One of the main draws, as Patricia Casaburi, chief executive of migration consultancy Global Citizen Solutions, points out, is that the US offers significant professional and academic opportunities for British workers – particularly in finance, technology, medicine and the arts.
“Salaries average 40pc to 50pc higher than in the UK, and while healthcare concerns previously deterred some, NHS challenges have made this less of an issue – as well as the fact that US healthcare is often paid by the employer,” says Casaburi. The firm she runs helps people find the best residency or citizenship to diversify their investments.
But there are downsides, as the British expats working state-side tell us. Some states, particularly New York and California, have “hideous” taxes that eat into your higher salary, and of course there’s healthcare insurance to factor in.
Plus, there have recently been hints from President Donald Trump that inflated taxes for the rich could be on their way.
Peter, a surgical device start-up co-founder who has been living in the US since 1999, considers himself more American than British. Bearing citizenship and a slight transatlantic twang, the 70-year-old doesn’t miss his mother country at all.
He first began visiting in the 1980s for business, but it was meeting his wife-to-be on a flight to Denver in 1997 that redirected his path across the pond for good.
“I was coming out of my second marriage, and not looking for any form of relationship, but after several hours of talking, we knew it was right,” he says. After getting married and spending some time in Britain together, the couple moved to Washington DC, then San Diego and eventually settled in New York City in 2009.
As an entrepreneur, Peter earns three to four times what he would in the UK, while his wife, a broadcast journalist, earns eight to 10 times more.
This tracks with current data – according to the American compensation data firm Payscale, the average annual salary in New York is $93,000 (£70,000), compared to London, where it is £46,000 ($61,121). In a Northern city like Manchester or Leeds, it’s more like £34,000 ($45,173).
Peter and his wife rent an apartment in a quiet part of Manhattan by the river, and own a beach house in Jersey Shore, but “hideous” triple taxes are by far the most expensive aspect of life in New York. They pay a combination of federal, state and city tax, which equates to around 49pc of the couple’s combined gross income – although, he notes, it’s not as bad as in California.
“I’m fine with the high tax in principle here, but it’s definitely the reason so many people leave New York – there are tons of US states where we could be paying considerably less,” he says, adding that his business is based in San Antonio, Texas, which provides some tax relief.
Although Peter now gets health insurance through his wife’s employer, they were stung when the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) was introduced in 2010. As co-owners of a business, the policy pushed the pair’s health insurance costs up by 90pc, to around $2,000 each a month.
When they employed an assistant, the overall insurance dropped to $1,100 for all three, per month. “I feel privileged to get good spousal coverage now,” says Peter.
His wife’s job is likely to keep them in New York City for the foreseeable, but even if she were to leave, he’d never move back to the UK. “In my view, Britons are always glass half empty – people have their lot in life and settle for it,” he says. “They want to retire as soon as they can because they hate their job and have a state cushion.”
He finds people in America to be more ambitious and happy to continue working beyond retirement age. Launching a start-up as a septuagenarian, for example, has been viewed as completely normal behaviour by his peers, while in the UK, he believes he’d be an anomaly.
