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Move to UK: Before You Go Archive

Monday

22

March 2021

1

COMMENTS

Life With Near Regrets

Written by , Posted in Adventures, Move to UK: Before You Go

I’d love to live my life with zero regrets. And for the most part, I do. Choices I’ve made when I have as much information as possible have generally been good choices. They haven’t always been popular with my family (declining my admissions offer to UCLA Law School probably ranks high on that list), but I’ve never done anything that deeply opposed my values.

I have, however, made some decisions that, in hindsight, were not the best. In nearly all of these cases, the decision would have been improved if I’d had a bit more information, or if I’d fully understood the consequences of my actions. That doesn’t necessarily mean I would have made a different choice, but life might have been a bit easier if I’d better known what I was signing up for. That’s probably not a unique experience. There are probably loads of people looking at their partners or children or careers and thinking “yeah, if only I’d known about X, I probably would have done Y, and saved us all a lot of stress.”

For me, the biggest near-regret has been moving to London for my partner’s job.

Moving anywhere new is hard. I’ve never moved anywhere that wasn’t home to at least one person I knew. Wait, that’s not entirely true. I didn’t know anyone in New York City when I moved there in the fall of 2002, but my housing was sorted ahead of my arrival, and I was there for school. I had people to help me, and it wasn’t a country with a different currency, or language, or customs (for the most part). And even when I did move to a new country the first time, I spoke the language, and I once again had a university helping me with everything from housing to banking. It was a tough transition emotionally, but the logistics were all sorted.

This time, when my partner and I moved to London over three years ago, I spoke the language and knew the customs better than the last time, but we had almost zero support in the lead-up to and after our arrival. The risks and challenges we’ve experienced are not the same as what others have experienced, but given how many of us live in a country other than the one they were born in (as of 2017, about 258 million people), I know that — even in a pandemic — there are individuals who are choosing to move to a new country.

We made the choice mostly because my partner had always wanted to live overseas. I liked my career for the most part but didn’t love it, and was definitely open to a change. We’d bought a house just a couple of years earlier, but when my husband lost his job as part of large lay-offs at his company, we agreed that it was as good of a time as any for him to look for something outside the US. My partner works in a field where workers are in high demand but not necessarily in high supply outside the US, which meant that in some ways it was easier for him to find work overseas than within the Seattle area.

I know there are many people who bemoan ‘foreigners’ taking ‘their’ jobs (these people are generally known as xenophobes), but there are a lot of reasons why companies might be open to hiring someone from another country. They might want to diversify their workforce, the job description might include skills that are harder to find in local candidates, or they just might have enough money to offer a sponsorship and so don’t want to limit their candidate pool.

In nearly all jobs in all organizations, there is a serious power differential right from the start. This is not unique to immigrants; every time a person is hired, they are taking a much larger risk than the person doing the hiring. They are trusting someone they don’t know to treat them fairly, pay them a reasonable wage, and not put their mental and physical health at risk. Potential employees need jobs, and have at most a handful of interviews with a few people to determine whether their potential employer can be trusted. In our case, making that decision when I’d also likely be giving up my career and we’d be moving away from friends and family carried a different kind of weight, and required an even higher level of trust. In the end, my partner secured three offers from companies in three different countries. With not a lot of time (about an hour)to consider the final offer, we agreed on London.

Here is where my first near-regret comes in: we didn’t fully appreciate how big of a risk we were taking in comparison to the company doing the hiring, and as such, we didn’t require adequate compensation. And no, I’m not just talking about the pay (which was, frankly, deeply insulting, but then many tech salaries outside the US are embarrassingly low considering the level of skill they demand). I’m talking about the entirety of the contract.

Once there is agreement that the potential out-of-country employee and organization are a good fit, many companies consider their job done. They will likely assist with securing the visa because they need that to comply with the law, but many treat that as the beginning and end of their moral duty to their new hire. I disagree, and if I had known at the time what all went into moving overseas when one is not a student, my partner would have negotiated his contract very differently to ensure that the company was offering proper support.

And proper support is much more than a couple of weeks at an Air BnB, some money to ship a handful of boxes, and a visa.

