Could I go back to the UK?

[kiplette]

Interesting.

Hopefully you'll be happy here.

All this complication since Brexit.

[LeonG]

That’s pretty much what I’d figured out. There’s some kind of option if one has ever paid NI for 5 years consecutively. I didn’t look at more of the details. Just feels a little unjust that I couldn’t live in my own UK house and live off my UK pensions (private and state) and UK savings. I don’t really think I will need to move back….at least I hope not. Would you be in a similar situation if you thought of moving back to the UK?

There is some law at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/13 that seems to say you can get it back.
I am not a German citizen so I could return to either one of my home countries but not really planning to.

[Alberto]

There’s some kind of option if one has ever paid NI for 5 years consecutively. I didn’t look at more of the details.

Could be, no idea. But sounds very unrealistic.

Just feels a little unjust that I couldn’t live in my own UK house and live off my UK pensions (private and state) and UK savings.

Well, my sympathy to you on this point. But as always: life is not meant to be fair, sorry. And, beyond fairness or lack of it, Brexit was not meant to be a good thing. If anything, a very bad thing, for almost everybody, including most of those who voted for it.

Would you be in a similar situation if you thought of moving back to the UK?

I also happen to own a house in the UK, from our time there, now let. None of us 3 is Brit (I could have applied, but I didn't, now regret it). And I also expect to get a UK pension many year from now. But I don't think I will want to move back to the UK, it's a country with many good things but no thanks.

[Alberto]

There is some law at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/13 that seems to say you can get it back.
I am not a German citizen so I could return to either one of my home countries but not really planning to.

Interesting.
You can "get back" UK citizenship.
But I don't think our emkay was a UK national in the past, she was "only" born there.
So this that you linked doesn't apply.
Or am I wrong...?

[Emkay]

There is some law at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/13 that seems to say you can get it back.
I am not a German citizen so I could return to either one of my home countries but not really planning to.

Interesting.
You can "get back" UK citizenship.
But I don't think our emkay was a UK national in the past, she was "only" born there.
So this that you linked doesn't apply.
Or am I wrong...?

I was born in Germany, German parents, and moved to the UK within my first year. I think back in the 60‘s+ nationality depended on where one was born. When my daughter was born in 2001 in the UK, she automatically got my German nationality. I was just curious about the notion of living back in the UK maybe one day.

[Alberto]

I was born in Germany, German parents, and moved to the UK within my first year. I think back in the 60‘s+ nationality depended on where one was born. When my daughter was born in 2001 in the UK, she automatically got my German nationality. I was just curious about the notion of living back in the UK maybe one day.

Clear.
What you have sounds not enough.
You need either UK employment.
Or UK employment for your husband.
Or British husband.

[kiplette]

A British husband and a combined income of more than 30,000 quid, rising to 38 within a year. Plus more for a kid. And the visa itself costs nearly 2000.

So difficult for people. Currently about half of the people who want it can't afford it, and after the raises that will be about 70%.

Trying to limit the number of immigrants by keeping families apart is short sighted.

[dstanners]

...there's also the NHS surcharge at just over 1k per applicant too.

[LeonG]

A British husband and a combined income of more than 30,000 quid, rising to 38 within a year. Plus more for a kid. And the visa itself costs nearly 2000.

So difficult for people. Currently about half of the people who want it can't afford it, and after the raises that will be about 70%.

Trying to limit the number of immigrants by keeping families apart is short sighted.

I know they said in Denmark that it was a lot easier for a Danish person with a non-EU spouse to settle in some other EU country due to sponsorship obligations in Denmark. It's insane.

[Alberto]

A British husband and a combined income of more than 30,000 quid, rising to 38 within a year. Plus more for a kid. And the visa itself costs nearly 2000.

So difficult for people. Currently about half of the people who want it can't afford it, and after the raises that will be about 70%.

Trying to limit the number of immigrants by keeping families apart is short sighted.

