Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Hi all..

We are hoping to leave SA sooner than later.

I am a British Citizen with permanent residence in SA, both my children have british passports and south african passports, my Hubby needs a Spouse Visa.

My questions are:

Is it just my hubby that needs to get a SARS Clearance Certificate, or would I need one too?
Can we leave bank accounts open in SA - I've read somewhere about 'blocking' them, but not sure if this is done automatically if you officially immigrate?
Is it just my hubby that needs to notify SA Reserve Bank that he is leaving the country, or would I need to aswell?
I've heard that Retirement Annuities can be 'paid out' now if you do an official immigration....what does an official immigration mean as opposed to an unofficial immigration?
I believe Nedbank has a branch in London, does anyone know if a current Nedbank account could be transferred to the London one?

Thanks
Audrey

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Auds, here below are my answers to the bits I know about...

Your citizenship or permanent resident status is irrelevant from a SA tax point of view. So in theory both citizens and Permanent Residents need a SARS Clearance.

I believe many just leave without bothering, but if you want to, or need to, do things by the book, then you should both get this.

Yes, you can leave SA accounts open and you can use them if, for example, you go back for any reason (e.g., holiday) or if you have any other SA needs that require a bank account.

Blocked rands are monies that you cannot export from SA if you have emigrated. That's what the 'blocked' means. You can't send them overseas.

Not sure about this. Others might have the answer for you. I didn't bother telling the Reserve Bank anything (though my accountant may have done later on)

I believe this is the SARS thing above, but check.

Probably not, and anyway it's probably not worth it. Many foreign banks have an office in London, but they don't really provide normal banking facilities in the UK.

Good luck. Things are looking increasingly dodgy there, eh?

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Thanks for your reply Pablo...

Very dodgy, very scary, I hate what living in this country is doing to us emotionally.

Unfortunately we are not in a position to just pack-up and leave - we need to sell our properties first. I just hope and pray that they sell soon so that I can get my family out of here.

I'm seriously trying to get my ducks-in-a-row now - I worry that we are going to land up in a 'forced-to-flee' situation with just the clothes on our backs! I"m trying to do what I can now, and hoping and praying our house sells soon, to avoid a lot of pressure and work when it finally does sell.

I so wish we were in a situation where we could just pack up and leave, and let the house out, afterall it's just the property that is holding us back, the SPOUSE VISA should be a piece of cake.

If, by some miracle, my hubby had a guaranteed job in the UK to go to, we could attempt that, but moving over to the UK jobless, (and that is not from lack of trying - but Employers just don't want to know you when you are in a different country), and being unsure how long it will take to actually find work, is just too irresponsible, so we can't take the chance.

Thanks again for your help.
Audrey

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Hi Auds

Both OH and I got SARS Clearance Certificates but we had to fill in a contact name and address of someone still in SA just incase we owed them tax at the end of the tax year. OH got money back:) but I had to pay them:(

We didn't notify SA Reserve Bank that we were leaving (didn't know we had to...)

OH has two policies still sitting over there. Not sure exactly why but FNB (the bank I was with) said I had to leave them in their safe keeping and we have written confirmation from them that they have them. Will just have to make a plan to go over when each of them pay out (I'm sure OH will have no problem with that of course). Can't answer the official/unofficial question.

Donna

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Audrey,

Don't emmigrate officially. Just move from S.A. to Scotland and keep your main bank accounts open. You can do SARS tax returns online now. :thumbup:

This leaves your options open to move money, sell up later-on etc...

Job hunting will be difficult and you (or hubby) would need to be here to go to interviews etc...

I came ahead of the rest of the family to get work and rent house etc... before they all came over.

Get the spouse visa as a priority.

Good luck!

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

It's one of those situations, damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Yeah, if you have loads of bucks in them and need the dosh, then you may have to emmigrate.

We just sold (accepted and offer) our house there and need a S.A. address to move the money out. Fortunately the Std Bank address for my account is still the S.A. address of the house, otherwise we would be stuffed and couldn't get the money out. :thumbdown:

Hopefully it (the sale) will go through soon and we can get the money out. :fingerscrossed:

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

The thing is, why leave money here?, I honestly (gut feeling) don't think it's a wise move to leave even just a cent here, considering the state of the country, and things are only going to get worse, who knows, if in the future, we would even have money to take out, or worse still, if the rules were to change because someone woke up and realised there was a mass exodus going on, and then you weren't able to get any of your money out.

You are so lucky to be able to leave before actually selling your house, we're stuck here until ours sold, we also have a piece of land at Hartees too, which we're less concerned about, but it's a long waiting game, very frustrating.

Where did you move to? I wish you all the best with your sale of your house.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Thanks. We moved to Surrey in 2001. We have just got our Australian PR visas so are moving there in September. That's why we are interested in selling our house in S.A. Also trying to sell our UK house.

