Catch-22s for Immigrants

I am frustrated this morning. It's easy not to think about this in today's world of the online global community, but effectively, when you move to a new country, you become almost a non-person. No contacts, no renting history, no credit history. You don't exist until you start paying utility or credit card bills.

One would think that it ought to be easy for someone with a legitimate reason (say, a student) to move to another country. But if often seems that things have been designed to throw obstacles in an immigrant's way.

Your experience as an immigrant to the UK might be something like this: you cannot get a visa without first having a job. But you are unlikely to get hired without a visa. Even if (like me) you have been accepted to a UK university, your visa application might still be rejected. The universities don't seem to have any power to tell the immigration office who to admit to the country.

Once you make it here, of course, you will need somewhere to live. But you may find this hard as well: most likely, without a renting history, you will be required to provide a guarantor who must be a land-owning UK citizen. Arrived in the country with no contacts? You might be out of luck. If you have a guarantor, or if you don't need one, you will still need a UK bank account. Problem there? You're often required to have lived in the UK for 12 months before you can open a bank account, and you will need first to have a permanent address (which you don't have yet, remember, because you're looking...)

And then, perhaps, after you're settled, and you wait until you have a bank statement or utility bill and a debit card so that you can finally get yourself a mobile phone with a monthly plan (by far the most cost-effective option). So you take your documents and go to the phone store, only to be denied on a credit check (yes, they check your credit to sell you a phone).

Such was my luck today. I wasn't trying to buy a house or a car, just a phone, but because I've only been in the country for a little over a month, I have no credit history. Now, worst of all, since I've been denied a mobile phone, I'm starting out with bad credit history.

I'm trying not to sound bitter. I understand, of course, why it is that I am almost a non-person in the UK at this moment, and why in many cases it must be that way, although I have to wonder if there's a reason why a credit check company can't exist across national borders. But really--should my lack of credit history prevent me from buying such a small item as a mobile phone? And should the fact that I tried to get a phone soon after I moved here because I need phone hurt my credit score?

I was a bit bewildered while applying for my Visa when I had to travel into downtown Houston to have my fingerprints taken. My father thinks this is because George W. started a policy that all immigrants to the U.S. must have their fingerprints taken, and so other countries created that policy for Americans as retribution. That was bizarre, but I think this beats it. In the United States, someone who walked into a phone store with a bank statement to prove their ability to pay--who would even be willing to pay a few months worth of statements ahead of time--would have no problem getting a phone. They might beg her to do so.

I'm hoping this will be the end of the seeming catch-22s I encounter, but I fear that's wishful thinking. I've never had to worry about my credit history before, but apparently now I will need to consciously build it up.

Flats update and what bedsits are

It seems strange to think that yesterday I spent most of the day complacently writing and reading, thinking that by the end of the day, I would either have a bedsit room or have made an offer on a flat. Neither happened, but I think it's for the best.

Last night and this morning were frantic, between deciding not to take a two-bed flat we had been close to wanting, adding a third flatmate, and suddenly finding that the hostel I planned to stay in this week didn't have any rooms available. I have a place to stay now until the 22nd--I had to book a room in the YMCA for three days until I can move into a little hotel in Bloomsbury, but it isn't as bad as I expected. As for the flats, we are, so to speak, back to square one, but I have a feeling the looking and deciding will go faster this time.

I did like both the bedsits I saw over the past few days, but I would much rather live have flatmates, so there are people around to talk to! The first I saw was an elderly lady renting out a spare bedroom in her house. She lived there with her daughter, son-in-law and grandson. The room was spacious and nice, but no washing machine, no dishwasher, no oven, and no going out at night. She gave me tea and cookies and we had a nice chat, but it didn't take too long to decide I would pass. The second was a middle-aged woman renting out a room in her house. She lives there by herself as her son is getting his MA somewhere up north. It was much smaller, but had a very large desk and full use of the house. She knew quite a bit about literature and so we had a chat about my thesis topic over tea. The area she lives in is called the Shakespeare Collective, apparently--the street names are after characters from the plays: Cressida, Miranda, Prospero, and I think I saw Lysander. I love how London is so full of literary history than even streets get named after famous literature. I walked out of the YMCA tonight and saw, just across the street, a pub called The Shakespeare. I love it.

