Hello!

Hello everyone! I'm Ashley and I just signed up last night. So far I'm loving all of the help on the website and the forum is very interesting to look through.

Erm. I'm not really good with introductions, but I'll give it my best and I'll attempt to keep it relatively short.
I'm a 20 year old college student in North Carolina who has been debating more and more about the idea of moving to the UK in a few years. I've never been out of the country and plan to at least visit as soon as I get money sorted out (hopefully by next June).
From what I've read, a lot of you have moved because spouses/fiances are citizens and I think that makes my situation sort of unique. I have nothing really holding me to the US. A majority of my family already lives too far away for me to visit in other parts of the country and I'm just in this town at the moment because of college. I'm also a fair bit of an introvert, so I don't have any serious friends or a significant other to sway me to stay in this area for a long period of time.
In short, I simply just want to pack up everything and go on my own and root in the UK for no good reason other than to just be there and enjoy the change of scenery. I've always sort of been fascinated by the culture itself and the architecture doesn't hurt either.
Perhaps I'm pursuing it for all of the wrong reasons, I have no idea. But I'd love to hear what others have to offer in terms of where to begin with this newfound theory that I should eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) make my way overseas and settle in.

I'm excited to hear what everyone has to say. And my apologies for making this extremely wordy and boring.
xx

Also. One other thing. I know I can't just 'up and move' and do whatever I want. Maybe that was a poor choice of words. The option that I was thinking about more than anything was Study Abroad/Exchange program. Sorry if that ruffled a few feathers. 

Hi there, welcome to the forum .

In short, I simply just want to pack up everything and go on my own and root in the UK for no good reason other than to just be there and enjoy the change of scenery. I've always sort of been fascinated by the culture itself and the architecture doesn't hurt either.
Perhaps I'm pursuing it for all of the wrong reasons, I have no idea. But I'd love to hear what others have to offer in terms of where to begin with this newfound theory that I should eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) make my way overseas and settle in.

I don't think those are the wrong reasons at all .

The thing you'll need to overcome is that it is not easy to move to the UK just because you want to experience the culture - you need to be able to qualify for a visa in order to move there (sorry wrote this part just before you posted your second reply ).

If you don't have a UK citizen fiance or spouse, then your longer-term visa options are basically limited to a work visa or a student visa.

- Work visas are becoming increasingly more difficult to get... you would need to get sponsored by a UK company, but if your job field is not extremely specialised or highly-skilled, the company has to prove they have search the UK and all other 27 EU countries and not found anyone suitable before they can hire you.

- Student visas are not that difficult to get, and you could maybe go to grad school in the UK, but you do need to have enough money (either your money or a US loan) to cover one year of tuition and one year of living expenses in order to get the visa (about $25,000).

A couple of other, more short-term options for you might be to see if you can do a study abroad semester or year in the UK through your current university in the US - I did a study abroad year in the US during my UK undergraduate degree and it was the best year of my life .

Also there is the BUNAC Intern in Britain scheme for college students/recent graduates, which would allow you to live in the UK for 6 months while doing a pre-arranged internship (http://www.bunac.org/usa/interninbritain/).

You can read more about the different visa options here:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/
https://www.visainfoservices.com/Pages/Welcome.aspx

I did an exchange with my uni in 96-97 and that started all this.  HA! 

An exchange through your existing uni is a great option!  You get help and backup from the school and you meet people through your course and because you are a student you have time to get involved with cultural things.

ashley where are you going to college at......im from asheville nc

ashley where are you going to college at......im from asheville nc

I was going to ask the same thing!  I grew up in Fayetteville and nearly went to NC State before being uprooted to Texas.

I second what the others have said, ashley.nicole. Definitely explore study abroad options through your university. Depending on your area of study, you might be able to find something in the UK or other areas of Europe.

I was going to ask the same thing!  I grew up in Fayetteville and nearly went to NC State before being uprooted to Texas.

UNCG alumnus right here!

Wow. Lots of Carolinians here, I see. I'm currently in the process of transferring to UNC-Wilmington. It's on the coast, for those who might not know where exactly Wilmington is. (Just on the way to Myrtle Beach, an hour or so away. might ring a bell?) I have a few friends who are all going to college in Asheville/Greensboro/Raleigh. Neat places. I'm glad some people here are familiar. 

Thanks for all of the help everyone! And special thanks, ksand24 for those links. They're extremely helpful! I've pretty much decided that I am going to go through the exchange/study abroad program. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to get started on it. At the moment, I'm in a nearby town in a community college and getting my first two years of school done, then starting at UNCW as a junior. If everything goes as planned, I have one more semester here and I'm off to the university!

Wow. Lots of Carolinians here, I see. I'm currently in the process of transferring to UNC-Wilmington. It's on the coast, for those who might not know where exactly Wilmington is. (Just on the way to Myrtle Beach, an hour or so away. might ring a bell?) I have a few friends who are all going to college in Asheville/Greensboro/Raleigh. Neat places. I'm glad some people here are familiar. 

Thanks for all of the help everyone! And special thanks, ksand24 for those links. They're extremely helpful! I've pretty much decided that I am going to go through the exchange/study abroad program. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to get started on it. At the moment, I'm in a nearby town in a community college and getting my first two years of school done, then starting at UNCW as a junior. If everything goes as planned, I have one more semester here and I'm off to the university!

My parents moved to Morehead City from Jersey a few years ago. My brother also went to UNCW for a few years, so I'm quite familiar with that area!    Welcome to UKY! 

Definitely check out the UNCW Exchange program, from the list, it looks like there are LOADS of places you can go in Europe alone! From what I remember of my exchange program, You have to apply the semester in advance of when you'd actually be studying--So if you wanted to do an exchange in the Fall of your Junior year, you'd have to apply very early in the Spring semester of your Sophomore year (like January).  So definitely try to plan ahead!  Good luck!!

Wow. Lots of Carolinians here, I see. I'm currently in the process of transferring to UNC-Wilmington. It's on the coast, for those who might not know where exactly Wilmington is. (Just on the way to Myrtle Beach, an hour or so away. might ring a bell?) I have a few friends who are all going to college in Asheville/Greensboro/Raleigh. Neat places. I'm glad some people here are familiar.  


Thanks for all of the help everyone! And special thanks, ksand24 for those links. They're extremely helpful! I've pretty much decided that I am going to go through the exchange/study abroad program. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to get started on it. At the moment, I'm in a nearby town in a community college and getting my first two years of school done, then starting at UNCW as a junior. If everything goes as planned, I have one more semester here and I'm off to the university!

i have several friends in wilmington......i use to live in florence sc, myrtle beach sc, and charletston sc...........sometimes the world does seem like a small place......nice to meet  you

UNCG alumnus right here!

My best friend from high school went to UNCG.  Really beautiful place, I loved to visit him there when I still lived in NC.

what in the world happened to my post up there??

what in the world happened to my post up there??

Looks like the quote tag wasn't quite right so it didn't display the quote and reply correctly. I think if you go back and edit the post, deleting everything above the second 'Quote from:' (which seems to have been duplicated), it will go back to normal.

Looks like the quote tag wasn't quite right so it didn't display the quote and reply correctly. I think if you go back and edit the post, deleting everything above the second 'Quote from:' (which seems to have been duplicated), it will go back to normal.

done!!!!!!!!! thank you very much for the how to