Moving to the UK from Europe
Britain still wants you. It just wants to know first who employs you, where you will live and how your healthcare is paid for. Here is the order that gets you there.
| Free movement | Over for new arrivals from the EU and EEA; the EU Settlement Scheme deadline passed for most people on 30 June 2021 |
| The normal route | A visa, usually through an employer with a sponsor licence |
| Visiting, not moving | Up to 6 months as a visitor with a £20 ETA, no work |
| Health surcharge | Usually £1,035 per year of the visa |
| Minimum wage from April 2026 | £12.71 an hour from age 21 |
What has changed, and what hasn't
If you moved to Britain before 2021, you packed a bag and got on a ferry. Those days are gone. The EU Settlement Scheme closed for most people on 30 June 2021, and anyone arriving from Europe today normally needs a visa. If you got pre-settled status back then, since 9 April 2026 you are more likely to be moved to settled status without applying, where tax and benefit records show 30 of the last 60 months in the UK; otherwise your status is extended by five years, and children under 18 or joining family members apply themselves anyway. A second, separate change: if you have clearly stopped living in the UK, you can lose pre-settled status since April 2026. That sounds like a wall. In practice it is more like a ticket barrier: it lets you through once you hold the right card.
That card is almost always a job with a UK employer that holds a sponsor licence, sometimes family, less often your own company. Which route fits you is covered in our section on visas and residence. This page is about everything around it: what to do in which order, what it costs and where you might feel at home.
What hasn't changed: a language you very likely speak already, the humour, the pubs, the green, a capital that feels like a country of its own. And from your first day your tax runs under a separate system, one we have been explaining to clients from abroad since 2006. Start with our overview of the UK tax system.
The order that saves you trouble
Most people start by hunting for a flat. Start with whether you are allowed to stay at all.
- 1
1. Settle your right to live there
Status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or a visa. As a visitor you may not work for a UK company, paid or unpaid.
- 2
2. Run the numbers
Visa, health surcharge, deposit, the first months of rent. What that means in pounds is on our page on the real cost of moving.
- 3
3. Home, doctor, bank
Tenancy, registering with a GP practice, a UK current account, a National Insurance number.
- 4
4. Sort your tax on both sides
When the UK starts taxing you, and what your home country still expects: deregistration where it applies, pension, investments.
Good reasons for Britain, honestly weighed
English is the working language, and you already speak it. Plenty of professions are short of people: doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers. Health and care staff have their own cheaper route, the Health and Care Worker visa, without the annual health surcharge. The minimum wage from April 2026 is £12.71 an hour for everyone aged 21 and over.
Then there is what doesn't fit in a spreadsheet: politeness at the bus stop, a country made of coastline, museums that other countries would charge you to enter. Honesty also means saying this: housing is expensive, especially in London and the south, and the weather is a topic of conversation because it has earned one.
Many people ask whether Britain is better off after Brexit. For your decision a smaller question matters more: would you be better off there? That comes down to job, place and family, which is what the pages below are for.
Moving to the UK: every topic
From the first step to retirement, by region and by stage of life.
Living in the UK: everyday life after the move
Once the visa is in place, real life begins. These pages help you land.
Sort your tax before the move, not after
From the day you arrive, UK tax law applies, and there is often something left to do at home. In a UK Tax Consult we put both in order, by phone, Zoom or Signal.