Want to move to London but need some guidance

Explore neighborhoods, understand living costs, and research employment opportunities to ease your transition. Planning will help you settle in with confidence, from finding accommodations to navigating the city.

Long story short, I had lived in the UK for 6 years, got settled Status but I had to move back home to Bulgaria for a couple of years. Last year, I went back to the UK for a couple of weeks, and seriously started considering coming back, since despite being financially okay, my social situation in my home country isn't great. I found it a lot easier to connect with people in the UK. Back home, I found out quickly that my "family and friends" took advantage of me, and they don't acknowledge my existence unless they need me. Meanwhile, I still keep in touch with my friends from the UK, despite not having seen them for a couple of years.
So here I am, starting life from the very beginning yet again... I set it as as my goal to leave the country but I couldn't decide on where to. In the end, I made the decision to go back to the UK and give London a go.

I had only visited London for a couple of weeks in total, since I spent most of my time moving between Bristol and Cardiff for different jobs. I graduated uni from a former poly. My degree is in CS and I have a couple of years of experience under my belt as a junior developer, so I will polish my CV and start applying for jobs in London.

My question is, what are the more affordable relatively safe areas to rent a room in a shared house? I assume I will have to look Zone 4 and up. I have savings of about £20 000. Let's say I don't find a job immediately and it's easier to apply from the UK than doing it abroad: will the landlords be okay with me paying rent 6 months in advance?

As for jobs, if I can't find a job in my field, how's the market in general? I don't mind doing some menial work while I get my feet on the ground. - @MoveHelp1

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

I've just checked the UK Gov website (link) and I think your "Settled Status" may have lapsed if you did not then go on to live in the UK for 5 consecutive years.  It refers to a link to check your status, this link will take you straight to it.

If your status has lapsed, then you are looking at a skilled migrant visa; my advice is to join something like LinkedIn and use that to reach out to your peers to see who is hiring and where, then you will be better informed as to whether you still want to go ahead with this.

I hope this helps.

Cynic

Expat Team