# Welcoming help on our move from the US to UK



## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Hello, my husband and I have talked about moving to the UK from the states for about 3-4 years now. We are quite committed to making the move within the year. We will be moving with our 1 year old son. My husband is an extremely driven and experienced programmer/developer. He is proficient in a number of areas within the field including, Drupal, Linux, PHP, server administration, etc. 
We are looking for any information and leads towards our move overseas. We would appreciate assistance or tips seeking employment within the developer community, family friendly neighborhoods, towns, and/or villiages, as well as the moving process i.e. shipping options. 
I do want to state that we have taken our time to make this very serious decision regarding our family and are very committed to making this move. We will welcome any and all input you can provide. Thank you greatly.


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## Hertsfem (Jun 19, 2013)

Do you have the right to live and work in the UK?


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

Do either of your hold British or European passports?

If not, then your only way of moving to the UK is by obtaining work visas. You would need to find an employer willing to sponsor you for the Tier 2 visa.

There is a shortlist for suitable professions:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...file/308513/shortageoccupationlistapril14.pdf

Like the US, employers in the UK, have to spend effort and money to sponsor a visa and prove no other person in the UK can do such a job.

You need to research for opportunities in your field and start networking.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

No, we do not hold European passports. We do understand the need for sponsorship from employers and are looking for any assistance or leads to find work in the programming/developing field. My husband is seriously skilled and qualified for most positions. Are there any specific ways to seek sponsorship for the Tier 2 visa?


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

If your jobs don't fall on the shortage occupation list then an employer must conduct a resident labour market test to prove there is no one who doesn't need a visa who can do the job. That's about 500 million people as it includes everyone in the EU. In short, it will be extremely difficult. Is there a possibility for an inter-company transfer? This would, however be a temporary situation.


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

wheretonext7 said:


> No, we do not hold European passports. We do understand the need for sponsorship from employers and are looking for any assistance or leads to find work in the programming/developing field. My husband is seriously skilled and qualified for most positions. Are there any specific ways to seek sponsorship for the Tier 2 visa?




You need to research in your field, find opportunities in trade magazines, network, network or get employment in the US with a company who is able to transfer you to the UK.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Thank you all greatly for your responses. Does anybody have an idea of the time it would take for the prospective employer to apply for a work visa and possibly be approved?
I would love it if my husband would find a position with a US company able to transfer him to the UK, but we're just trying to find as many answers as we can at this point!


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

You need to be in work with US employer for 1-2 years before you can apply for Tier 2 intra-company transfer visa, and you need to be in a fairly senior position (companies don't move staff for junior positions), unless for recent graduates for experience (max one year).
See https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-intracompany-transfer-worker-visa/overview


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Hello Everyone,

I really appreciate all the comments.


From what I understand the UK and Germany have the fastest growing IT industries in all of the EU and are both suffering from a small talent pool.

I would also add I am Senior level in my position. Probably one of the top 5 in the city I am currently living in.

Not to offend but does anyone in the responses work in the IT industry?


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

These are the only jobs in IT on the shortage occupation list:

ONLY the following jobs in this occupation code:
 the following jobs in visual effects and 2D/3D computer animation for the film, television or video games sectors:
- software developer
- shader writer
- games designer
 the following jobs in the electronics system industry:
- driver developer
- embedded communications engineer

Otherwise, as already discussed, it will be difficult to find an employer to sponsor you.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

nyclon said:


> Otherwise, as already discussed, it will be difficult to find an employer to sponsor you.


Once again thank you so much for getting back to me.

So I guess my question would be what does "difficult" mean?

Do you have any experience with someone going through the "difficult" process?

I am currrently in a high demand senior level position, so I am used to employers going that extra mile.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

As already pointed out, in order to sponsor you an employer must conduct a resident labour market test. That means advertising the job and considering candidates who don't need visas. If you are in such a "high demand senior position" then surely you have head hunting contacts.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

nyclon said:


> As already pointed out, in order to sponsor you an employer must conduct a resident labour market test. That means advertising the job and considering candidates who don't need visas. If you are in such a "high demand senior position" then surely you have head hunting contacts.


Ok awesome, do you have more information on what the "market test" requires.


