For the United Kingdom of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) and Northern Ireland; News, Politics, Economics, Society, Business, Culture, discussion and anything else UK related.
Information: Immigration to the United Kingdom
This is a popular topic in /r/unitedkingdom, one I thought worthy of gathering the information together.
Any relevant information or URLs welcome, I can update this post.
Please be aware that the UK is in a bad economic climate, unemployment levels are high and jobs are scarce.
Immigration restrictions in the United Kingdom are fairly strict. European Union citizens, students, skilled workers and entrepreneurs have the highest chance of being able to work or study in the United Kingdom.
Resources
Previous Reddit discussion threads
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I'm thinking about moving to England but don't want to drop out of school.
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Moving from Down Under to England for the latter half of 2012
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My wife and I are moving to England in September with tier 5 visas ... what's next?
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I am a Canadian who is moving to the UK to work for a year(ish). Any advice?
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Want to live in the UK, citizen by descent, etc... Can anyone help me out?
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How hard would it be for me to find a job in England so I can move from the US?
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I am an American; how can I expat to the UK to live with the woman I love
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You don't need all this! According to the Daily Mail all you have to do is walk in!
The same applies if you wanna play for Arsenal.
I'm upvoting because I KNOW that's in reference to the I.T crowd.
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Better wait until January, when all of those will be a cure for cancer.
You forgot pen lids aswell! Wouldn't want people getting cancer from using a biro.
Make sure to avoid people who talk about violent games too; I hear they're serial killers.
I think you also need to fill out a form to acquire your free mansion and 6 figure benefit payment.
A form? That's a bit generous. I think it's probably 5 minute phone call according to them now!
Bwahahaha Have an upboat!
Edit: Mentioned politics. My bad.
I'm a US student, who had ambitions to come and work as a medieval archaeologist in the UK. Keep in mind, that was the major factor in why I originally decided to come and study here, and when I submitted my application back in 2009, it was a possibility. All I want to do is archaeology, and work with castles, cathedrals, and swords. It's not fighting cancer, and it's not building the newest iPad, or whatever glowing rectangle it is people are getting now, but it's exciting and stimulating, and it makes me happy. Getting a job as an archaeologist is difficult enough. I love what I do and I'm damn good at it.
The Tory governmenthas made that ambition all but impossible now, and even though I'm able to comfortably study here for the time being, at some point I'm going to have to leave. Unless I can prove to the UKBA and the British Academy that I'm one of the top 100 brilliant minds in my field, I cannot use my student visa for settlement. I could always marry some British girl, but I think my girlfriend back in the US might object.Moving to this country for my Master's has been one kick in the nuts after another, but that has more to do with the economic and political climate than British hospitality (I've made some amazing friends). Austerity measures are popular, even if they're poorly thought out (I'm projecting from my US background. I don't know how targeted the UK austerity measures were)
Worse yet, while this subreddit would hate to admit it, but there's a lot more people like the racist train woman than the British realize. The Polish come up in more conversations, and although some of my friends admit that they're doing what no one else will, I'm not confidant that the policy will change. I'm not confidant that the government is interested in seeing it change, thanks to the BNP and the Daily Mail.
I didn't mean to rant, but this seemed like a decent place to express my frustrations, as it's topical.
The English hate two things: racism and foreigners.
I have a couple of South African friends who moved here to the UK. They'd been lawyers down there and were in the process for retraining to practice here but they're not fully naturalised and the laws keep getting tighter and making things harder for them.
The goalposts keep getting moved - they have been for longer than this Governments been around - so it ends up being really unfair. I really feel sad for one of them in particular, I can see him losing hope and hes drinking more because of it.
The problem is that so much of the immigration law got kneejerked in to place to address peoples fears about illegal immigration, but because the Government can't realistically legislate illegal immigration away, it's been the legal immigrants who've suffered.
I wish you the best of luck though mate, we've got some nice castles here :)
Had to stop reading your post after the 2ndo paragraph. It isn't the Tory parties fault you can't get anywhere in Archaeology - its the profession. My sister did Archaeological Studies at Cambridge in 1999 (labour had been in 2 yrs) and dropped out in the first year because there are NO jobs in it unless you are insanely rich to use your own pocket to fund buying private land, planning permission, legal docs surrounding disturbence of burial, etc. Why do you think Time Team are basically a load of unpaid hobos? The program costs enough as it is. As for a masters, it doesn't guarentee a job anymore than Gcses do in the current climate. Racism is much less a problem here than it is in Americans/Hispanics or even other European countries, like France where immigrants are shunned by public services and paid to leave, Spain where anyone who hasn't worked for 2 years with a visa is unable to claim welfare and forced to work in the black market. Britain really isn't as bad as you make out.
