Across the Pond

17 Feb, 2026

You only truly come to appreciate the anxieties and logistical processes of emigration when you’re the one dealing with them. I recognize that I am incredibly fortunate, however, because my wife is a UK citizen. This makes it such that our path is paved with a lot more certainty than most.

While my work in cyber security technically qualifies me for a Skilled Worker Visa, that route comes with a heavy caveat of becoming sponsored by an employer. That status brings the constant, low-level worry of RIFs or sudden layoffs. On a work visa, losing your job doesn't just mean losing a paycheck because it also often means a frantic scramble to secure a new sponsor or face leaving the country. With the required financial investment and moving our pets over, this is not something we would want to have to worry about.

The spousal visa, by contrast, offers a much-needed safety net. It grants me the same 'right to work' as any local, meaning I can walk into a job interview without the baggage of sponsorship. It’s a level of freedom that I do not take for granted.

All that said, there are still a lot of things that start to come into focus when you're planning, and for a move like this, planning is something that should be done, and then some. My wife and I have a Notion workspace capturing anything and everything that we will need to be aware of. From small things like when the sun sets and how often it rains, to more day-to-day things like how to manage waste and recycling. These minutiae may seem irrelevant, but being aware of them before you make that move will help you to understand what you are getting into, especially when looking at homesickness. We have only ever moved states, and even then we experienced homesickness, but moving countries? That is entirely different.

There are a multitude of things we are documenting, right down to our smallest electronics. A majority of them simply will not work with the 240 volt system in the UK. While our computer and some gaming consoles can adapt, a great deal of our household tech will have to be sold, gifted, or donated. This includes sentimental items from our wedding just three years ago, like our coffee machine and stand mixer. It’s one thing to expect to "leave things behind," but it hits differently when you’re taking stock of the physical anchors of your life as a family.

Even the furniture presents a complication. We have a very nice bedframe we’ve only recently bought, but UK mattress sizes don't align with those in US. Bringing it means a lifetime of "pain in the ass" logistics just to find sheets that fit. Is it worth the space in the 20ft shipping container we’re budgeting for? Probably not. Had we not started this granular audit, we wouldn't have realized just how much we may have to leave behind.

Our Notion workspace has grown into a living document of the transition, capturing the less tangible hurdles too. We track everything from immigration lawyer meetings to the specific logistical nightmare of moving five cats across the pond. We’re even documenting the mundane things like how to park our US phone numbers on a service like Tello to maintain access to our US bank accounts, and what we can realistically expect to pay for local services in Inverness. By tracking weather patterns, daylight hours, and even waste management, we're trying to strip away the varnish of romanticism and get a grip on the reality we’re stepping into.

One very painfully obvious thing that we are accounting for is our income virtually halving. My wife, a physician, and I, working in cyber security, enjoy very nice salaries. Our combined earning potential in the UK will be similar to that of just my current salary. So getting a sense of what groceries, services, car payments, and rent/mortgage will end up costing us is critical. We have taken stock of all of that and have accepted that our total earnings will drop significantly. However, we believe that the drop in income will come with what we hope will be a life with less stress, less American hustle culture, and not having to worry about mass shootings, etc. Will the dollar amount lost be equal to or greater than our perceived benefits of living in the UK? That is our hope, and if it turns out to be at least on par or better than what we are hopeful for, we will happily trade in those higher wages. We do not look at wealth as a measurement of success. We look at the life we get to live and enjoy. Being in Europe for easier traveling to Spain, the Netherlands, etc., doesn't hurt either.

So, in short, we are documenting literally everything we can think of. So should anyone when moving abroad.

#emigration