Coming soon: Lego Shakespeare Tours London

To bedsit or not to bedsit

In London, there is an option for those seeking affordable (read: cheap) accommodation that, I believe, is unheard of in the U.S. It's called a bedsit: and I think that it's either something close to what we Americans call an efficiency, or it's a room in someone's house that they are renting out.

Since I'm not sure whether or not I'll have to live by myself, I've made a couple appointments to look at some bedsits in Camden. Both were listed on the University of London's housing database, so I think the landlords must have been checked out by the university and I'm reasonably confident that they will turn out to be nice. Both landlords are women, and they sounded on the phone like nice, motherly ladies.

I'd much rather have a flatmate, if only just so that I would have someone to talk to, but I have to admit that there's something romantic about the idea of renting a room from one of these women. I keep imagining that it will be like in Little Women when Jo goes to New York and rents a room in the attic of Mrs. Kirke's boarding house. (I think one of the rooms I'm looking at actually is in the attic of the house.)

Of course, I don't know yet whether my imagination will turn out to be like the truth. It could be a disaster: small room, mean landlord, no one to talk to. Plus, in some of them, I'd have to share a bathroom with another tenant.

My goal was to know where I would be living by today. If I end up living south of the Thames with a flatmate, then that might happen. If I end up needing to find a place by myself, I probably won't know until at least later in the week. So the "battle" keeps going.

Finding a flatmate (and a flat)

I'm in the middle of the "battle" (as my dad calls it) to find a place to live. It's difficult since I don't know many people here. To find a flatmate, for example, I had to rely upon the university's housing message boards.

I tried to find a flatmate before I left, so that even though I would be arriving in London without a place to live, I'd at least have someone to live with. That didn't quite work out: I am meeting a girl tomorrow who I might live with, but she's also looking at single rooms, which means I have to as well.

These online message boards are a lot like internet dating. I've never had to do this before: either the university assigned me to someone else or I got together with a couple friends. It's a weird experience to advertise myself online and then to field responses. You can post an advertisement of your own ("I'm 21, from Texas, and starting a master's degree in Shakespeare. I don't smoke and am quite tidy.") or respond to others. Sometimes it's a landlord making a post. There seem to be quite a few ladies who live in Camden who are looking for postgraduate students to live in a room in their house, so I've been calling some of them.

I couldn't look much over the weekend, so I've been really looking now for two days. I'm already sick of it! I don't like looking all by myself and trying to coordinate with landlords and letting agents and walking all over London and (as happened last night) sometimes getting lost. But I suppose if I can do this, I can do anything.

I think it's a bit harder for me since I'm just moving to the country, and so I don't have a renting history in the UK. Landlords are less likely to want to rent to me. This whole process--getting a visa, finding a place to live, finding a job--seems designed to keep Americans out of the country. You'd think they would give some of us a chance!

10 things to do before I leave the country

1. Retrieve all post-its from various hiding places in and around my desk and place in a plastic bag for safe transportation abroad.
2. Go through college notes. Try to determine which I might need in London. Scan as many as possible to PDFs and store on my laptop.
3. Indulge myself by reading as many novels as possible while I still have an excuse not to read academic material.
4. Sort through my bookshelf and decide which of my hundreds of tomes I simply cannot live without. Attempt to determine whether it’s most cost efficient to put in checked luggage, stuff into my carry-on, or buy an extra copy in London.
5. Ditto for kitchen utensils. Find out if potential flatmates own a set of dishes. Can plates fit nicely in suitcases?
6. Move credit cards from wallet to passport holder and back again. Try to use up American change. Weigh merits of large purse as one of two carry-on bags vs. small purse inside second carry-on bag.
7. Try to anticipate which items of clothing are better purchased in London and which I should find (for cheaper) in the States: specifically, brown skirt, brown heels, scarves.
8. Purchase large supply of Blistex, which I know I cannot live without. England might be the perfect place to live if they sold Blistex. Also purchase Muppets DVDs for moments when I need some American-style humor.
9. Practice methods of folding clothes so as to maximize suitcase space. Discover a method of fitting the most towels possible into spacesaver bags.
10. Find a flatmate. Try not to worry about the fact that I have no flatmate yet.

