Moving to UK in August - where should I start my search?

Hi UKYs,

I am moving somewhere in the UK in August, for one year, with my family of 5 for my hubs' work.  The only thing I do know is that we can't afford to live in London, living on only one salary.  I am very excited about the opportunity, but unfortunately have more enthusiasm than knowledge, at this point.

My kids are 14, 11 and 8.  I am planning to homeschool them to maximize our travel opportunities, although my oldest would like to go to a local school, as he is a very social being. 

We are looking for a place to live that is:

1. Safe and family friendly
2. Culturally different than living in the suburbs of CA (shouldn't be a problem, I'm guessing)
3. Not too far from a major transport hub, as we want to travel often, and my husband may have to travel a bit for work
4.  Bonus for sun
5.  Less expensive than London

Love to hear your ideas. Thanks in advance.

1. Safe and family friendly

There are lots of places in the UK that are safe and family-friendly . Smaller towns/suburbs are going to be more family-friendly than cities. I live in a very safe area, in South Gloucestershire, a few miles north of Bristol. We have very low crime (only real issues are teenagers making trouble and the odd burglary) and a couple of years ago, it was voted one of the top 10 towns in the country to raise children.

2. Culturally different than living in the suburbs of CA (shouldn't be a problem, I'm guessing)

Yeah, I doubt it . UK suburbs are very green, with small close-together houses (the average two-storey, 3-bedroom family home is about 800 sq. ft.).

Here are some aerial views of suburbs in Bristol (about 15 miles from where I live):

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/faselei/Cyburbia/1980s.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/faselei/Cyburbia/1950s.jpg
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b135/faselei/Cyburbia/Victorian.jpg (nearer the city centre)

3. Not too far from a major transport hub, as we want to travel often, and my husband may have to travel a bit for work

The UK is really small compared to the US - all three countries put together (England, Scotland and Wales) are only half the size of California, but we have almost double the population (60 million)! California has 8 international airports and the UK has 29 international airports, so considering you can drive across the whole country east to west in less than 6 hours and from north to south in less than 12 hours, pretty much anywhere you live is likely to be within a couple of hours' drive of a large airport.

Where I live in the countryside near Bristol, I have easy access (within 2.5 hours drive) to about 10 major cities/towns and 9 international airports.

4.  Bonus for sun

To be honest, anywhere in the UK is going to have a similar amount of sun.... which unfortunately is not very much! The UK gets approximately 1340 hours of sunshine per year, with the south/south east getting about 1750 hours and the north less than 1,000 hours of sunshine. Basically, it's cloudy and/or raining about for about 75% of the year, no matter where you live (average rainfall is about 2-3 inches per month throughout the year).

5.  Less expensive than London

Pretty much anywhere is going to be less expensive than London . In general, the further north you go, the cheaper the cost of living, but the north can be colder and not as sunny as the south.

You say cheaper than London, but do you need to be within commuting distance of London?

You'll be close to all kinds of public transport if you're within commuting distance of London. 

Hi there,
Exciting times!

Looking at your questions and post, you're currently very very vague!

1. What is the salary level that your hubby will be getting here in the UK?
2. Dependant on the above - will largely affect where you can and want to live.
3. Which city/town is your better halfs job located? can he work from home etc?
4. Culturally different?! - this can vary hugely - do you want to live in a tiny hamlet? village? small town? near a city? very rural ?
5. Bonus for sun?! The UK gets very very little warm weather! best 'chance' of perhaps 2-3 weeks of 'hot' weather would be july/august and in the southern parts of the UK
6. Less expensive than London!?! - still very vague, depending on the above really, theres not many places in the UK where you could call the cost of living 'cheap' - pretty much everywhere is 'expensive'.

Ksand24 - has posted up some good points! the question arises of that 'sunshine' we get, how much of it is actually 'decent' warmth and clear blue skies type weather? - the country is tiny, but people still think a 45 minute to an hours drive is just 'so far' ! you'll be fine in this respect I think!


If you can provide some more details, you'll get some more of a focussed answer from many of us!

Cheers DtM! west London & Slough UK!

You are right, DtM, it feels very vague to me too! Thanks to you and ksand for trying to focus my thinking a bit.

My husband will be working from home - so we have very few parameters.

I think he will be earning around 120k £ per year.

As for sun, we are pretty realistic about this. Our kids don't even own winter coats at this point, so we know this will be a big change for us!  But given a choice between blue skies/chillier temps vs. gray skies/warmer temps, we would choose blue skies every time.
Some of the other threads have got me thinking I should probably start looking in the South. 

Culturally different - I am so tired of every town in CA looking the same!  Big box stores (and the same ones even) on every street corner.  So, it could be almost anything - different architecture, more green space, local color, and I think I will enjoy the change.  I am a do-er, so I don't think very rural would be my cup of tea, but tiny hamlet or village with good transit into a bigger place would be great.  I am also energized by city living, so that would be fine too. 

