Moving to London starter pack

or how to be an aspirational Brit

England in sephia tones

I first visited London when I was 10 years old, and fell in love with the city. It’s a truly special place, with both breadth and depth—of history, culture, food, art, and an array of people from all over the world. I promised myself I would one day live here, and young me would be excited to see that dream has been achieved. 🥺

I’ve been lucky to experience London’s beautiful green spaces, museums, architecture, and general good vibes for the last several years, and I’m always thrilled whenever someone tells me that they’re interested in moving here.

Moving here is both complex and straightforward — it can be complex to get here and get settled, but simultaneously straightforward if you follow a pretty standard list of instructions. I’ve attempted to curate a moving to London starter pack below, essentially the key advice I will share with anyone who is trying to hop across the pond from the US.

Step 0 — Get a visa. You will need the right to work in the UK, and I’m assuming if you’re reading this, you don’t already have a British / Irish / North Irish passport. There are many paths to getting a visa, but I’ll highlight some big ones here.

1. Skilled Worker visa — This is the most straightforward visa. Find a company that sponsors foreigners in the UK, or move with a company from the US that sponsors employee transfers to the UK. Pro-tip: the UK government maintains a list of all companies that can sponsor visas, obviously it will depend on the role and your background, but it’s a good starting point!

2. Global Talent visa — This is a visa for exceptional people. You can apply for this in the arts, technology, or academia by showing that you’ve contributed significantly to your field through collecting evidence and recommendations.

3. Partner visa — This is a visa for people who want to move to the UK with a partner. You have to show forms of proof that you’ve actually lived together for at least 2 years, but it’s another straightforward path if your partner is moving here.

4. High Potential Individual visa — This is a newer visa for people who have graduated from a top university in the last five years.

5. Innovator / Startup visa — These are visas you can apply for to found a startup or innovative business in the UK.

The address / phone number / bank account conundrum. In London, you need an address to get a bank account, but you need a bank account to get an address. And you kind of need a phone number to get both, but you also need a bank account to get a phone number. 🙃

1. Find an address. I would suggest using the address of your employer or a friend when you first arrive to set up. This is the address you’ll use to receive your bank card.

2. Get a bank account. In 2023, the easiest and fastest way to get a bank account is via one of the “neobanks” — Monzo, Revolut, and Starling Bank. I have a personal preference for Monzo, but these banks are great because you can create an account on your phone without needing a UK phone number.

   1. As a note, it’s probably good to get a “real” (aka High Street) bank account later (HSBC, Barclays, Lloyd’s) — this will still be annoying and you’ll probably need to go in person to verify documents, but the neobank route is more than doable.

   2. To transfer actual money into this UK bank account, you’ll need to convert some currency. Wise is my preferred option for regular conversions, but there are more bespoke options if you’re transferring a very large sum.

3. Get a phone number. Now that you have a bank account, you can have a UK phone number. Most of the mobile networks in the UK (e.g. O2, Three, Vodafone, BT, EE) will require you to pay your phone bill by “Direct Debit” which is essentially a recurring pull directly from your bank account. Service in London appears to be shit no matter which provider you use, so maybe just pick the one with the best offer on at the time.

4. Find an apartment a flat. Now that you have a bank account and a phone number, you are allowed to have shelter! The previous steps were just a warm up, because finding a flat in London is a full contact sport. Some tips to navigate this:

   1. Real estate in London is run by estate agencies. These are what you might think of realtors / brokers. They all seem to end in -ton…common ones are Keatons, Chestertons, Foxtons, and Dexters. Their job is to lease (or let, as it’s called here) and manage properties on behalf of landlords. My hot take is that their job is a racket, but you will need to work with them and make them like you to secure a good place.

   2. There are multiple property search platforms in London — Rightmove, Zoopla, OpenRent. Rightmove and Zoopla are basically the same, and OpenRent is for flats that are rented directly by the landlord, so sometimes cheaper.

   3. I wish it was easy as finding a property, offering asking price, and moving on with your life. In reality, most flats these days have become bidding wars, where multiple interested parties are offering over asking price for the same decrepit, or mediocre at best two-bedroom in Angel. This sucks, but there’s not much to be done about it.

   4. Once an offer has been accepted on your flat, you’ll need to pay a one week deposit while they conduct documentation and right to rent checks (e.g. copy of passport, visa, work offer letter / payslip). After those checks are complete, you’ll put four more weeks down to complete the deposit.

   There are a couple strategies you could take to finding a good flat.

   • Strategy #1: Slow and steady search. If you know what neighborhood you want to live in, just find 1-2 estate agents in that neighborhood and try to get them to send you everything they have as soon as it comes on the market. This can work if you have a temporary place to stay or flexibility on when you need to move. When somewhere you like comes available, you should then be able to hop on it ASAP.

   • Strategy #2: Death by 100 phone calls. If you submit a “request info” for every property you see on Rightmove / Zoopla, you will receive about 15 calls and emails per day for the foreseeable future. Once you express slight interest, they will call you for every single property that might meet 1 out of your 6 criteria until you start screening their calls.

   • If you’ve made it this far, hopefully you’ve found somewhere to live. Now you figure out your council tax and utilities — almost everyone has to pay council tax in the UK (owners and renters!), and the amount varies by council and property you’re in. Utilities wise, most people are on British Gas and Thames Water. All of these would also be paid by monthly Direct Debit, and Thames Water usually being every 6 months.

Alright, now you can enjoy your new life. Next time we’ll talk more about how to be a person in London — with hard-hitting questions like: Where do I buy medicine? Batteries? How do I see a doctor? What grocery store should I go to?