And speaking of visas, governments need to provide more information about their terms. My second near-regret is not requesting much more detail about all the restrictions and requirements associated with our visa from the immigration attorney my partner’s future employer secured. All we got was a letter telling us the dates within which we needed to enter the country, and directions to go pick up our permanent visas at a nearby post office within 10 days of arrival. That was it. There was nothing saying if, for example, the sponsored employee parts ways with their sponsoring company, they will not be able to leave the country until they secure a new visa, if they want to keep working in the UK. That’s information one can only find if one knows to go looking for it.

But back to that original near-regret: there is a huge difference between starting a new job in one’s own city or state and starting a job in a completely new country. Employment laws are different. Tenancy laws are different. Banking laws are different. It’s hard enough to jump into a new job and learn about the company culture and one’s place in it; add on doing that while not knowing where you’re going to be able to live and it can be extremely stressful. I would have required that either the company hire a relocation company to work on our behalf, or provide us with enough funds that we could fully pay for a relocation company on our own. Such a company can help find a place to live, set up necessary financial and other accounts and documentation, bring pets over, and provide support to partners who don’t have jobs lined up.

Unfortunately we weren’t offered the services of a relocation company when we moved, so I was the one who navigated the rules and regulations set up to make moving that much more difficult. For example, we needed to get an ID number from the UK so our belongings wouldn’t be taxed upon arrival. If we hadn’t done that, we might have had to pay part of the value of items we already owned just to get them back! I was the one who found an apartment via a private landlord; a relocation company would have known that we should have instead rented through an estate agent to help secure our bank account, as banks in the UK don’t accept private landlord leases as proof of address. As I didn’t have a job for the first few months, I was able to devote a significant part of my day just doing life administration and searching online to figure out what I didn’t know. It was physically and emotionally exhausting, and it was happening while I was getting used to living in a new country, far away from family and most of my friends.

Consider banking. This is where my third near-regret appears. It’s hard to do pretty much anything in a new country without access to funds. Paying for things in the wrong currency ends up increasing the cost, as exchange rates are often not favorable to the purchaser, and wire transfer and conversion fees add up. We didn’t realize that my husband’s proof of employment (and the need for an account into which his paycheck could be deposited) would not be sufficient for us opening a bank account when I arrived. We read that Metro bank, for example, was especially kind to people who moved from the US (narrator: they were the WORST), but it took us a dozen visits to four different banks and like six different branches to finally open an account. If we’d known this, we would have explored opening an account in the US at a bank that had branches in the UK so we would have an existing relationship.

But that’s not something one should have to sort out. One of us had a job, and the company confirmed that. The financial sector should allow people to open bank accounts with proof of employment OR proof of address, instead of requiring both. Someone who has just moved overseas doesn’t have an address, but they do need a bank account. If they have a job, let the employer take on the responsibility of confirming that, and allow that person to open a bank account. Allow their partners to open their own accounts without proof of employment (but with proof of address once they have found a home) to ensure they are not being financially abused.

Housing is a challenge for pretty much everyone who isn’t rich, and looking for housing was one of the biggest concerns I had when we arrived. Which is where my fourth near-regret rears its head. We basically took the first place that fit our needs and was affordable, and we paid for that. A year and a half after moving in, our gas was shut off when we learned that the gas connection to the building was illegal and could have exploded at any time. This is on top of the fact that the landlords refused to perform the paperwork required to get our address registered with the Royal Mail. If we’d either negotiated more than the two weeks the company paid for our temporary housing, or had negotiated for a relocation company, we might have been able to do more research into trustworthy landlords. And if landlords were willing to accept our rental and credit history in the US as proof that we could rent here, we might have had more options. As it was, we got our first flat by having enough money to offer to pay the first three months up front. That’s ridiculous! No one should have to do that.

After taking on all that risk, moving one’s entire life and family across an ocean, sometimes it still doesn’t work out. Perhaps the company was less than honest about what they were looking for from the employee. Or perhaps the employee learns the company is less than ethical, or is asking for work but not fairly compensating for it. Perhaps the company just loses money and has to lay people off. Perhaps the employee is struggling with the work. What happens to those visa holders?

Nothing good. We were so lucky that my partner found work and got a new visa prior to the pandemic, but if he’d been let go after March 2020? I don’t know what we would have done. There’s nothing we can do about it, but I’d have another regret to add if I didn’t include this here: the government must also allow workers who are no longer with their sponsoring company more than 60 days to sort out their lives. Currently, the sponsoring company has to immediately let the Home Office know when they have parted ways, and then the Home Office (eventually) sends a letter to the visa holder saying they have two months to find a new visa or get out. Now, with delays and back-ups that letter might not come for as many as three months, but there’s no guarantee, so visa holders have to assume that they will need to leave the country within eight weeks. That’s absurd. Six months should be the bare minimum; a year would be better.