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## nyclon (Apr 3, 2011)

Exactly what I said. They have to spend a a period of time advertising the job for suitable candidates who don't need visas. That's everyone in the UK and the EU.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Advertising the vacancy through Job Centre for 28 days, and showing there was no suitable applicant from among settled workers (i.e. those looking for a job in UK with the right to work, not everyone in EU). Anyone who meets the job qualification must be offered the job before the non-EEA applicant. For some jobs, esp professional, it can be advertised through recognised trade/professional channels. Further details in https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ile/371099/Tier_25_Sponsor_Guidance_11-14.pdf


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Joppa said:


> Advertising the vacancy through Job Centre for 28 days, and showing there was no suitable applicant from among settled workers (i.e. those looking for a job in UK with the right to work, not everyone in EU). Anyone who meets the job qualification must be offered the job before the non-EEA applicant. For some jobs, esp professional, it can be advertised through recognised trade/professional channels. Further details in https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa...ile/371099/Tier_25_Sponsor_Guidance_11-14.pdf


Great response! Thank you so much!

I do want to understand what efforts an employer would have to go through to hire me. 

What about fees involved for an employer that wants to sponsor an employee?

Also, given an underqualified UK resident applying for a position and myself, a qualified applicant, who makes the final decision?


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Anyone who meets the qualification and experience stated in the advertisement must be hired first, even if you are better qualified and have more experience. 
The cost to the employer is more in terms of time, effort and monitoring required. Clearly from business point of view, the effort is worth while because they can bring in staff who are needed to do a particular job, but the purpose of the exercise is to ensure that recruiting non-EEA citizens will not be at the expense of employment prospect for settled workers.


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## lovestravel (Apr 9, 2012)

We just returned from a two year tier 2 intra company transfer. My husband is highly qualified in his field of telecommunications technology. He was nominated for person of the year in his industry and top 10 employees in the company last year. He increased Emea by 87% during his tenure in Europe. It was very expensive to send him over and decided it was too expensive and offered to let him stay for a significant pay cut (67%) and no moving costs back yo usa at the end of the 3 year extension. We had to turn it down as we couldn't afford to take such a huge cut in pay. Even though he made them so much money they were still unwilling to extend with his current contract. I think they were unaware of the costs involved before they sent him over. Once they realised this they honoured the remainder of his contract but at the last minute decided they didn't think we was worth the expense anymore. My husband was actually recruited quite heavily by other companies in the UK, but once they crunched the numbers, they all realised it was too expensive to sponsor him for a work visa even without the additional cost of moving us since we were already there.

If a company already has a current sponsorship licence it is much faster to get a work visa. It can take about 4-6 months for a company to obtain a sponsorship licence. I don't know the fees. If they offer you a salary package over £158,800 per annum then they don't have to conduct the resident market test. 

I don't know what it cost overall for the company but the costs included sponsorship visa fees, immigration attorney costs for both company visa and our visas, tax attorney, tax equalisation, plus salary, a cola, and health insurance, annual travel benefits, plus move both ways.

So being in a similar situation we can testify it is very very difficult to get hired for a UK role that needs to be sponsored even being a top person in a technology field.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Sponsoring someone for Tier 2 General visa (not intra-company transfer) doesn't need to be expensive, as NHS hospitals and private nursing homes regularly recruit overseas staff, often for fairly low-pay posts. They don't pay travel or moving costs (sponsored workers are expected to make their own way to UK), and there is rarely a lawyer involved as applications are quite routine and straightforward. All the employer needs to do is to generate certificate of sponsorship (online document) and applicant just needs to quote the serial number on their application. For many such posts, labour market test isn't required or just a question of circulating details through Jobcentre Plus. 
This is world away from executive recruitment with remuneration package, cost-of-living adjustment, flights home, private medical and many other perks.


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## lovestravel (Apr 9, 2012)

I can see your point Joppa. I guess the question comes down to the chance that an applicant might have in securing a top role with the company's willingness to sponsor with competitive pay or how much of a downgrade in lifestyle is the applicant willing to take and out of pocket expense to move to UK? 

If we had been approached with the salary they were offering to extend and no move back fund, I don't know if we would have been willing to take the leap but with our situation we would have had to move to a much lesser expensive place at our own expense, get rid of the car, I would have had to take on a full time job, etc and there just simply wasn't enough time to figure out if we could make it work so we declined.

