I'm not an expert but i expect the eastern Europeans claimed political asylum.

Telling uncle Sam that you fear for your life back in the UK and that Tony Blair's henchmen have already slaughtered your entire family probably wont cut it.

shoot me down if I'm wrong - but I understand that a "green card" work visa is available for certain nationalities - effectively it's a bit of a lottery, but you fill out the forms and get entered into a "draw" by which a certain number of applicants are offered the visas.

UK nationals are NOT entitled to the green card system, but I suspect Eastern Europeans ARE.

Basically, to live and work in the states you need a visa. The visa has to be sponsored by your US employer who has to be able to state that it is ESSENTIAL that you are employed by his/her company (on either a temporary or permenant position). If there are suitable Americans for the job, you will not be entitled to a visa although temporary secondments to UK or US companies operating in the USA are possible under certain terms. Effectively if you have a trade or profession in which there are unemployed US citizens you will not be entitled to a visa. sorry!!!

Hi broooce,totally agree with what you say.
We were holidaying in Florida 3 years back,Orlando/Clearwater and the market for cheap labour is a joke.Like you mentioned in restaurants especially in Clear water were mainly eastern block,poles etc.
We spoke to a few of them who told us how easy it was for them to obtain work in these manual jobs.
In Orlando the locals were telling us of the asians as they put it invading their shores(thats their term not mine).Most of the smaller businesses were of of asian migrants we visited,also a few pubs were being opened by them,though they were finding them hard to run as they have strict alcohole laws,and most cannot obtain liquor licencesses.
My two sons wanted a Indian meal for a change,sick of burgers etc and whilst waiting for our order and supping a small beer got chating to the bar staff.Most of them were from London surprisingly but a few behind the scenes you knew were black market workers.They too also told us that if we were interested in working in the States to extend our stay how easy it
was to obtain work.Go too the bottom of the rd and wait outside a certain pub and they will find you.
I dont know if the system has changed but this restaurant owner was out their with a 12 months visa,and explained in clear term what he intended to do.Buy a business work it to show a healthy profit,then was told by the us state that then he could apply for a work permit,then 12 months down the line if the business was still a sucsess he was intitalled to stay.
Hope this helps

None of what you are saying is correct. Have a look at thefloridaforum.us

The only visa is a B2 which alows you to stay 6 months every year and they are reluctant to give one without a good reason. If you buy a business you may get an E2 but it has to have provable high profit BEFORE you get the visa

Was in a bit of a rush this morning in my last post.
All i can say is that in speaking to most people who work or were in the process of starting up a business whilst we stayed in Florida all said the same.They all said the same story,that once you could show that your business was a viable business,employing x amount of American workers,legally,there were lawyers that were willing to fight your corner

Well if you want to believe all this rubbish why ask on a sensible forum- just go ahead and try it!!.