It also creates opportunities for abuse within companies. If the sponsored employee is being mistreated, or the terms of employment differ than what was discussed during hiring, what can the employee do? If they quit, they may need to leave the country! And what’s to stop the company from immorally letting the employee go if the employee isn’t a perfect cog in the machine? Are employees meant to stay silent when they witness bad practices or poor employee treatment because in the first two years than can just be fired at will? These rules give employers even more power, and we know companies cannot be trusted to do the right thing when they have that much power.

There are also some pretty insidious rules related to access to benefits, as though someone who finds themselves in a shit situation should be forced to suffer because there are an immigrant when they encounter it. When the furlough scheme was implemented, I raised to my boss that someone needed to get clarification that having our salaries paid by the government wasn’t considered a public benefit; otherwise they’d need to ensure they weren’t furloughing any people working on visas. What a silly, unnecessary stress during an already challenging time.

If I knew what I know now before moving here, I think we would have done a lot of things differently. We might have chosen a different company’s offer to take. We might have picked a different country, one that is more welcoming to people who weren’t born there. I’m happy we live here, and we aren’t planning on leaving any time soon, but we know part of the reason we are able to still be here is because we have access to resources.

With all that said, things have generally worked out for us. I’ve found a decent job working with a wonderful boss and delightful co-workers who could not have been more supportive during the pandemic. I’ve gotten involved with soccer (football) again and love playing every week when we aren’t in lock down. My partner has become extremely involved in organizing and worker rights, and it’s been wonderful to see him flourish there. We’ve made great new friends and deepened friendships with those we knew before. And prior to the pandemic, we were doing wonderful things like spending Christmas in Scotland, or traveling to France repeatedly for the World Cup. Living in London has worked out, so I can’t say anything above is ultimately an actual regret, but those are some lessons I wish I’d learned before we signed on the dotted line.

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Friends and Family

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

Moving across an ocean is a big deal, and many things can be managed with careful planning, lists, and timelines. It’s going to be a stressful time (do I sound like a broken record yet? Good!), and it’s easy to let the move become all-encompassing, but it’s important to take the time to see your friends and family before you go.

In our case, our move came just nine days into the new year, so we took a week-long road trip to visit our families around the winter holidays. It meant seeing five sets of family members and sleeping in four different homes, taking two flights and driving about 700 miles at a time when we had so much to do.

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But it was worth it. We got to see family members, have some down time when we weren’t focused on bank accounts and shipping options and runs to Goodwill. We relaxed, we ate, and we caught up. It was wonderful.

We also did a couple of good-bye events: one to drink our alcohol about a month before we left, and one the Sunday before our flight that was more of an open house at a brewery that allowed kids. We got to chat with folks and say goodbye.

Finally, we set up dinners or other events with some of our closest friends so that we could have some dedicated time with them. We wanted to see them and hang out without loads of other people around. One couple even offered to let us stay with them the last few days we were in town so our renter could move in, which ended up being a life saver!

We also did a tour of our favorite restaurants and shops that we knew we’d miss. That became especially necessary after we had packed or given away all of our kitchen items.

Like I said, it can seem like all that matters is figuring out the move, and there are definitely certain steps that you must take, and certain rules you need to follow, but remember that you’re a person with relationships that you’ll want to foster even when you’re 5,000 miles away. Don’t miss out on the time you still have with these friends and family members.

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Leaving Your Home

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

If you rent your home, you’ll need to give notice to your landlord. Depending on what your lease says and what your financial situation is, I’d wait until you have your visa to give notice – that should be sufficient time in most cases. If your lease allows for subletting, you can get the jump on that. Some leases will allow you to buy yourself out with a month or two of rent and a forfeit security deposit. Just keep in mind that some of these things are expensive and some are time consuming.

If you own your home, you’ll have to decide if you want to sell or rent it out. We decided to rent ours and lucked out with finding someone without posting (they really wanted our place and were moving to our town for a new job – they even bought some of our furniture!). But if we hadn’t had someone interested, we would have engaged a property management company to handle things. It costs some money, but in our market, at least for now, our mortgage can be covered by a renter.

