Ancestry visa

Grant and I will be emigrating to the UK on an ancestry visa.  

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

This visa is available to Commonwealth citizens over the age of 17 years, who are descended from a grandparent who was born in the UK.   In our case, Grant's paternal grandparents were born in the UK.  

In order to apply for an ancestry visa one needs to prove the ancestral line from the  grandparent to the applicant, to do this the following documents have to be provided: 

• a copy of the UK-born grandparent's birth certificate (sourced via this website)
• the relevant parent's unabridged birth certificate
• if the ancestral line is being traced through the maternal line, and name changes have occurred through marriage, then the relevant marriage certificates will be necessary.
• the applicant's unabridged birth certificate

Other documents that are required are:

• if a spouse is applying as a dependent - the marriage certificate and proof that the relationship has existed for some time (the appropriate length of time seems to be at least 2 years)
• proof that the applicant intends to work in the UK (CV and correspondence with employment agencies or prospective employers)
• Bank statements to prove that you have sufficient funds to support yourself and your dependents
• Proof that adequate accommodation will be available on arrival in the UK 
• Copies of previous passports and UK visas that may have been granted in the past

You also have to have TB screening done at an approved centre, pay the visa fee (currently £516 per applicant)and the NHS surcharge (£2000 per applicant from 8 January 2019).

For all the information on the ancestral visa, there is a pdf provided by the UK government here.

You can apply for an ancestral visa 3 months before your intended date of travel.  On your application you state your intended date of travel and when your passport is returned to you it will contain a vignette that allows you 30 days to enter the country from the intended date of travel.  So for example our intended date of travel was entered as 17 November 2018 and our vignette is valid from that date to 17 December 2018.  It is a common misconception that you have 30 days to leave the country from the date that your visa is granted, but this is not so.

The ancestral visa (without paying extra for priority) normally takes roughly 15 working days to process.  (Ours took 9 working days)

You will also receive a letter with your passport - this letter needs to be available when you enter the UK as it is possible they will ask for it at immigration.  The letter also has details of the post office which you must go to to collect your BRP (Biometric Resident Permit).  Once you enter the UK on your ancestral visa you should collect your BRP within 10 days.  This card is effectively your proof that you are legally entitled to reside in the UK.

The uncertainty of it all.....

I've been pondering this whole business of uprooting my entire life and leaving all that is familiar to go and live on another continent - debating what the hardest part is?

Photo by Katie Moum on Unsplash

For me there is absolutely no doubt, the hardest part of it all is the uncertainty!  I'm a person that likes to plan everything down to the finest detail.  Call me a control-freak, a Type-A personality, an anal pain-in-the-arse.....I like spreadsheets, lists, plans.... 

I think to a point you can plan your emigration, but then there comes a point where you have no control and that's what freaks me out.

Our paperwork is sorted.  Broadly speaking we have a plan in place.  We know the area we want to settle, we know the time-frame, we've got the finances figured out.  But then there are those pesky factors that are completely out of our hands.  Selling the house - you can spruce it up, put it on the market..... and then you have to sit and wait.  Finding work - you can get your CV sorted, register with agencies, apply for jobs.... but then you have to sit and wait.  Finding accommodation - you can work out your budget, pin-point where you want to live.... but then you have to sit and wait.  It's doing my head in!  

We have accepted an offer on our house, but now we wait, hoping that the prospective owner's bond gets approved and that it all moves forward without a hitch.  

Grant has applied for a number of jobs, he's had 3 interviews with a particular company (2 skype, one in person in London) it all looks extremely positive, but now we wait - they've told him they'll give him a final answer "very soon".... frankly that's not soon enough for my liking!  

And as for the accommodation thing; I keep on looking at houses to rent on Zoopla and Rightmove - finding a house I like. in the area I like, seems relatively easy, but without knowing how much Grant's going to be earning, when he is going to start working and whether or not the landlords will accept our little dog, it's a pointless exercise in frustration. 

I am SO not cut out for this! 

UK Tier 2 Visa

Disclaimer: Please note I am not qualified in the emigration field, the below observations are what I discovered when researching the Tier 2 visa in my personal capacity.  When applying for a Tier 2 visa please get the help of a person duly qualified to assist you.  

Photo by Nicole Harrington on Unsplash

As mentioned in my previous post, I spent many months researching the Tier 2 visa, in the hopes that our younger daughter Paula (a qualified Speech Language Pathologist, with a 4 year honours degree) could enter the UK via this route.  What I discovered is that the Tier 2 visa is not an easy visa to lay your hands on.

To get a Tier 2 visa you would ideally have an occupation that is on the Skills shortage list which you can find here.

If your career is not on that list, your only other chance would be to have a qualification RQF 6 or above that appears on the Skilled Work list - see Table 2 on this website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-j-codes-of-practice-for-skilled-work 

  

If you qualify, then the next step would be to make a list of employers in your line of work, who are registered as sponsors (see this list https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers) and begin applying for work with those employers.  Should you be successful in your job search, the employer would then need to issue you with a certificate of sponsorship.

Currently, there are only 20 700 restricted certificate of sponsorship available every year, these are divided across the months of the year and only a fixed number of certificates of sponsorship are issued each month.  Basically, they are issued on a points system, with the applicant with the most points getting issued the first certificate and so on.  To put it simply, the certificates are issued based on salary, so the higher the salary the greater the chance of getting a certificate of sponsorship.  

If you are not on the skills shortage list, any sponsor who is willing to employ you first has to conduct a Resident Labour Market test, to prove that they cannot find a local person to do that job.  They also have to pay you the minimum wage (currently £30 000) 

There are some exceptions to all of the above - the rules are somewhat different for those on the Skill Shortage List, for those switching from a Tier 4 visa to a Tier 2 and for doctors and nurses, amongst others.

See the detailed requirements here: https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/eligibility  Only once all these requirements are met can you apply for a visa.

Visas

Our family are using various different routes to emigrate to the UK.

If you are considering emigrating to the UK and want to see what routes are open to you, I'd suggest visiting this website.  It is backed by Sable International/First Contact and it offers a free assessment.

In our case, our elder daughter Roxy, her husband and children are going the British passport and Spousal Visa + dependants route.  Our younger daughter is going the Tier 4 (study) visa route.  Grant and I are going via an Ancestry visa for Grant, with me as dependant.

It's been quite a process getting our heads around the various visas and their requirements.  Probably the biggest headache has been figuring out how to get our younger daughter Paula into the UK.  Paula is a qualified Speech Language Pathologist, so we'd hoped she could enter the UK on a Tier 2 visa - I spent many months researching that option, but unfortunately after a while I realised that: a) it wasn't that easy to get into the UK on a Tier 2 visa and b) it wasn't going to happen for Paula!

I think many people labour under the misconception that if you come from "English stock" it will be easy to emigrate to the UK.  Unfortunately that just isn't true.  I see so many people getting their hopes dashed when they begin to investigate their options.  Basically, if you don't have a British Passport or an English ancestor who is no further back than a grandparent, your chances of easily emigrating to the UK are very small.  You are then left with only the option of a Tier 2 visa, a study visa (or if money isn't a factor - the investor or entrepreneur visa.  There are the odd exceptions to this, but they are anomalies and few and far between.

Photo by Sofia Sforza on Unsplash