Do I need a visa to live and work in Scotland?
 

I'll be staying in Scotland for a few months and I'd like to work little stints of jobs whilst I'm over there, so I'm wondering if I'll need to obtain some sort of Work Visa before I go?
Also if I'll need a visa or travel visa to live over there?

Where are you from and what nationality do you have or which country's passport do you hold?

Don't rely on strangers on an Internet forum to give you answers about visas and work permits. You need to contact the appropriate authorities or you could find yourself deported and not allowed to return to the UK

"<i>I'd like to work little stints of jobs whilst I'm over there, so I'm wondering if I'll need to obtain some sort of Work Visa before I go? </i>"

From your other thread --you are from Minnesota. The short answer is -- you can't. There <i>are</i> ways to get permission, but if you qualified through any of the special provisions, you'd probably already know how.

"<i>Also if I'll need a visa or travel visa to live over there?</i>"

You do not need a visa to stay in the UK for 6 months --but you'd better be able to prove you can support yourself <u>without</u> working. You can only be a non-working tourist, not a working resident.

Don;t know where you're from - "whilst" certainly doesn't sound american.

But the first answer is correct - you need to check with the nearest British Embassy or consulate to see what rules would govern your trip. If you're an american - no working without a job in advance (and the company has to prove they can;t get a local to fill it). You can try to work off the books - washing dishes or whatever , although it's illegal - but if you try to enter the country without a return ticket and enough resources to support yourself they likely will just put you on the next plane home.

nytraveler: I thought the 'whilst' pointed elsewhere too - but on an earlier thread she said she is from Minnesota

meant to add -- Mariah: on that thread you were asking about a two month self-catering flat in Glasgow. Nowhere did you mention wanting to work. If you <i>had</i> we would have explained it isn't legal.

Now -- if there are details you've left out-- dual citizenship, your parents are British, that sort of thing -- there could be different avenues. But like I said -- if any of those were the case you wouldn't be asking here, you'd already know . . .

Where there's a whilst there's a way. Stay in Scotland until the rain wears you out or the money runs out.

As others have said, don't ask us, go to the people who set the rules the Embassy would be explaining to you:

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/

"you need to check with the nearest British Embassy "

Only if you're made of money.

British embassies (just like your own country's embassies) are NOT free information centres. If you contact any UK diplomatic post, you'll be told to dial a premium rate phone number where, for $3 a minute, you'll be told exactly what you'll get told for free on the Home Office website Patrick's recommended.

There's only a few ways that you can stay in the UK for a few months and be allowed to work - all of them require a visa and a shed load of money

Of course, you could work illegally. Thousands, perhaps millions, of Irish, East Europeans, and Hispanic people work illegally in the US doing the work no one else wants to do -- landscaping, child care, elder care, house, office and hotel cleaning, roofing, asbestos abatement, prepping, busing and dishwashing in restaurants.

You have no protection against exploitation by your employer, financial or sexual; you have no protection against unhealthful or unsafe working conditions; and you build up no credits toward health care or retirement. You do build up a tax obligation that you probably can't pay because you are really there, but the consequences of tax violations are worse than the consequences of working illegally. Getting a bank account in the UK is less simple than in the US, so you will be in a cash economy, keeping your money under your mattress, where it is subject to theft that you can't report. I don't advocate doing it, but I have known people who have done it. It is easiest to find this kind of work in tourist areas at the height of the season.

Before you give it a shot, read George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London."

Yes I am American.
I had read articles and news stories before about people working little jobs overseas like I (and some of you as well) explained, so I hadn't really put into thought whether or not it was illegal.

I guess I'll just have to make sure I have enough money before I leave to last me for my entire trip!
Thanks everyone.

That's best. Even if you wanted to, the chances of getting someone in the UK to employ you illegally are minimal. Unlike the situation in the US mentioned by Ackislander, there isn't really a whole lot of illegal working here. There's no need when we have tens of thousands of EU citizens desperate to come here and do our cruddy jobs perfectly legally.