General post: NYC resident, considering moving to the UK

[FormicaLinoleum]

There are PAYE calculators you can use to estimate your take-home for a given salary, like this one: http://listentotaxman.com/

[DaN]

Yeah TV license is £10 a month.Sky TV basic package will cost around £17 a month.

 

The council tax varies but it is about £80-£120 per month for a flat or small house in my area.Its about the same in London.

 

Yeah as far as tax on your wage, you are looking at around what formica said, its not too bad really

 

Gas, electric & water bills are rsing, particularily the gas & water.If your house is just electric for example it will cost about £70 for 3 months period.Water can cost between £7 & £20 per month, depending on whether the property runs on a meter or not (the meter works out cheaper - not sure why)

 

[VegannNY]

...so what do you figure is a good *basic* salary to get by on, in London? (That is, and have enough left over to do something nice occasionally?) I know, it completely depends on the job as to what I can actually get in terms of salary. But what's baseline? Thx...!

[DaN]

I think you would have to be earning over £25,000 - £30,000 per year - each, to be comfortable to be honest.Obviously there are loads of people earning way way less than this in London, but I doubt they are making any savings.As an example, when I was earning £20,000 a year, I was managing to save a very small amount per month, to go towards big spends like holidays etc.Anything less than that & I was simply "treading water" IE wage comes in at end of month, bills go out & there is nothing left.

 

By the sound of it you would be able to earn atleast £25,000 doing what you do, so you would probably be fine!

[FormicaLinoleum]

I would agree with Dan. If you want to have some choice in where to live and not have to settle for something you don't really like, to pay all your bills, and to have money left over to save and spend on non-essentials, you should look to make £45K+ together.

 

We are able to afford enough rent to live in nice enough places (but not really fancy/expensive areas) and pay all of our bills. We don't have any money to do more than that, though, but this is due partly to still having to pay off debts from the move. If we were debt-free we'd be putting aside some money each month.

 

Would you apply for jobs from the US and move over only if one of you gets an offer? Or would you both leave your jobs, move over, and look for work once you are here? 'Cause how much savings you need to have in order to make the move is another thing to consider. (We used A LOT.)

[VegannNY]

Formica (and Dan) -

 

Thanks! I don't *forsee* being willing to move until/unless one of us gets an offer (probably me...my husband's a brewer and writer, which I figure is a little less marketable nowadays...!)

 

Out of curiosity, how would the base salary differ for other towns in the UK (just in general, of course)? Specifically: Brighton or perhaps Glasgow in Scotland?

 

One other question - assuming I qualify for a Visa, about how long does it take to get one, and how long is it good for?

 

Thanks and best...! (And thank god it's Friday...!)

[FormicaLinoleum]

Many jobs in London will include a "London weighting". So the job will be advertised with a base salary, but then also will state a London weighting, which generally seems to be about £2,000-£2,500 a year. At least this is so at all University jobs I have seen and also jobs in my field (social science research) in other sectors. So jobs here will pay about that much more. And perhaps the base is a little higher as well, but I'm not sure about that.

 

If you apply for a visa in person (which should be easy for you as the office you would apply to is in NYC), you get the visa the same day. Once you are all set to apply, you fill everything in online, make an appointment for within the next two weeks, go in with your backing documentation, and walk away with your visa. When we got my partner's visa we had a 10am appt, but had to wait in a queue with the others with the same appt time. I think we waited maybe an hour, maybe less? We got up to the desk, where it took the officer about 10-15 min to look through everything and OK it, then we came back 1 hr after that to pick up her visa. It was pretty straightforward. One thing I am not sure about it whether you can apply for your visa and your husband's at the same time. However, if you are going for a Tier 1 visa, you may want to get it before you start applying for jobs, as it is completely different for an employer to hire someone with a visa than without. I think... the issue then is that if it takes a long time to find a job, you're still sitting in the US wasting the time on your visa. So I don't know... I guess you should get advice on that. But just telling potential employers that you intend to apply for a Tier 1 visa wouldn't be the same as saying you successfully got one already.

 

I will say that it might be quite hard to get a job from the US. In 2005, before we had any significant savings, I applied for a number of jobs over here. I didn't hear anything back from a single one. (And I am a UK citizen and said so in all my cover letters.) So we saved up money for 2 years, moved over and applied here. I made 3 or 4 applications and got one of the jobs. It could just be coincidence that I got a job pretty quickly while living over here but was very unsuccessful in applying from the US. Could be I just found the right job in 2007. But it could be a challenge getting potential employers to consider you. But you could just try applying and at the same time be building up a fund of money to allow you to move over without a job so that if you don't get any offers you can eventually move over anyway. Like I said, it took us 2 years to save up, which did feel like a long time to be planning, but it all happened eventually!

[VegannNY]

Dear Liz -

 

About the mention you made about having to save up. How much (approximately) *did* it cost to move? (We're planning on taking only the bare essentials, such as clothes, and worry about things like furniture once we're over the pond.)

 

(Which leads me to a great followup question - do they have good equivalents to the Salvation Army over in the UK/London? I'm a huge thrift store fan - hate paying full price for anything, and would hate to be without such shopping outlets. That would be *almost* as bad as not having access to a good gym!)

 

PS: still trying to narrow down the location to either London or Glasgow...both are still in the running, so I guess we'll have to visit more extensively before finalizing the target...)

[FormicaLinoleum]

I should say that it seems that the process for submitting visa applications has now changed quite a bit. I think maybe you can't go in person any more.

 

We had (and spent all of) tens of thousands of dollars. I can't remember exactly, but between $20 & $30K? A lot of that went to our expenses once we were over here. As I said, we were both unemployed for two months, and my partner took 10 mos to find a job (I think I said 8 previously, but it was 10). So we had to cover all or part of our living expenses for that time. The exchange rate will make a difference on how much you need, of course--I think it was about $1.85:£1.00 when we moved. If it's better, you'll get more pounds for your dollars.

 

Most flats over here are available furnished, so it is actually better not to bring over any furniture, and you won't have to buy any. Fully furnished flats will even have bedding, towels, dishes, etc. It's kinda nice, as there's less to move when you chance flats!

 

They have what are called charity shops here. They are generally not as big as the Sally Army ones in the US, but they are pretty easy to find. Oxfam is perhaps the most common, but many different charities have shops. I am not sure how cheap they are, though...