95: Dreaming of the UK? Your complete step-by-step guide to moving to London and the United Kingdom

Thinking about moving to the UK? I get it - it's great over here! Whether it’s London’s buzzing energy, Edinburgh’s charm, or the seaside vibe of Brighton, there are many great options! 

In this episode, I walk you through everything you need to know: visas, jobs, housing, cost of living, and how to settle once you arrive. You’ll learn why the UK might be the right choice for you, what challenges to expect, and the exact steps to successfully make the move.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why moving to the UK can be easier (and harder) than other parts of Europe
• The different visa options and which one may be right for you
• How to find a job and accommodation before you move
• What to budget for—rent, healthcare, transportation, and more
• Practical steps to get settled: bank accounts, SIM cards, and community

By the end, you’ll have a realistic and actionable plan to turn your UK dream into reality.

🎧 Listen now and get closer to your move abroad to the UK! 

👉Take the free quiz: Which European city should you move to? 🤔

Grab my free guide: 5 Exact Steps to Move Abroad

Website: jordangiberson.com
Instagram: @jordan.giberson

Transcript

0:00

Thousands of Americans make the leap every single year to UK, people who move here are not special. Some people will have special experiences that you don't have. But you know what, I moved here and I was not special at all. I'm still not that special. So If I can do it, you can absolutely do it Hey, my name is Jordan Giberson. I'm a Texas girl living and thriving in London. The best thing I've ever done? Moving abroad, hands down. And I'm passionate about helping others do the same. Are you curious about finding a job abroad? You're in the right place, friend. I'll teach you the tried and true secrets of how to make moving abroad a reality for you and how to live a fulfilling life once you get there. We'll cover topics like choosing the best visa for you, how to get a job offer in another country, how to get over your fear of moving abroad, and how to live a life you love once you get there, this is The Move Abroad Podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Move Abroad podcast. Today we're going to be talking about moving to the uk, your complete step-by-step guide to moving to London and the United Kingdom. So have you been thinking about moving to the UK, whether it's the whimsical Edinburgh or the buzzing energy of London, or the seaside charm of Brighton? Moving to the UK can feel like a dream, but it can also be a little bit overwhelming. So in today's episode, I'm breaking it all down from Visa and Jobs. To finding housing and settling in so you know exactly what to expect. I hope that you'll walk away from this episode with a clear understanding of why the UK might be the perfect place for your move abroad and a step-by-step plan to actually make it happen. Because let's be honest, I love the UK, I love London. I'm living in London, so obviously I love it and I've been here for, coming up to six years now, so it is my home. I love the UK and I'm so excited to dive into today's episode, and I'm so excited to explain why and explain how you can do it too. So I do want to say I love uk. I love London. It's been the best fit for me, but it's not necessarily the best fit for. Everyone, it might not be the best fit for you. There might be another place that you've been dreaming about, or maybe you've been considering the UK and a couple other locations as well, and you're trying to figure out what is the best fit for you. So today we'll be talking about why move to the UK. So the first thing I want to discuss is like, what are the reasons why you would actually want to be here? I think one of the biggest ones, and the biggest one for me was. The shared language and easier transition. One of the biggest advantages to moving to the Uk, especially for Americans or English speakers, is the language. They speak English here. So everything from reading road signs to navigating daily life is just more straightforward. I mean, reading a menu and a restaurant having a conversation, building relationships, that's a really big one. It's easier to make friends because people speak English here. Getting a job is also a bit easier in the fact that you speak the language that they speak in the office or in that job so it's just easier in general whenever you don't have the language barrier to just fully integrate into the culture, into the way of life, because there are other things that you have to learn to kind of get into the swing of things in terms of a change of culture and a new place. All of the, you know, your shampoo brands might be different and. There's other changes in your life as you're moving to a new country abroad, and that is one thing that is really nice that makes it quite easy in terms of transitioning into the new place because you don't have to worry about learning another language. That is one thing that is really, really nice. Another reason why you might consider moving to the UK versus other places in Europe is that it feels more familiar culturally and there's a bigger global diversity. So the UK often feels like a middle ground between the US and mainland Europe. They do have a very different culture from Americans. I definitely will confirm that as as British people, but I do think that it feels European and when it comes to public transportation, the walkability, the history and things like that, but especially in London and other major cities, it's also incredibly