Immigrating to the UK

[Dave]

You can order a Giff-Gaff sim for free to be sent anywhere in the world and then activate it when you are in the UK. I selected £10 "goodie bag" as they call it. You only get charged once you actually activate the sim. Ordered it today, will update when it actually arrives at my house.

Giffgaff’s recent changes to allowances (goody bags) makes them more competitive but I’d suggest a Vodafone or Three sim if data usage is important, Three have a PAYG brand called Smarty and Vodafone one called Voxi with decent allowances, their sub-brands offer better value than the direct PAYG offerings.

https://www.voxi.co.uk/plans

https://smarty.co.uk/

 

[RVQ]

And this why we voted for Brexit in 2016, yet it has still not happened...........

Folk are still trying to get in.

BREXIT doesn't stop immigration it just makes it very difficult for unskilled EU citizens to move over, what it does do is put skilled EU citizens in the same playing field as the rest of the world, so better chances for skilled Africans, Asians, Americas,... to get in after BREXIT (should look into building a wall to completely stop immigration)

When did you apply for your license? I only paid about £45 for mine.

Couple of hours ago, the postal order was about £50, the rest was stamps and next day delivery, need to get passport back ASAP, total was around £60

Give or take a week?

And yes, you send the card in and never get it back, though you're still licensed in SA if you keep renewing it every 5 years I guess.

SA Licenses never expire, what you're renewing is the plastic card that says you have a license i.e. the License Card, you should be able to apply for a replacement when in SA, strange that the DVLA keeps the SA one.

What's great is that they are giving us a letter as proof of residence when we arrive so we can open accounts and stuff.

The 185 days is only for non citizens. I phoned about 2 months ago and Dave told me this. So I will immediately convert mine as I am citizen.

Which area are you in?

I tried the letter thing and the banks refused to accept it, in rare cases they accept leases from certain well established agencies. They pretty process driven by insisting on a utility bill with your name on it

I'm out in the Wild West (Berkshire)

 

[Dave]

When did you apply for your license? I only paid about £45 for mine.

Couple of hours ago, the postal order was about £50, the rest was stamps and next day delivery, need to get passport back ASAP, total was around £60

The cost is £43.

Swap a credit-card style licence for a Great Britain issued licence

1. Order form D1 from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
2. Send the form, £43 fee and any documents you need (including your driving licence) to the address on the form.
3. You should get your new licence within 3 weeks.

https://www.gov.uk/exchange-foreign...ge-agreements-with-great-britain/south-africa

 

[RVQ]

The cost is £43.

That is correct, but you can't put cash in the envelope so I got a postal order which incurs extra charges

 

[Dave]

That is correct, but you can't put cash in the envelope so I got a postal order which incurs extra charges

The cost of a postal order isn’t part of the DVLA fee for the licence exchange though (which was the question asked).

You could have asked a friend or work colleague to write you a cheque.

 

[Spizz]

Give or take a week?

And yes, you send the card in and never get it back, though you're still licensed in SA if you keep renewing it every 5 years I guess.

You have to surrender one to get the other. Same happened to me in reverse having to hand in my UK license to get a SA one.

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

Also, I think from seeing my brother's driving license (although he doesn't actually drive in the UK, lol), the UK driving license is 10 years, not 5 years like the SA one.

 

[The Voice]

Also, I think from seeing my brother's driving license (although he doesn't actually drive in the UK, lol), the UK driving license is 10 years, not 5 years like the SA one.

Yes, it's 10 years. And I've had mine for about 2 years and haven't driven here yet.

 

[Dave]

Also, I think from seeing my brother's driving license (although he doesn't actually drive in the UK, lol), the UK driving license is 10 years, not 5 years like the SA one.

The UK licence card is valid for 10 years (the licence itself doesn’t expire, just the actual card), it’s £14 to renew iirc.

 

[TedLasso]

I've been driving here with a UK license for 20 years. The conversation is rarely interesting.

