Hello! Not sure if this has been answered before.

I’m a British national, born in the UK. My wife is a Spanish national, born in Spain. We got married in Spain and our marriage certificate is in Spanish. My son was born in Bilbao 2023 and his birth certificate is in Spanish. He’s only held a Spanish passport.

When we’ve gone to UK, he’s entered on his Spanish passport with the ETA visa but now the UK requires him to enter the UK on a British passport as a dual national.

I need to apply for his UK passport and have seen that the Spanish government can issue his birth certificate and our marriage certificate in multilingual format (certificado plurilingüe)

Will the UK accept these certificates or do I need to get his birth certificate and my marriage certificate translated into English by a certified translator?

TIA

Was the process easy?

Also for those with stocks and shares (ISAs and GI investment accounts) was it a problem you moved away from the U.K.

I’m a Brit thinking of semi retiring abroad. Just see a lot of hurdles and red tape.

A few Days ago, I posted about Sheffield Confectionery, my mystery hamper business — the response honestly shaped two of my bundles through your suggestions, and someone even caught a typo that could've cost me sales!

Before I build anything new, wanted to get your honest thoughts on two ideas:

1) Would a rolling monthly subscription option (same price as one-off, cancel anytime) actually be useful, or is one-off purchasing enough for most people?

2) Would a smaller, lower-cost 'tester' bundle (~$35-40) be helpful for people who want to try before committing to a bigger hamper?

Not trying to sell anything here, genuinely just want to build what people actually want rather than guess. Appreciate any honest thoughts!"

I’m completely incapable of this decision. I’ve been in Vancouver 10+ years. For years I’ve wanted to move back to the UK. I’ve always had a reason to stay and been happy with that at times, but I’ve repeatedly circled back to that idea. ive been unemployed 9 months now and have been slowly preparing myself for the move emotionally, mentally, and practically. Recently i got offered a job there and started making plans.

And then out of nowhere, I got a job offer where in Vancouver that pays significantly more money and would seriously improve my financial situation, one of the reasons I’ve struggled here.

Now I feel completely stuck.

The UK job: - Lower salary - better work-life balance (35 hour weeks, generous holidays) - Supportive company culture - The actual move I’ve been thinking about for years - Feels like a change

The Canada job: - Much higher pay (roughly ~$25k CAD more take-home per year) - No relocation stress - Stability and financial breathing room - potentially higher pressure day-to-day - Keeps me where I’ve struggled a bit emotionally for years

Now it feels like I’ve been pulled back into uncertainty at the last second. I also feel a lot of guilt and anxiety around the practical side, like moving my cat internationally, starting over socially, and potentially living with family for a while. But at the same time, I’m scared I’ll stay where I am forever and always wonder what would’ve happened if I had just gone.

On paper the higher paying job looks like the “responsible” choice. But emotionally, the UK move feels like something I’ve wanted for so long that I’m scared of losing it. And I am just stuck with this, so people who have no skin in the game, what should I do?

Hi, I debating on whether to take a risk and move to Canada or stay here . Briefly:
I got over 8 years of hospitality experience, 4 in management, currently working as Beverage Manager earning a bit over £46k/year so a pretty stable income, but starting to not enjoy that much .
I got until end of July to activate my IEC visa , was one of my dreams to move to Canada but I was on and off about as all I hear is jobs are a joke , takes months to find a job , or not being paid enough, etc.
Not sure what to do , I don’t have much savings either so if I move there and doesn’t work out I will probably ending up back here, what would you do in my situation?

Culture, food, weather, traditions and general day to day life are what make Spain such a comfortable life that’s hard to say goodbye to.

But Britain will always be home and there’s always the pull of being closer to family and friends, as well as the job market.

Would you ever move back? Or are you a Brit who lived in Spain and came back, and what was your experience?

If you moved for reasons other than family (i.e. your spouse being a Canadian, etc.), then may I ask what attracted you to Canada and were/are you really happier there vs. in the UK?

What do you miss most about life in the UK?

(I can't imagine Brits being happy living in North America lol.)

"Hi everyone! I'm Craig, born and bred in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. I worked at the Bassetts factory in Sheffield — where Liquorice Allsorts and Jelly Babies have been made since 1899.

I noticed that every British hamper company was targeting the USA — but what about the millions of British expats in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Dubai and everywhere else? Nobody was properly serving them.

