Congratulations! Made it to the UK from the US yesterday myself. Let's hope our new lives will be great!
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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Welcome to the uk did you pick up your complementary kettle on the way in? Sorry the rail network is such a mess but what can you do. Glad to have you bud o7
Honestly, other than the fact that we were really confused about where to go due to poor signage (and missed our train twice and got lost when we were supposed to change trains), we enjoyed the train ride. We did pay for first class on for the Avanti West portion, but it was worth every penny. (Or am I supposed to say worth every p now?) And since we came from the land of very few trains that all suck, the actual train rides were great. And people were super helpful with our heavy luggage.
Glad to hear you arrived safe and well. Also, for your information :
Galleons: The primary unit of currency, typically made of gold. One Galleon is worth 17 Sickles.
Sickles: The second unit of currency, made of silver. One Sickle is worth 29 Knuts.
Knuts: The smallest unit of currency, made of bronze.
P.S. : Next time for the train you should get to Platform 9 and 3/4
You mean they won't accept cowrie shells or cocoa beans? What kind of a place is this?!
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You'd better have a tv license or your going to jail
Hopefully OP can live with trading "needing a TV license for a TV no one uses anymore" and "actual healthcare" for a "failing democracy turned Christian nationalist oligarchy"!
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Would you mind sharing how you moved to the UK and what the requirements / difficulties were? Thank you!
I am happy to share, but I am afraid it won't help many others. I am lucky because of who my father was.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent/born-before-1983
Ah I see, well thanks anyways haha!
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Good luck man!
As someone that left the US a decade and a half ago, here's some things to go ahead and start getting answers to so you don't have to figure it out when the time comes:
- Figure out how to get a bank account (hopefully you've already worked this one out before arriving)
- Where to buy toiletries and medicine. Specifically deodorant. The UK is mostly spray deodorant where as I'm a stick deodorant person. At one point I was just bringing 4 sticks of deodorant back with me after every trip home. I'm not sure which way NZ leans but it was definitely something I hadn't considered before
- Where to buy socks and underwear you're comfortable with
- Figure out how the health service/insurance works. Go ahead and book dentist and doctors appointments 6 months in advance if possible so you get in the habit.
- Figure out how paying taxes works
- If you're a US citizen, remember you're still required to file taxes with the IRS every year.
- Learn how to make friends. I still haven't figured this one out. Let me know if you do.
- Call or go to a Kiwibank, ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac bank branch in any mall in which ever city you land at (probably Auckland but could be Christchurch)
- Supermarket for toiletries. Pharmacy for medicine. Some larger supermarkets have pharmacies in them. Supermarkets are Pac'n'Save, New World, Woolworths, Freash Choice, 4Square. Pharmacies are Unichem, Chemist's Warehouse, Random mum and pop one off pharmacy
- Both types of deoderant (stick or spray) are readily available. Lynx is typically known as Axe in other parts of the world.
- The Warehouse or Kmart for cheap socks and undies. Farmers for midrange stuff. Boutique stores for high range
- Public health care for emergancy and accute need. GPs are roughly $35 to $70 for a checkup or general appointment
- get an IRD number from the IRD, work out your tax code (its probably 'M') then tax is mostly automatically deducted and paid by your employeer
- really!? Sounds like a double tax whamy... Ouch
- join clubs, hiking club, cricket club, soccer club, rugby club. Pubs and drinking are popular too. Most pubs run a quiz once a week ask the announcer about joining a random team
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Good choice
So I've been seriously thinking about NZ for a while now, was filling out the application and figuring out banking and such until they changed their immigration policies about a year ago. When did you start your process? How long did it take? Is it a work visa? If so how did you find an employer willing to sponsor?
skilled migrant route. got a residence class visa before getting on the plane. My partner and I are STEM and medical so SMV seemed a good route.
That's great, I'm STEM too and had been looking at the same thing but seemed like you had to get a job before you could get the VISA and trying to line that up seemed like a chicken and egg situation with employers wanting people who were already work authorized?
NZ? You a billionaire?
good luck on your journey.
Sorry for everything you had to leave behind. Good luck in your new life
Congrats on having a backbone. Hope you enjoy the vast experiences in your new life!
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Be warned, you're in for some price shocks. Cost of living in NZ is nuts atm. Best of luck tho, it's a solid place.
It hadn't really occurred to me to seriously ask where an American could leave to and become a citizen. I've got a degree in Information Systems and I work I.T., which I would think would be relatively valuable somewhere.
"IT" as in operations, networks, security, support, or? I mean a suitable background in networks and you'd make 130k USD plus pension as a networking consultant in Denmark. IDK about citizenship though. As with all the rest of Europe, we've seen a rise in right wing populism and are now suffering from its resulting inane immigration laws.
But if you're in for the adventure, then you could look outside the list of English speaking countries. There's The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, we all speak English and we all have healthcare... But don't go to Sweden, they suck :-)
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There are a shit ton of companies in my area that are looking for IT people here in Germany, and I think thats the case all over Europe.
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Nice, NZ will welcome you here.
Hope down under treats you better
congrats.
just remember to keep voting, don't let what happened to Venezuela happen to you guys
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Did you get a job before moving? Just curious about the logistics of a visa
Isn't New Zealand currently going through their own slide to the right? The Māori only represent like ~17% of the population over there. New Zealand just elected a conservative coalition.
Seems like you're just moving from one place you (presumably) don't agree with to a new place that also just signed up for shit you probably aren't going to agree with.
I mean it looks beautiful but if your travel is for political reasons I fear you're just heading to a different slice of the same.
Have a safe flight.
Maori only represent 17% of the population however because of our founding document they have a permanent place in government and will always be heavily involved in governance.
Our country elected the national party which is right after two terms of our left wing government. Its expected since our elections always bounce between left and right. The current right wing government is stupid but nothing compared to trump. The controversy comes mostly from their coalition partners bills Act who are led by a complete moron.
Labour is going to win next election because national has fucked up almost every area they campaigned on.
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Nau mai ki Aotearoa!