That's illegal in SA too AFAIK. 1 year limit too Your UK license should have been converted back to an SA one. I guess it only becomes a problem if you have an accident and then the insurance company-The other side- will have a lovely loophole not to pay

 

[bwana]

That's illegal in SA too AFAIK. 1 year limit too Your UK license should have been converted back to an SA one. I guess it only becomes a problem if you have an accident and then the insurance company-The other side- will have a lovely loophole not to pay

Converted back? It's never been a SA license. I got my UK one when I turned 18 and really have no intention of surrendering it here.

Never had an issue with insurance claims either.

 

[AchmatK]

One more week until my wife is back for a short holiday.

I've been nagging her every few years to make the move. Last night while speaking to her she told me that we should have made the move years ago already.

 

[The Voice]

One more week until my wife is back for a short holiday.

I've been nagging her every few years to make the move. Last night while speaking to her she told me that we should have made the move years ago already.

My wife and I often have a similar discussion. We procrastinated a lot over the years, but eventually made it back here, and that's all that matters. Life runs at it's own pace - just need to nudge it along a little sometimes.

 

[AchmatK]

My wife and I often have a similar discussion. We procrastinated a lot over the years, but eventually made it back here, and that's all that matters. Life runs at it's own pace - just need to nudge it along a little sometimes.

Agreed. We have two beautiful kids that we are in the process of adopting that we would not have had if we left sooner. We can't have any kids of our own.

 

[AchmatK]

We couldn't improve my wife's credit rating enough to reduce the deposit requirement for the mortgage. Going to hold off on the property purchase for a year for now. We should be able to save up enough by then to have the 15%.

We would not have even dreamed of having £33 000(±R600k) in cash saved up for a deposit on a house if we stayed in SA.

 

[The Voice]

We couldn't improve my wife's credit rating enough to reduce the deposit requirement for the mortgage. Going to hold off on the property purchase for a year for now. We should be able to save up enough by then to have the 15%.

We would not have even dreamed of having £33 000(±R600k) in cash saved up for a deposit on a house if we stayed in SA.

Yeah don't rush it unnecessarily. Just keep doing all the things we've said to build up your rating.

 

[AchmatK]

Yeah don't rush it unnecessarily. Just keep doing all the things we've said to build up your rating.

Good thing is that we now know that we will at least get an approval for a mortgage and have also found a good agent that we will use when we are ready to purchase.

 

[Vox Populi Vox Dei]

We couldn't improve my wife's credit rating enough to reduce the deposit requirement for the mortgage. Going to hold off on the property purchase for a year for now. We should be able to save up enough by then to have the 15%.

We would not have even dreamed of having £33 000(±R600k) in cash saved up for a deposit on a house if we stayed in SA.

Sorry, what do you mean by this? Is the suggestion here that you and your wife are able to save more in the UK? It's just that I know house affordability in the UK is almost certainly worse than in SA - not talking about comparison in size or whatever, but simply comparing the house prices to earnings.

 

[Spizz]

Sorry, what do you mean by this? Is the suggestion here that you and your wife are able to save more in the UK? It's just that I know house affordability in the UK is almost certainly worse than in SA - not talking about comparison in size or whatever, but simply comparing the house prices to earnings.

I reckon from my POV if I moved to UK I'd be much better off in terms of monthly outgoings. Just school fees and medical aid alone, which you don't need in UK, would save me about £700 a month for example.

 

[AchmatK]

Sorry, what do you mean by this? Is the suggestion here that you and your wife are able to save more in the UK? It's just that I know house affordability in the UK is almost certainly worse than in SA - not talking about comparison in size or whatever, but simply comparing the house prices to earnings.

Yes. We can save more monthly there than what we could here. In the 3 months that's she's worked there, she's already saved more than £5k. Her salary in the UK is not that much more than what she was getting in SA.

We could barely save R1500 every month after all the extra expenses we had here that we do not need there.

Here we need 2 cars, tracker, insurance and fuel for 2 cars, medical aid for 4 people, school fees for two kids, armed response, electricity and water that is now more expensive here than in the UK, private pension/RA, etc

We will not get the same kind of house there but the quality of living will be better.