Jumping Through Hoops

While we were going through the process of applying for our visas back in August I had no idea how much of a foreshadow the whole ordeal would be for life in England. I'm sure everyone who moves to a new country struggles to get their feet on the ground, but I think the British just take it one step further. If there's one thing they love here it's office work, and they do their best to make sure that at least a dozen people at a desk have their hand in everything you do. In a country that seems to have run out of tangible industry it only makes sense that so many people here are making a living in made up positions that simply do not exist in Canada. If you're looking for a model of efficiency, London is not the place to start. Maybe Germany?

The amount of time we have spent in offices, on the phone, on a website, filling out forms, just to get to even a fraction as established as we were in Vancouver is amazing. It's been a real test of patience for me personally just to settle in to the system here and follow the many seemingly unnecessary steps.

Once we had managed to get a flat, a bank account, phones, internet, a local pub and shitty jobs, my next task was getting qualified as an electrician here. Sparing details, it meant submitting my Canadian qualifications for comparison, sitting a 3 day course and exam to challenge UK regulations, then sitting another safety exam and submitting easily the most complicated application I've ever done for an electricians qualification card I'm meant to have to work on proper job sites. Each step is a weeks or months long process costing hundreds of pounds and dealing with countless people and forms, I'm actually yet to even receive the card. For a trip with an undetermined but ultimately brief duration I kind of question the point. An experience nonetheless.

My latest challenge has been getting a vehicle. As you can imagine buying, insuring, taxing and registering a car here presents a whole parade of hoops to jump through, not to mention a parking permit and a UK license. I got a little extra practice when the first car we bought went 250 miles and then died in Wales, meaning I got to buy, insure, tax, and register another car, and apply for parking again. For a fee of course.

In the 6 months we have been here we have accumulated a pile of documents that is easily triple what we have in a lifetime in Canada (Note the thickness of that binder, ridiculous). The amount of paperwork these office people bombard you with is just staggering. Anything to keep the typing, printing, copying, signing, stamping and mailing going. Each task by a different person of course, possibly with an assistant.

-Justin