multicultural. You'll meet people from all over the world, which is really. Handy. You might be thinking, I don't really wanna meet other Americans, but it is really nice to have like-minded people, whether they're American or if they're from other countries. You just will meet so many people from all over the world, especially in London and other larger cities in the UK in general. But even in smaller towns, I'd say that it's, it's still gonna be a little bit more mu multicultural in the UK and I feel like it's just easier to kind of integrate into the culture here versus if you're moving to Italy, for instance another reason why the UK is so great is the history charm and travel opportunities. The UK offers really great history. There are stunning castles that are crumbling or have been, you know, renovated look really nice, gorgeous cathedrals, Coble, stone streets, and centuries old pubs, which. I love, I love pub culture. I think it's really cool, even if you don't like drinking alcohol, there's a really big culture around going to pubs for meals. It's a big family thing, especially in smaller villages, and I just think it's a really cute thing and it's not something that we have in the us. It's very different. I, I love it it's also a really great base for European Travel, London specifically, and really just. The UK in general. So while you're not in the shingan zone, which are basically the main countries in Europe, whenever you think of Europe, it is a very short flight or train ride away to many, many different destinations. And especially in London, it's a big hub for flying outs. There are constantly flights to everywhere, like there are so many direct flights, so many flights you can take to many, many places. So I do think that is a benefits to living in London and the UK in general. Another huge benefit to the UK is the public healthcare, which they call the NHS here. So the NHS offers access to free or super low cost healthcare for visa holders. And then as a visa holder, you do have to pay something called the immigration health surcharge. So you do have to pay that charge per year that you're going to be here. But once you're done having visas and you have permanent residency, you don't have to worry about that but this is a huge draw for Americans looking for, healthcare that doesn't have expensive healthcare costs. So the NHS and just healthcare in the UK in general is really, really solid. They have great healthcare. I have been to many doctors. I've had many doctor's appointments for random things, and it's always been. Like a great experience for me. If you're only going through public healthcare, sometimes it does take longer to get appointments, but if you have insurance, and a lot of times insurance is not expensive at all. It might be like 50 pounds a month or something like that, then you can go to really nice hospitals and get appointments whenever you want. I can get an online appointment literally within like the hour if I wanted to on my app because I have, private healthcare that my company actually pays for. I don't even pay for it. That is a really nice advantage of living in the UK too. And another reason why the UK is so great is the great work-life balance in many sectors. Workers typically gets 25 plus days of paid holidays, like vacation days in addition to public holidays, which we have about the same number of public holidays as you have in the US as well. And there's often a less hustle culture compared to the US. People are encouraged to take all of their holiday days. People do not just. Work, just take off a couple days a year and then say, okay, done and dusted. I, I don't need to take off anymore time. I'm just gonna work, work, work. It doesn't have that crazy hustle culture compared to the us but I would say that it really depends on the industry.. But I would say it really depends on the industry and some, like in finance, there can be people and companies that do work really, really late still. So it really depends. I mean, if you're going into investment banking in London, and you're expecting to work short days, then you know. That's not really gonna happen. So it does depend on the company and on the culture of the business, but in your manager. But I would say that overall I've noticed a huge difference in the hostile culture and people actually taking time off and having less, like really, really long nights. And I'd say also many offices are relaxed and they offer remote or hybrid friendly roles as well. So I feel like you even find that in the US too. But I'd say just overall work life balance and taking your vacations, taking your weekends, like. I have coworkers that are like, oh yeah, I'll get it done over the weekend in the US you would never say that here. People do not work on the weekends. Here, that's not a thing. People value taking their time whenever it's their time on the weekends and after work, and just spending time with family and friends and enjoying life, which I love. So how does the UK differ from the rest of Europe? The good, the bad, and the ugly. So the good is that there is no language barrier. As I mentioned before you can really hit the ground running with work and building your social life and building community and all those things. So I think that's a huge pro. There's also a big international market, especially in London. It's a huge global business hub. There are so many job opportunities in industries like finance, marketing, tech, and media, but there are so many jobs just across the board. But those are some of the biggest industries. I'd say. It's also very well connected in terms of