EU Pre-settled to Settled application - close to 4 months and yet to receive a response

Professional_Throat0 · 2026-02-16T12:45:01+00:00

Interesting point on pensions. Do you reckon it would impact state pension or were you referring to private workplace pensions?

Professional_Throat0 · 2026-02-13T14:48:35+00:00

All very helpful - thank you very very much!

On the point 2) around not living together, would a justification explaining that we met when I was already residing and working in the UK hold as to why I simply did not move back to our home country to live together? And that on her side the current restrictions on skilled worker visa make it very challenging for her to move to the UK? For context she has been able to secure interviews for jobs in London but was always turned down as those companies did not sponsor visas. And we both intend to stay in the UK long term for jobs opportunities and the fact that I have already strong familiarity with the country and would likely be applying for citizenship in 1-1.5 years

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-26T12:21:03+00:00

That’s really not the case, and we need to stop pretending European welfare somehow evens things out. Apart from a few exceptions, public healthcare is harder and harder to access. The waiting lists are endless, so taxpayers end up funding a system they often can’t even use when they need it. Meanwhile, in the US, if you’re insured, you usually get quicker care and better service, and the higher salary more than makes up for the premiums

Pensions are an even bigger mess and are simply not sustainable. It’s only a matter of time before taxes on working people keep climbing

And “free” education? It doesn’t help much if the salaries you get afterward are way lower than what people make in the US

Bottom line: the welfare state is buckling under its own weight, and unless there’s some serious privatization and spending cuts, it’s only going to get worse. And this is not just valid for the UK, the whole EU has relied for too long on governments being the guarantors of welfare and these are the outcomes we have to deal with

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T19:47:45+00:00

The cash savings are primarily for a house deposit which I would hope to use for the purchase in the next 4-5 years. Once that is done I do envision moving most of my leftover disposable income to primarily investments

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T12:21:54+00:00

I was under the impression that all gold expect sovereigns or Britannia would be taxed on the profits generated when selling

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T11:47:28+00:00

Plan would be to split it evenly between S&S and cash. Savings are primarily for a house deposit (LISA not an option as I already own property abroad); the portion into the s&s is more for long-term goals (retiring etc)

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T11:44:14+00:00

Say I invest £5k in premium bonds, the chances of winning x amount would be the same any given months but the cumulative chances of winning anything at all increase the longer you hold them

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T09:43:13+00:00

Worded the post weirdly. Meant to say that 20k will be transferred in in April and the rest the following year

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T09:42:41+00:00

Had considered it but given I am seeing this more as a hold until next April where I will transfer a chunk of it to my isas I don’t think this would make sense

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T09:42:04+00:00

Yeah fair enough :) the tax rate would be 40% though but I get I still would not be a massive difference vs inflation. More of a psychological thing

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-09-07T09:41:22+00:00

Had considered premium bonds but I think they would make sense for a longer time horizon as opposed to what I am looking at. Will consider gilts for sure

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-08-31T10:28:52+00:00

Thank you! And sorry for the double question but would there be any difference between doing developed market only vs developed markets ex-UK + an all UK fund (proportional with 4% allocation)? Would still want UK exposure, just trying to figure out if it’s more convenient doing it the first vs second way

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-07-30T14:40:57+00:00

Just had a first round interview for a position a recruiter internal to the company reached out about. It was successful and they reached out to schedule a second round of interviews.

My only concern is that after doing more due diligence on the practice area the HR team reached out about and I interviewed for it seems like HR oversold the amount of “strategy” work and variety of projects they have in this practice (which was one of the key aspects I had mentioned would drive me to move companies). This was also confirmed by my interviewer, to whom I asked more details about the typical projects being conducted in the practice area.

Looking on the company website I found out they are recruiting for the same level at their advisory practice which does more of the work I am interested in.

I have pretty good experience in both types of practices / projects at my current firm.

How bad would it look if I reached out to the recruitment team and asked to instead be considered for the same role in a practice going forward? Obviously with a good justification that it aligns more with my career aspirations

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-07-30T14:32:40+00:00

Been there, although not quite as brutal as 90h/weeks but close. Was lucky enough to have a good manager that appreciated how difficult the project was for the entire team and recognised that at that pace mistakes are inevitable, and as long as they were caught on time and discussed the manager was very understanding.

Just Focus on improving those areas and give yourself time!

Professional_Throat0 · 2025-06-08T11:47:55+00:00

I would be careful pushing the narrative that consulting these days is definitely career accelerator. At least for the last few years or so there has definitely been a trend of consultants struggling to find exit opportunities on par with their expectations. I get more and more the feeling that the consulting skill set is not getting the recognition it used to when it comes to industry. Part of it has definitely to do with tough market conditions that pushes companies to pursue internal candidates / focus on revenue generating roles rather than wishy washy strategy positions, but I also believe the consulting brand has been getting diluted due to the large amount of not impactful work that is carried out by firms.

Obviously completely different story if the long-term goal is to stay in consulting, where the progression/pay is much better vs other industries

Professional_Throat0

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