Travel web sites universally unhelpful for long-term travelers

Is it just me, or are travel advice web sites almost universally unhelpful?

I'm not talking about finding the right hotel or car rental agency (both of which are questions I am mostly uninterested in). My questions are more along the lines of: what (and how) should I pack? how can I protect my belongings? and what are the mistakes most people make that I should be aware of?

I encountered this problem before, the first time I moved to London. I spent four months there in fall 2006. While I was probably more prepared than many travellers, there were still many things I wished I had known.

For example, I only found out recently that wheeled luggage are really about the worst thing you can take if you have to carry them around yourself anywhere but the airport. Not only can they hold much less (both in terms of space and also weight restrictions if you're checking them), but the handle on one of mine broke on my way to the airport while still in the US, and so I spent almost a week (before I was able to move into my flat) lugging around a piece of luggage that I couldn't wheel properly. From now on it's soft-sided rectangular bags sans wheels for me.

I did, thankfully, pack most of the right clothes. A friend told me about the immensely helpful web site journeywoman.com before I left, which instructed me about the type of clothes and shoes mostly worn in Europe. Who knew that bright colors and sneakers will peg you as someone who ought to be pickpocketed? (It seems that a lot of the rest of the world has the mistaken assumption that all Americans carry wads of cash in their pockets. Sometimes I wish for a sign I could wear reading "poor student.")

This time around, however, I'm encountering other problems and questions that I'm having a hard time finding answers for. For example, the last time I lived in London, my laptop had an awful time. While no one has been able to explain to me exactly what happened, as near as I can tell it was this:

The higher voltage in Europe led to a build-up of static in my laptop's motherboard. This both decreased the life of the battery and made the computer switch off and refuse to restart. I had to take out the battery, disconnect the AC adapter, and hold down the power button until the static had flushed itself out of the computer. Then (sometimes) it would turn back on.

In the beginning, this process took 30 seconds. In the end, it might take upwards of 5 or 10 minutes. And once I returned to the US, the computer was never the same. This spring it began exhibiting the same symptoms and eventually died completely.

This left me with an interesting dilemma. By that time, I knew that I would be returning to London in the fall for an extended stay. I had the opportunity to buy a computer that would hold up better on British power. I decided to research what type of computer would work better abroad.

I was unable, through many Google searches, to find anyone who had encountered a similar problem. But I did find that other users with a similar computer to mine had trouble with AC adapters catching on fire and their computers shocking them when they touched them. Apparently this had something to do with the material used in the laptop's casing. I decided that this was about the closest I would get to a similar problem, and started looking for a computer with a non-shock casing.

This wasn't my only problem. When my computer wouldn't start while I was in London, I had to call the US service desk, be put on hold, and then try to explain to them what I was seeing. I couldn't send it in for repairs--they couldn't send or receive computers outside of the US--and their only repair center was in Kentucky. Naturally, I wasn't looking forward to this expensive and hassling experience again.

In the end, I bought a Macbook, which doesn't shock me and which is the same computer both in the US and the UK, which I hope means that it will work. Plus, I can bring it for repairs to any Apple store, which are located almost anywhere I might want to go. But now as my departure draws nearer, I'm beginning to worry. Supposedly, since the AC Adapter works from 100-240 volts, it should work with just a plug converter. But is that enough? Is there something else I should do to protect it? I can't find a web site that will tell me.

I've been searching travel web sites, looking for one that is even partially useful. Besides Journey Woman, onebag.com has some useful tips for packing and some really very random information that I might not use but I'm glad I know. (Did you know that you can use your watch as a compass? Or that you've been tying your shoelaces the wrong way your entire life?) And according to kropla.com, I really do only need a plug converter (not that this confirmation puts my mind at ease).

I searched for travel sites, and I found flight and hotel information, and I searched for business travel tips, and found information on packing light. Why isn't there information for someone who frequently moves back and forth between countries and wants answers to her silly questions, such as what do I do if I need a guarantor for renting a flat and I don't know anyone in the country I'm moving to? and what should I do first, open a bank account or find a place to live?

I can't be alone. Today, in an age where we can't live without our electronic "accessories" and hopping countries--and continents--by plane is easier than ever, you'd think that travel web sites would have caught up. In the lack thereof, I suppose it's a good thing I have some time to spend searching the internet before I leave.