cities. There's great public transportation in most cities, trains, buses, and the two, which is what they, we call the underground here. It makes. Living without a car, quite easy. If you're living in the countryside, like in the middle of nowhere in the cots walls, for instance, then you 100% need a car. But I would say that in a lot of cities you don't need a car, you just use public transportation, trains, buses, the tube, and they generally run quite smoothly. They're pretty on time. They're safe. Like I've always felt quite safe on the trains and buses. So I think that they have a really solid public transportation system in the uk. There's also a higher salary potential in some industries, especially in comparison to Southern and Eastern Europe. So if you're looking to still have the lifestyle that you are used to living in the US or wherever you're coming from, then the UK could be a good fit. And then the not so good. Now, I love highlighting all the beautiful things about London and about the uk, but there are some things that are not so good about living here. So number one, weather. Yes, the rumors are true. It is gray and rainy more often than not, especially as you go more up north in the uk. But honestly, like I'm from Texas and it's super sunny there, but I feel like it's been pretty fine for me. I do take vitamin D in the wintertime, and I do escape London in the winter quite often. I'll go on. Trips, I go to Cape Town quite often in the, in the winter time here because that's their summer, or I'll go home and visit my family in Texas. So, because even though it's winter, it's still gonna be a lot sunnier and warmer, but it does typically gets a little bit more grain rainy here. So the weather is not the best ever, but honestly, the autumn time here is so beautiful with all the leaves. The summertime is incredible. The days are so long and it's such a vibe, like everyone's in a good mood. There's so much going on all the time. The spring is also really nice because all this, all the, cherry trees start blooming. There's so many flowers everywhere. I just think that it's, it is very beautiful. Although it will be more rainy in the springtime. The wintertime is a little bit more tricky, but. Even though the weather is kind of sucky and the days are really short, like we don't have that much sunshine. I still feel like there's so much going on, especially in preparation for Christmas, that it doesn't even bother people until like January, February, January, February are not the best in the UK, I will admit. But hey, that's the best time to go to Southern Europe and hop on a quick train or hop on a quick flight and head on over there and get some sunshine and then come back. So, you know, no big deal., You could do like a long weekend trip and kind of break out the winter that. Kind of break up the winter that way. Another not so good is the cost of living, especially in London and just the southern part of the UK in general. As you go up more north, it's gonna be a little bit cheaper, but it is just more expensive of a country. Housing can also be extremely expensive. Groceries and transportation also add up, but I would say that the grocery costs and transportation costs in the UK compared to the US is much lower. But I would say cost of living, especially for your living expenses, are going to be more expensive. So in terms of cost of living, if you're looking to get the best bang out of your buck, the UK might not be the best fit. It's also harder to get residency. The UK is no longer in the eu, which is kind of a bummer because you don't benefit from the freedom of movement like many other European countries. So you do pretty much always need to have a visa that's tied to a job you need to be studying, or perhaps you find someone and you're in a relationship with them, but you always have to have a visa. But the good news is that you can get a visa for many things that you want to do. If you want to have a job or study or start a business, then you can do all those things with a visa. But it is a bummer that the UK is no longer part of the eu and they're also talking about making visas a little bit more challenging and to extend the permanent residency period from five years to 10 years. We don't know if it's actually gonna go through yet right now or not, but it is something to look into. So just something to kind of touch on and I'll touch on visas, in a second as well. And then another not so good thing is we don't have the long lunches and the massive cafe culture compared to France and Spain and Italy. The UK is a little bit more fast-paced in everyday life and people might eat at their desks more, they'll get coffee. That's to go and siestas do really exist here, but I would say that people do. Like the UK does coffee, well, especially London, they make a good cup of coffee. So I would say that there's still a lot of coffee shops around, but there's not as big of a cafe and like long lunch culture in the uk. So those are some of the, the good, the bad and ugly of the uk. Now let's talk about the step-by-step guide to moving to the uk. So what would that practically look like if you say, okay, I 100% want to move to the uk. I know this is where I want to be, so what do I actually need to do to get there? Okay, so step number one after you know you once moved to the UK is to choose the right visa. You need to know which visa you're going to get. So the most popular visa is going to be a sponsor work visa, which is called the Skilled Worker Visa. That's the name of the visa. It used to be called Tier two Visa, but now it's called Skilled Worker