working in UK for US company

My dh and I (U.S. citizens) would like to move to the UK with our children and live for several years. Probably Scotland (Stirling possibly, not sure) or Southern Ireland (Cork). He works from home now  (computer guy) and would like to move to the UK but keep his present job with his U.S. company. His company has physical locations in the UK, but his particular group does not. How would we get approval to do that from the UK paperwork wise? A visa? Anyone know? Is this an easier situation or harder than some? I can't find examples of this in other people's posts.
Any comments welcomed. 
LizIA

I work for a global company headquartered in the US. We had offices in the UK and I wanted to transfer. Initially, I looked at job openings in our UK offices figuring I would have to change jobs since my entire team was located in the US. When nothing suitable was turning up, I decided to ask if it was a possiblity. I went in and positioned it as a positive thing for our team and they seemed satisfied with it.

I found the process to be very simple. The company handles everything on the work permit side. It took a little less than 2 weeks. Once I had the work permit, I applied for the visa. It took a few days.

One thing that I find a bit difficult is the hours I have to keep. One of the stipulations of my being the only team member in a different time zone, and with an 8 hour time difference, is to be flexible with my availability. Team calls and the likes have to be late into my evening. Sometimes its a pain.

If there's any specific questions I can help you with, ask away.

Good luck.

My dh and I (U.S. citizens) would like to move to the UK with our children and live for several years. Probably Scotland (Stirling possibly, not sure) or Southern Ireland (Cork). He works from home now  (computer guy) and would like to move to the UK but keep his present job with his U.S. company. His company has physical locations in the UK, but his particular group does not. How would we get approval to do that from the UK paperwork wise? A visa? Anyone know? Is this an easier situation or harder than some? I can't find examples of this in other people's posts.
Any comments welcomed. 
LizIA

Basically his company does need to prove that he has a set of skills that aren't common in the UK to get a work permit.  They will need a copy of his passport and his resume/CV and they will then make their case to the UK government.  If the husband's HR department is at all skilled it should be fairly straightforward.  A lot of this is obviously going to depend on your husband's ability to sell it to his boss.  As pdxgal mentioned the work permit has to come through the employer.  Once it is hand, then you apply for the entry clearence, which is VERY straight forward for work permits.

Strangely enough Irish work permits are a little bit harder to get.  The Irish "Tiger" is a little more protective of letting in skilled folks.  At least that is my opinion.  The process is very similiar to the UK one.

You folks sound youthful enough that you might want to look at the HSMP.  That way he is going to the UK on his own "paper" so to speak and then you folks would have a little more flexability.

Strangely enough Irish work permits are a little bit harder to get.  The Irish "Tiger" is a little more protective of letting in skilled folks.  At least that is my opinion.  The process is very similiar to the UK one.

If he's in the IT industry, it's possible he could qualify for an Irish Work Authorisation, which is easier to get than a straight work permit.  IT is one of the shortage skill areas in Ireland, so as long as he can get a job offer and has a degree in a related field it's likely he would be able to get a visa.  He'd have to give up his US job though.

And I agree- look into HSMP as a possibility!

If he's in the IT industry, it's possible he could qualify for an Irish Work Authorisation, which is easier to get than a straight work permit.  IT is one of the shortage skill areas in Ireland, so as long as he can get a job offer and has a degree in a related field it's likely he would be able to get a visa.  He'd have to give up his US job though.

Yeah, but when I looked into an IWA, I felt a little bit dirty... sort of like an H1B in the states... Kind of like "we will let you work for us and pay taxes, but we really want you to eventually go away..."  But yeah, they are easy to get, and there are a lot of IT jobs in Ireland (Cork is so/so, but Dublin is hopping).  The problem is that Irish wages are still a little depressed, especially compared to the UK.

I also forgot to mention as well is that it isn't as simple as getting cleared to move to the UK or Ireland, if you are in IT, and might end up earning more than 80K USD a year while overseas, guess what!  You have US taxes to pay!  YAY!  A small gift from Uncle Sam...  Check out the Taxes forum for lots more information and considerations on that one.

