Slashdot Mirror
Considerations for an Oversea Move?
An Anonymous Coward asks: "I'm currently working as an 'IT technician' (lowly tech support position) in the southern United States, but I am considering a move to the U.K. to be with a significant other. What's the best way to gather information like the U.K. technology job market, immigration laws, cost of living, housing arrangements, and of course, how I would move my belongings? Sites like this would be most helpful." While the link that is provided is fairly comprehensive, other sources of information, both referential and anecdotal would be appreciated.
I would assume you've visited the place already, but if you haven't, you'll need to. Despite a similar language, culturally it's chalk & cheese. I lived there all my life and found it oppressive. I prefer the US considerably.
My experiences... ship the stuff you are planning to need in the foreign country as early as possible. They may claim six weeks for it to arrive but when we moved from England to Canada, it took more than six months.
Take as little as possible. Forget most of your electronics. Forget anything big, like chairs or tables or the like. Ideally, you'd take a few items of clothing, a laptop, and some music CD's, buy pretty much the rest when you get there. Forget about taking your car. You likely will stop driving, anyway, once you get there.
Cost of living in England is expensive. Make sure you have a job and make sure you have somewhere to live. Rent may be several times higher than you are currently paying... four to eight times more than you currently pay if you will be living in or around London, 2 - 4 times more elsewhere in England. Do not even think of going if you do not have a job lined up already.
Get used to the rain. Be willing to accept that people tend to be much more grumpy in England (at least, compared to Canada). A friend of mine who tried moving to England described people as 'angry f*king c*nts' in England and she's not far off the mark.
Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
How about asking your significant other?
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
I just married an Australian last month, and we got her a green card fairly quickly, but it was only after months of research, paperwork, and headaches that the actual filing went so smoothly... We'll begin working on my Australian visa shortly, as we want to travel back and forth freely rather than settle in one country or the other, and we both have careers which can be done essentially anywhere (but it's a lot more profitable in the USA, especially if you're earning US dollars and spending them down under!).
/. - we found extremely helpful resources on Yahoo Groups, some of which seemed almost tailor-made for us. Don't accept an answer on anything really significant from just one person, as the information out there varies widely in quality... for example, we consulted lawyers and some friend-of-a-friend senior officials at the INS about immigration issues in this post-9/11 world, and learned a lot about the months and months of delays we were facing... then, during an online search, we discovered Direct Consular Filing - which nobody had told us about, for obvious reasons, 'cos it involves bypassing the INS entirely and simply filing your petition at the consulate. An expected 6-9 month wait turned into a 1-day process, but only after we'd gone through literally dozens of other "answers" to our overall question of "how can we do this quickly?"!
The above is a whole series of stories unto itself, but other issues we're facing include:
- climate changes. Depending on where you live in the USA, you may not have appropriate clothing for the UK; certainly, my Aussie wife is not yet fully prepared for my Colorado winters...
- medical care. Australia's socialized medical system is efficient and user-friendly; and my wife is an asthmatic. We'll either have to get medical insurance here, or be prepared to drive to Canada whenever she needs more medications
- pets. She has a dog, and we could bring him over but then he'd face months of quarantine if we wanted to take him back down under, which is unacceptable. So he'll have to stay with family while we're in the USA, and she misses him quite a lot. The UK has similar anti-rabies regulations on pets.
- financial. Are you going to close your American credit card and bank accounts? If not, will they pay overseas postage to send you bills and statements? Do you have investments here that might be expensive to simply liquidate? Are you prepared to learn about your options and obligations under U.K. investment law, or can you afford professional help for all this?
- there's others but I've been typing all day already
It's a safe bet there's some online message group which can help you even more directly than
Perfectly Normal Industries
Take some photos of the US, your house, your yard, all the things you have, along with neighbors. People live a different life in Europe, and you won't be able to live the standard American life even if you want to. (there are good and bad points on both sides) You might however be able to find some advanatges to life over here that you can introduce to them. For the most part though take pictures. When I was in europe they were shocked to learn I just bought a house on one acre of land, and didn't consider that much at all, I wished I had pictures to show them how I lived.
Don't forget pictures of people. You won't get to see your nephew much anymore, so you have to live with pictures and letters. Remember professionals can often get better pictures of famious objects than you can, so make your pictures personal in nature. "This was my house in the US" is intereting. "This is the biggest building in my state, but I've never been in it" is not intereting. (IF you worked there it would be)
Sell as much as you can, ship the rest. You might love that table you have in the dining room, but if it is too big to fit in your UK apartment what good is shipping it? (I don't know the UK, so this is just an example). Give things away too. You can buy the basic needs of life anywhere.
The rule should be setimental value first, and avoid shipping the rest.
I hate to say this, but please make sure you are serious about the relationship. You would hate to get there, break up after a few weeks, and discover everything about the UK no annoys you because it reminds you of the failed relationship. (If you are even allowed to stay) This is personal, any only you can be sure.