Relocating To London | London Relocation Blog

Posts Tagged ‘relocating to London’

Make the Most of Your London Living

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

This is just an update on our London Living social networking site. Our membership continues to grow and as of today consists of 142 Londonistas standing proud

London Relocation Ltd. created London Living as an interactive resource for you if you’re relocating to London or have already moved here and are looking to network with fellow expats. It’s a one-stop shop that houses feeds from our blog and Twitter profile, as well as connects you to the London blogs authored by our Londonistas for further resources on living in London. Our discussion forums are open to any London-related topic you wish to chat about, from things to do to essential moving advice. Going forward, we’re adding a feature in which Londonistas can share what upcoming plans they have that others are welcome to join in on to supplement the socials we organize and London events we post, and we’re adding to our offering of apps for fun schtuff like chatting with other members and playing online games.

If you join us at London Living, you will also get your own profile page to pimp out with apps, photos, texts/feeds, and a comments section where other Londonistas can post messages to you.

As a growing network, we’re happy to evolve to meet your needs as a current and future London expat. There’s a lot of possibility within this friendly community, and you and your ideas are very welcome here

Tags: american expats in london, canadian expats in London, expats in London, London Expat, London Living, London Relocation, London social network, Moving to London, Moving to London from US, relocating to London
Posted in London Tips & Culture, recreation, visas, banking, & other logisitical issues | No Comments »

The London Underground: Keepin’ it Real

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

For those relocating to London, the first aspect of the city that you’ll need to familiarize yourself with straightaway is the public transport. More specifically: The London Underground, or the “Tube,” as we all endearingly like to call it. (I think it is very cute when my Chicago friends visit me here and continue to call it the “L” when it is the opposite of elevated ) Those of you who have visited London already know that the Underground is what Londoners call their subway system, and make note that the term “subway” here only refers to pedestrian crossings beneath the street level (i.e., foot traffic, not train).

At any rate, you can consult the Transport for London website for a larger, more comprehensive Tube map, which looks like the one above on the left. This is a schematic rendering, not a geographical one, so bear in mind that while the locations of Tube stations indicates their general relation to one another, it is not a measure of precise direction or distance.

In more recent years, depictions of the “real” Tube map (above on the right) have surfaced to provide a better bearing on where you are in the city—it is, you see, a bit difficult to determine by looking out the train windows when you’re, uh…well…underground. Even better, at TubeJP (London Tube Journey Planner), you can see the color-coded Tube lines overlaying a Google map where you can zoom in at street level.

Adding to the Tube’s “real”-ness is the new “live map” tracing the actual movements of the trains—this feature is temporarily unavailable on the site at present, but you can follow this link to see a video of what it normally looks like in motion.

The Underground map has obviously evolved over the course of the last century+, as illustrated in A History of the London Tube Maps, which offers links to great high-resolution images of map archives. Trying to achieve the optimal design for millions of commuters to follow with ease is a tricky feat, and there has been a lot of critique over the map’s aesthetics and readability (if you’re into maps/graphics, perhaps you’ll be interested in the two pence offered here and here in ‘07/ ‘08). I can recall last year’s big controversy surrounding the River Thames’s removal from the map—in response to public outcry that the river be returned to the official Tube map, it was reinstated. I find that to be very cute as well .

Lucky for you, London Relocation Ltd. prioritizes finding you a flat close to public transportation and will help you get oriented with how to get around in your neighborhood and commute to work/school. Safe journeys to you, dear commuters, and may you always find your way!

Tags: journey planner, London Relocation Services, London Underground, Moving to London, moving to London from Canada, Moving to London from US, real London tube map, relocating to London, the Tube, Transport for London
Posted in history, transportation | No Comments »

Finding London Employment so You Can Relocate to the UK

Monday, July 26th, 2010

I will be addressing this topic, yes, but hopefully I haven’t just gotten hopes up that I hold the key to your future I raise the subject as it’s a question that often floats to us over cyberspace because, obviously, relocating to London requires having a job or program of study over here in the first place. No employer/school, no need to search for those flats to begin with.

First of all, my most dished-out advice on the employment issue is considering a Tier 1 visa that would allow you to move to London without having first procured a job. The drawbacks are that it’s more costly and you must satisfy requirements pursuant to a points-based system that gauges your education/professional level. If you meet the minimum criteria (which has just been raised as of the 19th this month), you are considered a “highly skilled migrant” and allowed to come on over on the condition that you do actively seek employment and contribute; renewal of your visa will be contingent upon it.

