i know this may be a bit of along shot, im a british citizen who has been to california 4 times and have fell in love with the place. i would love to immigrate there but its virtually impossible to get a u.s green card. if there is anyone out there who could offer any helpful tips i would be most greatful.

Marry somebody living in CA.

Travel to Canada, cross to US and settle in. Or just come to visit and don't leave. It has worked for 11 million or more.

I do prefer the marry someone in CA idea however.

Find a job with a California based company who will sponsor your citizenship.

yeah- you almost always need a job, first...

My mom is English, and her whole family are still in the U.K. I have one cousin that keeps coming to visit and he also loves it here (in Vegas) and would love to move here. Personally, I don't see why he would want to leave England, but he really does. He is a tile setter and has found out that he cannot keep up with the many illegal's here that do the same work and do it cheaper...it is a catch 22 situation. Really, you can go on the 10+ year long waiting list, or get a work visa and TRY to find someone that will sponsor you, and this in itself is very difficult.
Why do you want to move? What is it about So. Cal. or the U.S. in general? I asked my cousin the same thing and he says "well, it is a better living isn't it?" Is it? We have high crime here compared to Europe, and medical costs are outrageous. I think perhaps he comes here on vacation and doesn't see the full picture, he sees all the fun while visiting. I'm just suggesting that you really think about why you want to make such a major move to a foreign country.

grass is greener on the other side of the fence....and the amount of crime/living expenses really depends WHERE you live in the US....though I'd never live in Vegas or most of Southern CA.

If you are highly educated it is usually possible to get a visa. This means a PhD or MD. However, BS and MS degree holders can also get visas if they are trained in a field that has a high demand for employees (computer programming, engineering, etc.).

As someone who has gone through the very confusing and expensive immigration system to get my Mongolian-born husband a green card, I would tell you to stay where you are!

Even if you do find an American to marry, it's a long, painful and expensive process to become a legal resident (with a green card). You are questioned at every turn by Homeland Security about whether your marriage is real - we had to show them our wedding pics, invitations, & get letters from 2 people verifying our marriage! They question whether or not you are a terrorist, and whether or not you are lying on your application, etc. The whole process is extremely confusing and if you mess up one single little thing on the forms, you have to start over again from scratch. Immigration attorneys can help you through the process, but at almost $300 an hour, I decided to fill out the forms myself. And what a lot of work! I can't imagine how people whose native language is not English even manage to figure what they're asking for on some of these forms!

Having said all that, your options for getting a green card are:

- Marry a US Citizen and stay married to them for at least 3 years (they will check!)

- Find a company to hire you and sponsor you

- Enter the green card lottery (I don't remember how many cards are given out each year, but it's worth a shot)

- Or come here on a Visa, get a job illegally, and then try to work through the system to stay. (Not recommended)

Good luck!

Oh, and when we finally got my husband's green card, his name was wrong on it and I have spent the last year trying to fix it!

right....and people bash the immigrants for coming here illegally....

assuming it's about the weather, would it be easier to learn Spanish, Italian or Greek?

Here's a link on the green card lottery:

http://tinyurl.com/hg6rr

Since OP is from the UK she does not qualify for the lottery. Got any relatives here that can sponsor you?

I think England has a wait list instead of the lottery but like I mentioned before it is over 10+ years wait.

Are you young enough for a college?

Don't know if the laws have changed, but before it was possible to get a student visa, go to college, and this same visa gave you the right for a part-time job.

I think it was valid for 8 years then. It's a long term - you can get disappointed with the US and go back, or you can marry a US citizen.

A college student visa is never valid for 8 years. It is only valid for the amount of time with which the college or advanced degree program is normally completed. A four-year degree will only be granted 4 years, with eligibility for limited extension plus a year of internship with a local company. A Master's degree is also valid, ususlly, for 2 years plus a year for internship.

Unless you have a skill that an employer will want to sponsor you for, you are likely out of luck. The only other alternatives are to apply for political asylum (which isn't available for British citizens), to marry an American, or to qualify for a special category, such as nurses, Soviet scientists, or aliens of Outstanding Ability (such as Nobel prize winners).

Billboy is right. The laws have also changed, and foreign students are now forbidden from working while they are in school. They also must show proof of financial responsibility for the entire cost of their studies, and they pay a tuition rate higher than out of state students. If you do decide to take the student route, study Nursing, and when you graduate, there will be MANY employers willing to sponsor you!

College is not only university. College is also your city college where you can get an AA degree.

The laws do change. About 10 years ago it was a student visa for 4 years renewable to 8 years.

After 9/11 the laws changed a lot re student visas.

dnlmahon, I moved to the US from Scotland when i married my American husband. At that time, it was very easy. After I became a citizen, my brother decided he'd like to move here too. In 1985 he sent in his green card application....and finally heard back in 1996 that he had an appointment at teh US Embassy in London. By then, having gone on with his life, he had lost the enthusiasm to relocate to California. You would probably find the same thing, but you don't even have a relative who is a US citizen.

vegasnative makes a valid point about medical costs (you don't even give them a second thought, do you?), etc. In the US, medical costs are well on their way to causing a major financial disaster for many large companies.

It's a great pity that it's easier to move to the US if you are not a native English speaker or come from a former communist country or a third world country. But if you are from the UK, forget it. Unless, as others have noted, you are a doctor or a nurse or have a PhD in life sciences or an advanced engineering degree, you're probably not going to get in for many,many years, if at all.