killerbyte
Expert Member
I don't care what the reason is... I will have my lady with me in England.
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The 38min fast train to London works wonders if you need to pop in, but its not sustainable 5x a week.
yes and thank you, positive vibes are needed at this time so thank you for the encouragementYeah, play the cards you are dealt and you’ll be fine. Don’t want to discount the toughness, we also went a fairly hard route albeit without the separation, but not a single one of us would shy away from doing it all again. The experience and outcome have all been worth every bit of pain.
My trip to London costs around £18 for the return ticket (£28 if I also want tube access as well) and £8 for parking car at the train station, it gets expensive quickly. Fortunately I only go in around twice per month.
What, like North, or PROPER North? Just past Watford doesn’t count.
So time to join this thread I guess.
We spent a lot of time and money last year arranging my wife's UK passport followed by our children's UK passports as well as our marriage certificates and tons of other paperwork.
So now between the 4 of us we have 6 passports in the house (Wife UK, kids UK and SA each and my SA passport).
We do not have huge amounts of cash or large assets to sell so are doing this the hard way.
My wife will be leaving for her cousins house in Shropshire in April.
Kids to follow early 2025.
Once she is ready and sponsorship is possible it will be my turn, Unless I find work with visa sponsorship before then.
It has been hectic up to this point and will become even harder over the next 2 years but for the sake of my Children, it must be done.
I don't care what the reason is... I will have my lady with me in England.
4 and a half hours past Waford so
Good luck man. Landed with very little pounds and got through ok. Communities here are a thing and Freecycle was a blessing at the start. I didn't do it with kids but my sister did and she managed with even less cash, lol. Like others have said, take it as it comes and you'll be fine.
Nice one. If I didn't meet my GF here and had to leave her behind, oof. So I can imagine your happiness.
Wife and I pretty much came over with one bag each and the clothes on our backs. Had very little savings when we left SA, so made do with what we had. It’s a great country for anyone looking to start over.
One of the reasons I moved in my 20’s. I did the math and realized it would effectively be a type of financial “reset”. Still worth it to do later, one just doesn’t expect to go through that type of financial knock again - but it only takes a few years to catch up. And of course, if you ever go in the reverse direction (to any lower CoL country), you have the opposite effect, and get rich immediately.Tough when you are halfway through your working career and your SA pension pot is a pittance when brought over to the UK, and your paid off R1mil SA house makes a 20% deposit on a house here.
Most of my salary is going into mortgage, pension contributions and ISA payments.
Tough when you are halfway through your working career and your SA pension pot is a pittance when brought over to the UK, and your paid off R1mil SA house makes a 20% deposit on a house here.
Most of my salary is going into mortgage, pension contributions and ISA payments.
As they say, hindsight is 20/20I feel that. I wish I had moved here 10 years ago. Covid really hurt me in SA and I basically came here with almost nothing. Even so, I have found it relatively easy to start building up and at least the pension and currency is going to be worth something in 20 years time
I feel that. I wish I had moved here 10 years ago. Covid really hurt me in SA and I basically came here with almost nothing. Even so, I have found it relatively easy to start building up and at least the pension and currency is going to be worth something in 20 years time
Morning all
Anyone have experience transferring pensions, RA's, provident funds from SA > UK?
Are there any loopholes, or preferred methods such as a section 45 transfer (if it even exists)?
What, the money received from pensions/RAs in South Africa?Is there a rule that says you must invest it on the UK side in a pension?
I found out over the weekend that NHS workers can get a refund of their IHS fees!
Now just need to find out some details about the process and hopefully we can claim some of this double tax back.
Correct. I had no idea it was even a thing - the bastards keep it very quiet.You just claim it back in 6 month chunks on the .gov website, don’t you?
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Get an immigration health surcharge refund if you work in health and care
Get a refund of the immigration health surcharge (IHS) if you work in health and care - eligibility, what you’ll get and how to apply.www.gov.uk
As long as its not Virgin Media...I need to get some fibre goodness, best options are Vodafone and Sky. I'm guessing it doesn't matter which ISP?