Otherwise, to attain the Tier 2 visa, you will have to be sponsored by an employer, which is not so easy these days. The new UK coalition government has recently announced limitations to be placed on visa sponsorship (caps will apply to Tier 1 as well); as it is, corporations already must obey guidelines that ensure their positions have been made available to UK/EU citizens and are only filled by non-UK/EU candidates when no local applicants are as capable of fulfilling the roles. With the added expense of registering and issuing certificates of sponsorship, the prospect of recruiting/transferring employees from abroad becomes less and less attractive. In any case, a register of sponsors for Tiers 2 and 5 (and sub-tiers) is available at this link.

I have no rabbit to pull out of the hat here. To find work, you will need to research it, apply for it, and network for it. You cannot be proactive enough in this endeavor, as it is critical to distinguish yourself from the masses that are also clamoring for that advertised role. I recall from my own experience how my CV accompanied 1000s of others in cyberspace when I registered and applied on sites like londonjobs.co.uk, justlondonjobs.co.uk, londoncareers.net, totaljobs.com, and TwitJobs.net—with that kind of competition, it’s not enough to look great on paper. Now, I personally was able to land my role through a search on London’s Craigslist; it just so happened to work in my favor that I was an American expat given the nature of our services, but that is not always going to be the case across industries.

This is where networking is going to kick in. Hit your Google search and investigate the possibilities for connecting with like-minded individuals, if not recruiters themselves, and get leads or at least good advice for creating your CV, interviewing, etc. LinkedIn, Meetup.com, Facebook, and so forth are the most obviously popular networking sites, so don’t underestimate their range of forums on professional networking/job-hunting; keep running through the key words to cast a wide net, and remember that each contact you establish on one of these will be able to proffer advice on yet another resource to tap. That’s what networking is all about, after all, so you’ve to start somewhere in spinning that web!

It truly is all about who you know. And now you us, so once you’ve lined up that job and visa, we’ll hook you up with the property, yo, and offer you our own social network of lovely London expats at London Living.

Tags: american expats in london, Americans moving to London, corporate sponsored visa, finding job in london, london employment, london jobs, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, Moving to London from US, relocating to London, UK visa
Posted in London Tips & Culture, visas, banking, & other logisitical issues | No Comments »

Relocating to London with Your Spouse: Are You “Trailing” or “Accompanying”?

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Today finds me feeling a little more at peace with the trees . I’m still not happy about it, but I can accept it. Evidently, my husband and I are the only ones who find it to be a big deal, reinforcing the fact that this is a typical occurance in London. Fine.

Speaking of my husband, I know I’ve mentioned before that our London relocation was the result of his new employment. I happened to read a blog post today on the A Diplomat’s Wife site about the term “trailing spouse” applied to those spouses who move on the other’s behalf. I agree with the author’s sentiment that the term bears a negative connotation that makes me think ick. As I just commented on her post:

“‘Trailing spouse’ makes me feel like my husband just clubbed me over the head and dragged me to London by my hair, as my passive carcass leaves a trail in the dirt.”

Personally, I prefer the term “accompanying spouse,” which I’ve started seeing in equal frequency. Maybe it’s still not ideal, but it captures more of the essence that a spouse has made the move as a willing participant in support of the person he or she loves. As A Diplomat’s Wife says:

“I did not give up my life, my career and my family to blindly follow a man around the world. [...] I chose to live my life with [my husband].”

I believe that it’s not only important for others to perceive that this is the reality of an accompanying spouse (i.e., not that you’re just a passive puppy following someone all around the world—unless, of course, you are…to each his/her own, ay?), but even more vital that you yourself wrap your mind around it. Otherwise, it can lead to feelings of insecurity that spiral into resentment toward—guess who—your spouse. That’s when the partnership breaks down, and for relocations, it is critical to sustain that team effort. You’re in it together, so you need to work through it together and make sure both spouses’ best interests are taken into account.

I’m sure you’re thinking that this is just a basic lesson in marriage—yes, quite true. But a relocation amplifies all that is already challenging in a marriage (see my referral to Robin Pascoe’s books on this topic in “5 Recommendations for Families Moving to London“). The main reasons why this is so (at least from my perspective) are: 1) the “It’s the principle of the matter” mindset (in which one might resent that his/her priorities came secondary to the spouse’s reason for moving), and, 2) transitioning into what role one will assume in the new location.

Tackling the first issue is primarily psychological—mind over matter, as they say. It’s not to say that your concerns aren’t legitimate and you shouldn’t assert your viewpoints to ensure your side is understood and that your spouse will similarly make concessions to maintain the balance of power in the relationship. However, it’s also imperative to recognize when maybe your side is understood and your spouse will and does make concessions, in which case the problem may rest largely in your mind, so requires a shift in outlook.

