Your advice/suggestions on living and working in the UK

Hello fellow board members!

We seem to be getting a lot more traffic around here lately (yeah! ) but often the same questions are coming up again and again. So.

I have made stickies regarding living in the UK and getting a visa and would greatly appreciate your help in putting advice in these threads about how people can plan for their move. Hopefully people will consult the sitckies first.

If you can think of any other sticky topics- let me know and I'll stick them.

Cheers!
Lori

May be a silly thing but thought I would share with any Canadians recently arrived or due to arrive in the UK which I wasn't aware of.

If your using public transport, and its highly recomended if you plan on being in the Greater London area due to high costs of owning/running a car, it is good to know that it is not run by one universal company or govt subsidised transport agency.

Keep in mind that in most of the major cities in England it is almost impossible to find totally "free" parking, the "free parking" usually is offered to customers only (who pay £1 to get a ticket then get refunded their £1 coin at the store's checkout counter or get it knocked off the total bill upon presenting the parking ticket) and considering how small and windy (alot of single lane streets!) the streets are, its not easy finding a legal parking spot on the side of the streets and you may just come back to your car with a ticket on the windscreen and find your wheels clamped.

The only exceptions are perhaps the tube (underground/metro/subway) and the tram (like they have in San Fransisco that share the streets with cars) which may be operated by one company & may have an alliance or agreement with another transport company (ie; bus company) depending on which city or town your in.

The buses however are run by all sorts of different companies, so just because you paid your fare on one bus, if you need to change to a different bus or you catch a different branded bus on the way back, you will have to pay again for passage.

Some bus companies share route numbers, ie; you catch the 524 bus to Manchester and it's a First Choice brand bus, you may then see a 524 bus branded by Magic Bus (making that bit up) & have to pay a new fare to get back unless you wait for one to come along from the original First Choice. I found this out early on when I jumped on to the first "524" bus that came to my stop and presented my "First Choice" return fare ticket only to be told by the driver that the ticket wasn't from his bus company so I'd have to pay him again or get off the bus.

Another surprise I got (can you imagine my face when it first happened to me!) was that you need to signal the bus to stop for you when your waiting at the stop. if you dont put your arm out into the road to let the bus driver know you want to get on, he'll just drive right past you assuming you must be waiting for a different bus. WOOOSH.

When you do get on the bus, the driver will want to know your destination, so you will have to tell them where you plan on getting off (fees are calculated by distance travelled as well here) and whether you want a "single" (one way) or "return" (there & back) ticket. There are usually discounts for children or Pensioners (think its 60+ but may be 65+, retirement age basically) but the driver may require proof. you may need to have a photo ID issued at your local "Travel Shop", you get the photo taken from a booth, pay them a processing fee & fill out a form, they then present you with a shiny card with your mug on it.

It's worth finding out what discounts are avaidable to you for 'saver' passes & what you need to get them if you plan on using public transport on a regular basis. the costs of public transport in this country is NOT cheap. For example; The cost in Montreal for a universal Train/Bus/Metro monthly pass was about $60CDN to go anywhere on the island of Montreal, here I am paying £85 a month for just Tram and one bus company (First Choice) to get to and from Manchester city centre, about a half hour away by car!

You may be able to save a little of your take home pay/savings by finding out if they offer weekly passes or monthly passes with unlimited travel.

Just some handy tips to help anyone moving to the UK, something I'd not thought about prior to my move & that I learned the hard way. hopefully this info will save a few Canucks from being red faced & tutted by the people in line behind them!

Good point about sticking your arm out for the bus! I remember being passed by by three buses before someone else at the stop pointed out I had to flag the bus down! Thanks for telling me after I missed three!

The cost of things in the UK, being more than double to the Canadian dollar, we are like a bunch of Mexicans in the US.

*LOL* I like that comparison, suits me sir

Hi all,

I'm looking at heading over to the UK soon, and just want to know how I can get some help to get over there?
i.e. with visa, assistance on arrival, etc

Anyone got any info on this, or know a company who I can get in touch with?

