02.24.06 Visa visa visa, part deux

Visa Debate is OVER

After much fret and worry, the decision has been made: student visas are the way to go. I will get a student visa, and my wife will get a student dependent visa. When I get to the end of my studies, I will apply for an HSMP, which I should get even without the extra 50 points an SBS (Said Business School, the MBA school at Oxford) diploma gets you. This introduces the potential issue that I may have to return to the US briefly after school ends while my HSMP visa gets approved, but whatever. It's better than trying to explain to the immigration dudes why I am getting an HSMP now if I'm going to school, or why I'm a student who's a dependent on my wife's HSMP, or why I have one type of visa and my wife has another, etc. Check out all the wacky stuff they want me to send in to get a visa:

• completed application form VAF1
• your current passport
• your old passport or a copy of it
• Immigration status (Original not copy):e.g. Permanent residence card, Valid I-94 H1-B - L-1 - B-1 I-20 (Signed on reverse side) IAP-66
• Employment authorisation card with advance parole document
• evidence of funds available to you, for example recent bank statements covering at least the last three months
• either a letter confirming your period of leave from your employer together with salary slips for the last three months; or a certificate confirming you have continuing studies; or if you are self employed
• evidence of your business
• a letter of enrolment from a recognised UK University, College or School giving details about the proposed course. This should including the length of the course and the number of hours of study each week.
• An estimation of the costs your also be provided
• your educational qualifications or copies of them
• evidence of Government sponsorship (if applicable)
• One recent passport photograph (not more than six months old)

...quite a bit of stuff just to prove who I am! I've got it all now, though, with the exception of the financial records of funds available. I'm consolidating money from various places (stocks, options, whatever) into the tender clutches of my stockbroker via the single account that he manages on my behalf. Once this dough is all in the same place, I can get a single, compact statement that shows the immigration dudes that I have enough money to come and live in the UK. It turns out that I also have to prove to SBS that I have enough scratch to afford school and living in Oxford, etc., so I'll get this info off to them at the same time as well.


Living in the UK... is it expensive?

All of this money talk has got me thinking about the cost of living in Britain, the value of US dollars in Britain today, etc. Everybody says that living in the UK is expensive, you don't make as much money there as you do here, the exchange rate is bad just now, etc. etc. etc. So, I did a little internet searching, and found that the International Salary Calculator at homefair.com thinks I will need to make ~30% more money to enjoy the same lifestyle in the UK that I currently do here, yikes! To get a feel for just how bad the current exchange rate is, I did a little looking, and found data to chart the following:




...pretty interesting. Today's exchange rate is $1.75 US = 1.00 UK. This really isn't a ton of change relative to the rate over the last 20 years. Historically speaking, that makes the current value of the US dollar relative to the UK pound...

• 4% higher than the average over the last 2 years
• 6% lower than the average over the last 5 years
• 7% lower than the average over the last 10 years
• 7% lower than the average over the last 20 years
• 18% higher than the average over the last 50 years
• 54% higher than the average over the last 75 years
• 83% higher than the average over the last 100 years
• 123% higher than the average over the last 150 years
• 134% higher than the average over the last 200 years
• 136% higher than the average since 1791

There were all time exchange rate lows of $1.30 in 1985 and $1.50 in 2002, as well as an all time high of $9.97 in 1864 (during the civil war), but we are still at a near historically low value of UK Pound relative to US Dollar... there's more interesting data regarding historical exchange rates, "real" currency values, etc. available here: http://www.eh.net/hmit/


The Best Thing About Today

This has absolutely nothing to do with moving to the UK, but I got the following in my email today, and am officially TOTALLY HAPPY NOW.