Dealing with the process.

Hey everyone. My name is Robbie and I have been wanting to move to the UK for some time. I'm just about to graduate from college, and I am hoping to take the opportunity to make the move. I know that it is a difficult process, but I hope to make it work! I'll take whatever advice you have for me so thanks in advance!

Best of luck to you Robbie! Are you looking to study or work in the UK?

I'd love to work in the UK, journalism is my most likely job but my English Lit major qualifies me for a lot of different stuff and I am looking at some Grad school options as well. I'm looking for a MST in Creative Writing and most of those programs are pretty new in the UK.

Hey Robbie,

I've had a few friends who are interested in moving here to the UK from the US and it breaks down to this.

To move to the UK to work you'd be applying for a Tier 2 visa. This means you will have to find a company who can sponsor you, which is easiest to do for a job on the Shortage Occupation list (which is updated yearly). See the link below.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/308513/shortageoccupationlistapril14.pdf

To be sponsored by a company for a job NOT on the shortage list the company would have to perform a resident labor market test and prove that there is no one in the UK or EU that is eligible for the job.

If you are serious about coming over as a student, you will have a much easier time. They do require you to have quite a bit of money in savings for maintenance (living expenses). I'm sure someone will be along to let you know what those are or you can google it.

Cheers!

I'd love to work in the UK, journalism is my most likely job but my English Lit major qualifies me for a lot of different stuff and I am looking at some Grad school options as well. I'm looking for a MST in Creative Writing and most of those programs are pretty new in the UK.

Not sure what an MST (MS/MSc is usually master of science, but most writing programmes are not MSc) is, but the MA (master of arts) programme at UAE for creative writing is meant to be terrific.
https://www.uea.ac.uk/literature/creative-writing

There are loads in London, as well as at most of the major universities -- e.g. Manchester, Birmingham, Lancaster, Nottingham -- so you have plenty of options for the student route (which is your easiest one).

Thanks everyone for the advice. Nothing I'm qualified for comes close to that list, so I'd probably have to come as a student. I'm certainly not opposed to that, I just have far fewer connections than I have in the states, but that's the nature of immigrating I would imagine.

Yeah, immigration is really tight right now. They are trying to lower the number of immigrants in the only way they can, by making it difficult for non-EU residents to enter the UK.

I have some friends who really want to move over, but they don't really have any way to do it. One's going to school for nursing, several specialisations are on the list, but you can't guarantee that it will be by the time you would be eligible to move since it changes every year.

Make sure you check out the requirements for how much you need for maintenance.  https://www.gov.uk/tier-4-general-visa/eligibility I'm not sure what your circumstances are, but they want you to have a pretty penny available.

If you go the student route, many UK universities accept FAFSA and US student loans, so look into that with each individual school as a funding option. Cardiff uni accepts it for sure, not sure about others.


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Oh that's awesome! I'll be sure to reapply to FAFSA for sure. Hopefully that makes the price a bit more tolerable.

Oh that's awesome! I'll be sure to reapply to FAFSA for sure. Hopefully that makes the price a bit more tolerable.

Bear in mind that being a student does not lead to settlement, but would only give you temporary residence.

Yeah I know. I'm just hopping that will get me there long enough to figure something out.