All right so here we are, we’re 6 months in. We’re doing it, we’re living that London life. But what does London life really look like on a day to day basis and how does it compare to life back home? Read on my friend and let me enlighten you!
Tier 5 Life in London
Many Kiwis (and Aussies and Canadians) who come here are on Tier 5 Youth Mobility Visas. If they don’t have a parent or grandparent who was from the UK then they don’t always have the opportunity to turn their 2 year stay into a longer one such as by getting a 5 year Ancestry Visa. They have to make the most of their 24 months over here because they are living with a time limit. That means that as a general rule they tend to travel more, party harder and just generally squeeze out every drop of juicy goodness that London life can offer.
I’m in a slightly different position because due to my partner’s mother being born in the UK he was able to apply for a British passport. This means we have the privilege of being able to stay in the UK for longer if we want to. I can apply for a family visa as the partner of a British Citizen and as long as we prove that we are in a legitimate relationship and have been living together for 2 years then I can get myself another 2 and a half years in Londontown.
Money Money Money
Now you think it’d be a no brainer, if you can get yourself extra time in one of the most regal and exciting cities in the world why wouldn’t you do it? But those extra 2.5 years will cost you dearly! The current visa application fee is a hefty £993 (around NZ $1900) plus you have to factor in a yearly NHS surcharge of £200 (a further NZ $380 per year!) The UK government is currently making moves to double this surcharge so in the not so distant future this could turn into over NZ $3800 to be paid up front just to be able to live here for a further 2.5 years. That’s $30 a week to help pay for a health system that I haven’t even used yet!
There’s another catch if you’re wanting to stay here permanently- after 4.5 years you cannot even apply for permanent right of abode in the UK yet. You have to live here 5 years to do that. So that’s 3 visas to get through before you can stop paying that hefty NHS surcharge to subsidize an ailing health system, and all the time you are still paying regular tax plus National Insurance (even if you won’t be here to claim a UK pension!) All of this means we are left with a big decision to make!
To Extend or not to Extend
Now that we have a flat, we have jobs and we have more of a weekly routine we can start to really judge what living here is like in comparison to life back in New Zealand. We’re past the honeymoon phase of being like ‘WTF am I actually living in London?!’ and into a more settled phase where we can start to really make an informed decision about whether we would like to live here for a little (or a lot) longer.
So how does life here stack up? Here are a few key factors and how they differ between New Zealand and the United Kingdom:
– Work Hours & The Commute
Kiwis tend to work quite long working weeks- the standard is of course the 5 day, 40 hour week but back home I found myself often working 45+ hours a week and I know that my two siblings who live in NZ regularly do 50 hours or more. In the UK on the other hand most people only work 35 to 40 hours tops and a fair few people choose to only work 4 days a week. That being said in some sectors it is common to work a lot more. One thing that does irk me more than at home is the commute- I spend half an hour on a bus plus half an hour squished into the tube like a sardine to get to where I work at London Bridge. Some days that’s okay… on other days I just really feel like I need to punch anyone who gets too up in my grill!
– Stress Levels at Work
I was working in a sales based role at home which could be very stressful at times. The result has been that my job working in Education Support Services in a University over here seems pretty chilled out in comparison. Anecdotal evidence (ie. chats with kiwi friends!) also suggest that New Zealanders tend to have a very strong work ethic. In London it seems like if you want to be a bit useless at your job and spend most of your days having cups of your tea and chinwagging with your colleagues then you can get away with it, whereas this wouldn’t generally sit too well with people in workplaces back home.
– Holidays & Leave
The minimum leave allocation for employees is 20 days like in New Zealand but many employees actually get 25 to 28 days of leave a year. At the University where I work they allow 27 days of paid leave a year plus you get an extra 5 paid leave days at Christmas. This much paid leave is practically unheard of back home. However unlike in NZ only 5 days of leave can be carried over each year. Statistics show that many UK workers are losing around 5 leave days a year simply because they don’t use them up. The moral of the story here is to make sure you take your holidays and make the most of those cheap flights to Europe!
– Income
If you are degree educated then you can generally get a pretty good job over here. Pay is generally a little higher in the UK than in New Zealand though many Kiwi friends I know took a slight pay cut when moving here just to get their foot in the door in their respective industries. Once you have a certain amount of UK based experience then you can expect to be better remunerated than back home.
– Living Costs
London is an expensive city to live in but bearing in mind that the pay is pretty good over here the living costs aren’t necessarily a huge barrier to having a good lifestyle. Groceries are cheaper than in New Zealand though eating out is a fair bit more expensive, while rent in London is comparable to Auckland or Wellington and transport costs are pretty similar too.
– Social Life
Seeing London has so much going on all the time and has such good public transport it is easy to go out and enjoy yourself, no sober driver needed! I was worried that it would take awhile to develop a friend group but what with there being so many other Kiwis over here it doesn’t take long to make an extended group of old and new friends. Add workmates to the mix and you’re away flying. If anything you find yourself quickly having to have the occasional forced weekend off – to give yourself (and your bank account) a bit of downtime!
– Nature & Leisure
This is the area where New Zealand takes the cake- with so many beautiful national parks, stunning hikes and recreational areas to make the most of there is certainly more in NZ for nature lovers. That’s not to say that the UK doesn’t have beautiful spots too, but when you’re living without a car in London it is much harder to make the most of them and of course the climate in the UK isn’t exactly beach friendly (bar maybe a couple of days a year.)
– Travel Opportunities
Travel on the other hand is the area in which the UK wins hands down. With it regularly costing less than 70 pounds per person for return flights on the weekend to a multitude of European destinations it is not hard to fit in a lot of travel while you’re here. Compare this to NZ where it is usually an absolute minimum of $300 return to go anywhere (and a lot more for anywhere further afield.) In the last 6 months I’ve already been to Luxembourg, Cambridge, Madrid and Oslo and in the next month I’m off to Ireland and Scotland.
So… what’s the verdict?
For me personally I thrive on being able to discover new places and I love living in a big, cosmopolitan city so London is an ideal home for me right now. However I do miss clean green New Zealand, the ‘sweet as’ laidback nature of NZers and living in a warmer climate so I might well change my mind in the future.
In the short term if you’re young (or young at heart) and want to travel lots London is the place to be! In the long term it really depends more on what you’re looking for out of life.
Wanting to know what it is like when you first get to London? Check out what it is like to be a Kiwi fresh off the boat (or plane, or train) in London and what you can expect in your first month of London life!