o rly?

Feb. 19th, 2013 07:32 am
winterbadger: (glasgow)
from the BBC

Have you ever dreamt of quitting your cushy job and starting a new life halfway around the world to follow your passion?

Jessica Fox, a Nasa employee in Los Angeles, decided one day to move to Scotland to live in a used bookshop.



On the face of it, that's quite impossible, so I'll be interested to see how she accomplished it.
winterbadger: (UK)
Just in case I had any second thoughts...


Some comments from the UK-Yankee forum )
winterbadger: (change)
OK, that's it. No more waffle. I've withdrawn my applications at both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

I'll be quiet now; I'm sure everyone is bored with this.
winterbadger: (pooh tao)
Read more... )

But for now, no UK for me. I need to get on with my life and not be continually waiting for whatever the next boneheaded pronouncement from the Home Office will be.
winterbadger: (Home Office)

from today's Home Office announcement

Major changes to student visa system

Tougher criteria for people wanting to come to the UK to study and limits on their right to work are among major reforms to the student visas system announced today.

....

The 'post study work route', which allowed students two years to seek employment after their course ended has been closed.

Only those graduates who have an offer of a skilled job from a sponsoring employer, in Tier 2 of the points-based-system, will be able to stay to work.


Pretty much exactly the opposite of what I had understood the proposal in Parliament last week to mean.

And since getting a Tier 2 work visa is already difficult and being hedged 'round with further obstacles, that pretty much spells the end of my plans to try to move to the UK.*

I had been waffling back and forth. Another year of postgrad work is not an inexpensive endeavour, especially on top of the cost of moving 3,000 miles. Even if I got loans, it was going to be a big hit to my savings. If I could have stayed and worked for a couple of years, I would have been willing to do it, because I love the UK and want very much to live there. Maybe something would have turned up to let me stay. But for the cost and the disruption, if I have to turn around and leave as soon as my studies are done, it's just not worth it to me.

I had a chance to move there and work right away, back in 2007, and I passed on it. That was a poor choice on my part; to their credit, pretty much all of my friends told me so, but I was too focused on other things to listen. I'm sorry I made that decision, now, but we live with the choices we make. As CHris (and Heraclitus) is fond of saying, you can't step in the same river twice--life moves on, and we have to move with it.



*At least until a different government comes in and opens up the laws, and I'm hardly holding my breath. Maybe one of these days the SNP will push through full devolution and Scotland will get control of its own borders, but I'm not holding my breath for that either.
winterbadger: (Home Office)
Depressing. Especially the Student MIgration, Entitlement to Work, and Working After Graduation sections.

I understand and sympathise with the desire to protect the economic interests of existing Britons, but it seems as if time after time he cites clear violations of the existing regulations and uses them as justification for enacting new, harsher regulations.

I've never felt so clearly delineated as a persona non grata.

It's really finally sinking in that something I've dreamed about and worked for for years is just being completely shut off. I've only myself to blame--I doubt I will ever stop kicking myself for making the wrong choice in 2007.
winterbadger: (sailing)
A decision that wasn't easy to come to. I'm not moving to the UK )
winterbadger: (Home Office)
A friend passed on this news. Basically, the UK is cranking up the drawbridge a little higher.

I will still be able (so far) to get a post-study work visa if I do a master's in 2011/2012 (unless they change *that* in the meantime, which they may), but there is now officially *no* way I would be able to transfer from that to a regular Tier 1 work visa. Not unless I were able to land a job paying £150,000 or more right out of the gate (average UK salaries in the GIS field are ~ £35,000 at last report, FWIW).

If they eliminate the post-study work visa, I'm canceling my study plans. Barring that, it's still worth it to get a couple of years' stay in the UK. In fact, it frees me up from trying to get a really high-paying job, as I know there's no way way I can earn enough to stay. I can spend the post-study period just enjoying being there.

But I did have to think for a bit and make the calculation. Is it really worth it? And I'm sure that's just what the government want--to make skilled, qualified people who would work hard and contribute to the UK think twice about moving there.

"Little England" just got a bit littler.
winterbadger: (RockyMountain)
Back on January 1st, I made this post, setting this year as the year I was moving to the UK.

I'm establishing a corollary: if it doesn't happen this year, I'm giving up.

I have been working on this for five years. I got *so* close three years ago, when I actually got my HSMP letter.

I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of uncertainty. I'm tired of waiting "one more year". I want to feel as if I'm getting on with my life, not marking time waiting for something to happen.

I've been feeling uprooted for, well, since Chris and I got divorced. And I'm sick of it, sick at heart. I want to put down some roots again, SOMEwhere. If not in the UK, here again, or back in New England.
winterbadger: (Default)
I had a lovely new year's eve hanging out with my family (my sister, her partner, my niece A, and the twins), and it's been a very nice new year's day doing the same. I'll be back to see them in the morning before leaving tomorrow afternoon/evening to head home to the catboyz. A and I welcomed in the new year with the last drams from a bottle of Cuban rum a friend of hers had given her, chatting over NYEs past while the others slumbered upstairs (though the adults, and one of the toddlers, came back down a little after midnight, briefly).

I have some plans for how I'd like to make some changes in my life in 2010, but for the most part I'm not going to try to nail them down in resolutions. They are all things that will be done, or not done, without making big proclamations about them. One thing for sure, though. This is the year I go to the UK.

Even that has one proviso. I applied for a job last month; I don't think I'll get it, but if I do I'll feel obliged to stay in it for a year--it's a serious job of a sort I've not had before, and I'm not going to cut it short irresponsibly.

