The UK Border Agency and I: Like 'The King and I,' but less R&H

[x_los]

Okay, so in past years getting a work-permit for the UK wasn't awful. Annoying, but not /actually/ enough to provoke the wholesale slaughter of immigration officials. But now BUNAC's done giving away Blue Cards, and there's a point system (I don't know what more they want for 'Qualifications': they say I'm five points short, but I don't know how to enter in work experience, skills, other academic certifications on this form?), and I need a sponsor and a job lined up and I'm very confused. I have a BA with two majors, am bilingual, have family in England and visible means of support and I still may not get in? Um, who /does/ get in?

Apparently there need to be no UK OR EU citizens who might do any job I wish to do. Thanks for the death!queue.

Have any of you dealt with them? I know marah_sarie's living in Scotland, and Grits has lived in the UK as well: who do I blow for a measly 2-3 year work visa? Should I throw myself on an Immigration Consultancy? It's not for 8 months, the proposed move, anyway. Halp?

Comments

[gritsinmisery.livejournal.com]

Alas, pet, I can be no help a'tall. 1) I lived there 15? 16? years ago. Britain was barely a part of the EU; the bloody Chunnel wasn't even open yet (dug but not open -- the drill sat just outside the entrance with a sign "For Sale: One Owner, Lovingly Used.") Hell, there were still SHILLINGS floating about in open currency, although they were treated as 20p pieces (but the pound notes were all gone.) 2) Hubs wasn't actually working for anyone in the U.K. -- RAND and the MoD had an exchange program and Hubs' salary was still being paid by his U.S. employer. We didn't even need a work permit; you could live over there visa-free for a year if you had a steady (non-U.K.) income.

Sorry.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Ah, when I was /seven./ Lovely. I should have tried then. And I could get a freelance job via an American company and just happen to live there, dammit! UK come back, I love youuu!

*sigh* Why does the UK never want my affections?

[sanestlunatic.livejournal.com]

All I can say is that the UK hates American immigrants. Try to move to Canada or another Commonwealth country first.

Who does get in? People from the EU! :D I know, it sucks majorly.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

I may just try and get an MA in Britain first... that's a Reason to Be There, right?

[sanestlunatic.livejournal.com]

That's what I was going to do! (Except for the part where no grad school in their right mind would actually accept me. *cough*) Actually, if you get one in Scotland, I believe you get an extra year to remain and work after you get your degree? Which counts towards your five-year residency requirement for citizenship, not that I have spent extensive time looking into these things or anything.

[marah-sarie.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you get one in Scotland, I believe you get an extra year to remain and work after you get your degree?

It's actually two extra years, and, as of this past summer, it's been expanded to the rest of the UK, not just Scotland! It's called the Post Study visa category now, but the qualifications are the same as the old Scottish Fresh Talent scheme, I believe. Having a postgraduate degree from a UK institution also counts more on the points system, I think, if you apply for residency later. Also, you know what else is good about applying to a postgrad program in the UK? No GREs.

But it's basically either the post-study option or try to get Canadian citizenship first, you're right. :)

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Thanks so so much for helping, btw. I do idly wonder how long one has to work to get Canadian citizenship before transferring, etc. I'm sure the internet will know. Post-study really sounds /better/, though.

[x-los.livejournal.com]

Omg shiny. Thanks Meg!

[marah-sarie.livejournal.com]

I'm on a student dependent's visa, which lets me work without any restrictions. Since I've sort of bypassed the whole work visa thing, though, I'm afraid I can't really be of much help advice-wise. (You are using the Points Calculator, right? They seem to only take your most recent academic qualification into account, and there's no way for it to account for skills and non-UK-based work experience.)

But if you can line up a job and get a company/organization to sponsor you, though, you're basically in, I think. Of course, then you might have to worry about running into the Catch-22 that it's hard to find people who will hire someone who doesn't already have a work visa (Granted, I don't know about the UK, though. That was more just my experience in Japan.)

Like I said in my other comment, though, a post-grad degree from a UK institution automatically gets you two years visa-free, if you're considering post-graduate study. That's the route we're headed for, so I guess we'll see in a couple years how that works out?

[x-los.livejournal.com]

They seem to only take your most recent academic qualification into account, and there's no way for it to account for skills and non-UK-based work experience.

Exactly, what is that? What's the point of accessing qualifications as a vector if you kind of don't?

I think I can get a sponsor fine, but unless I'm reading it wrong, I need points AND a sponsor, and with just a BA there appears to be literally NO WAY for any group/company to ever need me as an employee? What's /that/? I'm pretty certain I could go work for like, the English kibbutz placement agency in a way that, baring weird circumstance, Some British Chick couldn't, due to language skills, previous work and personal experience: are they really going to deny that possibility on the basis of my not having a Masters? There but for five points: what?

And I've always been thinking that, after another year or two after this one, I'd go get a post-grad degree. I just didn't expect to have to head back quite so soon? But in America they give you a TA job with grad school and costs aren't bad: apparently not so in England. It's a little disquieting, b/c in America you're told not to go unless you're nearly paid to go, but English!grad school, while advancing my settlement, is apparently basically a huge sink of pounds into that endeavor. I'd have to be REALLY SURE English grad school/citizenship was what I wanted, or transfer before I accrued too much debt if I went and found out I was being anglophilic and naive and actually it wasn't all that. What's your husband's experience with this? Is tuition deadly? Do they let you mitigate the costs in the way an American uni would through any sort of work?

[marah-sarie.livejournal.com]

Whoa, oops. Forgot that I owed you a response to this comment. Sorry about that!

My husband didn't receive any sort of financial assistance (in the form of scholarships, grants or a TA job) for his Masters degree over here. (Basically, we were lucky that we'd saved up enough money to pay for it ourselves.) Even so, I do think we ended up paying less in tuition than we would have if he'd gone to a comparable grad program in the US. Most masters programs in his field are two year degrees in the US, for one thing, as opposed to the one year MSc program that it was over here. Basically, though, finding funding for a Masters is hard. For his PhD, on the other hand, which he started this year, he's received scholarships from the university that completely cover his tuition, and, on top of that, he has a TA job, which although it doesn't pay great, it's something. (Also, his PhD program here is meant to take three years, as opposed to the four or five it would be expected to take in the US.)

I should probably mention that we're talking about an MSc in Genetics and a PhD in Psychology here, from a Scottish university. I have no idea how things might be different under the English university system. At least up here, I think it might be easier to get a TA job as an MSc student if you're in the Humanities -- my department (History) has a couple of MSc students tutoring on first and second year undergraduate courses.

I can't remember what else I was going to say here. All in all, I think while he may have been more likely to get a scholarship to cover his masters program in the US, I think we'd still probably have ended up taking out loans, something we fortunately didn't have to do here. He'll finish grad school probably at least two years sooner than he would have been likely to in the US. And, not least of all, we get to live over here instead of in the US. So, that's our experience with grad school over here so far. Uh, hope that was a little bit informative?