Advise general

Hi Tina, we recently moved from South Africa to Wales.  There were many reasons for the move. My advice would be to look online for a cheap rental or stay with relatives as you would need an address for basically everything.  Open a bank account on your name and have atleast one utility on your name. Thankfully SA is out of the RED list so you not need to quarantine,  cost us over R60 000!. Once you have a Wesh address and you are physically here,  register with a local GP and contact Careers  Wales to talk to an advisor.  They will give you free advice and send regular emails with jobs that may interest you. Start applying immediately. The jobs market is improving but there are no guarantee you will find something immediately. Start learning some Welsh, I used Duolingo to get a feel for the language.  It depends which part of Wales you want to settle down, the more rural, the friendly the people. You should have savings to tide you over and it can be very expensive to rent and pay utilities,  especially if you convert from pounds to rands. The good part of living in Wales is that you do not pay anything for prescriptions. My advice is to choose areas to the east of Wales from Bridgend to Cardiff as most of these schools are dual language, both English and Welsh. The housing market is not in your favour, trust me. There is a bigger demand than supply so prices are inflated by over 50%, and they fly off the shelf within days. My final advice would be to choose Scotland over Wales, especially for your kids as University fees are paid by the government if you have lived there for 3 years,  a huge savings.  Good luck with your move!

Thank you so much for yiure response and advise. We are looking at cardiff and working in Bristol.  We dont have kids but will be bringing our dogs with us. I will come over first and my husband will follow, I hold a british passport,  Scotland not girl me  I lived there for over ten years... yes am aware of the NHS , have to register with local GP, prescriptions subsidized,  hospitalisation free but long waiting lists for specialists. I would like to rent a house and would like to do that before leaving south africa  so that possible? Could you suggest letting agencies in Cardiff?

Final few questions of I may,

Will 5000 pound be enough for myself to live on for 3 month's ?

What form of I'd will I need to open a bank account? Will my passport suffice with a rental agreement?

Do I.have to re register for my national insurance number as I have been out of the UK for more than 10 years now  in order to apply for work?

Many thanks
Tina

Hi Tina

To open a bank account, yes passport, the rental agreement will be enough.

5k enough to live on for 3 months? It Will depend on where you live but as you have a British passport you might be able to get help with rent after the first month.

Hi Tina,

Letting agents are very reluctant to deal with anyone from abroad. Most people book a BNB and when there are here look to rent.

Will 5000 pound be enough for myself to live on for 3 month's ? Should be fine

What form of I'd will I need to open a bank account? Will my passport suffice with a rental agreement?
Most banks want proof of address and they may take a rental agreement, Barclays does not, and utility bills. So, it would be better if you can reactivate your old bank account when you were in Scotland as they want to see proof that you can fund your rental. Most rentals are 12 months minimum, we managed to get 6 month, not  sure about 3 months?

Do I.have to re register for my national insurance number as I have been out of the UK for more than 10 years now  in order to apply for work? We were out of the UK for 10 years also, the NI number is still valid. Get you international drivers license from SA and then convert your SA license to UK, contact DVLA, or nearest post office.

anandngovender wrote:

Hi Tina,

Letting agents are very reluctant to deal with anyone from abroad. Most people book a BNB and when there are here look to rent.

Will 5000 pound be enough for myself to live on for 3 month's ? Should be fine

What form of I'd will I need to open a bank account? Will my passport suffice with a rental agreement?
Most banks want proof of address and they may take a rental agreement, Barclays does not, and utility bills. So, it would be better if you can reactivate your old bank account when you were in Scotland as they want to see proof that you can fund your rental. Most rentals are 12 months minimum, we managed to get 6 month, not  sure about 3 months?

Do I.have to re register for my national insurance number as I have been out of the UK for more than 10 years now  in order to apply for work? We were out of the UK for 10 years also, the NI number is still valid. Get you international drivers license from SA and then convert your SA license to UK, contact DVLA, or nearest post office.

I have lived outside the country for 13 years, my National Insurance number is still valid it is with you until you die.

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

DVLA is currently experiencing some issues in issuing driving licences - half the staff are taking industrial action of Covid protection issues and refusing to come back to work until they get impossible guarantees from the management.  Make sure you have copies of anything you send off to DVLA; my daughter has now been waiting for 2 months for her licence.

From my daughter's experience, the visa for her husband was very expensive £1k for the visa and £3k for NHS charges.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thank you for the advisement I'm going to open a bank account this side with Lloyd's and I'll contact letting agents this side as I would like a place to live when I arrive hopefully if I upfront they will accommodate me. Thank you for the info on the NI and license will sort my license out this week. We are looking at living in cardiff and possibly working in Bristol.

Appreciate all the help i can get..thank you..

tinalewies wrote:

Thank you for the advisement I'm going to open a bank account this side with Lloyd's and I'll contact letting agents this side as I would like a place to live when I arrive hopefully if I upfront they will accommodate me. Thank you for the info on the NI and license will sort my license out this week. We are looking at living in cardiff and possibly working in Bristol.

Appreciate all the help i can get..thank you..

I highly recommend that you don't rent without viewing the property first. Stay in an Airbnb first for a week and look around for a suitable place to rent.

Hello does anyone know how much a spousal visa costs or is there another visa I can get for my husband that would allow him to come with me in say 3 months time? Will he have to pay the NHS fee? Aswell or just fir the visa?

tinalewies wrote:

Hello does anyone know how much a spousal visa costs or is there another visa I can get for my husband that would allow him to come with me in say 3 months time? Will he have to pay the NHS fee? Aswell or just fir the visa?

All the information can be found HERE.