As for the second issue, well, if you have left a job behind and have the ability to be a lady of leisure/man of means, that’s not too shabby a circumstance to embrace, at least for a little while—enjoy yourself, for goodness’ sake! If you’re moving to London, no one will dispute the limitless options of things to do to stimulate your intellect and fuel your soul. And if you’re raising a family, it goes without saying that that’s plenty enough. I myself seized the chance to channel my inner Domestic Goddess and finally learned how to cook! I went from zero to hero . On the other hand, if you need/want to work, I can’t promise that it will be simple to reenter what occupation/salary you left behind in this market, yet there are many resources to tap to establish the network you need to get your “in”—see my previous posts, “London Job Opportunities for Women” and “AmProWoLo…Huh? Wha?” as examples of resources for women (unfortunately, similar resources for men are fewer and further between as they represent probably less than 20% of accompanying spouses; however, their increasing number commands these support systems to be put in place. I’ll keep researching and share them with you!).

Whatever the terminology, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” so just remain confident in your decision to support your spouse, remembering that it was your choice, too, to make this awesome journey together.

Tags: accompanying spouse, london jobs, London Relocation, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, Moving to London from US, relocating to London, relocation companies london, Robin Pascoe, trailing spouse
Posted in London Tips & Culture, visas, banking, & other logisitical issues | No Comments »

High Maintenance and Moving to London?

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Never fear—we here at London Relocation Ltd. will help even the most demanding of clients

We understand that our clients are quality people with quality expectations (but of course, that’s why they choose to work with our quality company!), so we set the bar high for the properties we will show. In our collaborations with area lettings agents, we emphasize that flats must be located in safe neighborhoods, close to public transportation and necessities (grocery stores, etc.), and be of a high standard from both practical and aesthetic standpoints.

Granted, a part of our job is also managing those high expectations. As I’ve touched on often in this blog (including my brief series on “What to Expect in a London Flat“), London is not going to be the exact replica of where one is relocating from, nor should it be. Money does not go as far, and spaces do not stretch as vast; lifestyles must be adapted on varying levels, no question. That being said, with our own experience as expats of what lifestyle and housing can be like elsewhere, we do our best to match client preferences to the closest London has to offer for a given area and budget, and we’ll persist until the client is satisfied.

Newly refurbished kitchen and bath? All wooden floors? Done—that’s what we like too! And sure, as in the photo, demands such as accommodation of pets can throw a curve ball into the mix, simply because not all buildings or landlords allow them. Yet in a case like this, though moving without a pet will certainly open more doors (literally) to you, it is not to say that pet owners will not still find a living space ideal for both man and beast. This is where having a relocation specialist on your side makes all the difference—increasing your odds by increasing your options.

Relocating to London means embracing a new life abroad with a diversity of cultural experiences, yet it doesn’t have to mean entirely checking who you already are at the door.

You might want to reconsider that hat, though

Tags: Americans moving to London, London Relocation, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, moving to london from america, Moving to London from US, relocating to London, relocation companies london, Relocation London, student housing london
Posted in London Property Tips | No Comments »

London Calling

Monday, July 19th, 2010

RRRRRRRING!!! RRRRRRRING!!!!

“London Relocation—this is Colleen.”

“Yeah, hi. I’ve got your London Relocation blog on the other line.”

“Our blog?”

“Yes. It’s our understanding that you just flew in this morning from Chicago on an overnight flight and are operating on little to no sleep, so it called and said it wants its remotely useful content back.”

“Ah! Yes, yes that’s good of you to ring. But unfortunately I cannot accommodate that request at this time. Please hold…”

It’s my day to truly PHONE IT IN, after all.

But a word of advice if you’re relocating to London from a timezone several hours behind: Overnight flights into London will get you over the jet-lag faster if you can limit yourself to a short nap and power through until a normal bedtime that first night. Such is what I’m presently doing, which is putting my five functioning brain cells into overdrive, but will encourage them to prosper all the better by tomorrow, when I will hopefully have some semblance of an informative blog post to share, derrr… In any case, if you’re making the flight from a time zone several hours ahead instead, schedule a late-afternoon/early-evening flight that will get you here in the evening so you only have a few hours to wait before getting to tuck yourself into bed for the night. Either way, any naps that you find necessary during the subsequent day should be limited to no more than 2 hours; otherwise, you’ll sabotage your overnight sleep and require more days to acclimate to the local time.

