Brittwit

Decided on the spur of the moment to get tickets for the QM2 next week and head back to the UK after 35 years in the USA.

Managed to sell everything up this past week and shipped some stuff back, but basically starting over again when we get there.

Crazy? probably, but life is an adventure anyway.

It has been interesting to read some of the stories about folks moving back and we have learned a lot about their experiences and some of the pitfalls that they have encountered.

Stay tuned for updates...................................

quoll

Ah a spur of the moment kinda guy - that's the way we've catapulted through life and so far so good! Hope it all works out really well for you!

Flying Enterprise

That takes Guts!! We have also been in Southern Africa for about the same time and thinking about returning, just the availability of suitable rental property in the U.K.

Best of luck.

Mary C

Hi Flying Ent... I have been in South Africa for the past 31 years and am heading back to UK in the new year. There are rental properties to be had, but looking what you get for your pounds is scary when you look at what we have had for our Rand... but I accept that I am not going to have in the UK what I have had in SA.... well not without winning the UK lotto a couple of times over. I am trying not to convert every pound into a Rand (not easy I know), but am going to embrace my decision and the adventure ahead with as much positiveness as possible.

not2old

OP, that was super fast & you did all that within one month?

Good luck to you

Mary C

Its amazing what you can do in lightening speed. I would have thought that selling the house would have taken the longest, but less than three weeks on the market and poof... sold. What takes the longest time is getting everything done to lodge at the deeds office but that is almost done, in just under 6 weeks. Lordy help me once the transfer is done, cos then we have to move out the house and we are still 4 passports and 4 visitor visas short hehehe. Holding on to my five man tent until the very last moment cos I may be needing it!!!!! now, how to get 4 adults a 2 year old and a 3 month old into a five man tent..???

Brittwit

Thanks, already had the passports, keep them renewed all this time so no worries there.

Sold everything within a week, amazing what you can do when you really want to do it.

Probably didn't get as much for the cars as we would like but hey, its done and we have cash in hand now.

Now, how to fit what's left of 35 years into 4 suitcases...................

Editha

As someone who spent over a year organising our move, after only eight years in Canada, I am in awe. Respect!

NiHao

I too stand in awe! Way to go Brittwit, way to go!! Looking forward to hearing about your adventure of returning to the UK.

Bnet36

Britwitt if you ever need a side job consider a relocation service company... Don't know how you managed it, kudos to you!

Noordhang

I am also returning to the UK in March next year after 35 years in South Africa. British born and bred, always had a British [now EU!] passport. I received a scary email yesterday telling me that a friend of a friend, who also had lived here about 30 years, arrived back in the UK on a one-way ticket [as will I] and was told he now had no residency rights and the authorities put him on a plane back to South Africa. Could this be possible? I am now very worried about it. Comments, please/

Editha

If he was a British citizen, no it is not possible.

Noordhang

But after living so long in another country, am I still a "citizen" ? I know I have a British passport and all that, and I know if it will take 6 months of living in one place in the UK to re-establish residency, and I believe the chap concerned had both a British and a South African passport.

Editha

You can't lose citizenship by any length of time out of the country. You can't have a British passport without being a citizen. If you are a citizen you have the right to reside in the UK.

That's it! The man you've heard of either isn't a British citizen or wasn't told he had no right to reside in the UK. If he also has a SA passport, that is irrelevant, unless he was stupid enough to only use his SA passport to try to enter the UK and not his British one.

Flying Enterprise

I don't think that could possible be right, never heard that before!! but will have a look at the ''Net'' as I receive my U.K. Pension here in S.A. they said that when I return, they will increase my pension up to what it should be,

Never any mention on Residency Rights.