Immigrating to the UK

Nearly 2 months now since I arrived in Aberdeen with my family and so far, it's been a very tough adjustment even with me having some family support over here.

My 4yo really misses SA, our old home, his friends and cousins he had to leave behind even though he has more cousins over here that are closer to his age.
My wife is coping but she was extremely close with her family and left them all behind.

I am not enjoying my new job at all and seems quite a step back from what I was doing before but trust a better opportunity will come soon enough.

We are trying to find a better place to stay that has a yard and landlord that accepts pets so that we can arrange for our dog to come over which I'm sure will make all of us feel a lot better.
Better place needs more cash though so the wife needs to find a job but that means we need to place our 1yo in nursery at a hefty cost so she needs to find something that pays well enough.

Looking forward to getting all these things ironed out and settling in though!
Hopeful that will happen soon enough.
 
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PsYTraNc3 said:
Nearly 2 months now since I arrived in Aberdeen with my family and so far, it's been a very tough adjustment even with me having some family support over here.

My 4yo really misses SA, our old home, his friends and cousins he had to leave behind even though he has more cousins over here that are closer to his age.
My wife is coping but she was extremely close with her family and left them all behind.

I am not enjoying my new job at all and seems quite a step back from what I was doing before but trust a better opportunity will come soon enough.

We are trying to find a better place to stay that has a yard and landlord that accepts pets so that we can arrange for our dog to come over which I'm sure will make all of us feel a lot better.
Better place needs more cash though so the wife needs to find a job but that means we need to place our 1yo in nursery at a hefty cost so she needs to find something that pays well enough.

Looking forward to getting all these things ironed out and settling in though!
Hopeful that will happen soon enough.
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You went to Scotland? And then chose one of the more expensive (and far northerly) cities? :oops:

You are brave or masochistic.
 
Dave said:
You went to Scotland? And then chose one of the more expensive (and far northerly) cities? :oops:

You are brave or masochistic.
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Wife’s mate has family up that side. Hear it’s incredibly tough up that side. Weather even worse.
 
Messugga said:
10-20% depending on your salary, seems common for people new to the country. There are 1% deposit deals out there but qualifying criteria might be strict - I certainly don't qualify as someone without indefinite leave to remain
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Lloyds offered me a decent deal with 5% deposit, havent been here that long either, may just be lucky I guess
6 months ago they wouldnt even offer me a credit card
 
Things are coming together.

My Certificate of Sponsorship was granted this morning. Can finally apply for the Skilled Worker Visa now.

Company is just deciding if they pay for it or not - told them I don't care either way. I put £5k aside for visas. But if they pay for it, then it's a 3 year lock in with them. Which I am fine with, I don't want to move companies for a while yet.

Either way - progress!

Last hurdle really is finding a job for the wife. But she has some promising interviews coming up and now there is less pressure on her to find something before we leave in July. (We have enough funds for her to spend a few months searching for work when we get there)

So far our timing has been pretty good with selling the house, getting animals ready and the rest of it.
 
Priapus said:
Things are coming together.

My Certificate of Sponsorship was granted this morning. Can finally apply for the Skilled Worker Visa now.

Company is just deciding if they pay for it or not - told them I don't care either way. I put £5k aside for visas. But if they pay for it, then it's a 3 year lock in with them. Which I am fine with, I don't want to move companies for a while yet.

Either way - progress!

Last hurdle really is finding a job for the wife. But she has some promising interviews coming up and now there is less pressure on her to find something before we leave in July. (We have enough funds for her to spend a few months searching for work when we get there)

So far our timing has been pretty good with selling the house, getting animals ready and the rest of it.
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I think you will have a pretty seamless transfer by the sound of things.

You will probably arrive to a new government in July. If I listen to the election promises on BBC4, all UK issues should be fixed by then. No tax hikes, more Jobs, booming economy etc. You have chosen the best possible time to come over!
 
Tman* said:
I think you will have a pretty seamless transfer by the sound of things.

You will probably arrive to a new government in July. If I listen to the election promises on BBC4, all UK issues should be fixed by then. No tax hikes, more Jobs, booming economy etc. You have chosen the best possible time to come over!
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Labour can fix it by end of July, right? :ROFL:

So far we have not had too many major issues with this move it seems. Everything seems to be working out more or less.

I was super worried I was going to mess up the timing for getting house sold, pets on the plane and a home in UK + my visa. I did not want to spend time away from family or be homeless. Or have wife + son shack up with relatives for weeks on end.

Another win, is the large savings we have in £ we now have access to. It has been "tied up" and not allowed to use due to silly spouse visa rules that you need X amount in savings for 6 months or more if you are using it as part of the application. Now we can start using it to pay for stuff instead of waiting for visa application on spouse.
 
Tman* said:
I think you will have a pretty seamless transfer by the sound of things.