If you can’t get the mortgage covered, you might want to consider selling the house. I’ve never sold a home, but I know it can take a lot of time and energy. It might even be easier once you’ve moved out and can repaint / re-carpet and stage your home. If you can find some cheap flights, it might be reasonable to consider the whole family flying over together and then having the partner without a job fly back soon after to sort out the rest of things. Either way, speak to your real estate agent about options.

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Packing and Shipping

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

It is SHOCKINGLY expensive to ship things to the UK. Originally we thought we’d ship a couple of things and then just bring a ton of suitcases, but someone I know who works at a major international airline warned me that it could be very expensive AND it’s possible we wouldn’t be allowed extra luggage.

Yikes. If you’re moving during vacation season, there could be some limits on luggage extras, so I cannot stress strongly enough to check with your airline. In the end, it’s likely a safe bet to just plan on bringing two checked bags and one carry-on per person traveling. We were lucky enough to use miles to travel business class, so we managed to book one extra bag (five checked bags total), and our weight limit was higher than if we’d been traveling coach. That basically accommodated all of our clothing and toiletries, along with some of the items needed for our cats.

So, what does that mean for your other things? Well, I love books. And I wanted our books to come with us. Books are heavy, so in each of the boxes we shipped, about half were books, and half were other items. In the end we shipped five medium-sized boxes (we purchased the heavy ones from Home Depot). We also used a lot of tape; the one lesson we learned from that is to tape up all the seams AND all of the edges. All of our boxes arrived, and the only damage was to glass items I didn’t cushion well enough, but half of the boxes were splitting at the seams.

We decided early on that we were not bringing any of our furniture with us. We had some lovely pieces that I was sad to part with – some we sold to random folks, some we sold or gave away to friends, and some our renter ended up purchasing. But so many flats in the UK come furnished or partly furnished – many, many more than in the US – so we decided we’d find a furnished flat and supplement with Ikea furniture (which we did, but more on that later).

There are options out there for shipping in pods, which are generally flat rates based on size. But those also mean the items might not arrive for three months, and that didn’t seem worth the cost. In the end we just barely ended up spending less on our shipping than any of the quotes we received, although we probably also shipped less than we could have.

Each of the five boxes we shipped cost about $350, and were shipped via USPS. We were able to track it all the way through, but local independent shop that handled the paperwork and such for us did warn that we might not be able to track our packages once they were turned over to the UK.

We also shipped some art. We have some we paid to be framed back in the US; the company that framed them essentially unframed them for us for free, and charged $20 to un-frame ones they didn’t originally frame. Two of our items were framed using acrylic, not glass, and so could be shipped as is. Those two shipments were in addition to the five boxes.

What made it easy for us was that my partner’s new company allowed us to ship to their office. Once we found a flat, we were able to just get a van taxi and move it all over to our new place.

We didn’t ship or give away everything, however. Our wedding china is stored in two boxes in the crawl space under a friend’s staircase. We also didn’t ship two boxes worth of photo albums, which now live at another friend’s place. We might ship those to us if we want them later, but for now they are safe and sound. And finally, we have a nice record player and collection of records that are living at a third friend’s place.

Downsizing can be fun; the key is to not immediately upsize once you get to the UK…

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Animals

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

Do you have furry friends who will be making the trek across the world with you? Awesome! I have to say that having our buddies Jameson and Tigger with us made the UK feel more like home very quickly. However, it was also one of the greatest stresses of our move. And that’s because we were doing it all ourselves, and the websites that help are all government websites that can bury the most important information.

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Moving pets requires serious planning and attention to dates in a way that rivals the visa process. And the worst case scenario is you could show up to the airport on the day of your flight and not be allowed to drop off your pets. So you’ve got to plan ahead.

I’m going to share our experience with our cats. The shots needed likely differ with dogs, but the timing should be the same.

First things first: animals cannot enter the UK in the cabin of the plane. So you need to make your peace with the fact that your buddies are going to be in cargo for a long time. Like, a very long time. And that’s okay – there are staff dedicated to making sure your furry friends are taken care of. But it’s going to be traumatic for them as well, and there isn’t any way around it (unless it’s a service animal, and even then there are very strict rules).