We've also just got back from a 3 week family visit in S.A. The place sure has got expensive!!!

It used to cost 1/2 to 2/3 the cost of UK, but not anymore. R40 for a chicken. :eek:

Beer costs the same now. Only petrol and a decent steak eating out is cheaper there.

We wouldn't live there again.

I'll only go back for funerals now.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

That's a long time in the UK then, did you find the 'settling in' easy enough? What are your reasons for heading to Australia now, or was it always the 'big plan'?

My Mum says the same thing each time she visits from England, re: how expensive things have become in SA.

Once I"m out of SA I will say the same "I wouldn't live here again and probably wouldn't even come back for funerals".

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Not sure about Scotland. We came to London as that's where the work/money was. I did the London slog for many years, but now work about 10 minutes away from home. My wife also works close by. But settling in is easy enough.

We always wanted to go to Australia or NZ before we got married about 20 years ago, but couldn't get in. Now with vast numbers of years work experience,:D we finally got visas. Also the cold weather is getting us down now, especially this last winter which was really cold.

The job market here is very slow, and probably the same or worse in Scotland. Depends what you do for a living though.

When was the last time you lived/worked in the UK?

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

We are now probably going to go to England initially, and live with my Mum, until 'we're on our feet'. I know of loads of South Africans leaving for Australia or waiting for their visas etc.,

I"m sure the cold weather can get you down, but I'm determined to put up with it and not complain coz it beats living here and worrying about your safety 24/7. However, there's no guarantee that I'll feel the same in a couple of years!

The job market in the UK worries me. My husband has his own business here in the motor industry, however, he will be unable to start his own business straight away in the UK, so he's prepared to 'work for a boss' and is thinking of a change in career at the same time, seeing as he'll be starting rock bottom again, he thinks he may as well, and although he's looking at staying in SALES, he wants to get into property, - there is an old saying "beggars can't be choosers".

To answer your question: I left Scotland in 1981, I visited the UK in Dec. 2008 with my family to show them around, and after all these years I was surprised to feel so at home, although at the same time 'a complete foreigner' in respect of the SA accent........at the end of the 3week visit, it was difficult to get on the plane and return to SA, I left my heart there.

I have just been looking at a facebook page "10,000,000 Voices cry to end Genocide in South Africa" and the photos - they are horrifying and have sickened me to my stomache, I have tears in my eyes and have this desparate anxious feeling to get out of here, I wish it wasn't so complicated and I could just take my family and get on a plane now to get out of here.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

All the best of luck to you and your family. I share your sentiments. Don't worry about your accents, after a while you don't even think about it anymore and people accept you for who you are.

Try and sort out at least one job beforehand if possible as you don't want to be eating into any cash you have. Moving is expensive and set up costs will erode a lot of cash. We've done it twice to the UK and back. Now doing it to Oz. :eek:

PM me if you guys need any other help or advice and I'll try and answer the best I can.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

They only have 9,998,095 members to go before they hit their target...

Agreed - my SIL is in Scotland. Cost of living is cheaper than in England, just colder though. Jobs are not easy to come by.

Sorry Al, don't agree with you there. I was in the UK in Feb, was astounded at the cost of everything. A burger and chips for 7 quid from BK? A pint of lager at the pub is a fiver? Smokes are the same...SA is considerably cheaper - and houses are a quarter of the price.

Although there is an obvious reason for that....:(

Good luck heading off to the UK - horses for courses I suppose. I go back for ABCs, nothing else. Bloody depressing, cold, dark, tiny houses and expensive.... but I understand your rationale and wish you all the best. Hope you find the peace and happiness you need - that all of us need. :)

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Do they have a Burger King at the Ritz? your prices are way off for a normal pub or BK in the UK.

A pint in the average pub is £1.80-£2.00, a quick google to look at a BK menu shows a BK Burger Meal (burger, fries, drink) is £2.94 or £3.24 if you would prefer a milkshake to a Coke.

Unless you looked at the prices at Heathrow and thought airport prices were the norm for the country?

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Pretty much the same with New Zealand. A few years ago when we had family visiting they would always say how expensive things are here in NZ. These days they cant believe how cheap some things are.

R40 for a chicken in SA is bloody ridiculous. Especially if you earning ront.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

How is Glasgow? Your prices are not accurate if you are in London.

BK whopper meal at Winchester services - Feb 14th, £6.99. A pint for 2 quid? If you go to weatherspoons and have their homebrew! Smokes? Petrol? Houses? A whole 1.5kg chicken on Pick and Pay's website this morning is going for R28. Tescos selling the same thing for £4.

