Also, the first class tickets for the train were totally worth it.
Welcome to Europe! I moved to Germany almost 20 years ago, and holy batflaps am I happy about that choice.
I hope I will be as happy. Thanks!
You’ve joined a time-honored tradition of fleeing fascist governments. o7
I’m both glad you made it out and jealous I don’t have a similar history with another country to move to. You’re a great parent for everything you do for your daughter. Hope the last bit of the trip went smoothly and you find a job quickly.
Thanks!
That’s some Grade A dad’ing Squid! Happy for ya, proud of ya. Best of luck over there!
Thanks!
Hey, congrats for taking that big leap, even if it is to the UK (having lived in a couple of places in Europe including over a decade in the UK, my opinion of the UK is pretty low).
It takes a lot of guts to take yourself out of the environment you know (with all it’s implicit expectations of “this is how people behave”) and move into a different environment were people don’t value the same things, expect the same or behave the same.
Good luck!
Thankfully, due to my British father and grandmother, I know some of the basics. But I still have a lot to learn. Thankfully I’ve got us registered with an NHS clinic (waiting to hear back from them) and just got our new phone numbers.
Wow, you actually did it! I remember you laying out your plan here on Lemmy a few months ago. Kudos to you
Yeah it was a fun journey to watch it all unfold!
Yeah, it’s a bit of a headache to figure out all those details if you have nobody to help you, though generally you can figure out a lot of those things by talking to coworkers - as a saying from my country goes “Those who have a mouth can get to Rome”
However the “expectations” I was talking about are more the nitty gritty details of interacting with others in everyday life one isn’t really aware are social conventions (because everybody follows the same version of it as you do in your country, so one naturally thinks that’s just the way people behave in general) until moving to a different country and finding out those things aren’t actually universal.
Things like saying “it’s interesting” when an English person asks you your opinion about something is actually being very critical (you can literally use it as an insult), you’re supposed to stand on the right side of escalators if you’re not walking (especially in a Tube station) or that, unless indicated otherwise, you’re supposed to queue for things if there are other people waiting for it.
Figuring this kind of stuff out is actually quiet an interesting personal growth experience, IMHO.
Where do people not line up for something to wait for it?
Often it’s more like not respecting the sanctity of the line. Americans got the tradition of the queue from the Brits. It was a source of constant annoyance when I lived in Germany when people would cut the line and others just let them without objecting.
people would cut the line and others just let them without objecting.
I can’t even imagine that being the case in a place like Germany… Some places sure, but there!?
It was 30 years ago, at least. Can’t speak to today.
It’s pretty common in most countries for things like waiting for the bus to not queue and in some countries people won’t even queue when the bus arrives and they’re trying to go in, and instead just try and jostle their way in.
Welcome to the UK. And if anyone asks, you ain’t seen me, right?
Seen who?
Perfect.
I didn’t know if England was the best choice, but right now I think Neptune is probably better than here.
It was my only choice. I have citizenship here. (Technically I am a “British passport holder” until I go to a citizenship ceremony and say God Save the King and I’m not a spy or something, but whatever.)
Better to pledge loyalty to a king who’s a figurehead than one with actual power like we have here.
Grats on finally making the move! I hope everything works out for you and that you found a beautiful place to live.
Still remember your post months ago asking for advice for moving. I’m happy it worked out for you and your family squid! Hope you guys can settle down soon (I’m sure there’s tons of paper work and other bullshit) and relax!
Hasn’t quite worked out yet. I still need to find a job (but I have interviews lined up) We came over a little early because we were worried that when the deportation start, everyone who can grab the first plane they came out of the US. We might never get out otherwise.
Hey, I’m in the same job hunting boat, but I’m in Norway! Good luck on your job quest 😊❤️
Good luck to you as well!
good to see you didn’t wait to find out, the Berlin wall went up overnight after all.
You’ve done right by your daughter. Good luck on the job search!
Thanks!
Wish I could help, but I’m not in UK. Nevertheless, I believe in you and keeping my fingers crossed that you find a job quickly.
I am optimistic. Thanks.
worried that when the deportation start, everyone who can grab the first plane they came out of the US
The logic is sound. Flights will be snapped up like pandemic loo roll.
That is definitely what I am expecting. Like everything else I am expecting in the next four years, I just hope I’m wrong.
The Nazi salute and the pardoning of all of those January 6th terrorists doesn’t give me much hope.
I just took a look at your post history to see the origin story to this, seems to me you ARE Lemmy?! Every other post I saw seems to be from you…
Yeah, Lemmy is basically just Flying Squid and The_Picard_Maneuver. The rest of us are bots and/or figment of their imagination.