In the meantime, I’m off to get that nap in so my brain will no longer be left off the hook…Happy Monday!

Tags: adjusting to time differences, Chicago to London flight, flights to London, Greenwich Mean Time, jet lag, london move, London Relocation, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, relocating to London
Posted in London Tips & Culture | 2 Comments »

A London Summer Festival to Cure What ‘Ales’ Ya

Friday, July 16th, 2010

Earls Court is once again hosting the annual Great British Beer Festival! Spanning the 3rd through 7th of August, the event features 500+ varieties of beer from around the world, along with live music, pub food, games, and tasting tutorials. Tickets are £6 if purchased in advance and £8 at the door.

So get those beer goggles out to better stomach (pun intended…wait for it…) the sight of grown men wearing half-tops to display the fruits of their ale-drinking labors. Me, I can’t wait for my pork scratchings.

While we want you to have fun, London Relocation Ltd. also encourages you to drink responsibly for the health and safety of yourself and others. Cheers!

Tags: British ale, Earls Court, Great British Beer Festival, London Relocation Services, London summer festival, move to London, Moving to London, relocating to London, west london, west london relocation
Posted in London Tips & Culture, food & beverage, recreation | No Comments »

Canary Wharf & Greenwich, London

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

This guest post comes to us compliments of one of our fabulous London Living Londonistas, Wendy McCooey, who chronicles her life as an American expat in London at her blog, The McCooey’s of London (where this post originally appeared June 30th, 2010) .

***

After a tasty brunch with friends, we headed out to explore and ended up in Canary Wharf and Greenwich. We had not done a lick of research, so we had no clue what to expect. We show up and at first think hmmm Canary Wharf is a bit, well…not worth the trip… It’s a financial district (YAWN!). We keep walking and then we see a nice riverbank area and cool buildings, TALL buildings, and then we turned another corner and it was glorious, yet another riverside area with cute restaurants/pubs, even a floating church for those who like to take their lord to the water. Mike actually went from “Let’s get out of here” tooooo “Now this is my kind of place, ‘corporate and sterile,’ everything looks brand new.” As for what I thought, it was nice, everything looked brand new, nothing like London; it reminded me of the area near the river in Chicago, and, well, I HEART CHI-TOWN.

Then we were off to check the time in Greenwich…

The name Greenwich comes from the Saxon term for ‘green village’. There is evidence of Bronze Age barrows in Greenwich Park as well as a Roman villa or temple.

In the Domesday Book, the manor of Greenwich is recorded as held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, and a royal palace or hunting lodge has existed here since before 1300. From the 15th century, the town became the site of the royal palace of Placentia, the birthplace of many Tudor monarchs including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

Now off to the Royal Observatory…

Come and stand on the world-famous Greenwich Meridian Line, which represents the Prime Meridian of the World – Longitude 0º. Every place on Earth is measured in terms of its distance east or west from the Greenwich Meridan. The line itself divides the eastern and western hemispheres of the Earth, just as the Equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres.

The Center of Time

During the evenings, the position of the Meridian Line is often marked by a green laser in the sky. Since the late 19th century, the Prime Meridian at Greenwich has served as the reference line for Greenwich Mean Time. It can now claim to be the centre of world time, and was the official starting point for the new Millennium.

Is Greenwich worth a visit? I say Yes! It’s a great way to spend a few hours. As always, there is a market (Greenwich Market) full of your typical market stuff, pubs, cute boutiques, a pier, and the Royal Observatory, which is wrapped in green space to have a picnic after you check the time and even the University of Greenwich.

Cheers,

WMMc

Tags: American expat in London, Canary Wharf, east london, Greenwich, Greenwich Market, Greenwich Mean Time, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, Prime Meridian, relocating to London, Royal Observatory
Posted in London Tips & Culture, day touring, history, recreation | No Comments »

London Job Opportunities for Women

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

As I was strolling through pretty Richmond the other day with a lovely group of American expat wives, one of them brought up a website named Women Like Us (www.womenlikeus.org.uk). The organization seeks to find part-time placement for women who are reentering the workforce after a hiatus for other important life responsibilities such as raising a family. This could be a valuable resource for accompanying spouses or expat women who initially move over on a Tier 1 or other appicable visa and seek temporary employment during the search for something full-time.

