Investments on Student Visa

flying_scotsman

Hello. I am seeking some advice on what my options are. I seem to have got myself confused as to what I legally can do and cannot because of my visa situation, and I certainly do not count myself as an expert in the subjects, so I am wondering if someone could help sort me out on it. Basically, I am a UK citizen temporarily living in the US on an F1 (student visa). I am unlikely to be returning or moving away from the US for another couple of years. I have some money, a nontrivial sum, that is presently sitting in a UK bank account, which I broke out of UK investments because of the recent economic situation. My question is, residing in the US what are my best options for where to put this money so that is taken out of the poor performance situation of a mere current account? There appear to be limitations if I am not actually resident in the UK, as to what investments I can start up. Also, what are the limitations in America given that I am only on a visa and not a permanent resident here? What is the best thing to do in this situation? I should emphasize that it is not practical for me to leave the US or return to the UK until my study program is finished. Many thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Margey

Hi

I too am not that familiar with this situation but i having done a little looking around i have found this website, which may provide more information.

I hope that this has helped, even if its just a little

Margey

rockitup

Since you are going to be living in the US for a couple of years then you will be classed as a US Resident which affects your chances of opening bank and investment accounts in many countries.

It is easy enough to open a bank or investment account whilst in the US though. For investments you can try TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, Charles Schwab and countless others. I found TD Ameritrade good for stocks but they also offer mutual funds (similar to OEICS/Unit Trusts) and ETF's as wells CD's (like a fixed rate saving account) but the interest rates on these are also very low now.

Beware though that you will be at the mercy of the markets if you only invest for the 2 years and also the movements in the GBP/USD conversion rate could either favour you or go against you.

If you have trusted family in the UK and some form of address verification there like a bank statement at the UK address then you could leave your money invested in funds or shares quoted in Sterling.