How can I possibly move to the UK by next year?

I think an exchange program is a really good, sensible and realistic option for you. Often fees are less than international student fees, and as it's for a shorter period of time, less money is needed to be saved.

For example, California State University has an exchange for business students to go to the University of Bradford, a good UK university for business rankings.
http://csuip.calstate.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=10052

Here's some sage words from Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut.
Chris Hadfield on how to become the person you want to be

I'm an American citizen and so are my parents but I have a great grandmother that was born in Spain, this sounds really far fetched but my grandmother said she could probably prove her mother was a Spanish citizen and get a duel Spanish citizenship and probably get my mother duel citizenship as well so I can be a EU citizen and be able to live and work in Europe but I honestly didn't think that was possible and although that would be easier I don't think it's possible, as much as I would like it to be lol.

Different countries of the EU have different rules on citizenship through ancestry.  http://thebillfold.com/2014/11/how-to-get-eu-citizenship-country-by-country/  It looks like Spain would only allow it if your actual parents were born Spanish.
Best follow up one of the other suggestions.

If you were up for a completely different European experience, why not study for your undergraduate degree in Germany?

How US students get a university degree for free in Germany
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32821678

German Academic Exchange Service
https://www.daad.de/deutschland/en/

As you saw with Aquila's great advice, there are various routes, some of which allow you to live in the UK for anywhere up to 5 years, but do not lead to permanent residence, and some do lead to permanent residence.

I think the main thing for you though will be the cost of doing what you want to do.

For a student visa, for example, the visa fees aren't that much ($500-700), but you're looking at a cost of something like $25,000-30,000 per year - about $15,000-20,000 per year for international tuition fees, plus about $10,000-15,000 per year in living costs. In order to get a student visa, you need to show you have access to the first year of fees and living costs upfront (about $30,000), either in your bank account or from a US loan, before they will grant you the visa.

As another example, in terms of fiance or spousal visas though (if you were in a relationship with a UK citizen), it would be on the UK citizen to prove they met the income requirement, but just the visa fees alone to get to permanent residence and citizenship are likely to be close to $10,000 over 5 years ($1,500-2,000 per visa, 3 or 4 visas over 5 years, plus citizenship at the end).

Work visas don't have such a financial burden as often the company will pay for the visas and sometimes will help you to move, but in that case, it's being eligible to be sponsored for a visa in the first place that is the difficult part.

College and university in the UK are very different things and are not the same as college vs. university in the US.

College in the UK is essentially the last 2 years of our high school... it is approximately equivalent to AP or college prep classes in the US, or equivalent to 'continuing education' or 'adult education' in the US.

College is Further Education (pre-university) and University is Higher Education.

Many UK students usually attend college at age 16, either in order to gain the necessary further education qualifications to be able to apply to university to study for a degree, or they decide they don't want to get a degree so they leave academics and instead go to college in order to study vocational, non-academic courses.

In the UK, the education system is generally as follows:

- Primary School: age 4-11
- Secondary/High School: age 11-16
- College: age 16-18/19
- University: age 18/19-21/22

So, someone might leave high school at 16 with GCSE qualifications and decide they want to become a physicist. The entry qualifications to get into university to become an physicist are: A level qualifications in Maths, Physics and one other subject (generally A or B grades are required). A levels are further education (college) courses, so that student would then go to either an FE or a Sixth Form college to take 2 years of A level courses in Maths, Physics, and maybe Chemistry too. Then they would apply to specific physics courses at UK universities to study for a degree in physics.

It is possible to get a student visa for a Further Education College course, but it would depend what your educational plans were and whether the courses offered would be what you were looking for and if they will help you in your long-term education goals.

If you were to get a degree in the UK, and were able to secure a sponsored graduate job after graduation but before your student visa ran out, it would be relatively easy to stay in the UK - due to you having a UK degree and being in the UK legally, your employer would NOT need to pass the resident labour market test, which means they could employ you without needing to prove they couldn't find a UK/EU worker and without the job being on the shortage list.

