Im an American woman planning on moving to England for six months to be with my boyfriend. Whats the best way to do this?
I can’t help too much about income (my job paid for my visa) but I moved to Southeast England from California about a year ago. Where in England are you moving to? Surprisingly, this will make a huge difference in what to expect. “London” is a whole ‘nother story compared to just “45 minutes from London”. That said, here are some things I tell people when they ask about my transition here: – Get over the currency conversion fast. What I mean is, it is *expensive* here compared to the states. Basically, everything will cost twice as much because although something that is $10 will be 10 pounds here, because of the sucky exchange rate you are actually paying $20. But get over it. I have a friend who is still hung up over that kind of thing and it’s really annoying. – Depending where you are coming from, the weather may be a huge change to adjust to as well. The nice days are glorious, but I have found that nice days are few and far between. – Customer service is… mediocre at best. This
I tried this two or three times, between 1990-1997, with varying degrees of up-front-ness, and failed miserably all three times. First time I was a student, and was on a student visa studying abroad while on an internship. Even with the visa, the job opportunities after my internship ended were crap (maybe things have changed economically). I did work, but only odd jobs and nothing with any sense of (let alone commitment to) permanency. Second time I went back with some of the contacts in hand from my previous trip (graphic design firms, photography studios, etc.). No one was willing to sponsor me because of the bureaucracy involved. Companies had to prove that they needed your specific skills and that those skills could not be provided by a UK citizen (that may be extended to mean any EU citizen now). Again, things may have changed. End result same as trip #1 – odd jobs, nothing satisfying, returned to US. On my third trip I was trailing after an old boyfriend (who was my current boyf
