Hello! Coming to London soon!

[iceman]

Hello everybody!

Stumbled upon this site since I have been looking for insights regarding living in UK, specifically London. I hope people here would be able to help me.

My wife will be transferred to their London office in a few months with a Tier 2 Visa, and since we have a baby who just turned one, it is important to us that we all stay together as he grows up. That means I will be giving up a rather nice job here in the Phils ( I am an Internet Channel Head for one of the biggest companies here) to move to London. That would also mean that for the first time in years, I will be jobless.

Apologies for my long list of questions, but I'd really like to know if we are making the right decision:
1. How hard would it be for me to get a decent job in London? I have a successful track record working for several top companies here, doing customer service, marketing, business development, project and channel management, and web and mobile systems development.
2. If in case it would be hard for me to find employment, I have a business here that develops tech solutions specifically internet and mobile systems: website development, apple and android applications development, SMS systems, online campaigns and the like. Would it be hard for me to establish this business there?
3. How do we compute for taxes? I've visited several sites explaining this but I just cant understand how to do the computation. We just have one child.
4. Is pre school free?
5. What are the other government subsidies?
6. Assuming I am jobless for quite some time, how much should my wife be making for our family? Her company will pay for housing and utilities.

I hope some of you didn't fall asleep halfway through the list. Hehe. I'm really excited to go there but I just need to know what challenges I will have to face.

[Terpe]

Hello iceman, welcome here to the forum.

That's quite a list of questions.
There's a lot of active members here from all walks of life, and with lots of experiences.

You'll get some very good responses, but please do allow some time.

[Steve.r]

Welcome Iceman,

Are you a Filipine national or British ?

[rusty]

Welcome to the forum,

Had a quick look at the UKBA website regarding a tier 2 (inter company transfer) visa-

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...ing/tier2/ict/

Here is my quick response to your questions:-

1. London is a big place so would think that someone with your experience should be able to find a job.
2. It states that the person who has the tier 2 visa is not allowed to start a business so I assume that it will apply to you also as her dependent.
3. The company you work for should sort out all tax issues.
4. Pre-school is not free, it is possible for some people to get government help with childcare costs, but those on a tier 2 visa are not allowed to receive public funds/benefits.
5. You are not allowed any.
6. That will depend on your spending; the UK can be expensive place to live, especially London.


Good luck and hope you enjoy your time in the UK

[iceman]

Hey, thanks for the quick response, guys. I really appreciate them a lot.

Steve.r: I am a Filipino citizen. Kinda lessen my chances, right?

Rusty: Thank you for taking time to answer my questions.

If I won't be able to have my own business, does that mean I cannot do home-based jobs like desktop publishing, website development, photography, video editing and the like? I can also do IOS and Android apps development, so that's a no-no too?

Maybe I better brush up with my exotic dancing skills as early as now? Heheh.

[imagine]

hi iceman, welcome to you,

i hope you are able to sort things out, uk is very expensive for living costs, especially london,

though income may seem a lot compared to phil, living costs are ridiculous , fuel, food, heating etc.

[worthingmale]

hello and welcome

[Rosie1958]

...............1. How hard would it be for me to get a decent job in London? I have a successful track record working for several top companies here, doing customer service, marketing, business development, project and channel management, and web and mobile systems development.

Hi Iceman

Welcome to the Forum. I always suggest to anyone looking for a job to register with an employment agency here in the UK and in your case there should be specialist agencies to suit your extensive skill sets.

To give you some idea of the jobs currently available, I'd also suggest looking directly at a few UK business websites which you could find via Google or another search engine. The large organisation I work for is currently working on a mobile system solution with Logica who are a business and technology service company, employing 39000 people across 36 countries and they operate in London as well as other sites. They have a careers section on the website and currently are advertising 14 different positions, why not take a look just to give you some idea www.logica.co.uk

Good luck

[bigmarco]

Hi Iceman and welcome to the forum.
You seem to be well qualified and I'm sure you'll find something eventually,although it may take some time as there are quite a few people looking for work at the moment. The London Standard reported recently that 30000 people applied on the first day for 300 customer service vacancies on the underground which gives you some idea of the amount of people chasing vacancies.
The most important thing for you to realise is that it is far more expensive to live in the Uk than the Philippines and London is the most expensive of all, although you say that your wifes company is paying for housing and utilities which is probably the major expense in living in London.
To give you one example of the difference whilst in Manila I traveled on the LRT and my single ticket would cost 15 pesos a day in London a single ticket on the Tube will cost approx £3.60 (250 pesos)approx. So please do your homework before coming as your wife will need to be earning substantially more than I suspect she is earning at home.
Good luck to you

[Arthur Little]

Maayong Buntag ... and to the friendly, online filipino/uk community.