Visa. And that just means that you want to be employed by an employer, you want to work for a company, an organization of some sort, and the company will sponsor your visa. So they basically are saying like. Hey, UK government, I am going to sponsor, Jordan. That's me. I'm gonna sponsor Jordan. I'm gonna make sure she's taken care of. I'm gonna make sure I'm paying her so that she's not gonna be homeless and using all the public funds. So I'm gonna take care of her. I'm gonna pay her and she's gonna work for me. So this is her purpose in the uk and she's like adding to the economy by working for me because. You know, she's a good worker and I, I love her, I adore her and I want her to work for us. So that's the skilled worker visa and I would say is the most common visa. If someone is working for an organization, that's the most common one. There's another work visa that's called the global talent visa. This is for people that specialize in certain skills like science, engineering, Medicine, arts and culture, digital technology. So I actually considered switching from the skilled worker visa to the global talent visa because the global talent visa gives you a lot more freedom and flexibility. Once you have the Visa, you can do whatever you want. Like you can work for any company that you want. They don't have to sponsor you. You can start your business if you want. You can be a freelancer if you want. You can. Like not work for a little while. If you want to, you can go to school. Like you can literally do anything that you want. So I think that the global talent visa is incredible because it provides so much freedom. And they're trying to get people who have special skills into the country. And so that's the reason why they're doing the visa. So I actually thought about switching to that visa. That is a visa where you will pay for it yourself, whereas the skilled worker visa is the only visa where the company will typically pay for it for you. So I decided to stick with the skilled worker visa because I knew I wasn't gonna switch companies. I knew I was gonna stick with the company that I am at currently. I knew that they would pay for it for me. They're paying for the lawyers so I don't have to pay for anything, which is really nice. So I decided to, so I decided for myself to stick with the skilled worker visa. But if you have the ability to get the global talent visa, I do think, especially if you're just moving to the uk, it provides you so much freedom and flexibility where you're not tied down to a company. So I sometimes feel like my company owns me if I let go of for any reason. If, the company didn't want me to work there anymore, I would have to scramble to find another job within like, I think a two or three month period of time so that I could still keep my visa and I'll have to start over on my five years of learning, of earning my permanent residency. So anyways, pros and cons of both, like if you don't wanna pay for your visa, a skilled worker Visa is a great one. But if you also don't want to, it's a little bit more challenging to get a job and get a company to sponsor you, but if you have the global talent visa, it makes it a lot easier for them to say like, oh yeah, we'd love to hire you because you, you don't have that extra hoop to jump through where they have to sponsor you, pay for you, and go through the process. So those are the two main work visas. There's also another kind of special visa category if you're in healthcare because the UK needs more healthcare workers. So if you are in healthcare, then you're in luck. You'll probably very, very easily be able to get a visa. There's also another visa called the Youth Mobility Scheme Visa. This is for people who are a bit younger in their life, like. 18 to whenever you're in your thirties. But there are limited countries that can use this visa. It's most of the Commonwealth countries. So the US is not a part of this. If you are an American, you will not be able to get this visa. But if you're from Australia, New Zealand countries,, like that Canada, then you can get that youth mobility scheme visa and come and work in the uk and it's really easy to get. It's really cheap to get. So that's a really great one too. A lot of people enter the UK on a student visa. So a lot of people will come into the UK as a student, they will get their master's degree or maybe undergraduate, but a lot of people come over here to get their master's degree. And then once you have a student visa, you can work part-time for a company, while you're in school, which is great because you get UK work experience and then after you have that visa, you can, apply for another visa that allows you to work in the UK without needing to be sponsored for a couple years. So that's a really nice visa to get as well. So a lot of people kind of get their foot in the door from the student visa, option. There's also a visa for ancestry. So this would be really nice if you're able to get this. Then you can get the ancestry visa if you have a UK born grandparent or if you have a partner. If you're moving to the UK for, or with a UK partner, then you can get the partner Visa. So that one is great if you are in a relationship with someone. So those are the main Visa options, and you can't just show up without having a visa if you have the ability to work remotely. The UK doesn't have a digital nomad visa, but if you wanted to come and work remotely, I wouldn't mention that. Whenever you're first coming into the uk. But I think you don't even talk to anybody anymore. As an American, you just scan your passport and enter, and you can come in the