Although it's true that a masters doesn't guarantee a job, it is partly the Tory government's fault that many academic fields are struggling because they have entirely privatised non STEM subjects. There is no central funding available for teaching in areas like Archaeology, so all of the cost has to be met by the students and there are fewer opportunities for postgraduates to gain experience teaching.
Ranting is fair enough - the immigration policy in this country is both badly thought-out while being inconsistent at the same time - just as the Tories cut the amount of skilled visas to 20,000 (because they promised to "cut immigration", so do it to the easiest group to get rid of, right?), they add a new entrepreneur visa, which was a nice change.
I know a good few people in the UK who are at various stages of settling here - from people here on a student visa, to those with permanent leave to remain, to those who've sat the (rather ridiculous) citizenship test and are now full citizens. They're all good people, skilled, knowledgeable, several with degrees, and almost certainly of benefit to the economy, yet the government makes life very hard for them sometimes (not least the multiple required trips to Croydon, which is enough to put anyone off staying). From where I stand we're not quite as bad as the US, but we're close.
Anyway, there are people here that welcome skilled, talented or just hard-working immigrants, value the effort of those who choose to work rather than those who were born here who choose not to, and wish the Daily Mail and its "hurr stop the immigrants" readers were placed in a third-world country and forced to go through the process of asylum. Let me apologise on behalf of my rather less-welcoming fellow countrymen.
That is not down to the Tories - it has always been that way for all disciplines that you have to be of the top tier whether that tier is 100 or 1000 strong.
It's the same for an academic wanting to move to the US. You have to have to be internationally renowned in your field, usually meaning a member of something like the British Academy for a UK academic.
My dad is a Immagration solicitor in Edinburgh and Immagration is one of the few sections of law that has the same rules in England as they do in Scotland. When it comes to Immagration the best chances of winning come when:
You want to move to a area that has a need for the job you will fill. i.e. unless you are filling a very rare type of field don't bother aimming for London. You wish to work in Academics/archaeology right? If a job comes up in your field the Universities are not unknown for sponsering Visa aplications if you have a good enough CV. Try getting experince at home first perhaps.
Be from a country that has good ties with the UK. You already have this down since you are American and dispite what people say we do like Americans. The fact that you speak English and are from a friendly country will work in your favour espcially will you only want a work Visa. A lot of the time after staying in the country for a decade or two that Work Visa can turn into indefinate leave to remain if you have a good lawyer working on your case.
Get a good solicitor and hope for the best, when it comes to immagration I've heard of weaker cases winning.
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You might be surprised, but for many people getting in the UK will be a significant upgrade for their lives.
And I'm not speaking about seasonal workers, or people looking to benefit from social programs.
That's really not very difficult, there are 26 countries to choose from that you can live and work in without any need for visas and whatnot
Fortunately, thanks to the bulldog Cameron and his merry Tory chums, that might all change soon.
You don't have to be a partisan twat to think that the veto isn't all bad. If "Merkozy" (I hate that) want to prop up their failing currency they can do it without us.
If you think that this is the end of our relationship with the EU, then that's really quite sad. Apart from a few things (Schengen etc) we participate and contribute in just about every other EU activity.
IMO signing away more of our rights and giving another reason to see the City move elsewhere is not exactly a great move (like it or not, the City is a major contributor to our public finances)
Merkozy were propping up their failing currency without us quite happily until Cameron put his foot in it and made fools of us all. Now we look like spoilt brats throwing our toys out of the pram to defend the City of London which helped sink our economy in an ocean of debt
I'm baffled why people now want to defend investment bankers and their fat bonuses and their socially useless activities. The Tories are in their pockets, half their contributions come from the City. Its not a coincidence.
Hardly. Every time a Eurozone country looked like it was about to pop, there was a great amount of hot air and not a lot of action. Even the agreement that Cameron vetoed is quite a lot of waffle - it's more like "we need to agree to create an agreement" rather than concrete actions.
