There is so much to think about if you are planning to head over to the UK to work and we hope the following information will be useful to you.
Visas
To work in the UK you must have a current work visa. Unfortunately, the Stopgap Group cannot apply for the visa on your behalf and therefore you need to have applied for and obtained one of the following before you leave Australia:
Working Holiday Visa
UK Ancestry / partiality
Marriage / defacto
Work visa
Highly Skilled Migrant Visa
If you log onto www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk you'll find all the information you'll need and you can download the visa application forms from www.ukvisas.gov.uk.
Registering with the Stopgap Group
Once you have organised a visa and know when you will be arriving in the UK please register with the UK office via www.stopgapgroup.co.uk
If they think they're going to be able to help you, they'll arrange to meet up with you once you've landed. Unfortunately, due to the fast turnaround nature of the briefs they work on, they will not be able to secure you a role until you are actually in the UK.
Having said that, there's no harm in you looking at the site in the run up to your arrival date to see the assignments they're working on. The site is continually updated throughout the day so it give you a very accurate picture of both the freelance and permanent jobs on offer at the Stopgap Group. If you're interested, you can register for e-mail job alerts, so we'll let you know when we have a job in that matches what you're looking for.
Other useful job sites
The two main UK marketing publications, Marketing Week and Marketing Magazine, both have their own on-line job sites taking a look at these will give you an idea of what opportunities are around.
www.mad.co.uk - Marketing Week
www.brandrepublic.com - Marketing Magazine
Opening a UK Bank Account
You are going to need a UK bank account and although you can set one up once you're there, it is easier if you do so before you leave. One of the easiest options is to set up an HSBC account, which you can do by going into any Australian HSBC branch which has a Travelex or Thomas Cook branch within it. You can find their branch locations via their website www.hsbc.com.au. You will need to take your passport, two utility bills as proof of your address and know when you're going to be arriving in the UK. They'll charge you a $115 arrangement fee and will need you to deposit £1500 into the account. It'll take about 2 weeks to set up.
Accommodation
Finding a place to stay can be a nightmare, and although you can go through property agents it's often easier to go direct to the landlord via the classifieds section of the local newspapers. If you are going to be based in London, the following three sites are very useful.
As far as where to live, well that's a tough one, London is a big place. Our recommendation is to stay close to where you know people - although there is a very efficient transport system, getting from one side of London to another can easily take an hour and taxis are a lot more expensive than they are in Australia.