country for several months. So you could always work remotely and, just do that for a few months while in the uk and then leave after that. So let's say that you know what visa you're going to get. That is step number one really. Once you know you want to move to the uk, so you might say, okay, great. I know exactly which Visa I need. The next step is going to be securing a job if required. So that's if you need to get the sponsored work visa, which is called Skilled Worker Visa. So some tips for finding a UK-based job. I mean, I think just using the normal sites like Indeed LinkedIn, just kinda like Googling if there are specific platforms for your industry. Sometimes there are ones like that. Sometimes there's even. Job boards specifically for companies that sponsor visas. I used one for a while, I think it was called OTTO, OTTO or Auto? Auto or OTTA, maybe I used that one for a while. And it's specifically for tech related roles, that sponsor visas because that's what I was specifically looking for, which is very niche. But yeah, it kinda depends on what you're looking for. But I do think that the UK uses like all the normal job boards that we would be using in the US as well. And sometimes they mention this in the job board, but focus on roles, but focus on roles that offer sponsorship, which is your skilled worker, sponsorship. And they might mention it in the job posting. Another option is to pull up, and this is what I did when I was applying for jobs, is I would pull up the list of sponsored, like companies that have the ability to sponsor, if you just type in like skilled worker sponsor companies, list. Uk, something like that. Then it will pop up as like the first thing, and it's kind of like this, this file. And I would just command F and I would just, or yeah, command F, and I would just search the name of the company and see if it pulled up. And if it pulled up and they sponsored, then I would apply for the job. If they weren't in there, then I wouldn't apply for the job. But it really depends on, you know, how experienced you are in your career. Maybe you're further up, it might be worth applying anyways because they might be willing to get a sponsorship license for you. They might have been thinking about doing it anyways. That actually happened to me. I was applying for jobs a few years ago and I applied for a company that I thought was on the sponsor list because I wasn't applying to any companies that weren't, like, didn't already have a sponsorship license. Which sponsorship license just means that a company says, Hey, UK government, I wanna sponsor people. Like, can you just double check my company that it's legit? And then I'll sponsor people after that. So they just do check on the company and just make sure that they're actually legit, like not just a made up. Organization that you just like, that they, they're just claiming to be a company. Someone will come over and just kind of check that they're legit anyways., But this company, they didn't have a sponsorship li they did not have a sponsorship license, but they came back to me and said, we actually have been thinking about giving it at some point we'll go ahead and just get it done for you. It wasn't that I was special necessarily, but they were thinking about getting it anyways, so that worked out well for me. Another thing you can do is to network with UK recruiters. It is a bigger thing in the UK to have like recruitment companies that will source. Candidates for jobs, for companies. So it might be worth connecting with them, telling them what you're looking for, what salary expectations you have, and, tell them that you need sponsorship and then just like see who they can connect you with as well. So you've chosen the right visa for you. You have secured a job, you're looking for a job if that's required, depending on the visa that you need. And then the next step is going to be understanding the cost of living and budgeting. You might want to get a quick overview of the rent, transportation, any. Other costs that you know that you're going to have and then compare London to other major cities like Manchester, Bristol, Edinburgh. Just to, just to decide and make sure you know how much the cost of living is going to be for the specific city that you are moving to, and you might want to set a moving fund, kind of figure out exactly how much you're going to need for startup costs, like for your furniture and if you need to get a car, and just all those things in life that you know you need to set up to kind of get everything moving. Like if you're buying. Clothes if you need to buy a coat, if you're moving from somewhere really warm and you are moving now to the UK when it's cold in the winter or something like that. So yeah, just kind of figuring out how much you need to budget for startup costs. That would be number three. And then the next step would be to find accommodation. For finding a rental in the uk, I think the best companies are RightMove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket That's for finding a rental. You can also look in Facebook groups and if you want to share a house with other people, there's an app called Spare Room that everyone uses for housing and finding other flatmates. So I'd say those would the main ones, but I feel like a. Not a trick, but it's hip for finding accommodation as well is to, if you know the area that you wanna move to, like, let's say that you know you really wanna move to Chelsea in the uk, in, in London, then if you go to the leasing agencies, like if you search on Google Maps and you type in like leasing agency or something like