It is a challenge for sure. Another factor we discovered was that it almost seems to be another planet in regards to business reputation. My husband did have a global role prior to our move to UK so much of the industry knew him but his reputation did not really take hold until he was full time in EMEA. Same was true upon his return to usa. He had a hard time even securing a role within his own company because people 'forgot' his abilities just in the two years he was out of country. This experience has been a real wake up call for sure. He realised that no matter how good you are or in demand it doesn't always translate to doors opening for him.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Great information guys.

I guess after reading your responses, I realized I could have phrased the question better.

I see the visa sponsorship as one part of a job offer package, which is why I wanted to try and evaluate the monetary value.

It sounds like companies that are already registered for this would take on a smaller expense?

As for reloaction expenses, we are not to concerned. Our costs will be minimal, because we plan on selling almost everything we have. We may ship one half container of goods, if that.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Most of the examples I am quoting relate to nurses and care assistants from developing countries unable to find a job at home and look to UK to start their career, or earn enough to send some money home to help their impoverished family.


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

I applied for a mid level position at the NHS that specifically said that Tier 2 sponsorship was possible. Many of the posted positions at the NHS do NOT say this. So there are possibilities out there. (I didn't get a response, oh well).

In the interests of not giving up, have you considered networking your way to recruiters in the UK via LinkedIn? I've done a certain amount of this as there are recruiting agencies that specialise in my profession (procurement). I've had a couple of chats, both via email and phone, and was able to get many questions answered. There are, without a doubt, recruiters specialising in IT roles. 

As an aside, I know that if a job description is extremely detailed as to minimum requirements, and you meet all of them, then you stand a better chance of surviving a resident labour market test.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Pallykin said:


> As an aside, I know that if a job description is extremely detailed as to minimum requirements, and you meet all of them, then you stand a better chance of surviving a resident labour market test.


But you can't screw the job requirement to such an extent that effectively only you will qualify. They have to justify it. If they can't, it can be regarded as fraud.


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## lovestravel (Apr 9, 2012)

If a company already holds a current visa sponsorship license then yes, you have a much better chance of getting hired because they already have others they have sponsored or are willing to sponsor. They would then just have the cost to issue a certificate of sponsorship for an individual and if they agree the cost to pay for your and your family visas. Unless they are willing to expedite a sponsorship license then it can take 4-6 months. It only takes a few days to issue a certificate of sponsorship for the worker once it's in place. Your work visa can take a couple or weeks or more unless they expedite. For A rated sponsors then you don't have to have the maintenance funds in savings. It would save you so much time and wasted effort if you focus on companies that have current sponsorship licenses and already have foreign workers on the payroll. Just ask before applying to see if they do.

In your case, you may find yourself in the same situation we were in, companies were unable or unwilling to pay a comparable salary or unwilling to go to the expense for an expat or they were afraid if they offered him a salary in keeping with local workers he would turn it down or only stay long enough to find a better paying position. In our experience, wages and lifestyle are far far lower in UK in comparison to usa standards. We we willing to take the cut to move over and had to downsize significantly but the further cut would have been unworkable for us.

It's not impossible but extremely difficult in the current climate. UK has so many EU workers that can just show up and start working and are immigrating in droves for jobs the country is just heaving with a ready workforce. As Joppa mentioned, so many EU countries offer no job prospects or benefits, the opportunities are far better in UK compared to their own.

Moving costs will be much more than you expect. We had half a container and it was about $15,000. Plus you will need funds for deposits, utilities connection fees, buying electrics, furnishings if you don't ship over. We bought a lot when we arrived so we wouldn't have to wait the 8 weeks to move in. We got $12,000 in move funds and ended up spending an additional $35,000 out of pocket for furniture, electrics, clothes, car deposit, driving lessons, drivers licence fees, tv fee, etc. in the first year.

If the company does not offer tax equalisation then you need to figure out your take home because taxes are much higher. There are excellent online take home pay calculators to figure this out. There are a ton of threads on this forum to find out what normal monthly expenses will be depending on area.


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

Joppa said:


> But you can't screw the job requirement to such an extent that effectively only you will qualify. They have to justify it. If they can't, it can be regarded as fraud.


