Immigrating to the UK

Priapus said:
How long ago was that and how has NZ been.

I mentioned in this thread that we were heading that way too (in 2019) but ultimately decided against it. Bought a house in SA that year instead
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We moved over in August 2017.

It's been good here - I'd by lying if I said that I didn't miss SA but it's been good to live somewhere where everything (mostly) just works!
 
USA for me, not the UK, but this seems general. I had made no plans to go anywhere, when a US based company e-mailed me, and asked me to interview. I got the job, and moved about 9 months later. I had work obligations I wanted to see through, otherwise I would have moved as soon as I could (which probably would have been 4 months for all the visas an paperwork).
 
2023 said:
Getting documents from south africa (DHA) is by far the longest thing. It's takes months... we are still waiting on the marriage certificate over a year later.
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You can use a company such as Doc Assist to expedite. I used them and it took one month for an UBC and 6 months for an UMC.
 
Priapus said:
What part of that journey took the most time?
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Not to UK but:

- we got our unabridged marriage certificate with our regular marriage certificate (paid marriage officer to arrange it), think it took two months
- unabridged birth certificates took a couple of months with the help of a company (three months?)

^ these you can do already even if you never plan on using them. Pay somebody to deal with Home Affairs for you.

- police clearance was 7 weeks (they told us this up front btw) to get (Douglasdale PD), valid for 6 months over here
- Dirco (apostling) took about a month to get a booking. Once there and you are lucky you can wait an hour while they apostle the docs. Basically a "European" experience and you don't need to pay company to do this for you.

The rest is all about how quickly you can sell stuff, end leases, visas etc.

*done during COVID times

EDIT: the unabridged birth certificates time is dependent on how easy it is for them to find your parents' records.
 
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Hamster said:
unabridged birth certificates
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Is this something one can get in advance of potential opportunities or is there a validity period attached to it?

I am thinking of getting my documents in order, if such a thing can even be done.
 
r4nd0m said:
Is this something one can get in advance of potential opportunities or is there a validity period attached to it?

I am thinking of getting my documents in order, if such a thing can even be done.
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Yes. No expiry, get it done now.
 
Priapus said:
For those who left; how long did it take from committing to "okay we are leaving" to taking that flight out of SA?
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About 6-8 months. Longest part was getting all the paperwork done and collecting documents. I didn't use a agency so did loads of research into exactly what documents were needed. Luckily I had things like unabridged marriage cert but need police clearance which took about a month.

The best part was getting that sms to say your visa application was approved after months of waiting. Very stressful. What a relief. It's not a cheap exercise and if you are refused you don't get your money back.
 
gregmcc said:
About 6-8 months. Longest part was getting all the paperwork done and collecting documents. I didn't use a agency so did loads of research into exactly what documents were needed. Luckily I had things like unabridged marriage cert but need police clearance which took about a month.

The best part was getting that sms to say your visa application was approved after months of waiting. Very stressful. What a relief. It's not a cheap exercise and if you are refused you don't get your money back.
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This part is still crazy to me. Applying for a 5 year SWV is ± R100,000. How the fsck can they just keep it if you're refused?

Madness
 
Priapus said:
For those who left; how long did it take from committing to "okay we are leaving" to taking that flight out of SA?
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Convincing ex wife that we need to leave and take the kid took ages. Once she agreed, I flew over in 2 months.
Partner and all that 7 months
 
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Another shitty day not in Africa
 
Did you guys finish your notice periods in SA before flying over to the UK? I can work remotely so I'm wondering if there will be any implications as to doing the last week from within the UK (working for my SA company) and then just starting my new job straight after that.
 
prod said:
Did you guys finish your notice periods in SA before flying over to the UK? I can work remotely so I'm wondering if there will be any implications as to doing the last week from within the UK (working for my SA company) and then just starting my new job straight after that.
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Find out what your company says. I always end on as good a terms as the company allows, and if you can remote work and they ok with it, then why not.
 
syntax said:
Find out what your company says. I always end on as good a terms as the company allows, and if you can remote work and they ok with it, then why not.
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Yea of course, I was more wondering if there are tax issues while working that side for an SA company.
 
In other news; I applied for a visitor visa for July visit to UK on 8th of may. Still waiting - which is unusual. Anyone else applied recently and having delays?
 
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