More myth and spin from the anti-SA brigade....SA has it's faults, but the cost of living 'aint one of them.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Castle Lager SA:

R125 for 24 x 330ml cans = £1.39 per litre

Fosters UK:

£18.49 for 24 x 500ml cans - £1.54 per litre


Chicken: Todays website listings.

Pick 'n Pay SA:

R27.99 kg - R34.99 kg (@ R28 per kg = R41.98 for a 1.5kg chicken)

http://www.pnponline.co.za


Woolworths SA:

R36.78 kg - R36.78 kg (R44.14 for 1.2kg Chicken)

http://www.woolworths.co.za/caissa.a...=2032920000004


Sainsburys UK:

R22.61 kg - R43.74 kg (excluding expensive organic)

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk


ASDA UK:

R20.22 kg - R45.21 kg (excluding expensive organic)

http://groceries.asda.com


Can't check Tesco because I have to register.

Exchange rate used R11.36 = £1 from www.x-rates.com

I have also kept all our till slips from our trip over. I will go through these at some point.

All I'm saying is that S.A. is no longer 1/2 - 2/3 the cost of the UK. It is comparable i.e. very similiar now.

We shop at Sainsburys cause that's what we have close by.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

How was my post anything "anti-SA", I was addressing your blatant untruth / exaggeration, nothing even mentioned about SA.

There are some things that are stupidly expensive in the UK like cigarettes and petrol but as the taxes on them help pay for the NHS it has to be looked at in perspective. How much does a good medical aid scheme cost these days in SA?

But you need to keep to the facts, and buying something from a Motorway Services doesn't bear any resemblance to normal prices. Motorway services are pretty well known as expensive and very few people will go to the Motorway Services out of choice for a night out, or to take the family out to a meal. Thats what towns are for, few of us actually live on the motorway.

This is what the average BK charges:Burger King/

Another normal pub I drove past today has beers at £1.99 a pint (IPA, Fosters, McEwans), a full roast meal on Sundays was listed at £5, and burger, chips and a pint was £3.99.

You shouldn't make up things as "average" when you don't really know what is average. Exaggeration will always weaken your entire argument when found out.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

My bad - next time I will drive my screaming, hungry 12 year old son past the services, 30 miles into a town centre, and pay a couple of quid for parking (or get towed)! So being ripped off is ok as long as it's only in a few places?

My weekly grocery bill is R800. Wife, me, 2 kids, dog and cat. What's yours? My SIL's in Scotland is over double that. What does a meal cost when you go to a restaurant (and not the Harvester)? Sure drinks are cheaper at a supermarket, but in a pub? 2 quid a pint? Please. Can you get world class wine at 2 quid a bottle? (not Blue Nun).

What does a maid, gardener cost in the UK? How much does it cost to heat your pool?? (oh, sorry).

The truth is, I earn rand for pound exactly the same as I did in the UK, and live like a king in comparison.

Yes, medical aid is expensive but don't give me this free NHS is brilliant bollocks. My disabled mum gets pitiful care. She almost died of MRSA after an op which she waited over 2 years to have, having spent 40 years paying NI contributions. I would take private healthcare if living in the UK which costs the same as it does here.

I think there are obvious wins and losses depending on your lifestyle. Of course SA is getting more expensive, that's inflation for you (6%) and the strength of the rand (11.5 from 18 a year or so ago) will affect things if you are a visitor. My personal view is if you are paid in rand and live here, things are relatively (to the UK) cheap.

Here's the Big Mac index comparison from 2009 - this year's data would be interesting and should make things a little closer.

http://www.oanda.com/currency/big-mac-index

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

You guys are both making the mistake of simply converting Rands to pounds. You have to take into account salary, and percentage of that salary the cost of the Mac.

Ed you probably would be earning more in the UK, and therfore you wasting your time trying to convince us and yourself that things are cheaper in SA. If you are a tourist in SA from the UK, then yes you are probably right. But you not. You living and working in SA, earning Ront, paying high prices for medical aid, security, school fees, house prices (overall they much more expensive in SA btw, work out the total cost u pay for a house over the 20 or 25 years at 15% interest, in NZ although the price is more, interests is just 5%). In fact anything in SA bought on credit in the end probably costs double to what I would pay for the same item here. Even if i bought it on credit here. And how many people in SA can afford not to buy on credit? :rolleyes:

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Yeah, good point - especially the interest rates. That is a killer. House prices are still cheaper though, even with the interest rates. You can't deny that. My house here is twice as big and a third the price of my shoebox in the UK.

But I am earning more here...:). Why this fascination though with how you think I try to convince myself of certain things? Can't you accept that I'm happy? The point I am making is that I am better off here than in the UK, in a similar level job, with similar benefits and pay, plain and simple. It's probably the single biggest reason to stay. If that wasn't the case, I'd be off....