That's true. A friend who's here wanted to extend his visa, but the initial job description was written in a very generic form, and it was so broad that there would have been many, many people qualified for the role. Unfortunately, it was not a good description of what he was actually doing three years into the role. In any event, he had to leave the US. So there's a balancing act.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

lovestravel said:


> If a company already holds a current visa sponsorship license then yes, you have a much better chance of getting hired because they already have others they have sponsored or are willing to sponsor. They would then just have the cost to issue a certificate of sponsorship for an individual and if they agree the cost to pay for your and your family visas. Unless they are willing to expedite a sponsorship license then it can take 4-6 months. It only takes a few days to issue a certificate of sponsorship for the worker once it's in place. Your work visa can take a couple or weeks or more unless they expedite. For A rated sponsors then you don't have to have the maintenance funds in savings. It would save you so much time and wasted effort if you focus on companies that have current sponsorship licenses and already have foreign workers on the payroll. Just ask before applying to see if they do.


Very valuable information thank you.


> In your case, you may find yourself in the same situation we were in, companies were unable or unwilling to pay a comparable salary or unwilling to go to the expense for an expat or they were afraid if they offered him a salary in keeping with local workers he would turn it down or only stay long enough to find a better paying position. In our experience, wages and lifestyle are far far lower in UK in comparison to usa standards. We we willing to take the cut to move over and had to downsize significantly but the further cut would have been unworkable for us.


Well the jobs that meet my level of expertise and are paying commensurate or more than what I was being paid in a large US city.

Actually what I found odd was the amount of companies in the UK that state pay rate up front. I don't see this as often in the US.



> It's not impossible but extremely difficult in the current climate. UK has so many EU workers that can just show up and start working and are immigrating in droves for jobs the country is just heaving with a ready workforce. As Joppa mentioned, so many EU countries offer no job prospects or benefits, the opportunities are far better in UK compared to their own.


My guess is they don't match my qualifications, but maybe they do.



> Moving costs will be much more than you expect. We had half a container and it was about $15,000. Plus you will need funds for deposits, utilities connection fees, buying electrics, furnishings if you don't ship over. We bought a lot when we arrived so we wouldn't have to wait the 8 weeks to move in. We got $12,000 in move funds and ended up spending an additional $35,000 out of pocket for furniture, electrics, clothes, car deposit, driving lessons, drivers licence fees, tv fee, etc. in the first year.


Well we plan on going without a car. We are public transport types. We prefer it to driving.
As for furniture we can wing it but we live modestly. We are travelers, we don't spend much time in the home. Which is one of the reasons we are looking to move. Europe is closer to our hearts than the US.



> If the company does not offer tax equalisation then you need to figure out your take home because taxes are much higher. There are excellent online take home pay calculators to figure this out. There are a ton of threads on this forum to find out what normal monthly expenses will be depending on area.


Yes we ran some of those calculations and my wife and I are both satisfied with the figures we were coming up with.


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

I was thinking that we are wanting to move to the UK primarily for the change of scene, adventure, and challenge. We have both lived there before and feel we have not had the opportunity to see and do as much as we would like. A flat half the size of our house here will likely be where we live, and that is going to be fine.


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## lovestravel (Apr 9, 2012)

Just curious- it sounds as though you might already have some leads on jobs or just by searching jobs listed online?


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Yes, we have been following job listings sporadically over the past few years, and then more intensely over the last 6 months.

I even contacted some companies about their listings. I told them I was not looking at this moment but was curious about the market. They informed me there is a high demand for senior level programmers/server admins in my field.


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## Joanne_Manchester (Feb 18, 2011)

wheretonext7 said:


> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I really appreciate all the comments.
> 
> ...


I do work on the IT industries as a software developer. However I came here on a spouse visa and not a work visa so it was a different visa.
The skills your mentioning ( Drupal, Linux, PHP, server administration) are common here so there is a lot of applicants for this type jobs.
I work in the banking industry (major bank in US and Canada)and they would not even consider sponsoring an applicant for a programming / software development role. They would only consider it for the top managing director of the UK branch, not other roles.
They occasionally bring some people from the Canadian branch (intra transfer), the lowest level was an architect (IT) and it was for two years.

Hope this helps.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Joanne_Manchester said:


> The skills your mentioning ( Drupal, Linux, PHP, server administration) are common here so there is a lot of applicants for this type jobs.


Yes we have a heavy load of them here in the states, but unfortunately their aspirations don't match the requirements.

Actually something the employers mentioned was the fact they did not have the qualified candidates they needed. Plenty of applicants, they just weren't any good.