However, if you returned home to the US after the student visa, in order to move back, you would either have to apply for a new student visa to study for another course (i.e. a postgraduate degree), or if you wanted a work visa your UK degree wouldn't help - the job would either need to be on the shortage list or they would have to pass the resident labour market test first before they could hire you.

Am I allowed to work at all while on a students visa? And how would I find a sponsored graduate job? This Is honestly the first time I've heard of this, would it allow me perminant residency? And thank you for clearing up the way the education system works everything is coming together for me now I think I kinda have an idea of what I should do. It's a bit pricey but this seems manageable now aha.

It depends on what level of study the visa is for as to whether you can work or not. If it's an FE college course I think you can only work up to 10 hours per week in term-time (not sure about vacations) while if it's a degree course you should be able to work 20 hours per week in term-time and full-time in vacations.

You cannot take a permanent job with a student visa though, it has to be temporary contracts only.

You would find a sponsored graduate job the same way you would find any other job. It's the same work visa, it's just that if you are still in the UK with a valid student visa and you have been awarded a UK degree the company has less hoops to jump through in order to be allowed hire you on a work visa.

Only the time on a sponsored Tier 2 work visa can count towards permanent residency... So none of the time on a student visa can count towards the 5 years for permanent residence.

First you would need to spend 3+ years getting a degree, then you would have to apply for and secure a sponsored work visa before your student visa ran out in order to bypass the resident labour market test, then it would be 5 more years to permanent residency and a further 1 year after that for citizenship.


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As a brit who grew up in the UK and moved to the US in my late 20s, and subsequently spent nearly 20 years living in the US on both coasts here's my input:

1) Try before you buy: living in a country is very very different to vacationing there.  The advice to get a student year in the UK is a good one if it's possible.   The UK is a lovely country but it's a very different place to California - in many ways better (healthcare, less materialistic), in some ways worse (Brits tend to be very negative/can't do folk).

2) The US is a big and very diverse place.   The best thing I ever did in my time in the US was to move from San Jose CA to Boston MA.  For 3 months of each year the weather in MA is "challenging", but in every other way I am much much happier here than in CA.   New England really is a halfway point culturally to "old" England in the respect that it is less materialistic, more family focused and has more consistent education and social services (I won't say better because California has some excellent schools, but also a lot of terrible schools).    Massachusetts has the nations lowest divorce rate, lowest rate of uninsured drivers, is consistently top of national school rankings.

So if you can't get to old England try New England for a while - Boston is a great, great city, large enough to have a lot going on, but small enough to not be intimidating, and with very few really bad crime areas.   And you don't need a visa.

Best of luck with your future moves.

It depends on what level of study the visa is for as to whether you can work or not. If it's an FE college course I think you can only work up to 10 hours per week in term-time (not sure about vacations) while if it's a degree course you should be able to work 20 hours per week in term-time and full-time in vacations.

You cannot take a permanent job with a student visa though, it has to be temporary contracts only.

You would find a sponsored graduate job the same way you would find any other job. It's the same work visa, it's just that if you are still in the UK with a valid student visa and you have been awarded a UK degree the company has less hoops to jump through in order to be allowed hire you on a work visa.

Only the time on a sponsored Tier 2 work visa can count towards permanent residency... So none of the time on a student visa can count towards the 5 years for permanent residence.

First you would need to spend 3+ years getting a degree, then you would have to apply for and secure a sponsored work visa before your student visa ran out in order to bypass the resident labour market test, then it would be 5 more years to permanent residency and a further 1 year after that for citizenship.


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Alright so after I graduate I must find a sponsored graduate job before my study visa runs out. How long would that be before it runs out? Or does that depend

Alright so after I graduate I must find a sponsored graduate job before my study visa runs out. How long would that be before it runs out? Or does that depend

I haven't checked in a while, but I believe that if the visa is valid for a degree course longer than 12 months, you get 4 months extra at the end of the visa before you have to leave the UK, during which time if you can secure a sponsored job and a Tier 2 work visa, you can apply to switch to the work visa from inside the UK before you leave (as long as the application has been submitted before the visa runs out, you can stay while it is processing and your student visa is essentially extended until a decision has been made).

