PrairieWriter

Hi there, everyone!

My husband (also a new member of the forum: PrairiePainter) and I are returning to the UK, namely Scotland, in 2019. He's lived all his life in the USA, so this will be a big move for him.

We have two girls, currently aged seven and two, and a baby due next year. We'll be going the spousal visa route with savings in the bank instead of income, as we're both self-employed (unsurprisingly as a painter and a writer!). We'd also like to buy a house outright before we get back permanently in circa May/June of 2019.

I'm so glad this forum exists, as we will no doubt have lots of questions as we go along, and would certainly appreciate seasoned members' advice. Here are a few questions I've cooked up as an appetizer:

1) We've been given conflicting advice re. savings in an IRA. Can we use an IRA in joint names to fulfill part of the provision for spousal support savings? Some say yes, some say no: what say you?

(It doesn't matter if we can't use that—we can go the cash savings route instead, but it's good to know regardless.)

2) House buying in Scotland: anyone have any experience with this? We'd be looking to buy outright. Does it take long? If so, how long? Any remote buying tips would be great, too, though we do want to plan visits strategically.

3) Vehicles: Has anyone bought a vehicle before obtaining their UK provisional license? If so, was it a pain? Any tactical advice about getting the provisional license/passing the test as a couple would be great! We're thinking of staggering it so that only one of us is considered provisional at a time. What do you think?

Thanks so much in advance for all your help and advice!

mikelincs

Welcome to BE

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House buying in Scotland is very different to buying in England, many houses are sold via sealed bids, also once a bid has been accepted there is no changing minds unless you are prepared to lose money, there is no gazumping either. Houses are usually priced at 'offers over £xxxxxxx'
Have never bought in Scotland however have seen many of the 'Location x3' programmes where they often do find people places north of the border.

Pulaski

Have you not previously held a UK driving license? If you have you can request it to be reissued.

You can use a US license for up to 12 months in the UK, but you will need to complete a road test before 12 months is up, and I would recommend getting some lessons soon after you arrive because the British road test is tough! I would aim to take your first test around 4 months after you arrive, giving you plenty of time to take it again, more than once if necessary (you have to wait 30 days between successive attempts). As the 12 months directly overlaps for you and your husband, I would recommend that you both follow the same plan/timetable, starting soon after you arrive to be reasonably sure that you get a British licence within 12 months.

Buying while holding a US license shouldn't be a problem, but insurance is going to be pricy, at least relative to the cost of insurance in the UK, which is generally much lower than insurance in the US.

PrairieWriter

Hi Pulaski! I never did hold a UK license before leaving, as I spent most of my time in the Midlands and Devon/Cornwall area, where I mostly took the bus or train. Or walked.... I've driven many hundreds of thousands of miles since living in the US, though (literally—I worked as a mobile district manager for a while!).

We're planning to study the Highway Code thoroughly before arriving in the UK, and hope to do some driving around this spring when we visit, via a rental car. On the one hand, I'm like, "Yikes—other side of the road!" and all that, but on the other, I seem to get used to the left-hand-side thing pretty quickly each time I visit (but I haven't actually driven there before).

Interesting about the car insurance being cheaper. People go on about how expensive the UK is (not from my memory: I survived on £7.50 a week for food for ages during my youth—sure, I bought Tesco Value, but I survived!) and I assumed that insurance would be pricier. Intriguing!

Is it worth getting an International Drivers License before coming to the UK? My dear mum told me that policemen "look very poorly upon" people who don't have them.

Pulaski

I believe it is a combination of better standards of driving in the UK, smaller vehicles (fewer SUVS to crush your Civic or Focus), and much less drunk driving, and fewer high-speed accidents. It still confounds me how many people manage to just drive off the side of the road and hit a tree (in my area), or drive into a lake, pond, river, or ditch in Florida.
An international permit is just a translation, so personally I wouldn't bother. I think I heard some insurance companies expect to see one. If you have a Polish or Romanian licence the answer would be different.

Be aware that if you take a test in an automatic you will get a license that is only valid for driving an automatic vehicle, and automatics are much less common in the UK than the US.

Caroline in Arizona

PrairieWriter - purely out of curiosity - where are you planning on moving to in Scotland? We’re going to the Musselburgh area.

PrairieWriter

It never ceases to amaze me how many people drink and then drive here. If you drove drunk in the UK when I lived there, you made yourself a social pariah—nobody respected you (and rightfully so!). Yet here, bars have car parks and the police don't seem to understand the fact that at closing time, basically all the patrons are three sheets to the wind!

If I were a policewoman here in the US, I'd simply wait in my patrol car and make everyone blow into a Breathalyzer unit as they emerged from the bar. Seems logical. But then they'd probably have to expand the capacity of local jails, and that would take government funding, which is scarce...

Re. the death rate on the road: I think the US has a four-times-higher rate of crash-related fatalities than the UK. Not surprising, considering the lack of MOT, drinking and so forth. Not to mention millions of willfully bald tires.

We did know about the automatic vs. manual driving test. I am going to bravely brush up on my stick driving skills (I currently have....no such skills) and do the "proper" test.

PrairieWriter

We are looking at properties up the west coast. Lots of incredible views to paint there! We need to sell some property here before beginning our search in earnest, though, so we haven't been able to settle on a precise area yet. We might be able to do that by the time we visit in May/June of next year, though. Time will tell..!

PrairiePainter

Transitioning to driving on the left will be enough of a challenge. At least I'm confident in my manual transmission skills!

PrairiePainter

Thanks for your expertise, Pulaski. We have so many pieces to put in place and I have a steep learning curve!

PrairiePainter

Super helpful, we appreciate your response and advice!

PrairieWriter

Thank goodness one of us is! I suspect there may be a period of horrible gearbox sounds before I get properly into the groove!

Pulaski

It took me about six months after I arrived in the US to stop grabbing in the direction of the door handle when I wanted to shift gears!
You're very welcome.

PrairiePainter

I can imagine!

durham_lad

Some good advice above.

Our son has never held a UK licence and he moved here in September. He has a Texas driving licence only and owns a 2nd hand automatic car here. We also have an automatic, my wife didn’t want to switch to manual. He got the car before his provisional licence and got insurance through Aviva who accept US drivers licences and no claims letters from US insurance companies and that has saved him a big chunk of cash.

As to IRAs I can’t comment on eligibility towards visa applications but you say “joint accounts” but IRAs are by their very nature individual retirement accounts and cannot be in joint names as far as I know. We lived in the USA for many years and each have IRAs in our own names.