Starting the process!

Hi everyone!  I'm just now starting the process of looking into moving overseas, and I'm very excited.  I won't ask any questions yet, as there's a ton of info here that I need to read through first, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.  I'm currently 35 and from the Midwest, but have been in love with English culture and history for 20 years.  I'm hoping I can make the move a reality (although getting a job will be the hardest part).

I work in IT currently (general tech support, mostly) but I'm not specialized in anything.  Upping my skills will be important.  So will paying down medical debt.

I studied in China for 4 months when I was 19 so I have a little bit of experience with culture shock, homesickness, etc. but I know nothing can really prepare me.  However, my best schoolmate ended up moving to London with a man she met and later married, and she loves it.

Currently I'm planning my first holiday to the UK for later this year, to check things out and see how I really like it in person.

So anyway, hello!

Hi everyone!  I'm just now starting the process of looking into moving overseas, and I'm very excited.  I won't ask any questions yet, as there's a ton of info here that I need to read through first, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.  I'm currently 35 and from the Midwest, but have been in love with English culture and history for 20 years.  I'm hoping I can make the move a reality (although getting a job will be the hardest part).

I work in IT currently (general tech support, mostly) but I'm not specialized in anything.  Upping my skills will be important.  So will paying down medical debt.

I studied in China for 4 months when I was 19 so I have a little bit of experience with culture shock, homesickness, etc. but I know nothing can really prepare me.  However, my best schoolmate ended up moving to London with a man she met and later married, and she loves it.

Currently I'm planning my first holiday to the UK for later this year, to check things out and see how I really like it in person.

So anyway, hello!

Hello and welcome! Hopefully your visit lives up to expectations! 

Very good idea to visit before making the huge leap of relocating!

Very good idea to visit before making the huge leap of relocating!

And it's important to visit during non tourist season too so you can experience a full range of weather. Lol



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And it's important to visit during non tourist season too so you can experience a full range of weather. Lol



Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Completely agree. Come sometime in November or January! Mud everywhere and grey, grey days. haha

London? Why would anybody want to go there? The North is where it's at. God's country (I'm stretching it a bit since I'm not into the God thing).

Honestly London doesn't hold a ton of interest for me personally. Of course, I've never been, so who knows!

 Actually, I lied, I AM going to ask a question, lol. I'm reading the other welcome posts, and I wonder how unusual I am, not having a partner or being a student. Does anyone single move to the UK just because they want to?

Welcome to the forum and all the best for your visit to the UK .

Actually, I lied, I AM going to ask a question, lol. I'm reading the other welcome posts, and I wonder how unusual I am, not having a partner or being a student. Does anyone single move to the UK just because they want to?

Essentially no, at least not easily... because there is no visa that allows you to live in the UK just because you want to. People who decide they want to move 'just because, then have to find a way to qualify for a UK visa in order to do so.

The only real options for getting a visa to move to the UK are:
- marriage to a UK citizen (most people on the forum are in this situation, though it's by no means the only way, it just so happens that this is a forum with a lot of UK-US relationship visas)
- study for a degree in the UK on a student visa
- qualify for a work visa by being sponsored by a UK company or by qualifying for a transfer to a UK office of your US employer

The main reason you see a lot of student visas on here and not many work visas is because student visas are one of the easiest visa types to qualify for while work visas are the most difficult (and are pretty much impossible for quite a few people).

Also, a student visa can be an easier route to eventually getting a work visa, because if you have a degree from a UK university and you are still in the UK with a valid student visa, you can qualify for a work visa without having to meet the Resident Labour Market Test.

I was similar but the other way around - at age 12, I decided I wanted to move to the US. It took me 10 years, but eventually I managed to move to the US on a student visa to study for a PhD. From there, I might have ended up either getting a work visa or marrying an American and being able to stay, but my only feasible way in was as a student (I only made it 8 months into the PhD before deciding to move back to the UK, so it never happened anyway).

Actually, I lied, I AM going to ask a question, lol. I'm reading the other welcome posts, and I wonder how unusual I am, not having a partner or being a student. Does anyone single move to the UK just because they want to?

People want to, but it's not as easy as it used to be. They're cutting down immigration to the UK as much as possible and cutting off non-EU immigration is the easiest way for them to do that.

That's what I figured. I am hoping to get a work visa, although I know it'll take me a few years to get there, assuming it happens. Going to try!

I came on a work visa but wasn't a member of the forum back then.  A lot of work visa people aren't on here, as their sponsor (the company they will be working for), handle everything so you don't end up with lots of questions. 

That being said, I wish I had known about this forum way back then. 

Actually, I lied, I AM going to ask a question, lol. I'm reading the other welcome posts, and I wonder how unusual I am, not having a partner or being a student. Does anyone single move to the UK just because they want to?

Yep. I did.

Ok, I have my adult Daughter in tow, and she found a good reason to be here, too. But I have dual EU citizenship so that was my ticket in. Just in time, too!

People want to, but it's not as easy as it used to be. They're cutting down immigration to the UK as much as possible and cutting off non-EU immigration is the easiest way for them to do that.

Lets see what happens after Brexit for non-EEA citizens who want to work in the UK, to see if the standard of the skills visa are lowered again.

Yep. I did.

Ok, I have my adult Daughter in tow, and she found a good reason to be here, too. But I have dual EU citizenship so that was my ticket in. Just in time, too!

Keep up. The app that was going to allow those on EEA routes to in the UK to register from January, has been suspended. It seems that despite the UK and the EU agreeing that part for the millions of EEA citizens in the UK and now moving onto the trade deal part, so that it can all be agreed, France now wants the UK to take more EEA citizens..  The UK has refused. One step back.