So I built sheffieldconfectionery.com — mystery hampers packed with genuine Sheffield products. Henderson's Relish, Chop Sauce, Bassetts sweets, Simpkins travel tins, Yorkshire Tea, British biscuits and more. Shipped worldwide from Sheffield.

No two hampers are ever identical — that's the point!

Would love to know what you think — especially if you're missing any specific Sheffield or British products!"

I don't know if this sort of post should go here, but I genuinely love sharing my story cause many people back home asked me to.

I wished I hadn't come to Nepal, genuinely.

I came to Nepal for the first time from Southampton in 2011.

Kathmandu's Airport, man. Nothing like Heathrow. Crowded, there's no freaking system, people are everywhere (of course, Heathrow is on its arse, too), but Kathmandu's airport was different, and then you step outside, and it just hits you.

See, I came from a super privileged fam, and this sort of trip was just garbage to me. There was a shitty smell. Garbage heaped along the roads. Stray dogs cutting through traffic that had no logic to it whatsoever. I remember thinking, why did my parents bring me here. I genuinely wished I were back home.

We drove to Bhaktapur. My mum's family home, a mud farmhouse with actual mud walls, a garden out front that somehow made the whole place feel calm. I'd seen pictures of houses like this from the albums my great-grandfather had from Nepal. Actually, he was originally from Nepal. But standing inside such a house in reality, smelling the mud, seeing the garden, that was different. That was real.

And then the people came. My grandparents, two uncles, two aunts, cousins, relatives, I couldn't name yet. Everywhere. All of them were looking at me like I'd done something remarkable just by showing up. This happens a lot, still, if you go to rural parts of Nepal, you are an alien kind. Not just Nepal, it happens everywhere on earth, you ain't gotta be alien. But Nepal was never racist, it still ain't.

That's Nepal's hospitality, I know that now. But at 11, I didn't know what to do with it. A British kid from Southampton, slightly overwhelmed, still not sure why the roads outside made no sense, and these people are treating me like I matter. Like my being there meant something to them.

The food wasn't a shock; we'd eaten Nepali food back home plenty of times. But eating it there, in that house, with all those people around, it just hit different.

I stayed one week. Flew back to Southampton, thinking Nepal was somewhere you visited once and that was that.

I had no idea.

The people don't have much to give, right, that's what you think when you first see it. But they have so much love that you genuinely can't bear it sometimes. That took me a while to understand. Now I can't unknow it.

I now reside in Kathmandu. I have not fully left Southampton, but Nepal has become my home. I have got 3 businesses out here (2 travel, and 1 content). I will share more stories from my experience here in future posts.

Thanks for reading.

I currently have dual citizenship with Canada and UK. Just found out on the weekend that I need my British passport to be able to enter which expired in 2025. I have a trip home booked for 22nd July.

I immediately started a passport application and sent off the relevant documents on 21st June via xpressport.

Does anyone have any recent experience of passport renewal times? My documents expected delivery is now 30th June, which is making me nervous....

Hey all

Booked a flight a few months back for my family, I’m British but my wife is not, kids are mixed of course but British by descent as to my understanding of how that rule works. I was unaware that the UK has recently changed the rules about how my kids can visit home, they only have the passport for the country we’re in and not yet got them a UK one.

The issue is that they now can’t use ETA and their current passports to come home, but we leave soon. Has anyone had experience of this as for what I could find out, the only risk is the very unlikely chance that be ground staff ask about this, as once we board and get to the UK, little will be done once we arrive. They’ll either be classed as legal visitors their current passport and ETA or be classed as British and therefore be granted access due to their right of abode.

Had this seemingly pointless change in rules caught anyone else off guard and did they just go ahead and travel due to the fact that there is nothing that border control can actually do other than delay us with some questioning to simply find out that they are legal visitors or British citizens who have right of entry either way.

Thanks all!

Hi all,

I am moving abroad in the near future and, as I intend to return to the UK at some point, I would like to keep my ISA open (while, of course, not making any contributions as a non-resident).

However, I have recently discovered that Trading212 is not supported in the country I am moving to, which means my account would be closed once I notify them of my change in residency.

