Question by Charlotte: Are you able to travel to London and look for jobs without a visa?
I want to move to London after graduation, but obviously don’t have a job yet. I was wondering if you need a visa to travel there and actively look for a job. I was planning on flying there before I graduated. I understand you need a visa to obtain a job, but do you need one to look for them and leave your resumes with companies and such?
Best answer:
Answer by PaulinaSmith
On Canadain or US passport you can goto UK for 6 months to look for job.But for workpermit you will be in the same TierOne (General) queue with several indians, chineese and rest of the world.
Add your own answer in the comments!
No. You will need a Work VISA. They will not let you in to the country looking for work. You need to be invited. But employer’s are less likely to hire you because you do not have your stay and it will cost them more money to employ you. Unless you have a skill which they need and no one else has enough experience. Another thing is this. You need to be in well paid job. It’s very hard. You have to be invited and be on a good wage.
Legally no, but people do it all the time
If you want to come to look for a job, just don’t carry any copies of your resume with you and don’t tell them that you are looking for a job. Tell them that you are just on holiday and want to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and other typical tourist sites
But unles you have a Masters or PhD and a few years of relevant work experience, dropping off your resume isn’t going to do anything. To be able to sponsor you, a company needs to prove that they advertised the position for at least 4 weeks and could not find one qualified EU citizen or legal UK resident to fill the job. With unemployment at the levels they are now this is almost impossible unless you are educated and experienced in a very specialised field - cancer research, chemical engineering, certain surgeries, etc
If you want to work in the UK one day your best bet would be to look for a job with a company in the US that has a UK office, then after a few years apply for an intercompany transfer which are usually approved.That’s how most Americans end up working in the UK. I know Americans working for all sorts of US companies who got transferred over with their jobs - CNN, Google, Yahoo, Morgan Stanley, Disney, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Estee Lauder, etc