Your pet needs to be micro-chipped. If you adopted your pet, they are probably already micro-chipped, but unfortunately it’s possible the microchip your pet has isn’t the right one. We rescued our two cats, and they were fixed and chipped, but using a different technology than the UK uses. You need to check that your chip has 15 digits; if not, it’s not the right one. Set up a vet appointment and get a new chip inserted.

Your pet also needs to be vaccinated against rabies. Which I’m sure she is. BUT. The rabies vaccine only counts if it’s given after the UK-compatible microchip has been inserted (same day is fine). I did find a section of the USDA website that implied you could provide some other paperwork to show a previous rabies vaccine counted, but we didn’t want to risk it. So I suggest that at the same appointment you get them micro-chipped you also get them re-vaccinated for rabies.

If you’re us, the vet tech will not realize that’s why you’re doing the rabies vaccine earlier than necessary (even though it’s been explained multiple times), and simply not administer the vaccine. But it is critical that they do it (we fixed it later that day – poor cats, two vet trips in five hours!), AND it must be done MORE THAN 21 DAYS BEFORE YOU’LL ENTER THE UK. That is key. I recommend doing it well before then, but no matter what, it must be more than three weeks before you’ll arrive.

Because your animals will be traveling in the cargo hold, they need to be in a very secure kennel, and they can’t travel in the same one. I recommend following the instructions on the website of the airline you’ll be using. Our cats were in the 200 size, which seems huge until you realize they need space to move around and stretch.

I also recommend purchasing the pet travel kit (available on Amazon), which includes metal bolts, food and water trays, and a piddle pad. Even if you purchase the kennel that is recommended by the airline, it will still likely have plastic screws and bolts connecting both halves, and the airlines require metal ones. So get the kit. They’ll also require an absorbent lining, so stick the piddle pad underneath a towel.

And then just leave the kennels out, for at least a month before the trip. Put food and water in the dish. Let the animals get used to the kennels and, if possible, don’t use them for anything else. You don’t want them to associate it with a trip to the vet or anything else stressful.

We used United Airlines for our trip. A few things to keep in mind:

  • It’s fucking expensive. Each cat was about $700, plus the fee once we arrived in the UK (more on that)
  • There are very specific rules about the time the cats need to arrive before the flight and, if you have a connection, the time in between. Our flight left at 6:55 AM; we had to drop our cats off at cargo at 3:30 AM. That is not a typo. And we had a connecting flight, so there needed to be at least three hours between connections because of the international component.
  • You will need to work with a pet importer on the other end. I strongly recommend you go with whomever the airline uses, because that’s their partner and they do this on a daily basis. It might be a little more expensive, but these are your family members; do you really want to screw around with this?

One thing we learned that was pretty cool is that pets are the very last thing that gets loaded onto the plane and the very first thing that gets unloaded. When we landed in Houston, we had barely taken our seat belts off when we saw a van with “Pet care” on the side pulling away from our plane. They get the animals to a safe and comfortable place to reduce their stress. Awwwww.

Okay, back to the process of getting your animals approved and avoiding quarantine. No more than ten days (check your airline on the specifics, but they mean business – 11 days and you’ll be rejected if their rules say ten) before travel, your animals will need to be seen by a USDA approved vet, who will complete a pet health certificate. You might see mention of a pet passport, but that only works within the EU. They’ll do a quick check of your animal, and then fill out this really complicated form and emboss their seal in it. If you have fewer than five pets, they’ll all be listed on the same certificate. You can find the details here.

Now, here’s the part that almost totally fucked us over: you THEN need to send this certificate, along with proof of micro-chipping and proof of rabies shot (all signed in BLUE INK) to your regional USDA office, which needs to check it, emboss the certificate, and send it back to you.

Are you thinking what I am? That you can’t do the vet appointment until ten days before you arrive in the UK, but you also have to send it somewhere? Yeah. We didn’t realize it until the morning of the vet visit. Luckily the regional USDA office is only an hour from where we lived, so we got the money order (that’s what they need) for the certificates and paid for express overnight delivery, and pre-paid for express overnight return delivery. We sent it on Wednesday and got it back Friday morning, which was good, because our flight was Tuesday. SO MUCH STRESS.

If possible, and if your USDA office is nearby, make an in-person appointment. Then you can just drive over and get it done, instead of spending a couple of days hoping that Fed Ex doesn’t manage to mess it up. But make the in-person appointment well in advance – they book up quickly.