Reading your introductory thread, it immediately becomes clear what a particularly difficult personal decision it must've been to consider *relinquishing a successful career - not to mention all *that entails - for the sake of keeping your small family unit intact.

Others have already given you their balanced views on the realities of relocating to the British Capital, and there is little I can add to this - except to wish you the very best of luck with your plans.

[iceman]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Rosie: Thanks for the link. I'll sure check that out.

Bigmarco: thanks for the insight. My wife is an economics graduate with dual masters degree so I hope she uses that to crunch the numbers with regard to her compensation. Hehe.

Arthur: thanks for the well-wishes. My current job vs. keeping my family together is really a no contest. At the end of the day, our son is the reason why we go through all the daily grind so his welfare comes first.

I guess based on most of the forum posts here indicates that it won't be easy for me to get a job there. Nonetheless, I've never been known to back out of a good challenge, so here's to a certainly uncertain life in the UK. Hehe.

Cheers!

[Terpe]

......I guess based on most of the forum posts here indicates that it won't be easy for me to get a job there. Nonetheless, I've never been known to back out of a good challenge, so here's to a certainly uncertain life in the UK. Hehe.

Cheers!

I'm sure you know that the economic environment here in UK and in EU is not in the best of health. Talk is now of a double-dip recession and the Bank of England is still printing money. Make of that what you will.

But, look, London is a huge city with huge resources and huge opportunities still.
It almost has it's own economic condition.

I'm not a recruitment advisor but from the information you have provided I am in no doubt that you will find appropriate and relevant employment and at the right salary level.
I am also in no doubt that you wife will be appropriately compensated and that you will both enjoy a great life in one of the world's greatest cities.

I was relocated by my employer many times, and the employer will cover ALL reasonable costs. This would include childcare costs when necessary.

Enjoy the opportunity.

[grahamw48]

Welcome to the forum Iceman.

If you take up self-employment (own business) and employ a good accountant, you probably won't need to pay income tax for a very long time.

[joebloggs]

is it a short or long term visa that your wife has ?
childcare will probably be one of your biggest costs if her employer is not paying it

[iceman]

Thanks, for the tips, Terpe, Graham.

Joebloggs: She'll be having a long term Visa. As for childcare, we might be bringing our son's nanny along with us.

Incidentally, how much does preschool cost? Might as well prepare for that too.

[iceman]

Hello again.

It looks like we are moving to London by June. As such, we need to look for a place to rent.

Can anyone please recommend a good place?
- Wife's office will be in Threadneedle, so we prefer a location near here.
- Security is our primary concern, next are proximity to hospitals, parks and supermarket
- Place should have at least two bedrooms
- Place should be easily accessible by bus or train

How much would a good place cost?

Thank you very much in advance.

[Bluebirdjones]

Beckenham ?
Friendly village-like atmosphere. Lots of parks / green space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckenham
a 15-20min train ride into Cannon Street, which is 5min walk from Threadneedle Street.

2 bed apartment about £850-£1000.
http://www.findaproperty.com/to-rent...&maxprice=1000


There's a reasonable sized Filipino community there .... my wife & I know at least 16-20.

[iceman]

Thanks for the links! They are very useful indeed.

Sorry for asking too many questions, but could someone asist us in estimating how much taxes do we have to pay when we get to London? My wife's office doesn't exactly know how to. Based on the initial computation they did, my wife's tax rate would be around 48% (!). Would that be within the actual range? When I tried one of the online tax calculators, the tax rate is just about 30%.

Would getting a UK accountant help in any way?

Appreciate your responses as this is very crucial to us.

Thanks again.

Cheers!

[Terpe]

Thanks for the links! They are very useful indeed.

Sorry for asking too many questions, but could someone asist us in estimating how much taxes do we have to pay when we get to London? My wife's office doesn't exactly know how to. Based on the initial computation they did, my wife's tax rate would be around 48% (!). Would that be within the actual range? When I tried one of the online tax calculators, the tax rate is just about 30%.

Would getting a UK accountant help in any way?

Appreciate your responses as this is very crucial to us.

Thanks again.

Cheers!

Without knowing the specifics about your wife's employment I have to assume that she will be an employee is the usual sense and will be subject to income tax under PAYE (Pay As You Earn) and that the PAYE scheme will be operated by her employer and as such the income tax will be deducted direct from her salary. The Employer is responsible for both deduction of tax, national insurance contributions and all other deductions. The employer is also responsible for making payments of tax and NI to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs)

Here is the page that informs you about Income Tax:-
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/it.htm

The home page link for HMRC is here:-
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk

Just follow the links

If you wife is not going to be employed by an employer here in UK with a registered PAYE scheme in place, it would certainly be advisable to seek some advice from a professional as there are a number of other different situations that might be applicable. They all end with HMRC actually, but just different ways to comply.

Hope that helps.