You will probably arrive to a new government in July. If I listen to the election promises on BBC4, all UK issues should be fixed by then. No tax hikes, more Jobs, booming economy etc. You have chosen the best possible time to come over!
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Lol, if only…
 
Just submitted my SWV application. R100k later. My fok.

Company isn't paying for it. Which is actually a good thing; means I am not locked in to them for years on end.

Plan is, after spending 6 months in the UK - apply for a family visa and switch to that. Then I am no longer tied to employer. Will use my income to meet financial requirement, too. Should get a refund on IHS fees for SWV, well 2.5 years worth - which will then be used for family visa. Should be a straight forward process.

It's a slightly more expensive way to do this; but finding a job for my wife whilst in SA is tough - employers want to chat to her on the phone and in person - as soon as they know she's not in the country they go silent. So hence why we went with SWV instead for now.

Anyway, biometrics appointment is tomorrow - I know the exact place to go to - been there 5 times already for UK visitor visas. SWV takes 3 weeks - so should have a decision by end of the month. Plenty of time before we fly on the 20th of July.

Emigration is kak expensive kids.
 
Priapus said:
Just submitted my SWV application. R100k later. My fok.

Company isn't paying for it. Which is actually a good thing; means I am not locked in to them for years on end.

Plan is, after spending 6 months in the UK - apply for a family visa and switch to that. Then I am no longer tied to employer. Will use my income to meet financial requirement, too. Should get a refund on IHS fees for SWV, well 2.5 years worth - which will then be used for family visa. Should be a straight forward process.

It's a slightly more expensive way to do this; but finding a job for my wife whilst in SA is tough - employers want to chat to her on the phone and in person - as soon as they know she's not in the country they go silent. So hence why we went with SWV instead for now.

Anyway, biometrics appointment is tomorrow - I know the exact place to go to - been there 5 times already for UK visitor visas. SWV takes 3 weeks - so should have a decision by end of the month. Plenty of time before we fly on the 20th of July.

Emigration is kak expensive kids.
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Yup it is.

My wife and I are in for a quarter of a bar in fees, though we should be getting most of her ihs payments back.

Son and his family is around half a million in fees.
 
Sinbad said:
Yup it is.

My wife and I are in for a quarter of a bar in fees, though we should be getting most of her ihs payments back.

Son and his family is around half a million in fees.
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Sounds about right. If I were sponsoring my wife and son on my SWV - it would be closer to R300k easily. Fortunately they’re both British citizens.

I know someone who went over on ancestral visa. Whole family - except the wife. Was over R500k in fees.
 
Priapus said:
Sounds about right. If I were sponsoring my wife and son on my SWV - it would be closer to R300k easily. Fortunately they’re both British citizens.

I know someone who went over on ancestral visa. Whole family - except the wife. Was over R500k in fees.
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And you just know that it’s going to get even more expensive in the coming years.

Both main parties are talking the cutting immigration numbers as a policy, likely to be exacerbated if the far right get MP’s into parliament. Farage is already talking about wanting a zero percent immigration visa rate (but then he is just pandering to the racist brexit supporting right wing minority with an unsustainable target).
 
Damn, don’t remember it being that hella expensive for us in 2015. Remember my wife just missing the NHS surcharge, but that I had to fork out an extra £1k for it when I came over 6 months later.
 
Dave said:
And you just know that it’s going to get even more expensive in the coming years.

Both main parties are talking the cutting immigration numbers as a policy, likely to be exacerbated if the far right get MP’s into parliament. Farage is already talking about wanting a zero percent immigration visa rate (but then he is just pandering to the racist brexit supporting right wing minority with an unsustainable target).
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Reality is that none of the parties will actually do anything about it once in power. I reckon Labour will be like “hold my beer” when it comes to annual immigration figures, though.
 
The Voice said:
Damn, don’t remember it being that hella expensive for us in 2015. Remember my wife just missing the NHS surcharge, but that I had to fork out an extra £1k for it when I came over 6 months later.
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It's now £500 per 6 months.
 
The Voice said:
Reality is that none of the parties will actually do anything about it once in power. I reckon Labour will be like “hold my beer” when it comes to annual immigration figures, though.
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They can’t do worse than the Tories, when Cameron promised to bring it down to the 10’s of thousands it was around 250k. Last year it was around 900k.

Plus/minus figures, that’s from memory.

Edit
Get Brexit done and stop migration, hey?

1717537802674.png
 
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Dave said:
They can’t do worse than the Tories, when Cameron promised to bring it down to the 10’s of thousands it was around 250k. Last year it was around 900k.

Plus/minus figures, that’s from memory.

Edit
Get Brexit done and stop migration, hey?

View attachment 1721067
Click to expand...

Well, they DID stop immigration with Brexit - from the EU.
 
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