I'm not sure why you think Cameron is stopping the Eurozone countries. They can form their own agreements to do whatever they want. They just can't use the EU institutions to do it - which makes sense when there are countries that don't use the Euro in the EU. Why should those non-Eurozone countries be subject to new rules and regulations when they aren't part of the problem?
As I said, they make a lot of money for the country. When the economy is doing as poorly as it is, and the government coffers are not flush with cash, you (if you're sane) are not going to make the situation worse by fucking over the industry that pays a lot in taxes and employs people who do the same.
If you're knee deep in debt, would your first course of action be to quit your job and remove your source of income?
Do you agree with these proposed taxes, that (since London is the financial powerhouse of Europe) disproportionately affect one country? Why should we help pay for the piss poor financial management of governments in other countries?
That is after all the issue - it's not so much the banks, it is a few governments (Italy/Greece/Portugal/Ireland to some extent, etc) that thought the borrowing would never stop (and that is the issue for the UK too, thanks to Labour).
It is unfortunate that we are so reliant on the financial industry but that is where we are. Might as well try not to fuck that over too.
All parties have their large donors. Labour are funded and controlled by the trades unions - which is really no better than being funded by the city.
People aren't defending the City, they're defending our sovereignty.
That's not the case at all. One agreement we had to veto, and people are acting like our relationship with the EU is at an end.
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(S)he means the rest of the EU. The same rules that allowed Polish people to come and work here allow you to go and work anywhere in Europe.
I know it sounds obvious but, if you don't speak the language well you won't find a legal job. It's not 2004 any more.
I've skimmed through the posts and thought I might add one thing. As someone who has successfully moved abroad before (not to the UK) I think its important not to get too caught up on large cities. Yes living in london or glasgow is going to put you in close proximity to a lot of cool thing (pubs, shopping, good public transport) but as everyone has already mentioned the environment can be very cut throat. too expensive, and not a lot of room even for skilled workers. Smaller cities or less popular destinations are much easier in my experience to settle into. like i said ive never lived in england but i am a citizen and have visited many times. this seems to ring true in most places across the world.
hmm would be good to have a thread of the exact opposite, as in information to live and work outside the UK...
Hey i know this may not be the best place but is there anyone that knows about immigration the opposite way? UK to US
Spend 7 years in Uni and become a Paediatrician, then go on a J1 visa and Dodge deportation for 10 years. But seriously you need a damn good career that will have base over there, or money to buy a buisness and provide employment for citizens (£100k+). One other way is green card lottery - not if you're British, but Irish or European descent.
I've done it, with an H1B visa. It's a lot of time and money (for the company sponsoring you), but worth it... I love living there.
Just wondering, would a banker or trader be considered a skilled worker and have an easier time then entering on a work visa?
I imagine if you worked for a bank/financial institution that had operations in the UK, and they were able to offer you a position in the UK, it would greatly increase your chances of getting in.
Yeah the one that I will be working with next summer has massive operations in Canary Wharf, and I'm open to the option if/when I get a full time offer to take it up in London over New York.
sponsorship, magically opens up doors. Its very true for corporate sponsorship via a job, but also true for UK residents if they can sponsor and provide for any would be immigrant until they can get their own job.
Hee, my SO is from the UK and we were considering moving over there after my grad, but with everything going up shit creek we figured it's better to stay put.
You say that like its better elsewhere...
It's more like spend money and move and have to find new jobs, with no guarantee of a new job, or stay put with our current crud jobs. It's the lesser of two evils really.
wo ist das?
Best advice, run. GTFO england while you still can before they take that from you.
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Yeah cos first time buyers can move to Greenbelt land.
its the cities that people tend to live in...!? and they are already over-crowded,
do you remember when "rush hour" used to literally be ...an hour? and you didn't have to wait 3 weeks for a doctors appointment...? what about applying for a job where there aren't already 200 aplicants? or free university grants for students?
Britain is full to bursting and that is a statement of fact. its not about countryside its about infrastructure, roads, housing, welfare, healthcare system, schools - 40 plus kids to a class and growing, prisoners being let out early because there isn't room to keep them! everyone please FUCK OFF, don't come to England.
Fuck your shit. I'm swimming across the atlantic just to hunt your cum packaging ass down.
No you're not. you're only 15, shut up