I mentioned above that you need to work with a pet importer to handle the animals when they arrive. They will have some paperwork that you need to complete, and they will be your contact when you arrive in the UK, delivering your pets to animal customs and letting you know when they are available for pick up. When you book your cats through the airline, get the information on who they recommend you use.

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Leaving Your Job

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

If you’re like me (the one who didn’t have a UK job offer), you’ve got some soul searching to do about what this means for your career. Hopefully you and your partner have already agreed that moving overseas is a real option, and you’ve talked through what the expectations are around you finding a job once you arrive in the UK. But regardless, at some point you’ll need to tell your boss.

I have an excellent relationship with my former boss. She’s always been supportive, and I’ve always felt I could be open with her. Our journey to London can be traced back to my husband being laid off about seven months before we arrived, so she knew that he was looking for work. I told her when he flew to the UK for an interview in September, and when he received the job offer. We worked together on transition documents and planned for all eventualities.

But — and I think this is key — she didn’t consider my notice official until our visas arrived. So in the end, she had about three months’ notice that it was a possibility, two months that it was likely, and one month that it was definitely happening.

If you want to keep things positive between you and your company, I recommend you spend time putting together a comprehensive transition document. I also recommend you start saving files and contacts that you might need to either get a job when you move back, or to help show prospective employers in the UK what you can do (within the rules set forth by your employment contract, of course).

If you don’t have a good relationship with your boss, or you are worried that if you give them a heads up they’ll let you go just when you need to be building up a little reserve of funds, then just follow the regular process as if you’re leaving for another job. Usually even the more unreasonable bosses will understand that you’re leaving for your partner and an opportunity to live in another country, and that it isn’t personal (even if it totally also is).

Some rental agencies might want evidence that you used to work, so if possible, see if you can get a generic “to whom it may concern” letter of reference from your boss that says you can be trusted to rent a flat, and includes what your salary was when you left.

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Mobile Phone

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

I’m not getting paid for this suggestion, but we found that the best option for us was giff gaff, because they will send you the SIM card ahead of time (for free), so you can set up your account before you get on the plane, and then once you arrive, replace your old SIM and get started with your new UK number. This will help with certain things, like setting up delivery appointments to your new place.

We like giff gaff because it’s cheap (£20 / month for unlimited texting and 9 GB of data, which throttles after that, but who uses that much data all the time?).

Just be sure your phone is unlocked. This might not work for you iPhone folks, but if you’ve got an Android phone, it’s a great option.

Be sure to hold onto your old SIM for a bit. Once we arrived, we moved our old phone number to a Google voice account. It’s a one-time $20 fee, but it’s worth it for all those two-step verifications on US-based accounts (say, your bank) that won’t let you change to a non-US phone number. It also helps you keep your phone number for when you move back to the US. We’ll cover this more in the Upon Arrival section, but you’ll also want to hold onto your old SIM so that you can tether your computer to it when you do the Google voice set-up.

Sunday

22

December 2019

0

COMMENTS

Banking

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

I don’t like commercial banks. About six years ago I left big banks behind and moved all of my cash to a credit union. It was great decision, because it matched my political concerns about the role of major banks in the economic collapse of 2008, and it supported my community.

It also made the financial part of our move to London a giant, drawn-out pain in the ass.

One reason was that they weren’t great at handling international wire transfers requested in person (we later learned that if we called, they had specialists who are awesome). My husband did one and thankfully we didn’t lose our money, but after two weeks we found out it hadn’t worked.

The other reason is that a wire transfer service like TransferWise will require you to transfer money from your US account to their US account before they convert the money. Not usually a problem, except for the fact that some credit unions have rules about how many accounts can be connected to the same outside account. In our case, we learned that our credit union only allowed two people to connect to the same outside account, and two people already were.

Cue sad trombone.

As I will mention multiple times throughout this site: getting a bank account in the UK is one of the most difficult financial things I’ve ever done. And I’ve bought a house.

They seemingly require just one simple thing: proof of address. But the rules around exactly what can count for proof of address are ever-changing and don’t make loads of sense.

With that in mind, there are a couple of things you can do to get a leg up on the process.