And I don't buy my shopping here on credit - only a fool would do so.

Anyway - can't stop, off for a Big Mac (which is 32% cheaper than in the UK).

;)

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Enjoy! Don't forget to pay the car guard. :lol:

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

:D now THAT's value for money....! R2 for someone to watch while your car gets scratched / bumped / stolen and he does absolutely nothing about it - and when questioned, disappears into the bushes...

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Cheapskate, it should be R5 now.

It was R2 a decade ago!!! :D

Yeah, funny how they can disappear into thin air!

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

I told you SA was a cheap place to live..... You never see one when you park, but they appear out of nowhere when it comes time to pony up the silver. If you don't have change you get "the scowl".

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

way back in 2002, there was an article baying about how inflation was down.
I hadn't seen any major drop in what it cost me at the till, so I found an old till slip from a monthly shop, as it was December I chosean easy date to remember to check the 22 items on the list, December the 16th and since then Have religously done so on the 16th December every year except last.
these days its easy, Picknpay lets you do an online shop, same products, same brands and sizes, every year.
I did te (belated) "shop" last week,
33% up on Dec 16th 2008.
the average has been 20% per year since 2002..

This is what it costs me as a average white family to shop at Pick and pay,
it involves brand names rather than no-name brands, and its the ruling prices rather than the on special prices.
Its how much more goes into the till, year on year apples with apples.

Ireland is more expensive, however I did the same excercise before the GFC, it averaged 4% pa when the govt was saying 3%.
since the crunch its declined by 5% on last year and that only increased by 1% on the previous year.

The menu is basically the same, the type of shop basically the same, the brand names are pitched at a similar target market and excludes specials.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

That has nothing to do with anything, and nowhere have I stated, or even alluded to SA not being cheaper, I have no issue with that point but do have an issue with you trying to justify why SA is better and basing your justification on untruths.

you said
then when you are pulled, you start prattling that is what you paid at a Motorway services, as if that is the norm for where the average UK person would shop. You are paying a premium for the convenience of a 24 hour shop, 30 miles from anywhere else on the side of a motorway - that doesn't equate to being "astounded at the cost of everything".

And the nonsense about parking charges is just that, a nonsense smokescreen (most people know that the average BK or McD's or pub has its own free car park).

If I found the price for a beer and burger at Sun City, or the Royal Hotel, would you then agree that was the average price for SA?

I have no issues about SA prices, I have no issues about UK prices, I am not trying to compare either, or even whether the £-R or R-£ is better today than it was yesterday, I only have an issue with a person who uses nonsense as a justification for something patently untrue.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

So Daxk - a R24 chicken today would have cost around R6 in 2002? Jeez, things have gone bad!!;)

Don't forget, pay inflation here is around 12% (at my company, anyway - over the same period) so that needs to be factored. I guess things for me don't seem as expensive here as they do in the UK, despite a rand which is 40% stronger than when I arrived...but I won't argue with facts. I just know I have to save for a month for a trip which lasts a week...!

As for vx999 (whoever you are) I'm not saying SA is better, I'm saying it's better for me. If you are happy wherever you are, I'm thrilled for you. I saw on Sky news today they were forecasting a mini-heatwave in the UK. 24 degrees! The same as it will be here on this chilly Autumn day. Enjoy....

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Rainbow 2kg pack of breasts R18.99. 2/12/2002.
Country fair 2kg R39.99 last week
Chicken in SA is cheaper than chicken here, thanks to Rainbow and all those battery farms.
I'm glad your Company is rewarding with 12% inflation linked pay increases.

we were paying between 6-10% depending on profits and production before I left.
I gather its been 6% since.
Ed, I'm happy for you.
Congratulations.
but SA is a helluva lot more expensive than when I left, and Ireland does not seem to have increased at the same rate.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Or you can buy a ready cooked one at woolies for R40. Delicious!

6% pay inflation? I wish.....bastard unions.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Unions? only in the factory.
I wasn't in the factory and my profession does not have a union.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Oh stop gloating. I'm in airlines. Bastards are everywhere. Imagine Scargill but without the personal hygeine or charisma.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

LOL at the comparisons for the price of chicken. Chicken licken, hau. She is very popular in SA. Of course its cheaper. Everybody and his dog, maid and gardner eats it.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

No chance - I wouldn't even park outside one!!

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

well, it was your choice to be a Koffee Moffie:rofl::tounge_smile:

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

You wish.....!

I get them off the ground and make sure they get back down again. Sometimes.

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

aaah ok, the guy with his daughters ping pong paddles!

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

That's the one...:D

Re: Leaving SA for UK questions
 

Just shows, I thought you were one of the guys who played computer games all day seeing how close you get the lines to each other without one or two coming to a point.