I haven't checked in a while, but I believe that if the visa is valid for a degree course longer than 12 months, you get 4 months extra at the end of the visa before you have to leave the UK, during which time if you can secure a sponsored job and a Tier 2 work visa, you can apply to switch to the work visa from inside the UK before you leave (as long as the application has been submitted before the visa runs out, you can stay while it is processing and your student visa is essentially extended until a decision has been made).

Ah, alright that makes sense thank you so much honestly

As it looks like you're keen to go down the student visa route, the following information may prove useful:

Tier 4 Policy Guidance -- includes pertinent information on visa requirements and applying

FAFSA at International Schools -- About halfway down the page, there's a link to a download titled "International Schools That Participate in the Federal Student Loan Programs " -- This is a spreadsheet of global universities which accept US-based student loans (I highly recommend filtering by Country!).  Once you've selected a university you're interested in, either check with their International Office or the spreadsheet to ensure you'd be able to use federal loans to help fund your degree.

I attended the University of Nottingham and experienced no issues using US-student loans to pay my tuition fees.

As it looks like you're keen to go down the student visa route, the following information may prove useful:

Tier 4 Policy Guidance -- includes pertinent information on visa requirements and applying

FAFSA at International Schools -- About halfway down the page, there's a link to a download titled "International Schools That Participate in the Federal Student Loan Programs " -- This is a spreadsheet of global universities which accept US-based student loans (I highly recommend filtering by Country!).  Once you've selected a university you're interested in, either check with their International Office or the spreadsheet to ensure you'd be able to use federal loans to help fund your degree.

I attended the University of Nottingham and experienced no issues using US-student loans to pay my tuition fees.

Alright that sounds great! I'll check it out:)

BTW, for a uk uni what is the general required level of math, ect that I must know to be accepted? Since I heard only top students can enter and it's really hard to be accepted

BTW, for a uk uni what is the general required level of math, ect that I must know to be accepted? Since I heard only top students can enter and it's really hard to be accepted

It depends what subject (major) you are applying for. At the minimum they will require GCSE level Maths and English grade C or above, which is basically equivalent to high school diploma level, but then you will need more advanced qualifications in three or more subjects related to your major (i.e. AP classes level 5 or above in the required subjects).

I would decide what your 'major' is going to be (because you have to apply for a specific subject and a specific degree course title in a specific department within the university) and then look into what advanced level subjects are required. They usually have international equivalents for what they will accept for students applying from overseas. International students bring in a lot of revenue for the universities as they pay higher tuition fees, so it can be easier to get offered a place as an international student. It does depend if your educational background meets the requirements though.

It depends what subject (major) you are applying for. At the minimum they will require GCSE level Maths and English grade C or above, which is basically equivalent to high school diploma level, but then you will need more advanced qualifications in three or more subjects related to your major (i.e. AP classes level 5 or above in the required subjects).

I would decide what your 'major' is going to be (because you have to apply for a specific subject and a specific degree course title in a specific department within the university) and then look into what advanced level subjects are required. They usually have international equivalents for what they will accept for students applying from overseas. International students bring in a lot of revenue for the universities as they pay higher tuition fees, so it can be easier to get offered a place as an international student. It does depend if your educational background meets the requirements though.

Perfect thank you so much

I haven't checked in a while, but I believe that if the visa is valid for a degree course longer than 12 months, you get 4 months extra at the end of the visa before you have to leave the UK, during which time if you can secure a sponsored job and a Tier 2 work visa, you can apply to switch to the work visa from inside the UK before you leave (as long as the application has been submitted before the visa runs out, you can stay while it is processing and your student visa is essentially extended until a decision has been made).

Actually, I think that rule has changed. I think the new Tier 4 visa rules basically state that you have to leave once your course ends. The new Tier 4 rules are very draconian.