Greetings from Southern Oregon

Hi all
It's wonderful to find this site and all the great information here!  I've been learning a lot. 

My wife and I are recently empty-nester's here ("Bereft of Children!") and we are looking for an adventure.  We are both somewhat Anglophiles and think it would a great experience to work and live in the UK for a couple years. 
I am a mid-level IT Manager in Ecommerce systems having worked for some large retailer's and I'm hoping that my skill set travels.  My wife is an LCSW doing clinical counseling which might be our ticket over as well.  Who knows. 

I understand that I need a UK Company to sponser my work visa but then I thought I read a reference here of someone who actually started the process before getting a job.  Is that possible for someone still in the US?

Well, again, so nice to find the site.  Looking forward to learning even more here.
Wish us luck.

Welcome to the forum .

I am a mid-level IT Manager in Ecommerce systems having worked for some large retailer's and I'm hoping that my skill set travels.  My wife is an LCSW doing clinical counseling which might be our ticket over as well.  Who knows. 

I understand that I need a UK Company to sponser my work visa but then I thought I read a reference here of someone who actually started the process before getting a job.  Is that possible for someone still in the US?

Well, you can't actually start the visa process until you have a confirmed UK job offer, because the company needs to issue you with a Certificate of Sponsorship, which you will need to have in order to apply for the visa.

So, until you have an offer of sponsorship for a job, there's not a whole lot you can do towards the visa.

What you can do though is:

- research the different visa types and find out if it is likely you will be able to qualify for one (https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas)
- tailor your resume to the style of a UK CV to help with job applications
- start applying for UK jobs from the US and hope that you will get some interviews

The thing is that getting sponsorship for a work visa can be extremely difficult unless you work in a very specialised/highly skilled field or one that is considered to be in shortage in the UK. The UK government are very anti-immigration at the moment and are trying to make it as difficult as possible for people to get visas and move here.

So, unless one of the following applies, it may be very difficult for you to qualify for a work visa:

a) you currently work for a US company that has branches in the UK and you qualify to be sponsored for an Intra-Company Transfer (Tier 2 ICT visa)
or
b) the UK job is listed on the Tier 2 Shortage Occupations list: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/423800/shortage_occupation_list_april_2015.pdf (Tier 2 General visa)
or
c) the UK company has advertised the job across the entire UK and EU for a minimum of 4 weeks and cannot find anyone suitable for the job except you (but there are 500 million people in the EU and unemployment is still high so the chance of this happening may be slim) (Tier 2 General)

One question:
- Do either you or your wife have claim to either UK or EU citizenship through family members (parents, or possibly grandparents)? If it was the case that you did, then it would make things much easier to move to the UK and work.

Ksand24, thank your for the reply.  I appreciate the information on the visa process and for confirming what I thought I understood about it.  It does sound daunting for sure but who knows.  And no, neither of us have any family relations to the area. 

Thanks again.

Ksand24, thank your for the reply.  I appreciate the information on the visa process and for confirming what I thought I understood about it.  It does sound daunting for sure but who knows. 

No problem .

There's no harm in looking into it and seeing if you might be able to qualify for sponsorship... as long as you're aware that it can be extremely difficult to get a visa.