Do they really set an income limit even with a person with a British spouse?
I'm very very shocked.

[Auntie Helen]

Yes they do, as they don’t want family hangers-on living off the state.

Mind you, the NHS surcharge is cheap as chips - the year cost is less than my chap’s private health insurance in DE for one month!

[Alberto]

I remember when this salary threshold was first introduced, it was such that young PhD educated university scientists were actually excluded.
These are the people most intelligent, highly educated, ambitious, smart, hard working. I can't think of a class of more desirable foreigners. Yet the Brits with their "take back control" changed their rules to ensure they stay out. Their place their rules, fine with it. But crazy that they believe they actually benefit from it.

[kiplette]

the NHS surcharge is cheap as chips

You are not wrong, in comparison to German private health insurance, but these charges are made regardless of income - particularly galling for nurses who come to the NHS to work from overseas and are on a relatively low wage. Here they'd be on a much lower charge in one of the public KKs.

[pappnase]

It's not that the surcharge is expensive, it's just that it is unfair.

Remember that foreigners ALSO pay exactly the same health contributions as uk citizens in the form of general taxation.

Two people earning exactly the same, with no underlying health conditions, and yet one has to pay and the other doesn't, just because one of them is foreign.

Imagine if everyone here had to pay an EXTRA thousand euros per year health insurance for every non-German family member.

It's just not fair.

[Fraufruit]

It's not that the surcharge is expensive, it's just that it is unfair.

Remember that foreigners ALSO pay exactly the same health contributions as uk citizens in the form of general taxation.

Two people earning exactly the same, with no underlying health conditions, and yet one has to pay and the other doesn't, just because one of them is foreign.

Imagine if everyone here had to pay an EXTRA thousand euros per year health insurance for every non-German family member.

It's just not fair.

So who do you think should pay? Just asking.

[LeonG]

So who do you think should pay? Just asking.

Everybody is already paying through paying taxes. The surcharge is just an extra tax on foreigners.

[pappnase]

So who do you think should pay? Just asking.

Well that's kind of the point of the NHS, it's a social healthcare system, and it's funded out of general taxation. I think that everyone in the country should be under the same tax regime and that in a country where healthcare is paid for by tax, making some people pay extra is unfair.

[Fraufruit]

When a UK citizen has been paying said taxes all of their life in order to receive the health care, I can see why it rubs the wrong way when a "foreigner" can get the same benefits after only being there a short time. Having said that, I have no idea how long one has to wait after moving there to take advantage of the system.

[LeonG]

When a UK citizen has been paying said taxes all of their life in order to receive the health care, I can see why it rubs the wrong way when a "foreigner" can get the same benefits after only being there a short time. Having said that, I have no idea how long one has to wait after moving there to take advantage of the system.

If you compare it to the German system, you could move here to work, join health care, pay your 8% and then immediately have all kind of health problems requiring expensive medication and surgeries. Meanwhile, some German dude who started working at age 16 might have been paying his premiums all his life and never had anything wrong with him. Meanwhile, some other German dude might have never worked a day in his life and still has full access to the system.

This is how socialism works. You pay what you can and you get help if you need it.

[Emkay]

When a UK citizen has been paying said taxes all of their life in order to receive the health care, I can see why it rubs the wrong way when a "foreigner" can get the same benefits after only being there a short time. Having said that, I have no idea how long one has to wait after moving there to take advantage of the system.

My question about possibly moving back to the UK as a German citizen was just out of curiosity. I’ve paid UK taxes and national insurance (includes healthcare) since the age of 16. My father too since the 1960s. Of course we were always foreigners in the UK though it does seem somewhat unjust that I couldn’t easily legally move back to my own UK paid for property and live off my entirely UK based pensions and savings. However, as you mentioned, other ‘foreigners’ do move to the UK and most likely receive most benefits. Probably without a wait time. I’m just thankful that hopefully, moving to back to the UK won’t ever be a significant necessity.