think long and hard before you leave the UK, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, and if you could keep your options open, all the better.

Good luck.