For accompanying spouses in particular (especially in the instance where one primary income suffices for the most part), the end goal may not be to find full-time work, but, rather, simply have a flexible work schedule that appeals to the career they may have had to leave behind in their home country—and one that is also conducive to scheduling around child-rearing, volunteering, or exploring other interests and travels. Beyond monetary compensation, there is no value that could be placed on the boost a professional woman gets from fulfilling the roles she once did after time away, as well as being able to once again contribute financially. I know for me, who is not even yet a mother, my initial months of unemployment in London left me feeling a bit unstructured and purposeless, with skills going to waste. True, I tried to channel my inner Domestic Goddess (for the first freaking time in my life!) and found meaningful outlets through personal projects and touring London, yet there was still a nagging desire for more. Knowing of Women Like Us would have been useful at that time, no question, so I happily pass it on to any other expat women seeking part-time employment in London—the organization also offers coaching on how to successfully reenter the workforce.

Tags: accompanying spouses, american expats in london, expat women, finding employment in London, London job search, london jobs, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, relocating to London, Women Like Us
Posted in London Tips & Culture, visas, banking, & other logisitical issues | No Comments »

O Beautiful For Spacious Skies, For Amber Pints of Ale…

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Uuuggghhh…it is brutal being an American in London the day after the 4th of July, when said 4th of July does not fall on a Friday or Saturday, but on a Sunday with no day off on Monday. It hurts, people.

But hurts oh so good. Yesterday we enjoyed an absolutely lovely American-style picnic in an English garden. Of all places to celebrate a nation’s independence, we were brimming with the irony of doing so in the former Motherland…one gets torn whether that’s a disrespectful thing to do, but if there’s one thing I assert as an expat, it’s that living in one country and loving it does not require you to forego your allegiance to your own. There are certainly expats who have moved here for the very reason that they’ve renounced their country, but it’s certainly not the case with probably a majority of us. Rather, it’s more out of an open-mindedness to experience another culture and understand its perspectives, and thereby modify or validate the perspectives we already hold.

One question I’m often asked is whether there is an obvious anti-American sentiment here. Well, it’s not something that trickles down much to the individual level—people of other nationalities are always lovely to me and might only tease my heritage in good fun—but there’s indeed no end to the sweeping judgments placed on the nation overall. And perhaps that’s inevitable and all countries are victims of it. Opinions are easily and understandably formed based on high-maintenance tourists, media representation, and the American television series that are aired here, yet I cringe at the possibility that the Kardashians could be remotely viewed as representative of over 300 million people—when I substitute-taught here for a few weeks last year, one of my teenage students, on confirming that I was American, asked me if I knew Lauren from “The Hills.” Unfortunately, I had also already confirmed that I’m from Chicago, so when its lack of geographic proximity to Southern California doesn’t register, it does make me ponder why Americans are popularly given a hard time for not knowing precise locations of other countries—I wonder that foreigners could identify the locations of individual states any better…all 50 of ‘em. Yet those who have visited the U.S. typically only know 4 best: New York (NYC), Florida (Miami/Orlando), California (LA), and Nevada (Vegas), and I find it an absolute shame the Midwest just gets flown over when it contains some of the most down-to-earth, good-hearted citizens with solid values. Not that the coasts don’t, of course! It’s just that there is a range of regional cultures in the U.S. itself that does not tend to be acknowledged.

I’m by no means trying to reverse-bash here, just noting a dash of hypocrisy in common criticisms, and I address it now merely as an aspect of the London expat experience. I personally prefer to judge people as individuals, not by stereotypes, and would find it peachy if we could all just get along

And I’m not alone. Before I moved to London, I read a book by Bronwen Maddox that caught my eye precisely because I was about to leave my Stars and Stripes for the Union Jack: In Defense of America. A half-British, half-American journalist, Maddox grew up in America and now lives in the UK, where she confronts misconceptions on a daily basis, and this book was her response. It does not set out to tout the superiority of the U.S. or anything of the sort; it simply offers some background on the nation’s founding principles and what makes it tick to aid understanding of where its policies and people are coming from. It also does not make excuses; like any other nation, there is much America can do to improve, and she offers advice on this as well. Anyways, I’m not going to hop on a soap box here; I just found it an interesting read (as balanced as the author’s dual citizenship) and recommend it to any American expat who may time-to-time feel misunderstood.

Regardless, I celebrate the greatness of the nation that I presently live in and appreciate the opportunities it has provided my husband and I thus far. We have felt welcome since the moment we set foot on UK soil and hope we’re doing our part to contribute to the fantastically diverse London community!

Tags: 4th of July in London, american expats in london, Americans moving to London, In Defense of America, Independence Day, london move, London Relocation Services, Moving to London, relocating to London
Posted in history | 1 Comment »