I appreciate all the comments. I'll print them off for my dh to read. I'll search on the HSMP and the IWA. I don't know right now what they are exactly.  He was thinking the highly skilled migrant programme might work. He has a masters degree (couple classes to go only) and is in his mid-thirties.  I have a bachelors degree.  I'm a stay at home mom mostly. I sell soap at summer farmers markets. I don't intend to work at all if we move to the U.K.

We were thinking if he could keep his U.S. salary, it could make it more affordable to live in the U.K.  A while back he could have transferred to Cork. It would have been with a U.S. company but at a *big* paycut. Because they paid less there, or the exchange rate. So we felt we couldn't do it. (I'm kicking myself now though). He spent time there though working on a trip with them and liked it. The people were *very friendly* to him.

I know the U.S./U.K. joint taxes would hurt. We've just started exploring the idea. We'd need to know what those figures would be I suppose to know if this would be feasible. Not sure how to do that either. 

My dh has traveled all over for a previous company he worked for...he works with guys from India and Canada now(as well as people in the U.S.)  and they live in India and Canada in his work group. Everyone works from home. I spent a few weeks in Germany as a teen living with a family. I loved it. That was a long time ago, lol! We tend to move every few years in the U.S. Don't have things tying us down here. We are adventure seekers. But also like things quiet at home. So we'll keep researching to try to make this work.  We have a 2nd grader, 8th grader and a special ed autistic program 4th grader. He's lower functioning (nonverbal) and I don't know if Scotland, Britain or Ireland would have special classes setup just for autistic kids. I have some sites bookmarked and can contact them for info. We need to figure out if we should try next summer to visit or wait until the 8th grader is out of high school and taker her with us for college there. I think high school there may end after 11th grade? I need to search that out too.
  My dh is Scottish/Brittish by ancestry. I'm German, but they don't speak english in the German schools so we're focusing on the UK.    We can holiday in Germany. 
Thanks!!!
LizIA

you say that your husband is UK ancestry- is he eligable for UK citizenship based on this ancestory?  also, are you entitled to a German passport due to your ancestory?

you say that your husband is UK ancestry- is he eligable for UK citizenship based on this ancestory?  also, are you entitled to a German passport due to your ancestory?

British/Scottish ancestry probablly means like ancient history... Like my Irish ancestry... :-)  But good point on the German thing...  If you are a German citizen or can become one through birth, then you can move to the UK and exercise your treaty rights of abode and then your Husband automatically gets to reside with you.  A slightly different set of paperwork, but essentially the same, though his path to UK citizenship would be different.

As far as autistic, the Brits are quite far advanced in this and are very leading edge.  I would suspect most areas would have schools that would cater to and support your child, but obviously doing the research is important for a special needs child like that.  I would suspect more rual areas of Scottland would be more difficult to find the right type of school for him.

I would suspect somone with a Master's Degree in their mid-30's would do well for the HSMP and that fact that you have a degree also adds a couple points.  On the UK immigration sites, there are a couple of self assessment tools you can use to find out if you have the right amount of points.  But it is looking like you might have several options...  Best of luck!

Oh,  the British/Scottish and German ancestry goes back beyond the grandparents. We respect that background a lot though...We also frequently talk/joke about it...because I'm pretty straight German in my background and he's pretty straight Scottish/Brittish in his....always trying to one up the other. I need to be more careful how I word things, sorry.
 
Thanks for the comments. I'll keep reading up. We may look into if his company would pay to send us over. That would be nice, but not essential.
LizIA

Oh,  the British/Scottish and German ancestry goes back beyond the grandparents. We respect that background a lot though...

One slight difference is that here in the UK, when you say you are German, Scots, Irish, etc., it implies that you originate from that country.  When you say you are 'half German, Scots, etc.' it implies one of your parents originates from that country.  To Brits, we are Americans, quite simply.