I got a job overseas! Yikes. What next?

I stumbled upon an opportunity to start working overseas quite out of the blue. This left me with a bit more than a month to prepare for what seems to be the change of a lifetime. Just to add, I have never been out of South Africa’s borders before. In the crazy few weeks before our flight and the first few weeks overseas I learned so much that I really do want to share a bit of a “how to” guide for people who are going overseas for the first time.

I moved from South Africa to the Isle of Wight in England. Keep in mind some of the information might not apply to other places, but I am hoping that you will find a lot of this very useful.

1.    VISA APPLICATION

I was a bit anxious about the VISA application, as there is not really many people you can contact during the procedure with questions about this and that.

First off, you need a sponsor to work in the UK. There are certain types of jobs that are classified as shortage occupations in the UK and companies gets certified to sponsor work visas. There are various types of VISAS, including VISAS for students. Read carefully through the documents with procedures and guidelines on the website I linked below.  https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration

I used a folder to keep all of our documentation together and carried this folder with me everywhere for about a month before we left. Here is a list of documents in my folder:

·       Sponsorship Certificate from my UK employer

·       Contract from my UK employer

·       Address and contact details of my UK employer

·       ID documents

·       Passport size photographs

·       Passports

·       Drivers licence

·       Marriage certificate

·       Pay Slips

·       International drivers licence (Obtainable within minutes from your local AA store – just bring along your current drivers licence)

·       Degree Certificates

·       Letters from University confirming I speak English. You do need to provide prove that you can speak English. If you did not complete your degree in English, you need to take a valid English test.

http://www.uk-visas-for-south-africans.co.za/english-test-for-visa.html

·       Bank Statements

·       TB Certificate - just follow this link to find your nearest TB test centre in South Africa and give them a ring. Make sure to ask what documents they require. You need to have this certificate. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tuberculosis-test-for-a-uk-visa-clinics-in-south-africa

·       Proof of address in South Africa

·       Proof of address in England (If you have this)

·       Police Clearance Certificate (If you are working with children or elderly you need this – apply at a police station and they will help you with the whole procedure. This takes 4-6 weeks, so just allow for that)

I made 10 certified copies of all the documents in my file, because people do need copies as you go along and it speeds things up a bit if you are ready with certified ones.

If you do have a recruitment agency to work with that is UK-based, they can also support you very effectively with a list of documentation you need to get ready.

After filling in application for your VISA on the UK government website,

https://www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa

register on this site to make an appointment: http://www.tpcontact.co.uk/

These guys are very well organized and helped me tremendously.

My husband came with me on my VISA, after filling in my application, I log in to my application and then click on ‘apply for someone else.’

2.    What to pack?!?!

A friend gave me this excellent advice – pack as if you are going for a two week holiday.

Most things are really not as expensive as you’d expect. 

I was panicking about things like – what if something like shampoo is ridiculously expensive and I should bring shampoo to last me a while? But it is not like that. You would have to make some lifestyle changes, but going to the grocery store is not really that much different than in South Africa. You can get coffee – not just tea. You can buy Coke, Pepsi, bread, milk, all sorts of really regular things. I will also post a budget of expenses just to give you an idea of what things cost.

Don’t buy raincoats, winter jackets and boots in South Africa 

as the quality is just better in the UK. The clothing and shoes are made for their weather and you get really nice things that makes you wish you did not buy so many things before you came over.

Pack some bedding. 

The thing I appreciated most in my first week here is my own pillow and fleece blankets. We planned on renting a furnished place – but couldn’t get one. Then we actually had to move into an unfurnished place and slept on the floor for about a week before we got a bed. We are still buying pieces of furniture every month – but I now realize that you really don’t need most of the stuff you own!

It might be a good idea to pack some 3-in-1 coffee and biscuits or crackers. 

After travelling for days you might not be able to stock up on food and a cup of coffee can mean the world!

Pack some freshen up things in your hand luggage.

I got mouthwash, toothpaste, body spray, dry hair shampoo (awesome stuff!) and waterless hand sanitizer from Dis-chem as a golden gift! Really nice to freshen up a bit!

Pack the heavy stuff like books in your hand luggage.

Most of the time the hand luggage is not weighed... This might be a bit of a risky tip - but if you do go a kilo over, let it be in your hand luggage.

Here is what I packed:

·       Clothing – for 2 weeks

·       Underwear, also thermal underwear!

·       Jewellery, cotton buds, nail clipper set, toiletries

·       Two rolls of toilet paper! You don’t want to get stuck without that…

·       Small needlework set – Very glad I packed that!

·       Laptops and Cell phones

·       Chargers

·       UK adapter with SA multi-plug. Works very well!

·       Coffee, rusks and crackers

·       Bedding

·       Clipboards – helps a lot at this moment as we do not have a table to work on yet.

·       Bring a few pens and stationary!

·       Comfortable socks! And plaster! We walk around a lot and my feet got terrible blisters the first week, even with comfortable shoes.

·       Basic medical kit (headache pills, antibiotics, flu medicine, anti-histamine)

·       Few spices and cup a soup to help flavor foods

·       Small amounts of things like Vaseline, savlon, mouth wash, toilet spray,  vanilla

·       Small amounts of cleaning products (Dish washing, Washing Powder)

·       Hangers

·       Kindle is maybe a better option to pack than a lot of books, but we brought a Bible, Journal, Dictionary and music books

·       Ukulele’s (They are small, light and you need something fun to keep you occupied)

·       A magazine and puzzle book for the flight

·       Camera and batteries

·       Plastic and Ziploc Bags – I appreciated the plastics when we started having garbage.

·       Key rings and a memory stick. You do leave your keys in SA but get new ones for house and work in the UK…

·       Earphones

·       Umbrella – didn't prove to be very useful as the wind is a bit rough so a rain coat works so much better.

I packed most of my things in my bags in Ziplocs – keeping the things dry if your luggage gets drenched! And also keeps the smelly clothes from stinking up the clean ones if you are living out of the luggage for a while.

3.  Preparing for your flight

•  Make sure you have all your documents in your hand luggage and close enough to lay your hands on them easily.
•  Read carefully through the guidelines for hand luggage: Any liquids in hand luggage must be in containers of 60ml or less and in Ziploc bags. You can’t have a 500ml water bottle!
• Make sure of the luggage requirements of the airline. Apart from the weight restrictions (which is roughly 25-30kg for luggage and 7-10kg for hand luggage, depending on the airline), there are also things like length and width of the bags.
• Don’t worry too much. The airlines do get passengers with all sorts of things through daily – they are just trying to keep all passengers safe and not really trying to complicate your life.
• Be well on time. There is many things and procedures to go through at the airport and also, if you do realise you forgot something – some extra time helps. Our flight was 15:30, we arrived at the airport at 9:00. We did have breakfast with a few friends and family, but I prefer being well on time, it just helps me to be calm.
• Check out the weather of where you are going. Apart from being cold and wet in the UK, which we prepared for, we did not know that it gets dark here at 16:00 in the winter, so that left us with a bit of a situation… We landed at Heathrow 11:30 and then travelled from there by bus to Portsmouth where we took a ferry over to the island. We had booked to stay at a hotel close to the harbour the first week while looking for a place to stay. When we got here the first day, just after 16:00 it was dark, raining ice and we had luggage with us and no cash as we were planning on just walking. Eventually we got a taxi that drove past the pier to pick us up and drive us by an ATM towards the hotel. It cost us double the money as it was a public holiday. But we had our first story!

It is such a big step to move overseas and you will (hopefully) experience some challenges along the way, but grasp them with both hands as an opportunity to better yourself and enjoy every moment of such a wild adventure!