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| INTERVIEW WITH... Simon |  |
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Name, age, job title, place of origin. Where do you live in London.Simon Lie, 30+ otherwise it's a young 37, Test Analyst/Support/Manager for Refresh Mobile, Sydney Australia. When and why did you come to London? July 2001. I came because I fell in love with the place when I had one day here on the way home from Spain. I had worked on the Sydney Olympics for IBM and because of this I got the opportunity to travel and meet people. I was based in Spain for a couple of months and I had never travelled before and the travel bug hit me. I guess the reason for coming to London is to explore the world, be more worldly, meet a diversity of people from different cultures, which London offers more so than any other place in the world. Also to find my Audrey Hepburn, which I have :) Coming to London was also easier as it is Australia's mother country and adjusting to things weren't so difficult, as it would have been going to a foreign city such as Paris, Berlin, Barcelona or Madrid where the first language is not English. Tell us about your professional career? I was lucky to come to London as I was sponsored by T-motion, which became part of T-Mobile. A friend, Merryn who I worked with on the Sydney Olympics came back to London to work and she was able to get me a job here and sponsorship. Otherwise, the only way I could come to London at the time was as a tourist as I was over the age limit to apply for a working Holiday visa. The Highly Skilled Migrant Visa (HSM) was not available at the time. The work permit wasn't too difficult to get at the time, but I hear it is a lot more difficult now. At the time all my company had to show was that there was a shortage of skills in my line of work/profession and had advertised for my position locally. I think they paid around £150 for my work permit. I didn't have to pay anything, but I did have to show that I had enough money in my account to show that I could get by here, even though I'm one of the lucky few that had a job to come to. After being here for 4 years, I then qualified for Permanent Residence or Indefinite Leave To Remain. So as long as I don't leave the country for an extended period of time, I believe it to be 2 years, then I can stay here for ever :). I have done the 'Life in the UK' test to become a UK citizen and passed. But I will apply for my citizenship when I can muster up the extravagant application fees of £600+ ...Yikes!!!! I'm so lucky that I didn't come here on a working holiday visa, as this visa has more restrictions e.g. In terms of how long you can work and the fact that it doesn't count towards qualifying for the Indefinite leave to remain. After 5 years working at T-mobile, I was made redundant and started work with a company called Refresh Mobile. We do a product called Mobizines, which is basically magazines on your mobile phone and our new product which was launched to day, 11/10/07 is called Mippin, which gives you access to all your favourite blogs, RSS and web content tailored to the mobile screen. To try it out, go to www.mippin.com on your mobile phone browser. Sorry for the company promotion :) Basically my job is to test, manage and support these applications. How long do you plan to stay? Is it dependent on your VISA? I guess I'll be staying here long term now that I've just bought my first apartment. I bought my apartment under the Shared Ownership housing scheme, which makes buying a home affordable, basically you buy shares in an apartment and when you have more money, you can buy more shares until you eventually own it outright. In the meantime, you pay rent to the Housing association who own the other shares. If you want more info contact me on this. Another reason for staying is that my girlfriend/fiancée is from Lithuania and it would make it difficult if we were to live in Australia, distance from her mum in Lithuania is the greatest obstacle. Please see the above question 3 for details of my visa. As an Australian and some other countries, our Prime Minister had the foresight to allow us to have dual citizenship, so I will eventually get myself a UK passport. Previously this was not the case and we had people like Rupert Murdoch renouncing the Australian citizenship. I'm also in a lucky position that I could have applied for a Portuguese passport as the country of my birth, East Timor is a former Portuguese colony. My cousin Clem is here on his Portuguese. What do you like the most here and one day you will miss? Unfortunately, I think most Londoners lead a busy life, mainly through work, but in my free time, I play or watch a lot of sports. Which is typical of Australian's, our country doesn't really have a real culture, but if anything a sporting culture. I like to go to the movies, if there's a Cineworld cinema near you, they have a unlimited card which allows you to watch as many movies as you like for the price of £11.99 / month, the best bargain out there if you're a movie fan. I like to experience new things, whether it be going to a classical music concert, trying out new restaurants or going to new clubs for a night out. If you live in London, you can definitely do that. I don't know which other city in the world, where you can meet literally everyone from the planet, and they are not just tourist but living and experiencing the same thing that you go through? I like meeting new people, helping them out and making new friends. I'm in a position, where I've gone through the same things as them, especially new people to London and it's a real pleasure to help them settle into a great city. I have a made a lot of friends from so many different countries that where ever I go, there's a friend in that part of the world, which leads to the thing that I will miss. Is that eventually, everyone leaves. London is such a transient city.... But, your friends are only a short click away on email or network sites like Facebook ;) What advice would you give to someone moving here? Try and get a bank account with Barclays, HSBC or any other affiliated banks back home before coming here, cause it can be a nightmare opening a bank account. Expect things to be expensive, but shock will subside once you find a job, somewhere to live, make friends and start earning the pounds. If you are from Aus, NZ or South African, don't just hang out at the Walkabout and similar pubs, get out there and meet other people. Ask lots of question of your friends that are here or have been here, or you can contact me, I'm happy to help :) If you could change something of your life here, what would you do? I guess that's been done, I finally have bought my own place and it was through the shared ownership scheme will allowed me to do that, otherwise owning a place in London can only be a dream. There other thing I would change would be to have all my family and friends here living with me, but the next best thing is that they can visit. << |
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