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x_losOkay, 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.
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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?
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?
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Date: 2009-01-03 11:53 pm (UTC)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?
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Date: 2009-01-04 01:50 pm (UTC)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?
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Date: 2009-01-18 10:52 pm (UTC)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?