Expert: Graham Thomas - 4/22/2007

Question
Hello I am thinking of moving to England and raise my son there.I currently live in Atlanta GA where i own a small company but I'm not happy with the culture here and not sure where its going right now.Is this going to be too much to deal with and whats the employment like there now?
Also the what would I need to do to get my son in a good school and whats a good area to check out for something like this.  

Answer
Hi there

This is a big question as i don't know much about getting to stay here long term.

For the legal side I would look at the immigration notes on the Uk government website - you could probably do this through Google but unless you have direct relatives here you would also probably need to engage an immigration lawyer.

Employment has improved but it obviously makes it harder if you also need to find an employer to sponsor your application to live here. I don't know what you do so i can't say if you have skills the Uk is currently actively looking for.

As regards schools - if you want to live in London I would look at the Ofsted ratings which is the government body that rates schools in the UK. Obviously there are also lots of private schools (which we call public schools here just to be confusing)

As far as London is concerned the more you pay to live in an area generally the better the local schools will be. The other general rule is that church based schools such as catholic ones tend to be better than the run of the mill none affiliated schools but of course you have to be catholic and practicing and live in the catchment area to qualify.

I might also mention that the cost of living in the Uk - and especially in London is a lot higher than in the US outside of major cities.

Good luck

Graham