Re payments, I don't have a credit card, but I can use my bank account card as a debit card absolutely everywhere. On a working day it seems to take from my balance almost immediately, sometimes the weekend it can take a while to update from my account. Unless you actually want to borrow money, don't get a credit card just to be able to pay electronically. All the current account cards can be used to pay for things in shops and online and so on.

If you and your fiance are already engaged, maybe you could move the wedding forward? Suspect the whole paperwork thing gets a lot easier once you are wed. My boss's wife is Thai and she's never had problems living or working in the UK.

The only thing to be careful of is that London housing is INSANELY expensive.

Devs transferring to London from the US offices tended to find that a) they took a pay cut because "competitive" in London isn't what it is in SF or NY and b) then found out what renting in London is like. And it IS renting because buying in London isn't on the cards for people on developer salaries unless magic happens. (I recall an engineering director several pay grades above me complaining that he couldn't find anywhere big enough for his family for under 2M...)

Guildford -- where a lot of the games companies are -- is also bogglingly expensive but it's just about sane to buy. Cambridge (lots of tech companies) is getting close to London prices, partly because in commute time central Cambridge is closer to central London than most of London is...

Warwickshire -- Codemasters and the Blitz fragments along with a lot of mobile devs -- is affordable and a nice part of the world, however you'll need a car there because public transport is comedy.

The rest of it you'll work out. Particularly in London but increasingly across most of the country, no-one bats an eyelid at foreigners asking how you get something done -- half the city comes from somewhere with a different power supply :-)

The main thing to remember is that in general the UK isn't very functional. Friend was trying to sort out work visa for his wife (he was on a corporate sponsored one) and nothing was happening until I explained that in the UK you have to phone up and ask what's going on and then they remember to move things one stage... He was used to Korea where processes apparently run slowly but deterministically until complete. Likewise if you phone the tax people, no matter how long you've waited, the bit of paper has always "just been done" and will arrive three days after you ask where it's at. If you get an answer you don't like from an organisation, it's always worth asking a few more times until you get one you do[1].

"there is a chance such kids end up with identity crisis.."

Not in the UK. They won't even be the only ones with that heritage in their school...

[1] I went to renew my passport. When I asked on the phone about times, it would definitely take 8 weeks because of some complication. No way to do it faster. Not really a problem because I don't travel that much. But when I got to the office and we'd done all the forms they charged me twenty more than I was expecting and said "It'll be ready at 4 this afternoon"....

Just imagine our children. “I’m English but my dad is American and my mother is Japanese.” Oh the fun they will have.

Fun? hmm, there is a chance such kids end up with identity crisis..

If they put their identity in their appearance, knowledge, culture, work, or hobbies, then that's their own failure, the failure of their parents, or a combination. Too many people put their identity in stupid things. So yea, there is a "chance" that if they are born with blue eyes they may have an identity crisis... but only if their dad doesn't teach them their worth.

And since the dad of these theoretical polyglottal hedgehogs is LSpiro, I'd be more worried that their identity will be in how awesome they can make their lego constructions.

The main thing to remember is that in general the UK isn't very functional. Friend was trying to sort out work visa for his wife (he was on a corporate sponsored one) and nothing was happening until I explained that in the UK you have to phone up and ask what's going on and then they remember to move things one stage... He was used to Korea where processes apparently run slowly but deterministically until complete. Likewise if you phone the tax people, no matter how long you've waited, the bit of paper has always "just been done" and will arrive three days after you ask where it's at. If you get an answer you don't like from an organisation, it's always worth asking a few more times until you get one you do[1].

[1] I went to renew my passport. When I asked on the phone about times, it would definitely take 8 weeks because of some complication. No way to do it faster. Not really a problem because I don't travel that much. But when I got to the office and we'd done all the forms they charged me twenty more than I was expecting and said "It'll be ready at 4 this afternoon"....

The USA is the same way. By default, the waiting time for renewing a passport is 4-6 weeks, unless you pay extra to "expedite" it. Luckily, the USA is large enough that I've only needed a passport once in my life, and unless you are travelling outside the states or USA-controlled soil, a driver's license is all the identity you need.

But yes, with any government or corporate organization, you have to call, write the name of the person you are talking to, ask them explicitly (using their name) when you should call *them* back, so they know you'll be a nuisance to them if they don't get it done, but be friendly enough about it so they don't be a nuisance to you. Assume any date they give you is made up, and that they'll only get around to it (on the following week) after you've called two or three times.

Warwickshire -- Codemasters and the Blitz fragments along with a lot of mobile devs -- is affordable and a nice part of the world, however you'll need a car there because public transport is comedy.

I actually took a walk down a lot of roads in Warwickshire (on Google maps) because the first place where I applied has an office there (and in Bristol).
Red bricks on every house. Bleh. My fiancé arrived at the same conclusion about the car.

Currently our main focuses are on Manchester and Edinburgh.


L. Spiro

Red bricks on every house. Bleh.

Bricks are a feature. Know how much you pay for a brick house in the States, where most construction is wood? It's insane.

Although, one hell of a lot of older British buildings that look like brick are actually made of mud. Cob/Clay-lump construction was the norm for hundreds of years, and they often faced them with a thin layer to look like brick.

If you move to Manchester pack an umbrella. It's one of the wetter cities in the UK, as it's near the west coast and battered by storms with no protection from high ground...