Visiting/Relocating to Britain
 

Hello all. I’m a born and bred American.
Oddly enough, though, most of my life I’ve had an extreme calling to visit and/or move to England.
I do have a couple of Brit friends here so I’ve learned a fair bit about life across the pond, and I’m a research guru for the rest of my current knowledge.
However, I would like to know even more about living there. I’m a radio talk show host by trade and a carpenter/woodworker hobbyist.
I would prefer wide open spaces like the midlands, especially in a tiny village somewhere.
Can anyone tell me what the current housing and job markets in those areas are like? What are the top 5 or 10 things I need to know about living there long-term (permanently?).
Another thing high on my priority list is communicating with average Brits. Are there any legitimate forums/chats or other formats where one could meet and chat with real people?
I am absolutely NOT interested in those dating or other sites full of weirdos and scam artists, but somewhere where genuine, run-of-the-mill folks gather and chat...perhaps like an online village pub.
Anyway, thank you very much for any info provided. I’m eagerly awaiting a response.
Mark

You can visit for up to 6 months as a tourist - do that before deciding to move to UK, which without certain skills or tons of money is problematic anyway.

What do you mean, an "extreme calling" to visit? Go visit for heaven's sake, what is stopping you? It's not Russia, you can visit any time you want, easily. In fact, London is one of the cheapest destinations to fly to from the US, and the shortest.

The rest of the desire is a fantasy. No one should be obsessing about a country where they have NEVER been even though it's easy to go there and they haven't bothered. Go and visit some and then decide the rest of it.

<<Can anyone tell me what the current housing and job markets in those areas are like? What are the top 5 or 10 things I need to know about living there long-term (permanently?).>>

It is WAY premature to be thinking about housing and job markets. But to address one of your points, a tiny village would probably be the absolute worst idea if you intend to work (which you can't without the proper documentation).

Living there permanently is nothing more than a pipe dream at this point. You can't just up and move to another country on a whim. Having a couple of Brit friends doesn't count for much at all.

Look at Heimdall's link, and call the British Embassy if you want a dose of reality. And go spend a WHOLE lot of time in England before you do anything else.

Yes, you can come as a tourist for up to six months, but don't tell the immigration officer you want to stay or look for a job. If you've read through the Set(O) form and instructions in my above link you will see just how difficult it is to be granted leave to remain in the UK. I hired an immigration lawyer to help me with my successful application.

<< If you've read through the Set(O) form and instructions in my above link you will see just how difficult it is to be granted leave to remain in the UK. I hired an immigration lawyer to help me with my successful application.>>

And Heimdall had to fight through Ragnarok itself just to be able to apply.

watch and learn
https://youtu.be/Oj1qhR2E9Ak
wide open spaces in the midlands
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/what...ngham--7567175
Tiny village in the midlands
Hopefully this is tiny enough
http://www.themodelvillage.com/
high on my priority list is communicating with average Brits. Learn Brummie
https://youtu.be/xitjviofxh0
https://youtu.be/NqIcbLkY2iY
where genuine, run-of-the-mill folks gather
http://www.birminghamforum.co.uk/
Housing is very cheap if you wish to puchasea a project for remodeling.
https://youtu.be/ftuzyyz693E
but it being the interweb you are bound to meet someone who rattles your cage.
Since Brexit it is obligatory for new comers to eat and like Marmite. Fails this and you will not gain entry.
https://youtu.be/Hpj-IkiL9aA
https://youtu.be/iqAB6yHAodQ

I’m curious what you mean by “the wide open spaces” of the Midlands. It’s an area with some of the biggest cities and busiest motorways in the country. There are some villages but it’s not everyone’s first idea of getting away from it all...

More importantly - are you aware that an American citizen cannot just move to the UK permanently? (And indeed a British citizen can’t move to the US) There are lots of rules and conditions about immigration and from the sounds of your situation, you don’t come anywhere close to fulfilling them. An “extreme calling” is not good enough.

Come and visit by all means. In theory you can stay for up to six months - although immigration will need to be convinced you’re not planning to outstay that or work over here, that you have planned your trip and have enough money to support yourself, and evidence that you definitely plan to return to the US at the end of the six months.

