Life in London

[Coin1993]

This is a universal post for European cities, London happens to appeal to me. Is it possible to move to one of these cities and start a new life? I'll do whatever it takes to survive somewhere else, besides killing. How difficult is it to relocate somewhere with nothing and stay there without proper documents?

 

[landpirate]

Depends where you are from originally? There has been a few threads about this on here so have a search. but the problem is getting into the UK not staying here. If you're from outside the EU you have to show you have the funds to support yourself during your stay and that you also have a return ticket. Then If you keep your head down you could get away with overstaying your travel visa.

Read up about the Schengen Agreement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

What do you plan on doing once you're in London?

I don't want to sound harsh, but the UK is not all that great. If I was going to leave and go somewhere else and start a new life it would be much easier in so many other parts of Europe. England is expensive, the weather is shit, squatting residential property is now a criminal offence and our dickhead government is probably only one election away from closing the borders and kicking all the illegals out. Just saying, good luck though!

 

[Matt Derrick]

I don't want to sound harsh, but the UK is not all that great. If I was going to leave and go somewhere else and start a new life it would be much easier in so many other parts of Europe. England is expensive, the weather is shit, squatting residential property is now a criminal offence and our dickhead government is probably only one election away from closing the borders and kicking all the illegals out. Just saying, good luck though!

I've only spent a week in london, but i agree with this statement whole-heartedly. there's a lot of other places you could go and ditch your id and be a happier person.

 

[kecleon]

I'd also say london is shit compared to most of europe, and the UK probably has the highest concentration of crappy places in such a small area.

Where abouts are you from? Makes a huge difference. What kind of place do you want to live?

I don't think it'd be massively difficult for you, to get in and stay.. again depending where you're from. If USA, you can get in on a 3 month visa then just stay. I think Spain is supposed to be easy to get into? (confirm anyone?) then you can travel all of western (except UK) and some eastern europe without meeting a border guard. They're not actively chasing down americans that overstay their visa.

Wether you could make it someplace depends on you really.

 

[Matt Derrick]

this information is a few years old, but it's still probably true. the easiest and cheapest way to get into europe is generally amsterdam via reykjavik iceland (starting from nyc). the customs there is super lax (i never had to prove return ticket/enough money to stay) and you can take a train to anywhere else in europe (including the uk, which i did from paris). i've flown into amsterdam twice this way, but the last time was in maybe 2008?

 

[landpirate]

Icelandair is the cheapest fare I've found to get to the USA. I would imagine it is the other way too. that could help with the whole going through Iceland to get to Amsterdam thing. There are also ferries to the UK from Iceland if you wanted to do that.

I should also add, there are way better places than London to go if you did come to the UK.

 

[Matt Derrick]

I should also add, there are way better places than London to go if you did come to the UK.

i'm curious what your suggestions would be?

 

[landpirate]

Brighton (Yeah I'm a little biased I know!). Bristol, Edinburgh, Most of the southwest is lovely (Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset), Cambridge, Glasgow is fun. I really like Wales, although not so much the southern coastal towns of Wales. The Lake District. The Northumberland Coast is incredibly beautiful I could go on...Depends what you're after, countryside or town/city. I'm not a massive fan of many big cities. This is all only my opinion and I have in no way travelled everywhere the country has to offer. Not yet anyway!

 

[Mongo]

this information is a few years old, but it's still probably true. the easiest and cheapest way to get into europe is generally amsterdam via reykjavik iceland (starting from nyc). the customs there is super lax (i never had to prove return ticket/enough money to stay) and you can take a train to anywhere else in europe (including the uk, which i did from paris). i've flown into amsterdam twice this way, but the last time was in maybe 2008?

It's definitely still true I have a friend who went to amsterdam a year and a half ago that way and has been living there ever since completely under the radar.

 

[Wereghost]

It's definitely still true I have a friend who went to amsterdam a year and a half ago that way and has been living there ever since completely under the radar.

How do they get income? How hard is it to work off the books if one were to do this?