You are right about distances.  I would be fine being 1-2 hrs from a major airport or the chunnel.  Is it easier to get those cheap hopper flights from Heathrow or Gatwick vs. some of the other airports?  With 5 of us traveling, even small increases in fares will add up.  And we want to travel to other parts of Europe about once a month for long weekends. 

One other thing....we spend a lot of time on the CA coast.  I know if I don't live on the coast, I will be traveling there frequently to get my "ocean fix". Some have suggested we look in Brighton for a seaside town with lots to do?

I didn't see it in your other posts, but I'm wondering if you figured out what visa he'll be getting?  IMO, that's the first thing to get sorted.

I think he will be earning around 120k £ per year.

That seems to be on the high side for a tech support job in the UK.  Not that it couldn't happen (and great for you if it does) but from what I know, it's rare to have the same numerical salary when you move from US to UK.

For example, if I was making $50,000 in America, if I moved to the UK, I probably would not be making £50,000 for the same job.

But if so, that's great for you guys, and if you want to live in London, live in London.  My fiance's friend lives in London and definitely makes less than that, and he leads a rather comfortable lifestyle there.  In fact, he lives a very comfortable lifestyle there.  So go for it and have fun!

If he's really getting £120k a year, you can definitely live in London, or pretty much anywhere for that. The world is your oyster, as they say!

(Remember- you usually can't just convert the earnings he makes in the US to the UK earnings- unless he's on an especially good expat contract- which has been know to happen  )

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=61808.0

 The average household income in the UK is something like £21k/year.  

ETA- it sounds like you'll be in an incredibly nice position to be able to travel every month for a long weekend around Europe and whatnot. You mine as well take advantage of it if you can!  Soooooooooo jealous!

If he's really getting £120k a year, you can definitely live in London, or pretty much anywhere for that. The world is your oyster, as they say!

Yeah, that is an incredibly high salary... the kind of money that the majority of us Brits can only dream of earning!!

£120K is about 4 or 5 times what the average person earns in Britain (my parents raised three kids, and paid for 8 years of university tuition for my brother and I, on less than £40K per year). With that salary, he'll be in the top 1% of earners in the country, right up there with business executives, medical consultants and the UK Prime Minister (90% of the UK population earn less than £45K and only 1% earn higher than £117K)!

Hi there,

As already said, a £120K/pa salary means you can pretty much live anywhere you want. Very popular with the super rich Americans living around here is the Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water and Chobham. I've met a few US people living here and they were either very high end executives in some of the biggest corporations - and also had everything paid for by them (talk about perks! I met one guy who's wife was a high ranking executive for one of the oil companies, and the house, kids private school, bills, transportation etc costs were ALL paid by the company! they had one of the lovely houses in Virginia Water) or they were businesspeople with successful enterprises back in the US with interests here etc.

At that level of salary, assuming you don't get the perks above, you'll more than easily be able to afford to live extremely comfortably, of course with good money management.

so in effect, it's pretty much less vague, he can work from home - so in reality, you can just choose anywhere

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Wow! You all are making me feel better about how far his salary will stretch. 
I hope I calculated the #s right - he is supposed to make the equivalent of $175k in GBP.  But there will be no other perks. We are responsible for relocation costs, private health insurance (if we need it?), car, tuition, etc. 

As for his visa, since so many people have voiced concerns, I forwarded some of them to his HR dept, and this is their reply:

"Under Tier 2 points-based system, you more than qualify (80 points scored, only 60 are necessary).  Also, you will be employed by the UK subsidiary while working in the UK.    First step to completing this process will be for the UK sub to gain sponsor approval.  I’ve reviewed the qualifications for a Class A sponsorship status and we are good to go.  I don’t foresee anything obvious which could prevent us from gaining approved status.  However, if there were any barriers to the Tier 2 points-based system for intra-company transfer & or our sponsorship status, then we could also go with Tier 1 visa status, under the current laws (from April 6 2010 forward) which you also score more than enough points to qualify (in excess of 100 points plus 10 additional points each for maintenance and English language skills).  Tier 1 doesn’t require you to even have a job before you go!  (ie sponsorship from UK entity is not necessary)."
So hopefully we shouldn't have a problem with his visa. 

Thanks all, for your input.

You won't need private health insurance, under a Tier 1 or Tier 2 visa, your husband, you and your kids will be eligible for the NHS.  If you want private insurance to jump the queues though, that's a bit different. Though base care is still done with the NHS and anything major is still done with the NHS. 

Personally,though YMMV, if I were only moving for a year, I would find a fully fitted out house/flat that has pretty much everything and I would try and relocate with only a couple of suitcases, paying for some extra suitcases if needed, that way it keeps costs down.  Thus everyone in the family takes a couple of them, fitting it out with things that really need/cannot live without- and everything else you can get here.  Many people on this site move over with only a couple of suitcases each. 