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## lovestravel (Apr 9, 2012)

The question that needs to be asked is if they are willing and able to sponsor a foreign worker. It is not allowed for the applicant to pay for the sponsor visa costs but you can most certainly offer to pay for your own visa costs, moving costs, travel. Obviously, it would be ideal if the company would be willing to pay for all these things plus move fund, tax equalisation, tax representation, immigration agent. You might be more successful is securing a position if you can fund these things yourself. Again, if the role offers a salary of £158,800 then they are not required to perform the resident market test.


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## Joanne_Manchester (Feb 18, 2011)

wheretonext7 said:


> Yes we have a heavy load of them here in the states, but unfortunately their aspirations don't match the requirements.
> 
> Actually something the employers mentioned was the fact they did not have the qualified candidates they needed. Plenty of applicants, they just weren't any good.


I don't want to sound negative but there is a lot of qualified very skilled people doing this kind of programming here. So you will have to be very lucky to be sponsored for this type of employment. Most UK employer always prefer candidates with UK experience so that is another hurdle. I left Canada when programmers were like gold (year 2000). At the time I could easily have found another job in a matters of days (in Canada). When I moved to the UK it took me 6 months before I could find employment. Not having UK experience was a barrier. Bear in mind I was a skilled,experienced programmer when I moved here.
I would say give it a go but don't but your hopes to high !



lovestravel said:


> The question that needs to be asked is if they are willing and able to sponsor a foreign worker. It is not allowed for the applicant to pay for the sponsor visa costs but you can most certainly offer to pay for your own visa costs, moving costs, travel. Obviously, it would be ideal if the company would be willing to pay for all these things plus move fund, tax equalisation, tax representation, immigration agent. You might be more successful is securing a position if you can fund these things yourself. Again, if the role offers a salary of £158,800 then they are not required to perform the resident market test.


A programmer/developer will never earn more than £158,800.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Joanne_Manchester said:


> I don't want to sound negative but there is a lot of qualified very skilled people doing this kind of programming here. So you will have to be very lucky to be sponsored for this type of employment.


I appreciate that. I understand where you are coming from. I am not going to toot my own horn here, but I am confident in my ability to set myself apart.


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## lizard0924 (Jan 8, 2015)

wheretonext7 said:


> I appreciate that. I understand where you are coming from. I am not going to toot my own horn here, but I am confident in my ability to set myself apart.


Props to you for your confidence. 

However, you are getting sound advice from others who have "been there, done that." Finding a job in the UK is worlds apart from finding a job in the US. It is just a totally different landscape, and what is important to UK employers is vastly different than what is important to US employers.

It really doesn't matter how much of a superstar you are in the US, you will be facing an uphill battle when it comes to competing against your UK counterparts - even if you believe you are vastly more qualified. Whether you want to hear it or not, that is the truth. UK employers have a different perspective than their US counterparts.

Oh, and the pay scale is lower, too. 

From first-hand experience myself, I can say that without at least a foot in the door already (e.g. you are already legally settled in the UK with a visa), you immediately become less attractive in the enormous pool of candidates. The very first question I was asked when inquiring about open positions was "are you legally entitled to work here?" They didn't even care that I have a superstar resume or decades of senior level management experience. They just weren't all that interested in pursuing me if they had the hurdle of immigration to jump over.

That's not to say it is impossible to find a job (it is not), but definitely much harder when you are trying to break in to the scene at all AND expect the employer to sponsor your Tier 2 visa.

The UK is under incredible pressure at the moment with an influx of immigrants from the EU. They can't clamp down on those people due to freedom of movement requirements, so UK immigration is turning its attention to those it CAN turn away. Unfortunately, that is people like you who have zero basis for claiming a right to live in the UK.

Like it or not, that is the way it is at the moment.


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

> UK employers have a different perspective than their US counterparts.


Good information in this sentence. Thank you for replying. I do not have experience with UK employers. Is there a different barometer by which I could expect to be measured by?

In the US I have an extensive portfolio of projects across many programming languages, thousands of line of open source code on github and other sources, a frequented blog and steady contacts with core Drupal developers and development houses, as well as a proven track history with scalable server and web administration.

I have worked hard on developing these aspects of my career to appeal to what I thought all companies would be looking for, and it is true in the US, but it sounds like this is not what UK employers are looking for.

What are they looking for that the US employer is not? Is it just not having to sponsor someone? It just seems like such a small expense.

