I'm Moving to England!

Hello all:

After much thought, I've decided to back up a suitcase here in Canada and catch a flight to the UK.

I'm doing some family research and hopefully I will be able to connect with some relatives there and in Norway (I don't know when I'll move there, though).

Anyway, does anyone have any advice for me to get started (local websites that have job postings, apartment rentals --how much is average?--, good neighbourhoods v. neighbourhoods to stay away from, etc.)

I already have all of the Visa information I need. I can work on a UK Ancestry visa for up to 5 years. All I need is what I'll need to know once I've landed.


I'm going to be in a whole new world and I need all of the advice I can get.



Much appreciated!


Jessie from Canada.

 

Someones awake!!! Hi there, where abouts are you thinking of moving to?

 

Come to Wales! Wooo!

 

here's a useful one...

www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk

 

wahhoo!

If it were me, I'd go with a Garden City.
Thats pretty much all the advice i have xD

 

if i personally could move to anywhere in england i'd live in the south west ... i have mates that live in Wiltshire, and when we visited we fell in love with the area. there's a much different vibe out west than there is here in essex.

places to avoid ... essex

 

The little villages in Essex are lovely little places.

 

Hi Jessie,

Welcome in advance to the UK!

a good site is http://www.fish4.co.uk which has jobs, homes for sale and also lettings.

The South East has the most jobs, but also the highest cost of living. People in the North have the reputation of being more friendly than the South, though the North is less affluent.

Depends if you want to live in a city or a more rural area. The cost of commuting is very high, both by rail and road (petrol prices are through the roof at the moment). Most big cities have their good and bad areas. I have friends who moved to Manchester who love it there (the North West). Brighton is a very cosmopolitan town, plenty of life and alternative types, by the sea and great countryside around it, but very expensive to live and nearly all the jobs are in the service sector. Also known as the drugs capital of Britain. London has everything of course, but it's very crowded and hectic, and not always easy to make friends and a social life from scratch.

Hope that helps, if you want to know anymore let me know.

Good luck!

 

Try sticking to a small village with easy access to a city or at least a larger town. The reason being anywhere in a city will be violent etc... I live in a place called Knowle and i have easy access to a place called Solihull which is part of Birmingham =].

 

Wow thanks everyone for all the feedback!

This is all really good information.

I'd like to live in a small city. Here in Canada, our cities are not as big as say, London. My city, Victoria, has 250,000 people. It has a lot of countryside as well as it is right by the sea and also has alternative types (like Brighton?).

I'd like to live somewhere that has good transportation (or at least has all major amenities somewhere together). In Victoria, downtown is a 10-15 bus ride from anywhere in the city, and around an hour's walk.

I'm not looking for another Victoria though!

I just want beauty and friendly people... and a job of course!

By the way, thanks for those websites, guys! They'll be a big help!

I might be moving to Nottinghamshire. I'm currently living with someone from Long Eaton and he was telling me a couple of places to stay away from but a couple that were okay to live. My family was from Nottingham and Scotland so I think it would be useful to live in the city that my family was from.

Oh yeah, and if anyone wants to be my friend when I'm there, that'd be pretty groovy as well!

 

That's nonsense. I've lived most of my life in cities including London, Edinburgh and Brighton and very rarely witnessed any violence.

 

I've seen more fights in small towns than in cities. Also, a foreigner in a rural town gets more notice, sometimes negative, than in a big city.

 

Yes, Brighton seems quite similar to your home town in many ways: by the sea, access to countryside, something of an alternative scene, although the freaks have tended to be squeezed out in recent years by all the yuppies moving here from London, who have also been pushing up the cost of accommodation. There is a pretty good bus service and frequent train links to London.

 

I'd suggest Cambridge.. it's not by the sea, but it's smallish, good rail links with London, and has lots of alternative people and good shops.
however, housing is muy expensive...

 

The same is happening here, my friend. There have been no new apartments built for 12 years. Lots of luxery condos though.

 

Yes cambridge is good, even better (I reckon) is the fenland area around Cambridge, such as March or Ely, good access to peterborough, cambridge, London, but still rural enough to be nice

 

True true.. maybe a village like Sawston would be ideal - Citi 7 bus runs from Sawston to Cambridge and back every 10 minutes, plus it's got that rural feel even more than March or Ely :tongue:

 

come live in brighton, do you the power of good and then you can get involved with the local scene, youd fit right in. lots of reidns to be made in this fair city

 

The funny thing is, all these affluent London types want to live in Brighton because of the arty, Bohemian atmosphere, and just by coming here they're destroying it. Is that how it is in Victoria BC?

 

DEFINITELY how it is here in Victoria.

It's a mirror image, it seams.