Immigrating to the UK

Sinbad said:
Does your CV and cover letter clearly point out your right to work in UK?
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My CV doesn't explicitly mention it. A lot of the job applications that I have done online ask about the right to work in the UK and I deal with it there.

But happy to start including it in my CV too.
 
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.
 
AstroTurf said:
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.
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Strength, and good luck.... It's worth it.
A thought - school year starts in august/september - maybe worth aligning with that?
 
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The Voice said:
Are your friends Saffers? We usually congregate in the SW by default (except for @Dave who didn’t get the memo).

Whereabouts in the NW specifically? Don’t say Wembley…
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We have friends, all ex South African, in Mill Hill, Barnet and Borehamwood.
 
x32 said:
More than anything else it's because the greatest concentration of our friends in the UK stay in North West London. So we figured we would look to stay there for a sense of 'community'.

The reason we moved to Guildford initially is because a family friend offered us a short term rental of his place while he is abroad. And even though I am really enjoying it here, I do think that ultimately it would be better to move closer to central London and be around people we know.
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You can commute quite easily in. I totally get wanting to be "close", and I would guess guildford housing prices are not far off from NW London.
It takes me 45 minutes to get to paddington, which is actually not bad considering the distance, cost can be on the high side depending on time of day, but the chaos of city life is hectic for me and my kid loves the vibe of the area.

London has so much more to do though, so socially and with friends there, it makes sense. It can be quite challenging to build a social circle, especially with WFH
 
Fiancee is getting flooded with info from the universities that she applied to. It would seem that international studies are highly sought after. Who would have thought? LOL
So I should have my little lady with me by August.
 
AstroTurf said:
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.
Click to expand...
Good luck. Just something to keep in mind with kids and schooling. The year starts in September and age cut-offs are strictly 31 August. Our kids started schooling in Feb and our youngest had to go one full year ahead with a late start. They’ll manage but starting in September would be an easier transition.
 
Paul Kemp said:
Good luck. Just something to keep in mind with kids and schooling. The year starts in September and age cut-offs are strictly 31 August. Our kids started schooling in Feb and our youngest had to go one full year ahead with a late start. They’ll manage but starting in September would be an easier transition.
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Yes we are hoping that my wife is settled and has a place big enough for herself and our kids by then but at this point she just has to get there.
 
AstroTurf said:
Yes we are hoping that my wife is settled and has a place big enough for herself and our kids by then but at this point she just has to get there.
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Yeah, 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.
 
x32 said:
My CV doesn't explicitly mention it. A lot of the job applications that I have done online ask about the right to work in the UK and I deal with it there.

But happy to start including it in my CV too.
Click to expand...
I've dealt with recruitment within my team here in the UK. Even tho you explicitly say "ONLY INDIVIDUALS IN THE UK NEED APPLY" you tend to get like 95% chancers from India, Nigeria, Congo and other random applicants, trying their luck.

You basically need to transform your SA CV to look as British as possible, to minimise the possibility that its overlooked.
 
AstroTurf said:
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.
Click to expand...

Best of luck and as mentioned before - play the cards you are dealt and you’ll be fine
 
syntax said:
You can commute quite easily in. I totally get wanting to be "close", and I would guess guildford housing prices are not far off from NW London.
It takes me 45 minutes to get to paddington, which is actually not bad considering the distance, cost can be on the high side depending on time of day, but the chaos of city life is hectic for me and my kid loves the vibe of the area.

London has so much more to do though, so socially and with friends there, it makes sense. It can be quite challenging to build a social circle, especially with WFH
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my 2c, also being based in Guildford.

The novelty of London wears off pretty quick. This will be different for each person, but having lived in large cities prior I enjoy smaller towns. Less people, less noise, more nature.
Guildford cost of living (Surrey in general) is bonkers. You pay a premium for what you get. Again, weigh up whats important for you. I've been house hunting, and even tho its expensive, it wont be a bad investment (demand remains high), as long as you do your homework.
The 38min fast train to London works wonders if you need to pop in, but its not sustainable 5x a week.
 
Tman* said:
my 2c, also being based in Guildford.

The novelty of London wears off pretty quick. This will be different for each person, but having lived in large cities prior I enjoy smaller towns. Less people, less noise, more nature.
Guildford cost of living (Surrey in general) is bonkers. You pay a premium for what you get. Again, weigh up whats important for you. I've been house hunting, and even tho its expensive, it wont be a bad investment (demand remains high), as long as you do your homework.
The 38min fast train to London works wonders if you need to pop in, but its not sustainable 5x a week.
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I was thinking about where I live and I think Aylesbury is the perfect spot.
Rents aren't astronomical. So because I WFH I only have to go to London once a week, and to do that I drive to Chesham, hop on the Metro line and in an hour I am in Whitechapel. It means I leave home at 6:45am and arrive home at 7:30pm. Its a long day so thankfully I only need to do it once a week.
I could move closer to Chesham but then rents are much higher. Driving to Chesham every day if my Fiancee needs to go to varisty every day (which we know she won't) will cost me 100 pounds in fuel, so there is little incentive for me to move to Chesham.
 
killerbyte said:
Fiancee is getting flooded with info from the universities that she applied to. It would seem that international studies are highly sought after. Who would have thought? LOL
So I should have my little lady with me by August.
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Yeah, because international students are their cash cows. It's big business.
 
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