That will only delay me, though, not change my trajectory. If I finish the degree I'm working on now, so much the better; that will make moving easier. If not, I'll get a student visa and launch into one of several postgraduate plans I've been working on and see where that leads me.

It would be silly to pretend that I'm not a bit fearty about the idea of moving so far, of all the work that it's going to entail, of all the things that could go wrong. But if you don't at least try to reach your dreams, it's a sad, dull life you'll have.

For now I need to start decluttering myself, finish my classes (one group ending in March, the last batch ending in June), and start seeing what plans I can make ahead of time. I have enough saved up that, if I really needed to, I could live--not lavishly but not starvingly--for a year or so without touching my retirement funds. If I can earn some income during that time, so much the better--I'll be able to stay that much longer.

One way or another, though, UK, here I come! :-)
winterbadger: (Home Office)
I guess I better damn well finish that master's degree...

Added: The UK Government have decided I am not worthy of moving to the UK.

IMPORTANT CHANGES APRIL 1, 2009

Please note that the UK Government has announced tougher criteria for Tier 1 (General) applicants which will take effect on April 1, 2009. The qualification and salary required to be eligible for Tier 1 (General) will be raised to a Master's degree and minimum annual salary of £20,000.


Sodding Home Office.

ETA (my emphasis):

Changes for the T1 (General) and T1 (Post-Study Work) categories will come into effect for all applications submitted on or after 31 March 2009.
The Tier 1 (General) changes will apply to migrants who are applying for permission to enter the United Kingdom in this category for the first time, or who are applying to switch into the Tier 1 (General) category from another category. Anyone applying for an extension of their permission to stay under Tier 1 (General) will not be affected by the changes.


Once again demonstrating that I have no one to blame but myself for not doing it as soon as possible. If I had not waited when HSMP was in force AND I HAD A LETTER APPROVING ME, I would have missed the requirement to requalify via earnings upon renewal. If I has not waited when they announced the Tier 1 scheme, I would have missed having this latest requirement apply to me.

Well, better buckle down and finish the rest of the courses for my MA. Because otherwise I can't apply.


EFTA: Oh, this gets better and better. You can still claim a BA for 30 points for an extension. You just can't claim it for an initial application now. Oh, $%*$##&* ^*%$#$^!
God. Damn. It.

Edited Finally: Well, that does it. I checked the degree I would receive for the master's program I'm enrolled in, and for whatever reason (not explained), I get 0 points for it.

So unless I start an entirely new master's degree that meets whatever their mysterious qualifications are and complete it, I'm not eligible to apply for a Tier 1 visa. And I can't get in any other way.

And I've tried applying for master's programs at most of the local colleges and universities, and they won't accept me. Because I nearly failed an advanced calculus class and a computer science class I took in 1984. When I was getting a degree (with honours) in history and political science.

So I'm fucked.
winterbadger: (standrew_eye)
Current plans are for another visit to Scotland in January or February. See friends, do some touring in places I haven't been to yet.

Still want to move, but worried about the economic climate. And a bit stressed by all that's been going on in my life. If I go ahead, it will probably be early summer. *gulp* Guess I need to pull out the planning charts again and start looking at the "six months out, make sure you have..." section.
winterbadger: (scotland flag)
Either I have previously misread the 'work permission' requirements on the Scottish Police Services Agency website, or they have changed.

faffing about rules )

illusions?

Jul. 17th, 2008 12:05 am
winterbadger: (colbert eh?)
So, I'm curious. For those of you who live, or have lived, in the UK having come from the US (or in the US having come from the UK), what surprised you most? By which I mean not so much economic things or climate things, but what did you believe/expect/look forward to about the place you were going that turned out to be completely wrong? I'm thinking first of all of disappointments (shattered dreams? ;-) but also of unexpected pleasant surprises.

I know, I know, in [X] they don't have [Y foodstuff] and the cost of living is [better/worse] and it always [rains/is sunny], which is just awful. But on a somewhat deeper or more abstract level, what was really different that you didn't expect?

(crossposted to some communities)

yay!

Jul. 30th, 2007 03:46 pm
winterbadger: (UK)
I tried the sample test from this site that markets guides to the 'Life in the UK' test and got an 83% (I like to think that if I had studied I would have given a correct answer to at least one of the two questions I missed).

It sounds as if the revised version of the test they are doing from this autumn onwards is slightly less full of ridiculous statistical trivia (if I were to fail, if and when I get to take this for real, and had to retake it, I shudder to think the obloquy which would be heaped on me...)

Of course, I was a sucker and bought the study materials for the old test, just for fun, back when it was announced. But I have no sorrow in knowing they will be obsolete.
winterbadger: (irn bru taxi)
New Occupations Added to the List

Teachers: with immediate effect, all posts in Scotland covering compulsory schooling will be added to the list.

As a result of this change work permit applications for Teachers in Scotland will no longer be subject to a full resident labour test. Please refer to the Business and Commercial guidance for full details.

This change to the shortage occupation list has been the result of consultation with the Scottish Executive and the General Teaching Council for Scotland .

whew....

Apr. 11th, 2007 03:53 pm
winterbadger: (Default)
I was going to write something about the announcement that all US Army tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan are now being extended to 15 months, but I realised I just don't have the energy for another round of anger and frustration at how badly this war is being run. I'm too tired and dispirited. Read more... )
winterbadger: (Default)
Lots of stuff going on!Read more... )

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