Moving to England?

Cptn Pants

So I'm thinking about moving to England, London or a near by suburb to be specific. I don't really plan on staying for an extended amount of time, maybe 6 months to a year or 2. Anyone have any idea how I would go about doing this? I assume I would need some sort of working visa so I can get a job while I'm there. What else would I need? How would I find a place to live and work?

There are so many questions to ask, can anyone point out a good website to help me out? Anyone else move from the US to England? Advice and suggestions are welcome..

Wezoin

If it's anything like moving to Canada from England it'll be ALOT easier for you to get in if you have a job lined up. Check employment pages and find a job over there before you go (this may be easy or hard, depending on if you're looking for a job you can actually support yourself on, or more a McDonalds type job, as I highly doubt companies advertise internationally for extremely low paying jobs.) This will help regardless as if you have a company that wants you to work for them they'll likely explain how to move over and start working.

Canada has a points system (and I'd wager Britain does too) where you get points for various things, ie, having a job lined up, having a family over here, if your job is something they're short on, ect. If you don't have enough points to move over you have to essentially buy the rest of your points.

Quick story: My dad is a Jaguar technician, was one in England and had been working on them since he was 16. Around 35 he got a call from a Canadian Jaguar dealership asking him to go over because he had his masters, ect, and Canada had a shortage on car mechanics. So when he applied he had a job lined up, and was of a profession that Canada happened to have a shortage of.

My uncle tried to move over with his family, but didn't line up a job, and isn't really trained to do much (He worked in a chocolate factory or something, now I think hes a parts manager somewhere) Anyway, they said if he made a contribution of the equivalent of $500,000 to the country he would be allowed in.

Locust76

Well, I would imagine that Englands immigration laws are stricter than they are here in Germany.

Basically, if you want to stay in a country longer than the tourist visa allows (usually 3 months), you'll need to get a special work visa or student visa, both of which you need to have something lined up before you apply for the visa and well before you even consider coming over. It's not so simple.

I would suggest visiting the UK immigration site and becoming aquainted with the myriad of rules and regulations regarding living in the UK as a foreigner.

If you don't have any good reason to be in England you won't be able to live in the country legally for an extended period of time.