Car, well depending on where you live, you may or may not want the hassle for only a year.  You can always rent one if necessary. 
 

Yeah, the visa's not likely to be a problem.  You threw us off by saying that your husband would be working for a "small" US company, when in fact it sounds as though he'll be working for a British company with money to burn.  £120k is a ridiculously high salary, but keep in mind that you'll be paying a hefty percentage of that in UK taxes, and you'll also have to pay US taxes at the same time, since you will be making over the $80k exemption threshold.  Still, even with that, you'll be able to afford quite a comfortable lifestyle by UK standards.  You could certainly afford London, but it sounds as though you're more interested in travelling than in an expensive postcode, so you might still want to consider living someplace modest outside of London and using the bulk of your income on travel.  You might enjoy someplace like Bath--it's close to Bristol airport, and within a few hours of London, plus it's a beautiful city and IMO would provide more of a contrast to American life than London would.  Of course, I'm prejudiced in favour of the South West

you'll also have to pay US taxes at the same time, since you will be making over the $80k exemption threshold. 

No they won't.  You take credit for the UK taxes paid on the US return. 

Wow! You all are making me feel better about how far his salary will stretch.

Really, his salary is going to stretch very, very far (doing a quick calculation, $175,000 is about £122,000)! When you said you couldn't afford to live in London and would be living on just one salary, I thought you meant it would be about £25K and you'd be scrimping and saving to make ends meet... but if his pay is really that high, you could be living the high life, even in London!

Obviously though, the UK is more expensive to live in than the US (especially in London), but at the same time, you'll be earning almost 3 times more than the majority of the people living in London (the average wage in London is about £45K)!

As for his visa, since so many people have voiced concerns, I forwarded some of them to his HR dept, and this is their reply:

"Under Tier 2 points-based system, you more than qualify (80 points scored, only 60 are necessary).  Also, you will be employed by the UK subsidiary while working in the UK.    First step to completing this process will be for the UK sub to gain sponsor approval.  I’ve reviewed the qualifications for a Class A sponsorship status and we are good to go.  I don’t foresee anything obvious which could prevent us from gaining approved status.  However, if there were any barriers to the Tier 2 points-based system for intra-company transfer & or our sponsorship status, then we could also go with Tier 1 visa status, under the current laws (from April 6 2010 forward) which you also score more than enough points to qualify (in excess of 100 points plus 10 additional points each for maintenance and English language skills).  Tier 1 doesn’t require you to even have a job before you go!  (ie sponsorship from UK entity is not necessary)."
So hopefully we shouldn't have a problem with his visa. 

That's good that the visa looks like it won't be much of a problem, although it sounds like the company isn't currently an approved Tier 2 sponsor yet, which they need to sort out first and then apply for a certificate of sponsorship for your husband.

Once he has the certificate, you will need to apply for your visas - his will be a Tier 2 (Intra-Company Transfer) and yours and the kids will be Tier 2 dependents - which I believe will cost £270 each... so £1350 for all 5 visas (if you end up applying for Tier 1 visas and dependent visas instead, his visa will cost £690 and I think your dependent visas will cost £270 each... so £1770 in total). 

You will need to apply through the Los Angeles consulate. This must be done by mail (no in-person appointments can be made) and you will all need to attend local biometrics appointments (fingerprints and photos) as part of the process. However, applications are currently taking around 2-3 months to be processed, but if you want, you can hire a visa expediter in LA, who is authorised to hand-deliver your applications to the consulate and get them put to the front of the processing line, which means they could be approved within a week instead (they will then be picked up by the expediter and returned to you).

Hiya

I think Bath has been noted as just as expensive as London's leafier and more upscale areas, so keep looking through Rightmove etc to see what you can go for. Would you also be considering buying a property as well? - at this salary level, and assuming you do have some savings, you 'could' relatively easily buy a place. You could then perhaps rent it out or use as a holiday home/base on subsequent travels?

I was also under the impression that you do have to pay the US section of taxes and at the end of the year, you file and get a tax rebate/refund based on the dual tax treaty between the UK/USA. More info on that on the tax section of the site. It'd probably be worth your while hiring a qualified UK/USA tax accountant to ensure all stays good, unless the company can or is sorting that out.

You will be paying a substantial amount out in tax as well around £41,000 in tax and about £6000 in national insurance, so take home pay will be around the £75,000 mark

as already said, in comparison to about 90% of the UK workforce which isn't in the higher tax bracket, and the fact his earnings are about 5 times the national average, you'll be able to stretch quite a bit further.

Have you got any initial thoughts as of where right now? In addition to the places I mentioned, theres places like Rickmansworth, Gerrards Cross, Ascot, Sunningdale, Horsham, etc etc all around the west and just outside of London that would easily suit? or are you thinking further away from London ?

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!