h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You can visit the UK up to 6 months almost as much as you'd like. However, the UK has been slowly tightening it's admissions, so while you can visit, you'll have to pretty much give up any thought of living there unless:

1. You have a million dollars. Any country will let you live there if you have a million dollars. Not really, you need at least $200,000 (I believe it's dollars, not pounds) to invest in a UK company.

2. You can claim ancestry to an EU (European Union) country. Ancestry can only be claimed through a grandparent (no older generation) and then often only with difficulty in the case of the UK. Read up on specific requirements depending on which country you are attempting to emigrate to.

3. You go to school. However, the UK government (as well as those from other countries seeking to go to school in the US) asks that you be prepared to prove that you can pay for all four years of your schooling without ever working. So it takes tons of money.

4. You have a specialized job. If you work for a company that has UK offices you may be able to transfer. Keep in mind, however, that your company must prove to the government that it can't find a UK citizen to do the job instead of transferring you over (this includes advertising for the job). Work visas are becoming more and more difficult (if not impossible) to obtain unless you are a very specialized individual.

5. Marriage. Be prepared (much like the US) for vast amounts of skepticism and scrutiny if you are looking to marry into the UK. The rule is that you must be married, after obtaining the appropriate paperwork, 6 months after you arrive. Keep in mind that most churches in the London area have been booked for about a year. Also, if you get an INS member that's had a particularly bad day, they can deny you for no reason. Be prepared to prove you're in love and that you've visited and that you can support yourselves and then be prepared to wait.

6. As an artist. You must be able to prove through pay stubs, references, etc. that you've been supporting yourself doing only your art for one full year. Again, be prepared for much skepticism. I don't know about you, but what I make on my acting wouldn't support me without my day job.

Work Permits in the UK are good only for the job you hold. You don't get a universal work permit and then switch jobs, you have to get a new permit with a new job, and that's never a guarantee. As awful as all the UK rules sound, it's harder to get into the US than the UK, but with UK officials cracking down on loopholes that is becoming less and less the case.

I have been trying to get into the UK for 10 months now and it's been a miserable lesson in failure. I've pretty much given up and grown to despise both the UK and US immigration officials.

Let me know if you can think of anything, 'cause I'm all fat out of ideas.

1. There are visas called working holiday visas but you have to be under a certain age (30 I think) to get them.

2. If/when you do get to the UK, wear nice shoes. Make sure the shoes look like part of the outfit. i.e. don't wear a nice suit and then scruffy shoes. And try to avoid wearing snake/aligator skin shoes. UK immigration officials have been known to judge people by their shoes.

3. Why on earth would you want to leave there for here?

Wanna swap places??

Krissy

(I presume you are female?) My wife Paula is a US citizen, and it took us nearly two and a half years for her to fully be allowed to remain indefinately in this country, so we know just how frustrating it can be.

We now plan to get the green card for me for the US (just in case we ever deceide to move over there) and are fully prepared to put up with the red tape we shall run into. However it should also be a tad easier now as we have been together for 6 years and married for 4, so they might actually believe we are a permenant item now!!!

I have no new ideas for you I'm afraid - well not legal ones anyway! other than contact the MP for the area you plan to move to, (or if you have an intended partner, his MP), mine was very helpful indeed. Otherwise just tough it out so to speak.

Good Luck

Steve