As for salary, the advertised direct hire wages are on par or exceed the US (£60000+). I don't consider recruiters advertised wages accurate to median wage for my skill level.


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## lovestravel (Apr 9, 2012)

From what I observed it seems that UK employers look for UK experience and UK education (or European at least.) There are many similarities but there are vast differences as well. Not just in education and experience but also how business is conducted. It's more than just the cost of a visa that is off putting to an employer. There is a lot of ongoing paperwork involved with foreign worker. At the moment if you are hired under a tier 2 general then you can eventually apply for settlement but the company has to continue to maintain a sponsorship license during the entire time and issue a certificate of sponsorship each time plus documents on proof of employment with each extension. With someone who is moving to the UK for the first time there is always a chance the worker or family won't like it and decide to leave early or at the end of contract and the employer is left to start the hiring process all over again. It is very costly to bring on a new employee foreign or not. I would suspect the chances are greater for someone new to the country to leave than for someone already based in UK. Your reputation in UK circles and a potential employer actually knowing you goes a long way there. A well rounded resume won't necessarily get you in the door. 

If you can find a usa company that will transfer you after a year of employment, that would be your best bet. A tier 2 intra company transfer doesn't lead to settlement but if you can get your family over there that way and build your reputation during that time then you could possibly go back after the 12 month cooling off period and return under a tier 2 general.


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## Joanne_Manchester (Feb 18, 2011)

wheretonext7 said:


> Good information in this sentence. Thank you for replying. I do not have experience with UK employers. Is there a different barometer by which I could expect to be measured by?
> 
> In the US I have an extensive portfolio of projects across many programming languages, thousands of line of open source code on github and other sources, a frequented blog and steady contacts with core Drupal developers and development houses, as well as a proven track history with scalable server and web administration.
> 
> ...


Most advertised jobs are though agencies and they will not be interested in you if you are not already in the UK (with a visa in hand).
I would say 95% of them will not even look at your CV if you are not already here. I know because when I was preparing to move to the UK I tried to apply to discuss opportunities with a few agencies and they told me: "call when you have moved". And I had a visa, they did not need to sponsor me.

If you look at Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed you will get a good idea of what opportunities are available at the moment for Drupal/Php developers. It looks like the paid bracket is between £25 000- £60 000 so expect the top end to be pretty much the maximum that you could earn. I really don't know any developers in the top end.
Where I work there are two team of developers, a Domino developer team and a Java team . Most of us have more than 10 years of experience and I would think that the top programmer would earn around £45 000 max. 

I don't know how it works in the US but the problem with sponsoring and applicant is that it takes time (effort, money, knowledge on how to sponsor,etc.) Here when a company advertise for a role they normally expect to conduct the interviews very fast, normally a week or two after. They will want the person to start within a few weeks. I don't think that would be possible if the person was from overseas (and sponsored).

As I said , give it a try you have nothing to lose. If it works that great and if not at least you would have tried !
I still think there is a lot of candidates with the type of skills/experience you have mentioned previously.


Good luck !


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## wheretonext7 (Feb 24, 2015)

Thanks everyone for the very courteous feedback. I really do appreciate all the information.

My wife and I really want to make the move and we are going to try, but we knew the visa could be an issue.

We are prepared if it does not work out.


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## Pallykin (Mar 30, 2014)

Salaries in the UK are lower than in the US in my field (Procurement). I was told that the middle of the bell curve is in the £45-50,000 range. This is in the context that mid-range salaries here in Boston are around $90-110,000. I suspect that there is more room for upward professional/financial growth in London than in Boston. London is more than ten times bigger than Boston (600,000 residents), and is a much more significant economic engine.

Making lots of money is not on my list of reasons for wanting to move to London. It's more about the adventure of it, as well as gaining international experience, and experiencing life in a world class city with nearby inexpensive holiday destinations that are very appealing. Not only France and other continental destinations, but also all of the UK. I have never really seen Wales, visited Scotland or the Lake District or Hadrian's wall.

I have spoken to recruiters, and have been advised to start applying for roles a couple of weeks before moving to London. I would have my unmarried partner visa at that point.

You should rewrite your resume as a UK style CV. There are lots of guides on line, just Google it. 

Give it a shot, you have little to lose. There have been other people who've posted on here who have successfully found jobs with Tier 2 sponsorship, so it is doable.


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