Can confirm. I am a imagination of FlyingSquid.
Even though you are a relative stranger on the internet its really inspiring to see you do this.
Thanks.
Welcome to the UK! Not sure on your final destination, but I’m based in South West England. Please feel free to reach out if you need any help or guidance, especially if you’re heading down this way 🙂.
The UK just gained several precious people. Good for them!
Lemmy will be okay if you don’t keep posting as much as you’ve been. Do whatever you need to do to set your family up there.
Good luck, I hope you and your child find the UK to be less shitty than America. :)
Having emigrated to France with my kids in 2017, I think you’re making a good decision.
Was this a similar move as with OP? Meaning you had preexisting ties to the country before moving?
actually no. when don the con got elected the first time, i saved up as much as i could, sold as much stuff as i could and just left. I was illegal in France for a while, but did eventually find a job that was willing to sponsor a visa for me. I had to go back to the states to get my visa issued, though, that took a few weeks. I’ve been here ever since, and yeah it’s fucking hard to leave my family back home in the states, it’s honestly much better to live here with my kids than there.
I seriously think airlines are a sham after riding a bunch of trains.
On a train:
Seats are massive. First class wasn’t like 5x the ticket price. No charge for luggage. No wack-ass TSA giving you conflicting rules about if you should keep your shoes/belts on or not. You want to rent a room so you can sleep, do it. You wanna jog from one end to another? Sure.
Unfortunately in America, trains don’t fully connect to most places. And because of the price, attracts some real skeevos who leave the place a mess. In most other countries, my god. It’s beautiful.
yeah i find it very irresponsible from OP to not take the train from the US to UK
I don’t disagree but it’s really hard to find a train from New York to London.
For some god-forsaken reason, planes are often cheaper
Wait, wait, wait, you can not be pulling this shit!
Are you a flying squid or not?
I keep telling people, we can only fly 30 meters at a time.
Plus, Wonder Woman can fly and she has an invisible jet.
Best start writing metres if you want to survive in the UK. People have been mercilessly dunked into the Thames for less!
At first I read 30 minutes at a time, and was gonna give you crap for not leapfrogging across the pond. It’s not that big. The one next to me is bigger :P
I’m impressed she’s sleeping. I can’t sleep on airplanes no matter what I take.
(the pic in OP is a train)
Ahhh good! That means they’ve landed, and I understand their exhaustion. :)
I’m impressed, I can’t fly 30 meters over multiple times.
Do you not have a biological water jet? What happens if a shark comes swimming up to you?
Land dwellers are weird.
Look man, if I encounter a shark on land, I usually squat down and say ‘pspspspspsps’ until it starts rubbing it’s head against me and I give it lots of pets.
It’s foolish to outrun them. They find you.
He’s been saying he’d do it.
Squid, proud of you. I did the same but that was 2 years ago
Thank you, but I also think they were joking.
Many would be curious about the path to emigration you took. Have you shared about this anywhere?
I have, but I don’t mind sharing again. Basically, an accident of birth.
https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent/born-before-1983
I wish I had better news for others.
I’m in the same boat as you already have my citizenship and flying over in October to scope out a few cities and meet up with family and work out paperwork to transfer my job since I’m full time remote and so is my wife.
Good luck!
Thanks you too I very much look forward to hearing about your adventures.
There’s a lot of places in Europe that have an ‘accident of birth’ path to citizenship (jus sanguinis vs jus soli). Here’s the ones I found:
- If you’re of Jewish ancestry and your family fled due to the Holocaust, there’s a number of European countries that will return your citizenship. Unfortunately my mom’s family is Russian Jews.
- Ireland, if one of your grandparents was a citizen. This applies to my father, but not to me
- Luxembourg (where I proceed to dox myself, lol) if you’ve got a direct line male lineage back to Luxembourg between 1850 and 1947 (or male until a female born after 1970-something, Google Luxembourg article 7 citizenship). This actually does apply to me and I know more about it, but I’ve barely started the process because uprooting my life to flee somewhere safer again is a truly miserable prospect, and the choice of agencies are either a non-profit that I can afford and maybe have some money left over to relocate but they’re slower and they don’t seem keen to deal with my document mismatch due to being trans and from Florida, or a much faster, more trans friendly and expensive business.
Some good info below. If you have no lineage to anywhere in Europe, there are other options depending on your job and education level (not all encompassing, for sure)
If you get hired for a skilled labor job almost always it’ll result in a visa