Open a New US Account with a Big Bank
You can open a US account at a major bank that has a heavy presence in London, and let them know that you plan to open a UK account as well once you move there. You’ll already be a client, so it should be much easier. Some options include HSBC, Barclay’s, and Lloyds.

If you have a strong financial tie to your local bank (say, your mortgage is through them, or you have other automatic payments that need a US bank account), that’s fine! Keep that! But take a little bit of money and open that other bank account so that you’re ready to hit the British ground running.

If you have credit cards, check to see if they charge a fee for foreign transactions. Even if you do everything right, it’ll still probably be awhile before you’re able to do everything in the local currency, so if possible get a credit card that doesn’t charge anything for foreign currency transactions so you can save some money in the beginning. It’s still better to be able to pay directly in pounds, but that’s not going to be an option on day one for most people.

We used Chase Sapphire and Capital One cards, and it worked fine. We’ll talk more about this in the Settling In section, but be prepared to sign for every credit card transaction since the US system STILL doesn’t use Chip + PIN. And shop workers here actually care that your signature matches. One plus side of living here is that my signature actually looks like my name now, instead of just a squiggle, because it has to match what’s on the back of my card. Seriously, a woman at Sainsbury’s made me re-sign my receipt because it didn’t match the first time.

Also do some research to see if your bank or credit card will allow you to have a UK address.

Internet Banking
Another option is to open a UK account through an internet bank like Monese. They do charge a monthly fee, but they can help you do a few things in the beginning, like set up your internet (because internet companies all require a direct debit for the monthly payment, which seems shady as hell to me, but it’s their game).

You can also get a debit card through them so you can more easily pay for things and get money out of ATMs without a fee. Just be sure to move some money into this account before you move. It’s entirely possible that this will be all you need when you live in London, but if you want to, say, have a joint account with your partner, you’re going to need a brick and mortar bank, so consider the above advice.

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December 2019

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Where to Stay When You Arrive

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

As part of the negotiation with the UK employer, hopefully you’ve sorted out where you will be staying when you arrive. I strongly suggest you see if you can agree that they will pay for at least three weeks, if not a month, of temporary housing. Here’s why.

The first few days you’re in a new country, you’ll be tired. There’s jet lag, there’s the emotion of leaving friends and family, there’s the excitement, and there’s the confusion. Where do you buy, say, shampoo? Does anyone sell your favorite comfort food? What on earth is 17:00 hours?

You don’t want to add onto that stress by having to frantically find a place to live in a week. You don’t know the neighborhoods, you aren’t sure about how long commutes will be, and you don’t know the reputable landlords.

Work with HR of your new company to see if they can either offer a month in temporary housing to allow you to find a good place to live in a neighborhood that you’ll want to be in, or at least agree to extend the temporary housing if you can’t find a place in the shorter amount of time. If neither of those are an option, see if they’d be willing to ask if any of your future coworkers can recommend reputable estate agents (the people who help you find apartments)

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December 2019

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Transfer of Residency Number

Written by , Posted in Getting Ready, Move to UK: Before You Go

Here’s a fun thing: when you move to the UK, if you don’t apply for a Transfer of Residence (TOR) number first, they might charge you tax on things you already own.

Weird, right? I mean, I don’t know if other countries do this, but I didn’t realize it was a thing.

We first found out about this when we called the pet import company recommended to us by the airline we would be flying on to London. We needed the TOR to avoid paying tax on the cats we had adopted six years prior.

But we also found that it came in handy when we shipped items. The person who printed out all the customs forms to attach to our boxes of belongings just wrote the term “Personal belongings – moving to UK. Transfer of Residence #” on each form. I’m not sure if that ended up making a difference, but I do know our items cleared customs quickly and none were pulled out for additional inspection.

Regardless, if you are moving your car, or your pets, you’ll definitely need it, so get going on it as early in the process as possible, as it takes a couple of weeks to arrive via email.

The forms you need are here. You’ll be asked to include supporting documentation, like a copy of your job offer letter, or your marriage certificate or birth certificates for your kids. Our files were large, so I ended up sending three emails total.

As part of the application, they ask for a list of items you’ll be bringing over. We kept it pretty high level and only got specific with very expensive things. For example, we said “clothing and personal care items,” but specified “two laptops” and “three video game systems.” I think we also said “dozens of books.”

If you have pets you’ll need to include it in the paperwork you send to the pet importers ahead of time so again, don’t leave this to the last minute.