vegan moving to the UK - becoming a UK resident - pls help

[veganadi]

hi everyone, i'm a vegan from romania(so next year i will become a EU citizen) who wants to settle in the uk. i play online poker for a living (i don't know if i'm considered a freelancer or self-employed) and i'll probably be making at least 5-10 times the money the average person in the UK makes (this is not a brag, it's just to let you know that i'm not coming over there to beg for welfare or live on anyone's back ). as far as i know the UK is the most vegan friendly country in the EU and probably the world plus there are no taxes for pro gamblers( UK being a world leader in internet gambling )...so i couldn't ask for more. does anyone here know what i must do in order to move to the UK? what are the steps i'll need to take? i've been told by a british citizen that there will be no restrictions for romanians come the 1st of january and i could just settle there with no problems. i'd like to live in or near a town(a lot of green around, few cars..) with many vegans and vegan places and have a good internet connection because of my poker job. do you know any smaller towns where i can find all that...or maybe a town that isn't so vegan but at least has clean air and be close enough to a big city, something around london would be great. also do you know any good sites with uk real estate or can you tell me how much would a 2-3 bedroom house in a decent area cost to buy or rent ? my yahoo messenger id is adi_be_good at yahoo.com if anyone wants to talk to me about all this. thank you very much for any kind of help

[Jamie]

good luck with it! I think the top vegan towns at least in the South, are London (no clean air there though ), Brighton, and Bristol.

A good real estate website I used to look at when selling our flat was www.rightmove.co.uk I think you can look at rentals as well as buying. Be warned that if you want to buy somewhere it could take a REALLY long time. I think the quickest humanly possible is about a month, we managed that when we bought our flat but we had no chains, both solicitors were at the same practice, and we both wanted a fast move. Unlike when we sold, which took about 6 months in all, but that was with no chains! With a chain, it could be months to years...

As for visas, there is probably the best information on a government website, http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/passports-and-immigration/

good luck!

[veganadi]

thank you very much for that, very nice sites, i could never find a decent uk real estate site. i'm surprised how cheap the large or very large houses in the small towns are to rent , i mean in bucharest they would cost 2-3 times more. is there a catch or are they this cheap because they're not located in popular areas?

[Jamie]

can you give an example?

[herbwormwood]

thank you very much for that, very nice sites, i could never find a decent uk real estate site. i'm surprised how cheap the large or very large houses in the small towns are to rent , i mean in bucharest they would cost 2-3 times more. is there a catch or are they this cheap because they're not located in popular areas?

They are not cheap, they are beyond the reach of most of the people I know! The only way to afford such prices here is if you were sharing the rent with about 6 other people at least.
I looked at the lower priced rents in popular areas of Newcastle, which is where I live.
Have you got your currency converter set right?

[veganadi]

can you give an example?

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetai..._n=2&tr_t=rent

is this 2.000 pounds/4.000 us dollars/month ( i think in dollars because it's the currency of most internet poker sites)? is it a good area? i don't need one that huge , just as an example... but it seems incredible , i mean a house that size in a good area in bucharest would have a monthly rent price equal to a new renault

what is the average monthly salary in the uk/england? for what it's worth i made about 4000 pounds this month.

[Jamie]

Gosh where I live, just outside London, in Essex, you'd pay that for a one bedroom flat!!!! I wonder if they've listed that wrong and it should be £2000 a week? I have no idea where that is though.

[Tofugal]

What a lovely house! Erm, the average salary over here in the UK would be for most people less than half of that and to rent an average 3 bed semi in a decent area would be £225k plus or £800 to £1000 per month.

