Sinbad
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The ihs fee should be waived or your NI contributions refunded if you're gainfully employed here
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Immigrating to the UK
- Thread starter AchmatK
- Start date
Rocket-Boy
Honorary Master
Have you been there that long already? It feels like a few months ago when you left.
Sinbad
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Lol yeah my wife's 2nd anniversary was 11 june
Should be. But isn’t right?
The Voice
Honorary Master
For those still thinking of moving over and who will need a visa and NHS surcharge there will be a biggish increase coming soon.
UK Visa: UK to increase its visa fee to meet health sector cost - The Economic Times
Visa applicants from around the world, including Indians, will have to pay significantly higher fees and health surcharge when accessing the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS), according to the country's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Sunak confirmed a hike of between 5% and 7% for the...m.economictimes.com
See my post earlier in the thread that went something like this:
Fly to France.
Catch a taxi to Calais.
Hop on a dinghy.
Get to the halfway point in The Channel.
Get escorted to the coast by RNLI.
Walk into Blighty for free, and get put up in a 4* hotel (remember to tell them you “lost” your passport if they ask where you’re from).
Profit.
The Voice
Honorary Master
Timing is everything: my wife applied in like April 2015, paid nothing. I applied a few months later and had to pay £1000.
Dave
Honorary Master
End up flying Cruella Airlines to some shithole in Africa
Sinbad
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624 per year of your visa now. So family visa 1560 per person for the first segment (2.5 years)
Doubling would be pretty insane, 150k for a 5 year visa
Dave
Honorary Master
There's a grouping in the Tory party that is anti almost all immigration and will do whatever they can to disrupt it, they think it will keep them elected by the same xenophobic segment of the Brexit vote.
Unfortunately Cruella Braverman is one of the ringleaders and also happens to be in a position to implement the policies.
The Voice
Honorary Master
Sinbad
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And that's not the visa fee which is another 1500 odd.
That’s rough, not gonna lie.
At least the second half is a bit cheaper. But not much.
Tman*
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The Good:
1. Safety – Its amazing not having to look over your shoulder the whole time and go into full tactical mode when you hear something at night. Overall safety has reduced day to day stress immensely.
On this note, my physical health has also greatly improved. I walk, hike & cycle extensively (this is largely due to the fact that I have a safe environment to do so). I went from a GBP40 Ebay rust bucket bike to buying a full suspension bike and my weekend activities now include cycling in the woods, as apposed to drinking beer and watching rugby on the couch (I still do this, but not as often).
2. Travel – been fortunate enough to travel for work & leisure. Went on 9 international trips this year. Still feels unreal (and a privilege) to be able to travel to the EU on a short flight and experience all it has to offer.
3. Financial: I try to live a balanced lifestyle. I travel quite a bit, but still clean my home if I can use that as an example LMAO. As a household, we have been able to start living and saving in GBP and our savings have been exponential (in terms of what we have been able to save in SA). Its not all sunshine and roses, see point 2 below.
4. Taxes work: I think this goes hand in hand with point one and it increases overall quality of live, reduces stress and just made me a less angry person.
The UK is not perfect, but most of the stuff just works. Public transport, Policing, HMRC, the local council, the postal service and and and.
Example: The council missed my bin collection the other day and I logged a ticket online to notify them. A few hours later, I received an email informing me the bins have been collected. Living with small victories day by day puts a smile on my face.
The Bad:
1. Winter sucks salty Llama nut sack – I survived my 1st winter and planning to find an indoor hobby or something, because I found it incredibly depressing.
2. Properties seem unobtainable: I live in Surrey, its seems impossible to buy anything half decent, on a good dual income salary and a chunky deposit.
Most of the wealth seems to be accumulated generational, or maybe I missed the boat in my mid 30’s and Im too old to get into property.
It is making me feel a bit uneasy as I got peace of mind owning property in SA. We have shifted our goals and mindset quite a bit in the last 12 months. Initially we were planning to “retire” in SA, but that’s out the window, we are not going back.
Having the ability of full WFH we might consider to buy somewhere cheaper in England, or perhaps even Spain/ Portugal depending on visa and passport restrictions in the future. For time being we are waiting out this storm of high interest rates. Hoping to pick up a bargain in the future.
3. Restaurants food is crap and overpriced. We substitute this buy cooking great food at home, but I miss it.
4. Miss friends and family. Managed to make some local friends, but we do miss our mense back home. Earning GBP has its perks tho as its much easier to travel to SA. In fact, I have a 2 week CPT holiday lined up in September.
I hope the above can give some insight to those wanting to make the move. The grass is NOT always greener, I would rather say there is always a trade off when you move away from SA. Decide whats important for you and make an informed decision.
Did you travel on your south african passport or?
I'm looking to travel to EU, but I only have South African passport so will need a schengen.
I expect it to be about 20% increase and to take effect in April 2024. Probably around £1000 for NHS fees per year.
No way can I move before then I don’t think.
Tman*
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Yes, SA passport.
See this post: https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/immigrating-to-the-uk.983997/page-73#post-31066151
Mephisto_Helix
Resident Postwhore
Two days ago was my 4 year here mark. Will agree with all your pros. For the cons, the buying property one I also agree with but in saying that, I'm sort of ok with that for now because 1 I have an excellent landlord and 2 I might be settling in Germany in the future (just a place the gf and I both love). Friends and family are here mostly so no con there for me and likewise the weather, I love winter.
Happy enough with English life overall, I do things here that I would/could never enjoy in SA. Tman said it perfectly with "Decide what's important for you and make an informed decision"
Happy enough with English life overall, I do things here that I would/could never enjoy in SA. Tman said it perfectly with "Decide what's important for you and make an informed decision"
It’s all about the reasonings for moving.
For me; I couldn’t care less about the weather or politics or whatever have you here in the UK. We are moving for one reason; to be closer to family as we have none in SA.
We will just adapt and the wife being British and only been in SA for 8 years - will readjust to English life easy enough.