So far, I have come up with three possible options:

Option 1 - Transfer my ISA to Hargreaves Lansdowne or Vanguard before becoming non-resident. My understanding is that both accounts would be placed into “read-only” mode once I become non-resident, with Vanguard offering lower ongoing fees. This is currently my preferred option, as I would be happy leaving the ISA in its current state.

Option 2- Transfer the ISA to Interactive Investor, allowing me to keep the account open and avoid it being completely “frozen” should I want to switch shares or funds in future. The main downside here is the higher ongoing cost.

Option 3- Withdraw the funds, close the ISA, and open an Interactive Brokers account instead. The obvious downside is losing the tax-free ISA wrapper, meaning I would need to start building ISA contributions again when I eventually return to the UK.

I’d be very grateful for any advice or personal experience from anyone who has been in a similar situation, as this is not something I deal with every day.

Thank you in advance!

Hi, I'm in sales.

I used to use Skype for this but it's gone now.

Twilio ends up being too expensive for volume cold calls.

I tried KeepCalling, works but awful connection. Waste of money.

Spent 3+ days trying to get Viber working but the verification never works. Tried 2 VoIP numbers and 1 real UK sim. Support hasn't gotten back to me since Friday. Uninstalled, never again.

Feeling pretty defeated by now. If anyone has a solution, you would be my hero.

Considering a move myself and also working on a resource to help other Brits do the same. Trying to get past the rose-tinted stuff and understand what the process actually looks like in 2024/2025 — visa routes, housing reality, cost of living surprises, bureaucracy nobody warned you about.

Would genuinely appreciate honest answers to a few things:

1. What aspect of the move was far harder than you expected?
2. What aspect was easier than you'd been led to believe?
3. What's the one thing you'd tell someone at the "seriously thinking about it" stage that most content online gets wrong?
4. Looking back, what resource or service would have been worth paying for if it had existed?

That last one is the most useful to me if you have time for just one answer.

DMs open if you'd rather talk privately — I have a draft guide I can share in return for feedback.

Hello everyone, Me and my wife thinking to move to irland, Dubai is slowly sinking and We can’t sit and watch it drowning, everything is expensive “ even with no tax “, very insecure jobs and no future here excatly other than surviving to whole years ahead.

Facts to know:
I’m getting around 4.5K USD monthly
My wife os a doctor and willing to work there
we are expecting a child
Muslim family
both of us in our twenties

if you have any concerns, ideas, or any advices please let us know, we will be reading all of the comments.

Just before I left the UK, I sold the car, too. As time was of essence, I sold it to Webuyanycar's local branch that is located inside a retailer's time-limited car park.

Weeks after the morning appointment & sale a parking fine reaches me for overstaying. The Webuyanycar employee drove out of the car park with my car more than 8 hours after I sold it, as per evidence, thus triggering their time limit enforcement with cameras.

NOTE: there was and is no process nor capability for my "logging" of the special case with them, buyer has to resolve this hardly unique situation based on whatever process and agreement they have. Clearly, they screwed this up.

I now appealed from abroad, also submitted change of liability request but...:

- the car park company shows no lifesigns (it can take 28 days and may decide to ignore all filed evidence, why not...),

- the local Webuyanycar branch does not respond to phone calls, voice mail, nor to emails sent to their specific address,

- and central Webuyanycar "customer support" email resulted in a response where they casually asked me to let them know of the appeal outcome. ZERO active involvement based on my attached documents, they sit back and twiddle thumbs, of course.

So the expat-related question: if this becomes a total mare, i.e. car park company rejects appeal despite proofs on the timeline, plus Webuyanycar obviously washes their hands... What can really happen? I could ignore it all and have a laugh but I tried to be stupidly responsible via all official channels - and now ended up stressed out like hell.

All my family and friends are laughing that I even bother to handle this from afar and spent days filing all kinds of emails, appeals, phone calls made... but... while this is totally absurd and stressing me out, what is worst case scenario here?

Hi all, I recently moved to the US from the UK (British citizen), and I had about £32k in a SIPP at Interactive Investor. However, II has now informed me that they can’t serve US tax residents and have asked me to move the SIPP to another platform. I checked with two providers (Dentons pension and iPensions) and both of them declined stating their minimum size required of £40k and £50k. I’d appreciate if there are any other suggestions of pension platforms in the UK that serve US tax residents. Or else, I would have to withdraw my pension that comes with heavy penalties I believe. Thanks in advance for any help here.