[veganadi]

hi again, i need to bump this thread because i am close to leaving for the uk( probably next month). i don't want to fly so i think trains are my best choice because i get to see a lot of european countries too. i found this route here http://www.seat61.com/Romania.htm, does anyone know if there's a better one?

i need to find somewhere to stay for the first 2 months or so before being able to withdraw money from poker in the uk. i can't withdraw too much money right now from my online poker accounts because of some transfer isuess in my country but i'll be able to do it in the UK once i have an address and a bank account there. so i won't have that much money the first 6-8 weeks maybe, depending how soon i can get a bank account ( i'll probably have about 2500 pounds left, if my calculations for the costs of the trip are correct).

how much will i need for living costs for a month? where is it best to stay on a lower budget? i saw some internet sites where vegans are looking for other vegan roomies, would it be hard to find one being from another country( i'm a guy, by the way, 27 yo)? i also saw the bed&breakfast vegan places but they seem a lot more expensive.... should i stick to london for the first few months or live somewhere else? i would like to have a room of my own with internet and my own bathroom if possible


i'm not sure if i forgot anything, this is all very exciting, it's my first time abroad. anyway if anyone from the UK wants to talk and give me some advice on yahoo messenger, i'm adi_be_good on there. i'd love to have a vegan mentor from my new country. cheers, mates

[Willowherb]

i'd like to live in or near a town(a lot of green around, few cars..) with many vegans and vegan places...

If you find a town in the UK with few cars please let me know! I'm afraid the car is king here.

Brighton in East Sussex is a very vegan friendly seaside city with lots of vegetarian restaurants and food shops - it even has a vegetarian shoe shop and pub. The South Downs are very near so there's plenty of green spaces within easy reach. Good luck with the move

[veganadi]

i've decided to move to the UK because it's the best EU country for vegans and has great laws for my job(i'm an online poker pro). i am from bucharest, romania.

i want to leave in a few weeks and i'd like to get a short let somewhere in london( a studio most likely) so i have a few questions. it would be for a month or so till i can decide where i want to stay for the longer term.

so what areas are the best for vegans and are also safe and green with trees and parks around ? i've been looking at studios from notting hill, westminster or kensington and i really liked some of them. i know the prices are pretty high but i know crime is a big problem in many parts of london and i'd rather pay a little more and not worry about coming home and finding everything upside down. the thought of being surrounded by snobby yuppies from the city doesn't make very happy but it's better than the alternative.

if there are cheaper spots that are as safe with lots of green around and vegan places i'll be happy to rent there. does anyone know if i need anything other than cash for a short let or how much is the deposit? will i need good credit or a job like for longer term renting ? i imagine it's more like a hotel and i don't see why i'd need all that if i'll pay everything in advance. i've emailed a few sites about this but they seem like they can't be bothered to reply. cheers!!!

[zorbed]

You could rent a big house in Manchester for about £500 - £600 a month.

[bugaboo]

are you serious Zorbed? If those prices are true I will be moving to Manchester shortly. I live in the Silicon Valley and I thought the prices here are exorbitant but I didn't realize Manchester prices are about equal. I pay about 1000 US dollars a month or 500 pounds for a one-bedroom apartment. Maybe I should be looking toward living in the UK. After all, I am a Commonwealth citizen as I was born in Canada. UK always sounds like a dream compared to the US to me.

[veganadi]

You could rent a big house in Manchester for about £500 - £600 a month.

probably because even london looks like disneyland when compared with the crime figures in manc lol

http://www.upmystreet.com/local/poli...anchester.html

[Mr Flibble]

London is a much bigger place than Manchester, both of which have nice and nasty areas. When you type Manchester into upmystreet you get figures for the whole lot, where as for London you get Camden by default, which has very different figures to say Lambeth or Lewisham.

Rental prices do vary across the UK, but you'd be hard pushed to find a good 1 bed flat in a good area of a city (manchester and south - in the north it's a bit cheaper) for less than 450 a month. I rented a 1 bed flat in Coventry city centre for 525. My sister rented what was essentially exactly the same flat but in a the London docklands and with concierge for over double.

I've spent a lot of time in London for one reason or another in the past decade and whilst I love the place for many reasons I don't think I'd ever choose to live there unless I had a propelling reason to (work etc). It isn't worth the cost of living unless you can really justify it.

[refinnej]

Geezus, those prices are cheap. We're in Oxfordshire, paying £675/mo for a one bed, and that's middle of the road. I think the cheapest are about £600.

To the op: we just spent the Bank Holiday weekend in Brighton, and I must say it was wonderful. When we moved to the UK, I had heard great things about it, but we ended up further north, due to the location of the man's job.