I usually try to keep content here focused on travel resources that benefit others, so forgive this gratuitously self indulgent post about my own news… but I’ve wanted I've wanted to write these words for over four years now- so humor me. It feels SO surreal to finally be able to say: I GOT MY UK VISA AND AM MOVING TO LONDON! This process has been the bane of my existence, and quite painful at many moments, for years now. My close friends and family (and honestly, sometimes even me!) could barely keep up with all the plot twists, so I really limited what I've shared online along the way. Now that everything is official (and in an attempt to make this potentially worth someone else’s time reading) I wanted to create one place where I could speak to the common questions around the subject of moving abroad… and also what that means for me personally.
Whether you’re reading this because you’re also interested in moving abroad, or because you’ve heard me lament about this for years and you’re simply curious what all the fuss has been about, let me be clear that I am not an immigration attorney (although I do recommend you hire one if you’re wanting to move yourself). These are simply some questions I’ve already been asked that I can now answer a bit more clearly.
Considering the next week is going to be probably the one of the craziest in my life to-date, I wrote this post in the final hours of waiting for my visa to arrive (both to give me a good distraction and also so I could hit the ground running with things once it was “go time” instead of attempting to field any questions). Now that it’s here and I can finally press “publish”, here’s the tea:
Q: “Wait, don’t you already live in London?”
Considering I get messages from people daily who are under the impression I already do live in London, I imagine some of you are scratching your head right now. Honestly, it's been such a confusing journey for me alone (and I lived every step of the way) so I can only imagine how it looks from the outside! So technically, I've never actually LIVED, lived in London… I've just stayed for extended periods of time as a visitor. While collectively I've spent almost a year of my life in London, it was never all at once (usually a few months at a time) and I was never able to function as an actual resident (my bank, my taxes, my insurance, my healthcare… all were still tied to the US). I kept a detailed spreadsheet of my days I was allowed to be in London (and always maximized it). With that said, I was still able to feel like I've "lived" in London because I stayed at the same flat for months at a time over different trips that felt like "home" (and I very much have built friendships and a life of my own here over the years). Even still, I'm so excited to be a LEGIT Londoner (and that I don't have to keep track of my days anymore… I can stay as many days out of the year as I please!) For more about my time spent in London in the past, see HERE.
Q: What kind of visa did you apply for?
It's genuinely not my intention to sound vague or secretive, but it's honestly far too complicated to detail out the intricacies of my particular visa. There are many visa options (and they vary person to person in terms of what each individual qualifies for). While I very much hope to be a resource on travel (and will certainly share a glimpse into life as an expat now too!), I don't feel qualified enough to speak at length about visa types. The best person to ask questions about visa intricacies is an immigration lawyer (I hired one and while it wasn't cheap, it was the best thing I could have done). If you want to know more about types of visas and how to hire an immigration lawyer, see HERE and HERE.
Q: What is the visa application process like?
Again, it varies for everyone and I can only speak to my personal experience. For me, I had started to pursue a visa multiple times and always had to change plans due to policy changes that would impact my qualification (when I add up all the attempts, I believe I pursued 5 or 6 different types before one stuck!) In regards to the one that worked, here is the Reader's Digest of my timeline:
Feb. 2020: After many dead ends and working with 4 different lawyers over the years, I was connected to my current immigration lawyer, who had worked with other friends of mine and produced successful results. She presented a visa path to me that she believed I was a suitable candidate for.
March 2020: I signed an "engagement letter" (essentially a contract agreeing to my layers terms and fees) and paid her for her work up front to officially hire her so she could start working on my case.
April-August 2020: We spent a few months ironing out necessary details that were specific to my particular visa (not worth explaining because chances are slim this process would be the same for any two people… again: immigration lawyers are key!)