It does sound as if you’ve never visited the UK, and it’s hard to understand how you know you have an extreme calling without having been here.

Sort yourself out a trip to the UK to get to know it a bit better, then see how you feel.

Perhaps the wide open spaces of the Midlands are what the English would call the North, which is kind of middle if you look at a map of Great Britain and forget about Scotland being a different country. Or maybe the East Midlands. Lots of wide open country in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire. Actually there s quite a bit of countryside in the West Midlands too. The Midlands is more than jut Brum after all.

Visit the UK. See how grim and isolated life really can be in many small villages, with no bus route, no shop and increasingly no pub.

Try reading "Living and Working in Britain" by David Hampshire.

Talk show host doesn't sound like the kind of job that will make you a desirable immigrant.

>>What are the top 5 or 10 things I need to know about living there long-term (permanently?).<<

The #1 thing basically is you can't. Not if all your qualifications are in your OP. Being an Anglophile and talk show host won't qualify you on any level.

>>I would prefer wide open spaces like the midlands, . . . <<

Goodness (!) you do have a lot to learn

Your interests are kind of weird.

I mean...You could move to a small town in the US and go to the local bar and pretty much have the same experience. Sports, beer, neighbors/couples/friends just drinking and chatting. The topics of conversations are probably the same. (Trump figures prominently) Probably similar trouble finding a job, making friends. (Have you ever lived in a “tiny village”. It blows, for the most part). Brits are just people. I think you’re imagining an exoticness that doesn’t exist.

I'm always amused at Americans that assume the locals want to sit and chat with a stranger and that's what you'll be for far longer than you think. They really aren't that interested. I have no idea as to what you mean by 'real' people as opposed to unreal people? Do go to England but as a tourist before giving any consideration to living there.

Welcome to Fodors.

No one wants to just chat, they want to chat about something, what subjects do you want to chat about?

The Guardian has an off beat look at moving to various British towns

https://www.theguardian.com/money/series/letsmoveto

Unfortunately Royston Vasey isn’t mentioned

There are frequent quality of living surveys that get the juices flowing

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/...s-Britain.html

If the Government's immigration website isn't enough of a cold shower, there are a fair few websites/blogs/forums by and for expatriates from the US to provide information on the practicalities.

If and when you come to visit, check out the local papers and estate agents. You might well find that chat in that ideal tiny village's pub is about how it can't provide enough affordable housing for young people setting up home, or reasonable job prospects - because of incoming commuters or second-homers pushing up property prices. If the pub hasn't gone the way of so many others and been converted into more profitable housing, that is.

My usual role in threads like this is to be the official grump.

Oddly, though, in your case the usual shower of water is a bit
less frigid than usual. In no particular order:

- Ancestry. Under current law, any citizen of an EEA country (EU plus Norway, Switzerland and Iceland) has an unlimited right to live and work here. Many EEA states have extraordinary definitions of "citizen": Ireland and Spain for example (and several others) base the definition on ancestry, not residence or place of birth.

Though some members of the British ruling party would like Britain to leave the EU, at present this is merely an aspiration most legislators disagree with - rather like Trump tweets. Since Britain, like the US, is a representative democracy the late night rantings of old duffers have no legislative significance (except to fuel pseudo-liberals' contempt for their poorer fellow-citizens), so it's far from certain the idea will ever get Parliamentary approval.

In the past few weeks, the UK government has made it clear, though, that even were we to leave, the rights of EEA citizens to work here would be unchanged. So it's worth checking whether you've chosen suitable ancestors.

2. Talk show host. Unclear what sort of TSH you are - but in the small print of those immigration rules, there's a whopping loophole for exceptional talent. If your talk show has a distinctiveness you can sell to UK radio or TV stations, there's no reason why you couldn't get a permit - as long as the station can afford you. Or, though it's a bit messier, possibly do US talk shows from a UK base.

3. Woodworker. Obviously you can't go looking for carpentry jobs in Britain. But there's no reason why you can't come and sell your objets d'art - physically or on the web. ALL British public servants are required to understand that we go our of our way to encourage foreign businesses to set up and trade here - and our border control officials are trained in understanding the arcane, but crucial, distinction between coming here to work (BAD) and coming here to trade (GOOD).
The general principle is roughly the same as in the US - but our officials understand it and are required to be helpful.