Pete

I'm looking at heading over to the UK soon, and just want to know how I can get some help to get over there?
i.e. with visa, assistance on arrival, etc

Anyone got any info on this, or know a company who I can get in touch with?

my thoughts exactly ^^

You should probably do some research on the UK Visa website & see which type of Visa you might qualify for. The address is http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk

I did it using an Ancestry Visa (4 years, have to have a parent or grandparent born in the UK to qualify amongst other things)and already had a boyfriend in England whose parents were kind enough to sign a letter & photocopy the deed to their house stating that they would let me stay at their house in the intermn. you need to have some sort of abode ready & waiting for you when you arrive & provide proof of it (lease or deed) in your application as well as proving that you are financially viable (not in debt & have substantial amount of savings to carry you over a few months while looking for work). obviously I'm not sure about going the work visa route as I found it damn near impossible to find companies willing to hire people outside the country whom they hadn't met.

Hope this helps you a bit, good luck, hope you find what your looking for!

Having moved here from Quebec 10 months ago, I would recommend than any would-be migrating Canucks think VERY seriously about relocating here.My observations follow:

The cost of living of EVERYTHING is at least twice what you are used to back in Canada. You cry about $0.95 a liter gas? Try 95 pence a liter! Same goes for food, clothes etc.And as far as buying a house is concerned, unless you have at least $500,000 to invest you may as well forget it.

Your extraordinary abilities as a Canadian professional worker will not be recognized. Sadly, but truly enough, Brits are ethnocentric and only recognize their own internal qualifications. I know you may think you can impress them, but the reality is different: Brits know they have all the answers and they are stubborn as mules.

Everything is, well, historical! That includes such mundane things as house plumbing and electrical outlets. Get ready for cold showers and weird electrical adventures. Oh, and they are starting to learn about recycling, but only every second week!

Canada is really the best country in the world.sigh.

Sounds like you've had a hard time of it ShallowCanuck, sadly I've become a bit more like minded as you in recent months but it may be due more to the lack of sucess finding local jobs of at least matching pay as my last, also the professional job market seems to have dropped in demand greatly in the past year or so.

I didn't have much trouble when I first arrived in the UK in the spring of 2004, took about 3-4 months for me to find a fairly local job making an average(ish) salary of £16.5k per year. I worked there for about a year on the promise of recieving a raise to 17K per year after 6 months once I had proved my capabilities/talents. Well near on a year later, no raise but certainly an increase of workload and responsibilities to far above and beyond the original role I was hired to do (aka, supervising staff below me, responsible for looking after all aspects of finance for the company and not just recievables/credit control) and when the formal reviews & raises were handed out, I was informed by the MD that had made this deal with me that I could expect no raise in salary or job title. That was a hard time for me as I felt taken advantage of and felt it had a great deal to do with my inexperience of employment laws in the UK, needless to say when I called the MD up on this, I was all of a sudden suspended with full pay pending investigation of unproffesional conduct. Needless to say he ended up settling with me to shut me up & get me out of his hair, but it was extremely unpleasant and if I hadn't had the backing of my British partner & his father (ex trade union head came with me to meetings & informed about employment laws on discrimination and intimidation etc) I would have probably packed my bags ASAP and gone back to Canada with a not very good view of living & working in the UK.

That whole experience also taught me that the office/personal life although portrayed as friendly & relaxed/outgoing, is very rarely so as my office 'friends' not one of them stood up for me and most of them actually signed written document attestations to how I had been unprofessional (probably on the promise of a raise or some other such thing, that company was dodgy to begin with I think) which I went over and pointed out that it was biased as those same accusations could be lodged against any one of my fellow co-workers and that surely, if its not discrimination against me then they would have all been investigated & reported on as well.

Long story short, know where your coming from and agree on alot of points but no experience will ever be the same for two different people, anyone reading this now just carefully weigh your options & your decision. Canadians may like the British coming over to Canada, doesnt mean it will be reciprocated or any special treatement given just because your not from the USA *lol*

Most people here cant tell at all wether your from Canada or the USA here anyway and although you may get some social allowances for not being a Yank, it wont get you any special treatment above or beyond the 'bloody immigrants' mentality alot of working/middle class have here.