August 2020: Once we had everything we needed in place, we could start the actual application process. My lawyer and I spent hours on the phone together filling out my UK visa application online (they ask so many questions: everything from my parents full names, birthdays and places of birth to being required to log every single trip I've taken outside the US in the last decade). At the end of the application, you're able to schedule a biometric appointment for a week later (biometrics are essentially anatomical or physiological data by which a person can be uniquely identified… more about that in a minute). I had to go ahead and pay for my NHS (healthcare) surcharge, as well as my application fee (I paid an additional fee to make it a priority application so I could get an answer within a week). Part of your application requirement is to say what your projected date into the UK will be (which is hard to do when you aren't sure how long the turnaround will take!) Since airlines are currently offering flexible change policies anyway, I went ahead and booked my flight for my projected entry date (which was about a week after I was supposed to hear an answer). I knew I could change it if I needed to, but wanted to lock in a ticket before prices got any higher.
September 2020: I went to my biometrics appointment to get the last piece of required paperwork for my application. At the biometrics appointment, they collect your fingerprints, take your photo, and have you sign your name for electronic capture. Immediately after I took all my materials (my application paperwork and my passport) to FedEx to send everything off to the visa office for approval. Five days later, they e-mailed me to tell me a decision had been reached (but they don't tell you what the decision is, which makes it feel so dramatic!) About two days later, my parcel arrived with my passport (with a visa in it!) and a letter providing instructions for what to do next.
Keep in mind that while this particular visa attempt only took about 8 months start to finish, I spent YEARS before this investigating other options, working towards necessary requirements to qualify me for different types of visas (only for the rules to change halfway into the process every time and forcing me to start from scratch on a new plan once again). Some visas are very straightforward if you qualify. Others are incredibly cumbersome. While you shouldn't let one persons long journey discourage you from trying to get a visa yourself, you should also be weary of someone else's seemingly easy journey making it seem like it's all a piece of cake. It just depends on so many things.
Q: How soon will you move?
Very, very soon. The turn around from when the visa arrived in the mail to when I actually move is only one week. In normal times I might have left more of a gap in between to not feel rushed, but in COVID times and so much changing every day with borders I wanted to get over before things could change (can you imagine if I waited 4 years for a visa, FINALLY got it and then couldn’t get into the country!?) With that said, although I am arriving in the UK in one week, I’m not technically arriving in London straight away. Anyone arriving to the UK from America (no matter your nationality) is required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival (more about that HERE). So just like I did this summer when I visited the UK, my boyfriend will pick me up from the airport and we will drive straight to the countryside for my first two weeks to quarantine (his family has a house there and there’s a lot more space than what would be available to quarantine in London). So as of now, I’ll arrive in London by the beginning of October.
Q: Where in London will you live?
Moving into my own flat is something I’ve dreamed about for SO long. Even when I had my own place in Nashville, I didn’t really make it feel like “home” (because I knew I was trying to leave). Now that I can finally live where I want to live (full-time and legally!) I absolutely plan on getting my own place. I plan on living somewhere in Zone 1 or Zone 2 because I prefer to be fairly central to start, but there are lots of great neighborhoods I would live in). I actually already have a prospective flat that I’m really excited about (but will wait until I’m actually moved in to share more… still navigating this process!)
Q: Why London?
I can’t tell you the number of times someone suggested to me that I “just live somewhere else” when this process wasn’t looking very optimistic. While I genuinely wished at the time that I could just flip a switch in my brain and change my mind, my heart was set on London— even in the worst moments of the journey. To me, London is the most multi-cultural, diverse, exciting city I’ve ever been to; and the place I noticed I felt the most myself (does that sound as terribly cliché as it does for me typing it?) It has so many “comforts” of home that make it easy to live in (as silly as it may sound: they speak English, there’s a Whole Foods, the list goes on). It also has just enough differences to still feel exciting (again, as silly as it sounds: they have different accents, different architecture, different cultures… the list also goes on!) It’s also especially exciting for my career (a 3-4 hour car/train journey for me currently takes me to Birmingham, AL or Louisville, KY. Once in London, a 3-4 hour car/train journey will take me to Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels or Germany!) I’m so excited to have a place to make “home” that’s a quick weekend trip to so many European destinations that I need to visit frequently for work… and ones that I still haven’t been able to visit!
It sounds so cheesy, but this whole process truly feels like one of those “all roads in my life have brought me here” kind of moments. I could write a novel about emotions I’ve felt along the way… but today I’m overwhelmed and over the moon with excitement! So until I can get around to sharing anything beyond what’s above… I’ll be over here gushing because:
