What to expect when moving to Scotland

Finding a job quickly means you will likely have to accept minimum wage - anywhere from £15,000 to £19,000. You may be in this job for 6-12mths or even longer.  It can be difficult to find an experienced position without being in the organisation or having relevant U.K. qualifications and/or previous U.K. work history.

Prepare your budget on the lower wage - say £16,000.  Know your tax and national insurance deductions (see HMRC site).

Don't under-estimate the importance of a car.  We've never done without a car before and after 1 year without one we still are having to catch multiple buses and commute for 2-4 hours to go to hospital appointments for specialist doctors. A car would make the trip in 20 mins each way. We have to take entire days off work instead of a few hours. Also on weekends and days off our sightseeing is restricted to the local bus route and weekend timetables.  We haven't really been able to do the things we were hoping to do. You need a car.

You need to be resident with a UK permanent address for 185days before you can swap your Australian (for example) driver's licence with a U.K. licence.  Without a U.K. licence your car insurance will be closer to £2,000 - £3,000 a year instead of £200 - £500 a year, depending on the age and Co2 emissions of your car. The older the cheaper to buy but more expensive for road tax. Road tax can be thousands instead of hundreds every year if you buy a not-so-green car. So you may need to wait at least 6 months to buy a car and then even longer to afford a greener, newer, more expensive model.

I'd recommend a 6-9 month lead up to leaving. You need at least 3 months especially if getting your bank account and finances in order for the highly transparent and intrusive visa application process (e.g. UK Ancestry visa requirements).

Work out where you want to live.  Have an idea where you don't want to live. Know what your rental specifications are. Close to train and/or bus links. Central heating. Etc. Get WIFI in your temporary accommodation for rental and job hunting.

Get a prepaid SIM card and UK mobile number the first day you arrive - phone shops are open 7 days. You will need this for your CV and job and rental hunting.

Arrive on a Sunday so you can sleep and start GO GO GOing on the Monday. Check when the local bank holidays are. Some places close for nearby bank holidays. E.g. some Scottish businesses may close for English bank holidays. Ch ck for local holidays too! No good arriving the Sunday before a holiday Monday and wasting a day when you could be looking for rentals and and jobs.   

Subscribe to Indeed job alerts for Glasgow. Apply for fresh/new listings asap. Have your CV in Dropbox, google drive or the like so you can upload for online applications. Have a cover letter drafted that you simply tweak for each job. Have this ready.

As soon as you have a permanent address, call HMRC and apply over the phone for a NINO. they send a form to your permanent address. You will pay emergency tax until you get your NI number and you can change your tax code.

You will need at least 2 weeks temporary accommodation (be realistic about how much this will cost - for 1,2,4 etc weeks).  Be mindful that 'available now' on rentals in Scotland means either when landlord/tenant moves out or when it's been cleaned. You won't be able to sign a lease until the day you pay deposit and collect keys - the day you start your lease. You won't have permanent address papers until then. Go directly to your local council and register for council tax. Check it's not a bank holiday (it will be a waste of time and money on buses etc - we know). Once you have council tax registration paper and a lease you can get kids into school and pass your entry level security clearance for employment.

Register in advance with recruitment agencies (e.g. Search Condultancy in Glasgow) and arrange for temp work asap after permanent address is established.  Then find a permanent role.  Then find a permanent role that pays well. Pat yourself on the back if these last two steps are consecutive. Hug yourself if you get a job transfer.

Make sure you have 7 months cash for rent (6 months rent, one month rent) as you will usually always have to pay in advance being new to country unless you have a financial guarantor - UK resident in at least £25,000 salary. If renting in England, allow up to another months rent for fees for all sorts of things.  The regulations are different. Scotland is cheaper and fairer on tenant.

Mattresses are expensive. If you have an expensive amazing mattress, consider sending it over by sea. Look into fumigation/customs requirements - you might prefer to buy new.

Having £50 a month pocket money as an adult - remaining disrectionary income a month - is a luxury. This can buy a week's groceries for two people or cover a single dinner and drinks night out. Cash flow is king.  Careful spending for first 3 months until you really understand the value of your income and how little the minimum wage leaves you.

Get a bank account as soon as you have a permanent address. Then set up a UK PayPal account and link it to your U.K. Bank account. Transfer money from your Australian PayPal account (that is linked to an Australian bank account) and transfer to your U.K. PayPal - then withdraw funds from U.K. PayPal to your U.K. Bank account. This is faster and cheaper and more reliable than international bank transfers, foreign exchange companies and Qantas travel card. We tried them all and this works best for us. Also quickest way to get money to Australia.

Read the other articles in this forum about budget and finance. I have shared my budget and living costs in another thread. You can click on my profile and find my other posts (and my website).

Good luck planning. It's necessary.  Love the adventure 🦄