Help!-USA Family moving to UK

[bornoffiremarie]

We're a family of 4 in USA, planning to move across the pond in a few years. What can I do to get everything taken care of? I know I'll have to get visas for all of us. We've never made a big move like this before and will be away from all our family and friends. I'm concerned about having proper health coverage for myself, since I have seizures. About how much does it cost to ship household items to UK? Also, anything that I haven't brought up is welcome. I don't want to forget anything. Thank you :)

Hi - where are you thinking of living? And what visas will you qualify for?

What ages are your children? Any particular hobbies / interests?

(We are a British family of four living in the US )

What visas will you be coming on, and how old are your kids? You will need to understand how school admissions work and how to get your kids into the school you want (or budget for private school). If they will be attending university in the UK shortly after arriving then you may also be liable for international student fees.

My kids are 4 and 1 right now. They'll be around 9 and 6 when we move. We are thinking about the Manchester or Leeds area. It all depends on where my husband can get a job. He is a music teacher. I haven't researched much about visas yet, so I don't know what kind we will be coming in

My hobbies are reading, baking, crocheting and Netflix watching ;) I LOVE GBBO! Doctor Who, HP and superhero tv shows like Flash, Gotham, Daredevil.

If neither of you are citizens, it will be difficult to find a visa that will allow you to move. I'm from the UK and married to a US citizen and the financial requirements of a visa for him are too much for us.

To be honest you sound quite naive. You can't just decide you fancy moving to another country. It's much more complicated than that.

You can expect that it will get harder rather than easier under this government to get a visa.

Sorry to say but that's years away. Visas can change in the blink of an eye. You need to wait until closer to the time.

Thanks.

The official Government information on visas is here. As pp say, expect the rules to get tighter and the cost to get higher over the enxt few years...

Do you have any family links to the UK (grandparents or similar) -- or, even better, to Ireland?
If either of you has one Irish grandparent you can apply for an Irish passport with which you can come and live in Britain, or indeed anywhere in the EU. (It is thought that the UK's exit from the EU will not affect the rights of Irish citizens to live here, these rights pre-dated our EU membership anyway.)
Otherwise, If your DH found work as a music teacher here the organisation that wished to employ him would have to apply for permission to import him, so to speak. This might be easier if it was a higher education institution , like a university or specialist degree-granting music body.

And I think they would have to say that your DH had a specific speciality or skill which could not easily be found among teachers over here. Eg playing the dulcimer, or some such. (This is an example only, i realise there might be shedloads of highly skilled dulcimer players already in the UK.

Have to concur with all of the above. Our immigration laws are as difficult and hard to negotiate as yours! The best bet as above is if either of you have a British parent. Again, if you've a right to it, Irish citizenship would be a great route in. Otherwise, you've a very very limited chance of getting sponsorship. It's a long and very expensive process for the employer who has to prove there was no available British citizen with the right skills set to do the same job. Sorry to be so negative, I'm a recruitment consultant and deal on a daily basis with people wanting to work here and it's unfortunately not simple and likely to get worse.
If you do have a legal right to work here then my advice would be before you move anywhere, spend a lot of time checking schools out (you can google performance tables and find ofsted reports). Then look at their catchment areas. Our property is more expensive in many areas than yours and our houses are smaller!
It's great you want to come here and you'll find us welcoming. Just getting in will be tough though!

Huh?

Did you just get an idea into your head that you can move to the uk in 5 years on a music teachers salary?

Unless you win the lottery forget it.

The pound is bound to be worthless come next summer. You could always rent out your US property and live off your rental income in the U.K. fun times ahead!