Hey everyone, well I have been trying to look into ways to move to the uk from the us. But getting any type of work visa is extremely difficult especially trying to find a company that will sponsor me to work for them. Any advice?
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I believe it's similar to the U.S., but I am not positive. To move to the U.S., you need either a work, student, or marriage visa. Unfortunately, that's the situation a lot of us with SOs in different countries are facing
Best of luck to you and I hope that something works out!
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I'm in the exact same position as you right now! The easiest way to do it will depend on your work or school experience. We haven't decided for sure what we will do yet, but I have done a lot of research on the legal aspects, which I will now dump on you...
Pretty much all of the long-term work visas that I have seen require that you are being offered a job paying 20,800 pounds or more, which converts to around $33,000, plus the equivalent of 950 pounds in savings. For someone like me who is just barely finishing university in a non-science field with no real experience, that is pretty impossible as a starting salary... But if you already have work experience, you might be able to manage it. If not, internships under the one-year temporary worker visa might be an option, but that would probably require that you are living with your s/o and that they are able to cover whatever the internship doesn't pay for.
If you've already finished or are in your senior year of an undergrad degree, grad school in the UK might be an option if it is something you have considered. It doesn't matter if you've taken the GREs because the UK doesn't use them, so you don't have to worry about a standardized test. Plus, their master's programs only take a year to complete, and the tuition is pretty close to in-state university tuition, so it's not a terrible deal if it is something you can afford to do. You are also allowed to work while in the UK on a student visa, so you would also be able to make up some of the costs and possibly make some contacts within a company there.
If you and your s/o are at a point where you would consider marriage, then you can get in on a marriage visa if they have an annual income of 18,600 pounds a year or more (there's an alternative that accounts for savings, but you have to have around three times whatever you're missing, plus some other factors depending on what the money is from and if you've had it for at least six months). Once on a marriage visa, you will be allowed to work in the UK, which makes it easier to meet the financial requirement when you renew the visa about two and a half years later. After five years like this, you will get indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
Since even the 18,600 pound requirement can be pretty steep (the UK has one of the toughest immigration policies in the EU), there is one last option you can consider. If you and your s/o live together in another EU country, with at least your s/o working a job there and able to prove that they integrated with the community, you can eventually return to the UK and apply for you to stay under a family permit on the Surinder Singh route. All EU citizens have the righto to live and work in other member states, so you can apply to stay with your s/o in whatever country you decide suits you both (in terms of where you'd be willing to live and what visa requirements work for you).
Finally, if you know enough about your family history and are lucky, you might be able to claim citizenship by ancestry for a country in the EU. This is a complicated and possibly expensive process depending on what country you end up with, but if you are lucky enough to be able to do it, you will be able to get a passport for that country, which will give you the right to live in the UK through EU citizenship.Comment
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