Can I Interview Any English Citizens/Americans Living in England, Please?

Question

This is about living/moving to England from America. I'm wanting to move to England in 4-5 years when I save up enough money. I will be a licensed optician & my honey a linguist.

1.Where's an inexpensive area recommended to live?

2. Are taxes really THAT bad? (someone told me they're 50% of your paycheck?)

3. Is gettting a job really difficult, with no schooling but certifications & experience?

4.Is Adapting to metric system difficult?

5.Is it difficult making friends?

6. Is it better to visit England & job hunt, than to do it via America over the net?

7. How difficult is it to get a work permit? (Is it true it must be a job that a EU citizen can't fill?)

8. Is it better to get a EU citizen to vouch/help me get a job there?

Answer 1

1.) the further North you go In England, the cheaper it gets. However, the further North you go, the more isolated you become, with less job opportunities, and more crime, poverty etc. The basic rule of tumb is, if it's nice, it's not cheap, and if it's cheap, it's not nice

2.) income tax is anywhere from 20% to 40% depending on how much you earn, but then you have to pay national insurance on top of that whcih is a further 11% i think, plus silly little ridiculous taxes, like you have to buy a licence to watch TV and so on

3.) getting a job for anyone here, no matter what qaulifications thay have, is very difficult. There are about 5 million brits unemployed in the UK at the moment. There just aren't enough jobs for everyopne, especially since the influx of economic EU migrants who will work for cheaper than the native Brits

4) i couldn't tell you, we seem to use all sorts of different systems to measure stuff.

5) i dunno, how friendly are you?

6) i'd say visit here and try and find jobs, because then you can get a feel for what a real feel for what the country is like, and wether you reall want to uproot your life to live here

7) it is very diffcult to get a work permit. It is true that any EU citizens will have priority over you, and any employer has to basically prove than no one in the EU could do the job aswell as you could. Also, you have to have a skill we are in desperate need of in the country to be granted a working visa.

8) i don't know if that will make a difference.

Answer 2

1. Northern England is cheaper than Southern England. The South East, especially London and the Home Counties are the most expensive.

2. You don't pay any tax on the first £5435 (called a personal allowance), then you pay 20% tax on anything up to £36,000 (minus your personal allowance) and 40% on anything over £36,000.

For example, if you were earning £40,000 (which is quite a high income, average is £24000) a year you would be charged nothing on £5435, 20% of £30,565 (which is £6113) and 40% of £14,000 which is £5600. So your total tax bill would be £11,713.

If you were on a more average income of £24000 then you would simply pay nothing on the first £5435 and then 20% on the remaining £18,565 which is £3713.

You will also have to pay council tax which goes to the local council, which varies by where you live and what sort of house you live in.

There is VAT on goods that the gov. deems to be luxuries of 17.5%, but this is already included in the price that you see in the shops, unlike sales tax in the US.

However, tax here covers things like free healthcare for all, so you don't have to pay for medical insurance and education and suchlike, as well as benefits (the UK term for welfare) and most people get at least some benefits, for example if you have children, you get £18.80 a week for the first child and £12.55 for every subsequent child.

In short, no they are not 50% of your wages, and they give you things like free, good quality healthcare from the NHS.

3. If you have all the appropriate qualifications that are needed to practice as an optician here, then I am sure that you will be fine (the relevant organisation which can tell you about what you need is http://www.abdo.org.uk/ )

4. We still work in miles, pounds, ounces, inches and feet a lot of the time, as well as pounds and ounces. However, officially stuff is all done in kilograms, grams, metres and centimetres. On the plus side, road signs are all done in miles. I think that you will be alright with learning to work with the metric system - it's quite a minor consideration TBH.

However, what you may find more difficult to adapt to is the different culture, different language usage and different customs.

5. Whilst you may find that the British are more reserved than Americans - striking up conversation with a complete stranger is often not the done thing, joining a club / band / organisation / team etc. is a good way to meet new people. Many people are also friends with those who they have met at work or school.

6. Not something that I can really answer as I have never had this dilemma myself. However, there may be some visa restrictions which prevent you coming and then finding a job.

7 & 8. You and your husband may be able to come in under the Highly Skilled Workers programme http://ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingint...

I believe that the company employing you must show that they can't get anyone from inside the EU to fill your position, but I'm not really sure of the ins and outs of the immigration system.