that, then, call them and just tell'em your name, tell them what you're looking for, and they'll put you on an email list and they'll reach out to you because they need to find people to fill the. Flats that they have offered. And, they're looking to fill'em, so they want to help you. They want to, you know, find an apartment for you and can move forward. So, that's, I also did that whenever I was looking to move. I connected with, I called like a lot of agencies and I told'em exactly what I was looking for and they would email me whenever new ones were coming up. And I even was able to get connected with ones that weren't even listed online yet. So I had kind of first pick, which I think is. Really nice because sometimes if it's on an app like Right move, then you're competing with other people. So, and that's one more pro tip on the apps. The apps are Right Move,Zoopla and OnTheMarket for those three apps, you can set reminders like set, alarms if there's a new property that pops up. So you can be one of the first to message people if you want to. And people don't love to hear this, but I would not recommend moving to a place that you've never seen before in real life because you might get there and it smells really weird, or the upstairs neighbor is stomping super loud or has a really big family, or you didn't realize, but it's actually on a major street and it's so loud and you don't think you're gonna be able to sleep. Or it's on a train line that shakes the whole place, like shakes your bed. I heard that from. A story from a friend that I moved into a place and he didn't realize that it was like literally on the train line and whenever the train passed, it would shake his bed and it would wake him up in the middle of the night. So those are things that you just don't know until you actually see it. So I would highly recommend seeing it before you actually move in. And if you're able to do, maybe you do like a quick trip abroad, you know, for a week or two and go. View places before you actually move there., But if you don't have the time to do that or the ability to, then you can also get temporary housing for whenever you first arrive, like Airbnb or a sublease or something like that, until you can find longer term accommodation. And then the last step is just preparing for your move. I mean, you've got all these things. You have your visa, you have your job, or if you don't need a job and you have a different type of visa, you've prepared all that. And the next step is really just to prepare from. The actual move. So booking your one way flight packing smarts, considering what you need to bring with you. Getting travel insurance for the first few weeks if you want to do that. Bringing over your original documents like any paperwork, proof of address. Your birth certificate, like things like that. Job offer, whatever you need to bring. If it's a paper copy and then just kind of settling in, like registering for with your gp, like your local doctor, especially if you know that you're going to be seeing a doctor regularly. That would be something that I would set up. Sooner rather than later. Setting up a UK bank account, you'll also need to do something called, you need to get a national insurance number, which is kinda like a social security number. So that'll be another thing that you'll do whenever you move here. And then just setting up like your, phone plan, which it's super cheap. The phone plan plans here, you'll probably pay like. 10 to 15 pounds a month, it's quite cheap. And then just starting to find your community, I would start doing that sooner rather than later. If you can even set something up before you actually move. I feel like that's helpful to have some connections or to have things to look forward to in terms of kind of people that you feel like are waiting there for you, whether it's like just a meetup for the first time or connecting with a friend of a friend or something like that. So yeah, I'd say that those would be the main steps of moving to the UK. And I do know that this feels a little bit overwhelming. I'm like, get a phone car, get a SIM card and a national insurance number and like do this. So it does feel a little bit overwhelming. It might feel like a really big, overwhelming thing, but once you break it down and you just take it step by step and. Just start with figuring out which visa you need and figuring out, okay, do I need to get a job and like what neighborhood do I wanna live in? You just kind of take a step at a time. It is absolutely doable and whether you're going for career opportunities, culture, or just a fresh start, the UK has so much to offer. Thousands of Americans make the leap every single year to uk, and you absolutely can too. People who move here are not special. Like some people will be special, some people will have special experiences that you don't have. But you know what, I'm not special. I moved here and I was not special at all. I'm still not that special. So if I can do it, you can absolutely do it so I hope that, I'm leading you as a bit of encouragement that you can absolutely. Move abroad if you want to. so anyways, that is it for me for today's episode. I hope you found this helpful, and I hope that you feel more excited than ever to move to the UK because it genuinely has been the best thing that I've ever done for myself. I love my life here. I love London, I love the uk, and I love living in. Close to other European countries. So anyways,. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Move Abroad podcast. I will catch you here again next week, same time, same place. I'll catch you then.