If you’re in software and want to have a fulfilling career, few other places can let you achieve it besides the US. That was my goal, so for me the F1/H1B/GC was worth the effort, both financially and professionally. I got somewhat lucky because I finished my MS in 2010 and applied for the H1B in 2011 when the market was recovering and it was almost guaranteed that you would obtain a H1B. In the last few years, the number of applications greatly exceeded the availability, and now you have a 33/40% chance to be selected in the lottery when applying for an H1B, where the higher figure applies when obtaining a MS from a US school. Given the amount of money, stress, and time requested it is a somewhat lackluster success chance to bet on, so unless the new administration changes things in a way that increases chances to get a H1B, I’d recommend other more accessible (from the point of view of immigration) countries like Canada. As for life after the Green Card - yes it’s absolutely much better than a simple H1B. You can change jobs as you please, and it’s much easier to travel around internationally, since most airports let you enter in the same queue as US citizens. Those benefits would apply to your spouse/children as well assuming you applied for a Green Card after getting married, which is really important if your spouse plans to work in the US. It doesn’t change much in terms of how distant your family will be and doesn’t provide them any benefits in term of VISA for them to come visit you, so that is your choice, if you can cope with that or not. I come from Italy, where a software engineer of my experience makes about 20% of what I make here, or put in other terms, I make 5x what I would be making in Italy at this point in my career. Even assuming a 2x cost of living increase, I’m still 2.5x better in term of purchasing power than if I’d stayed in Italy. That doesn’t even take into account the work environment, which is frankly miserable over there, especially compared to the Bay Area. I miss my family, and my Italian friends, but ultimately I am a much happier person here in the US.
I made some friends recently who all left the US for work, and all of them had amazing experiences. They came back very happy and positive. A month after the first two came back, my last, we invited all four of them over to celebrate my 40th birthday here in the US. As long as your salary doesn’t make it impossible to work from US to the UK, I think ITIS possible to make it work. Not sure if anyone else feels like doing this, but maybe something like this can be used by software developers who are considering moving to other countries. I know a few people who left their jobs in the US for China, so I feel like maybe it could be possible for you to do it as well. It may be a lot less risky to move your whole family, because the likelihood of.