Even if you don't qualify for an EU passport, both woodworking and hosting talk shows may well offer you opportunities for extended stays here that could be self-funding, painless ways of understanding the country and excellent opportunities to talk to real people.

Bilbo's almost right to say that no-one wants just a chat. He just forgot to add "except to talk-show hosts".

I appreciate few of you want to continue talking to the people, or about the subjects, the day job involves. But in my boozer, it always seems to help them break the ice with the other 99%.

This all-too-familiar Fodor's thread reminds me of a wonderful movie from the 80s starring a very young John Cusack, who falls deeply in love with a brilliant and beautiful young woman whose life circumstances are very complicated. When the romance suddenly hits the rocks, Cusack's character goes around asking all his male peers for advice. In a series of very funny quick cuts, this series of guys give responses ranging from cynical to irrelevant to bizarre to clueless to mean to just plain stupid and naive. At the end of the montage, Cusack is left alone, and he says out loud: "Well, ThAT was a mistake."

Dear AmericanAnglophile, unlike you, who has felt a lifelong pull to particular part of Europe and long thought about living here, I am an American who actually DID move to Europe on a wihm (more than 10 years ago.) I woke up one morning with the idea to do so, woke up my husband and suggested it, and after a few minutes of discussion, we decided to do it.

Unlike you, we actually didn't know where in Europe we wanted to live, so we took a few trips and ended up choosing Italy. We had a house to sell and arrangments to make, of course, paperwork to clear -- but it go done.

Like you, I quickly discovered that expat websites were useless == and you won't find the situation improved here. I will also warn you will run into a surprising amount of similar sarcasm, negativity and scolding from just about any suburbanite American you share your idea with. Ignore it.

Also unlike you, I had actually lived in Europe before as a working adult -- the UK and France -- so I already knew that locals would, in fact, take a great deal of interest in a relocating American, and that there be loads of invitations and spontaneous conversations in pubs, cafes, restaurants from UK and French citizens. Where I live now is an extremely chatty country, and I confess there are times when I deliberately go to weekly open air market minutes before it shuts down just to get my shopping done quickly, rather than the many extra minutes it normally takes during the peak hours, when every neighbor wants to stop and chat, or sit down for a coffee, and the vendors also want to catch up with the latest news or tell you about theirs.

But even if I hadn't already had similar experiences in the UK and France, I would have known for myself living in a couple of small towns in America that foreigners are sought out with interest. In the last small town I lived in the US, before I sold my home, we had immigrants from Scotland, London, Israel and Burkina Faso -- just on my street alone. We absolutely enjoyed having them as dinner guests and listening to them talk about their native country and their experiences living in the US. It is NORMAL behavior for people to be curious about people from another country, in a kind way. Even here in Italy, I have friends who are Danish, British, residents of Paris, Malaysian. We learn a lot from each other.

Alas, there are plenty of people who only want to show you an ugly face about immigration. They only want to be negative about it, and there is plenty of reasons to be discouraged about how Americans and Brits and many other Europeans now see no value in cultural exchange, and jeer at it. Brexit, whatever it turns out to be, will probably put new obstacles to your desire to live in the UK. That will suit many timid people posting on the internet just fine "Nyah nyah we told you so." I hope for a better outcome for you.

The internet is good for one thing when it comes to wanting to live elsewhere: lots of people set down roots and become bloggers and podcasters and videographers about their European adventure to a curious American audience. Good luck in whatever you do.

So you don't think Brexit will happen Flanner?
My understanding is that those EEA citizens legally resident in the UK at the time of Brexit (March 2019??) will be able to remain. Not too sure about any wishing to move there after that. Meanwhile they are busy trying to deport EEA citizens who are currently legally in the country and it looks like UK citizens living in the EEA will be shoved under a bus, since the majority can't vote.

OP does not appear to have ever visited Britain and to have a romanticised view of the place, so the advice most people are offering - of visiting for up to the six months they are allowed visa free - seems sensible to begin with. OP may find the UK is not what they imagine it to be.