Yes, I work in software (industrial control systems and network admin). For now I could work in France while the UK is in the EU, but I would need that visa after it leaves.
I'm actually doing (early-stage) interviews with a number of companies in London and elsewhere. The visa situation for a US national hoping to work in the UK is obnoxious: assuming you've signed up to be eligible to sponsor people already (~8 weeks and a thousand pounds or so) you then do a little dance with an overly-tailored job description to demonstrate you can't hire someone locally after N weeks, pay another thousand pounds or so on the visa application, wait an additional ~6 weeks for processing, hope you get approved (quotas are falling dramatically) and if not, well, maybe you could to an inter-company transfer after a year of working for them elsewhere. Big companies benefit disproportionately while startups try to avoid the complications. Could be worse, though: it could be like the US.
In a place like Amsterdam or Berlin I'm given to understand that you can hope for a straightforward and relatively cheap approval process with very short turnarounds (on the order of two to four weeks) and much higher likelihood of getting the requisite approval.
Having access to a functioning tech industry in English-language friendly Scotland with low barriers to immigration would be awesome -- but then again, by the time it happens I'll probably either have married the girl or moved back to the US. :)
If you work in software (not clear from your post) you should be able to easily find a job in the UK. Companies will usually take care of VISA sponsorship.
Otherwise, France now has a new VISA policy for talented engineers and similar profiles ("Passeport Talent"[0]).
As others have pointed out, it's near impossible to find an employer willing to assist you in the process in gaining the appropriate visas. Time and effort aside, immigration law in the UK is a legal minefield and unless the company has a previous history of hiring non-EU nationals then they probably won't even look at your CV unfortunately.
I moved US -> UK in July and don't regret it at all. This depended on me getting a tier-2 visa though. This is harder without a degree and programming skill.
If you want recommendations for communicative, knowledgeable, & ethical recruiters in London or Dublin, I'd be happy to connect you. My email is in my profile.
The UK's immigration system is notoriously difficult for skilled workers to migrate under too in many, many cases so not like the UK system is setup to take advantage of this at all.
Speaking as someone with experience of both UK and US immigrant work visa systems in the software industry, the US provides significantly more visa options and paths to permanent residency, especially to folks who didn't come to the country to study first. It doesn't help matters either that in most cases equivalent software roles pay better in the US too.
The UK for years could often rely on EU migration (freedom of movement rules etc) to a large extent to provide for its migrant workforce needs. Brexit closed this avenue completely and the UK hasn't yet built an immigration system remotely appropriate for its needs to replace it, and efforts to do so are of course hugely politically contentious.
It's not hard for UK companies to hire outside of the EU either, Tier 2 general and Tier 2 ICT sponsorships are pretty easy to obtain.
The cost is different tho, developers from spain can just move to the UK and look for a job.
Hiring some one internationally is usually a more complicated process.
I'm eligible to work in the UK (EU citizen), but I currently live in SF. Are you open to considering international candidates who are willing to relocate?
UK companies can hire workers from anywhere within the EU without any sort of bureaucracy - EU citizens have an automatic right to work anywhere in the EU. The EU includes a number of low-wage countries with good numbers of skilled developers.
There is currently some amount of anti-immigration sentiment in many EU countries, mainly because of the recession. Governments can do nothing to restrict intra-EU migration, so tend to make life hard for non-EU migrants to look tough on immigration. The current British government is tightening quotas on non-EU immigration.
A British company is unlikely to even look at your CV if there's another qualified applicant in the pile, because of the cost and complexity of employing a non-EU worker.
There is no shortage of generalist developers in the UK and wages are significantly lower than in the US. Unless you have some specialised skills, your job search is likely to be quite arduous.
We're based in the UK and do hire from all around the EU. It's a good point though, if we were to start sponsoring visas then we might be able to get more good candidates.
I do not know what immigration laws would apply. And I do not know what stack (and on what level) you program in. But at least my employer is actively looking for devs (Germany, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich or Frankfurt).
Countries like France, Spain, Italy, etc are very difficult for a non-native speaker.
Getting a visa in the UK is quite difficult (especially because recent administration). Not sure about the other areas but I imagine its quite easy. My german stay was through a large corporation (40K+ employees) and my current work I had the difficulty of getting a tier 1 uk visa on my own.
What programming languages and business areas are you interested in?
A lot has changed in Poland trough past couple years especially for developers. You can now get decent salary in major cities. It's still not as good as in UK where you can have decent salary in cities with population of 30k+ but it's getting there, plus there is always Germany witch is close enough.
Quick story. I am working for small UK holidays company located in one of the biggest IT hubs outside of London. Our whole dev team is made up from non UK, EU citizens. Recently we had openings for mid backend dev and junior/mid frontend dev roles and only about 20% of CVs was from native UK citizens (mostly, highly under qualified even for junior role/couldn't pass FizzBuzz). Rest of candidates was mix of EU, visas and double citizenship and we ended up offering both positions to two EU citizens.
If UK government will ban employment of people from outside of UK or make it difficult or expensive then small companies like ours will not be able to operate.
I see that developers are looking more and more for jobs outside of the UK. Recruiters and EU employers also can see what is going on and I'm receiving more job offers from them, offering help with relocation outside of UK.
What are the best ways to get hired in the US as a software engineer from the UK?
I’ll be graduating with a masters in CS from a top university in 2023.
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