Moving Abroad From The UK

I suppose there are many reasons that people decide to leave the UK. Some people move abroad from the UK because they are seeking a warmer climate, better quality of life and lower cost of living or sometimes they are just treating themselves to an extremely long relaxing holiday after a lifetime of grafting.

When people move abroad from the UK they choose a wide selection of destinations, however, a few select countries stand out as the big destinations of choice for British expats. I think you will agree that an obvious favourite is for people to move from the UK to Australia. I would put this down to a combination of the beautiful weather, the lower cost of living, and the laid back attitude to life that the Australian's are so famous for... not to mention the added benefit of a shared language for those of us who are either terrible at (or can't be bothered to) learn a new language.

Obviously Australia isn't the only place that people want to move to when they decide to emigrate from the UK. Some people are looking to step up their pace of life rather than find somewhere to relax. If that's the case, then maybe you are planning to move to New York or possibly Toronto.

The decision that you make about where to move to from the UK will affect the types of things that you need to think about and how you need to plan, either way there is a lot to think about!!

I know it can be an absolute nightmare to prepare to move to another country. After living your life in the UK there are things that you are paying for or that are associated to your name that you probably don't think about on a day to day basis. Below i've tried to list as much as possible as I can think of in terms of things you need to make sure you have or do, in order to have a smooth house move when emigrating from the UK.

- Correct confirmed Visas and immigration documents - this seems obvious, but many people don't realise the importance of guaranteeing you have been granted all the correct documentation and that you qualify to become a full time resident of the country you plan to move to.

- Tied up financial loose ends - (to some extent, this depends on whether or not you are ever planning to return to being a full time UK resident again) You will need to make sure to close bank accounts, building society accounts, direct debits, re-organise loan or mortgage payments, make sure all of your taxes are in order etc.

- Have a new part time or full time address guaranteed - when you enter a country on this type of long term visa, you can expect plenty of questions about where you are headed to from the airport, what your reasons are for moving to the country and what you plan to do to support yourself and/or your family whilst you are a resident in their country.

- Electoral Admin - You will need to make sure that every aspect of government is aware that you are no longer a full time UK citizen (especially if you are aiming for citizenship in a new country), contacting the electoral register is a big part of this.

- Pets - You will have to decide whether you are going to take household pets with you and if so you will have to organise pet transportation and pet passports etc.

- Disposal or sale - You will have to at some point decide which of your possessions you are going to take with you to your new home and then you will have to decide what to do with everything that didn't make the cut. Most possessions will be able to be sold or given to charity, but you will have to make sure you follow the correct procedures for disposing of any white goods (fridges, freezers etc.)

- Finalise Home Affairs - You will need to stay on top of the house sale process for your current property, because if you don't tie up all the loose ends before you are due to leave the country you will likely have to pay someone to deal with the rest of the process and this can be pricey.

- Notify Everyone - You should let everyone and every company know that you are no longer going to be living at your address and provide a forwarding address of the address of a family member friend that your mail can be delivered to whilst you make permanent plans.

- Medical Records - You will have to see your doctor if you need to get repeat prescriptions (or anything to help you relax on that long flight :) ) and you should also make arrangements for the transfer of your medical records or at least find out the process for this.

- Physically moving out - You will have to make decisions about how you are physically going to pack up all of your belongings and get them safely to the other side of the World. You have a few options here, some people decided to take everything with them and some people decide that it will be better (at least to begin with) to put your possessions into secure storage using and ship it out at a later date. If you take everything with you straight away, you will have to employ the help of an International Removals Company in the UK, who can come and pack up your belongings and transport them to your new home abroad.

- Relax and try not to worry too much! It's going to be an adventure.

I watched a fantastic television programme the other day about couples and families Moving To Australia. There are many benefits of moving to Australia but the one that most people think of first is the climate. Australia has a much warmer climate compared to the UK and this is often the main reason that people end up moving there. In the UK we have to put up with the cold and drizzle for most of the year and it can become tedious. Australia also has a very good school system, much better than the UK.

The television programme was focusing on a family who were trying to decide upon either moving to Australia or staying in the UK. There were many pros and cons for each decision but eventually they decided that, because the pros outweighed the cons, they would pack up all of their things and move to Australia. The presenter of the programme took them around a few different houses around Australia to try and find them a nice house to move into. I was surprised at just how cheap the houses were compared to the UK and I started having ideas of moving to Australia, myself. I asked my wife about it and she immediately shut me down. She said that it was a silly idea and that we could not possibly move to Australia.

I still have ideas about moving to Australia and I will continue to pest my wife until she agrees. As soon as this happens I will definitely move and I cannot wait for the opportunity to soak up some sun in the swimming pool in the back garden of my beach front property.