My husband and i have been living in Toronto for 5 and a half years now and want to move back to the uk with our 10 month old daughter. We have family in Glasgow and Manchester and we are both british passport holders (our daughter has a Canadian passport). My husband has been trying for the past month or so to get a job in the uk but it is proving difficult despite positive feedback from various sources. A transfer with his existing company fell through. Did others find it hard to find a job from a distance? I feel like employers might be reluctant to take a chance with someone who is not in country. Have others taken a leap and moved back without a job? We could sell our house here and have decent money to love off if we did this but would need to live with family until we found work. It just seems a lot riskier...any words of advice appreciated!

Not having a UK address is going to be a huge obstacle to overcome - I'll guarantee that applications from overseas are entirely ignored.

Either your husband should agree with a relative to put their address on his CV, or rent a mailbox from "Mailboxes, Etc" (put "unit" or "flat", not "Box No").

Then get a VoIP phone number in the UK linked to your husband's mobile phone.

The only risk to this strategy is that he would need to be prepared to fly to the UK at fairly short notice if called to an interview and a Skype interview isn't possible.

To be honest it depends on his line of work. I have just neen offered a job in the UK and i am in New Zealand and used my NZ address on my application, but in my work they are used to global applications and were happy with a skype interview

A month isn't that long even if you were on the ground, bound to take a bit longer from overseas, if indeed it is possible at all.

I managed to secure a role before I moved back last year, interviews were conducted by telephone. But I guess it just depends on what you do and a bit of luck I am sure too.

Could he take some leave and fly over to be on the ground? I am not sure that I would pretend to be in the country. It is bound to be uncovered and if I was th employer I would then think he was deceitful.

There's no need to be "deceitful" once you get through to anyone beyond HR, but the fact of the matter is that many employers filter out, either by software or HR review, all applications from overseas. If you use an overseas address and phone number, the chance of you getting to speak to anyone, in many industry sectors, is slim to none.

Saz1983 I've sent you a long rambling P.M.

My husband would not use a UK address should he be looking for work in Britain. His c.v records his home address of where we are living in NZ. He would not alter that in the event of applying for work in the U.K.

He would be welcome to use the address of my Dad's house in Britain but my husband probably thinks it's pointless to do so in this instance.

I saw a job ad for a UK job and I rang them up and said I was looking at coming back, was interested in the job and would they accept a job application from overseas. Fortunately they said yes.

The application process was straightforward and I had a Skype interview and got an offer a few days later. I think I was really lucky that when I contacted them in the first place, the person I spoke to got the hiring manager to call me back so we had a really positive conversation.

So it's definitely possible, I do think that if I hadn't had the conversation my application may not have been taken as seriously.

Good luck with your job search

I had no problems at all speaking to people and was always open about being in Australia and in fact I brought the matter up from the outset.

If somebody lied to me about what country they lived in, their application would be straight in the bin the minute I discovered the truth, not because of where they are but because they lied.

A couple (not all) of first round interviews have asked for scanned evidence of residence ( utility bill etc) in advance of any interview.

To the OP, you'll just have to do what a lot of us did, in either direction, take a leap of faith if you can't secure anything. Soft landings are doable but getting rarer IME.

I think it will depend on the job and your skills tbh. I've been adverting for staff recently, and have had lots of applications from overseas, 2 of whom I've interviewed. But I'm looking for fairly specialist skills, so happy to consider people who are abroad.

So I think the response will vary depending on what your husband does, but wish him the best of luck.

Before anyone attempts to hide the fact they are living outside the UK, please remember that any emails they send can be traced. The recipient can quite easily discover the source country of the email and the path it took before reaching them. In most cases, using a VPN will not help.

Recruiters are aware that applicants will pretend to be in the UK, and will employ techniques such as email tracing to check if the applicant is lying.

As always, "honesty is the best policy".

Ds got a job in 6 weeks after he moved to UK, while looking for that job he did Temp work through an agency, his job is in finance.
I also was offered a job in 6 weeks, (took longer to start NHS) So if you are willing to work and temp for a while, you should be able to get work. Somewhere bigger like Manchester or Glasgow should be less problem than the rural area we are in.

Thanks for the replies. I don't see how putting a uk address would help that much since it's obvious from his cv that he's been working in Canada for the past 5 years. I guess some employes aren't as prepared to take a chance on someone who is abroad when there are people on the ground applying for the same job. He works in consultancy, engineering and planning so skills are pretty transferable. I just don't know if we can take the risk of packing up and leaving with nothing to go to when we have a baby. We'd be giving up well paid jobs and selling our house just to live off the proceeds. That being said, sometimes you have to take a leap to get what you want!

To play devil's advocate for the minute, I think the point is to get through the automatic computer rejection of the resume to enter the second round where it is actually read by a human being.
Unfortunately these days scanning and computer thinning of a pile of applications is all too common. Caused in part, I suspect, by people who scattergun applications for which they are not even remotely suited.
And that probably doesn't apply at all to people who work in a highly specialised field.
I'm retired, but I think I would put something like:
You can get a UK phone number from a reliable provider such as Callcentric for about $5/month and which works with hardware such as OBi202 that travels with you worldwide. Assuming you are even very slightly techy and so can set up telephone devices.

I think the key ingredient here is honesty and integrity which most employers want to see demonstrated from the start of any employee/employer relationship. Attempting to 'blag' an employer by purporting to be living and applying from the UK when you are not in fact there will in my humble opinion create more questions and doubt in a potential employers mind than it satisfies. Certainly, you will be left explaining yourself should you manage to get beyond the sift which is not a good position to be in.

I think the key as one poster here said is to make a personal connection with a contact at the job where you can verbally explain your situation. Failing that you need to express multiple times on your application your willingness and availability to Skype, video conference and fly back with reasonable notice for interviews.