Would it be easy for me to get a job if I moved to England, or ANYWHERE in Europe?

Question

I'm thinking of saving up about 15 g's and moving to Europe. I chose England mainly because of the similar language. Would it be easy for me to get a job? If does not matter to me what kind of job, just anything that would allow me to live. Is this even possible? Can people just get up and move to another country and kind of 'wing it' till you find a job? I currently live in the US by the way.

Answer 1

You could move freely within the EU, if you were an EU citizen. However, if you're a US citizen, you can't just show up in Europe and stay for longer than 3 months. It is illegal to work here without the proper work visa or student visa.

In general in Europe, and in particular here in Italy, you have to have a job lined up in order to get a work visa before you move here from either the US or Australia. You can only stay for 90 days without some type of visa (work, student, ...). You cannot apply for the visa while you're here and you'll need the proper paperwork from the company. Coming from the US, you'll also have to have skills that can't easily be duplicated here.

There are several on-line ex-pat sites that are good resources for researching moving to Italy; here are two to start with:

http://www.expatsinitaly.com/
http://www.insight-italy.com/artscsii.ht...

You can find similar sites for other countries. Please be aware that you will have to file taxes both here and in the US if you retain your US citizenship.

Answer 2

If you are not an EU national, then you are far down the food chain - unless you have a specific qualification and your skill are rare and in high demand.

It works likes this: an employer wishing to fill a position first looks as potential suitably qualified candidates from his own country. If there are none available, he will then look for suitably qualified EU nationals (and these are not necessarily from European countries, not every country in Europe is an EU member) to fill the position. There might be a slight delay if they don't have their residency permit sorted, but if it is, they can start whenever it suits.

Only if the employer cannot find anyone suitable from the EU pool of candidates does he start looking outside of the EU. But in most cases, the job is filled very quickly.

You cannot just 'wing' it, there are certain things you must do in order to be able to live and work in another country. You need to make sure that your passport is in good order, and that you have enough money to survive on until you get an income. You have to go and register with the Alien Registration police in the country in question. (This is to check for criminal records and that kind of thing.) If all goes well, they will issue you a residency permit. I don't know who it works if you are not an EU citizen, but you do at some point have to get yourself a work permit (EU nationals are automatically allowed to work on a residency permit) and for this you will have to prove that you have a job to go to .... so you'd need a letter from an employer stating this.

It can be done though. I've know Australians who've lived in the Netherlands for a few years but who didn't have any way of getting an EU passport (many can if they have an grandparent from Britain, for example).

I'd advise you to investigate whether or not you have a grandparent from an EU country, and see about getting citizenship of that country. It would make your life a LOT easier.

Answer 3

I'm not too big on English people, but their gun control, non homophobicness, and football love is good enough for me. You sound like me and I agree with you all the way! Get out of the USA and go to the UK, I'd love to too. I'd move to Japan though. Still, different language, same as England. They call it football :)

Answer 4

It depends on the kind of job u are looking for - what is your job?

Answer 5

It depends on the business that will hire you. I worked in London, they thought I was English!