SimpleFinancesHow much money do you actually need?
Every site answering this question is selling you something — a shipping container, a visa service, a wire transfer — so the numbers swing wildly. The honest answer comes in three layers, and only the first one is fixed.
Layer 1: immigration costs (fixed, paid upfront)
These are set by the UK government and due when you apply, not when you arrive. A Skilled Worker visa application costs £819 for a visa up to three years, or £1,618 for longer, applying from outside the UK. The NHS Immigration Health Surcharge is £1,035 per adult per year of the visa — and it is charged for the entire visa length upfront. On a five-year visa that is £5,175 per adult, at application time, before you have packed a single box. Families pay per person. This upfront lump is the single most under-communicated cost of the move.
Layer 2: getting yourself and your things there (varies wildly)
International movers quote anywhere from about $3,100 to $14,800 for a US-to-UK move depending on volume and route — ranges published by the movers themselves disagree with each other by thousands of dollars, which tells you these are opening offers, not prices. The cheapest version of this layer is the one many movers choose after doing the math: sell nearly everything, fly with suitcases, and refurnish secondhand on the other side. Whichever way you go, get multiple quotes and compare what is actually included.
Layer 3: the landing buffer (the one people undersize)
Plan for a deposit plus first month's rent, and a cash cushion for the awkward four-to-eight weeks when you may have UK expenses but no UK bank account, no UK salary yet, and card declines you did not expect. Your buffer should cover rent and living costs for that whole gap without touching the emergency fund you keep for actual emergencies.
| Cost | Amount | When it's due |
|---|---|---|
| Skilled Worker visa fee (applying from the US) | £819 (up to 3 yrs) / £1,618 (over 3 yrs) | At application |
| NHS Immigration Health Surcharge | £1,035/adult/year — £5,175 upfront on a 5-year visa | At application, whole term upfront |
| Shipping / movers | ~$3,100–$14,800 published range; near $0 if you sell up and fly | Before the move |
| Deposit + first month's rent | Typically 5 weeks' rent deposit + 1 month upfront | On signing a tenancy |
| Landing buffer | 4–8 weeks of living costs in accessible cash | Until UK banking + salary are flowing |
What happens to your US accounts and credit?
Two separate problems, both easier if you act before the flight. The short versions are below; each has its own full guide.
Your US bank & brokerage accounts
Checking and savings: most major US banks let you keep them, but policies vary and you should confirm yours. Brokerages are the trap — Fidelity restricts customers who move abroad and Vanguard wants a US mailing address, while Schwab explicitly serves expats. Keep one US checking account and one US credit card open no matter what.
Your credit history
Your US score does not transfer — the UK bureaus hold entirely separate files, so you start from zero. Rebuilding takes months, not weeks: bank account, phone contract, bills in your name, a starter card. If you have an American Express card, Amex's Global Card Transfer is the one genuine shortcut.
The UK bills Americans don't expect
Cost-of-living comparison sites will tell you the UK is cheaper, or more expensive, or about the same — genuinely, the big comparison pages contradict each other. The useful preparation is knowing the categories that don't exist in American life, because those are the ones missing from your mental budget.
- Council tax. Billed directly to the occupant, renter or owner. The average Band D bill in England for 2026-27 is £2,392 a year (MHCLG figures), usually paid over 10 monthly instalments. In the US, property tax was your landlord's problem, invisibly inside rent; here it is a separate direct debit with your name on it.
- Energy, under a price cap. The Ofgem price cap limits what suppliers charge per unit; for a typical dual-fuel household it works out to £1,663 a year as of July–September 2026, rising about £60 to £1,723 from October 1 (Ofgem). The cap resets quarterly, so UK budgeting has a seasonal rhythm American utility bills don't prepare you for.
- Lower salaries, different math. The same job title usually pays less on paper in the UK than in the US. Whether you come out ahead depends on what you stop paying for (health insurance premiums, most out-of-pocket healthcare) versus what you start paying (the categories above, higher fuel, VAT inside prices). Comparing your actual line items beats any index.
From my own move: the surprise wasn't any single bill, it was that my American sense of "what things cost" went quiet for about two months. Rent in pounds, groceries in pounds, and no instinct for whether either was reasonable. What fixed it was seeing all the transactions in one place and letting the totals, not vibes, say where the money went. That is the same thing SimpleFinances does for any budget, and it's genuinely useful when every price around you is suddenly foreign. I documented the first week of this in a video on our YouTube channel, if you want the non-spreadsheet version.
Do US citizens pay taxes in both countries?
You file in both; for most salaried movers you won't pay full tax twice. The US is nearly unique in taxing its citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, so your federal return continues after the move. Two mechanisms then prevent double taxation on wages: the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion ($132,900 for tax year 2026, per the IRS) and the Foreign Tax Credit — and because UK income tax on a salary generally runs higher than US tax, the credit usually zeroes out the US bill on UK wages by itself.
The parts that actually bite people are the reporting and the investment traps:
- FBAR. Once your non-US accounts total more than $10,000 combined at any point in the year — a threshold one month's rent plus a deposit can cross — you must file FinCEN Form 114. It's informational, not a tax, but the penalties for skipping it are serious.
- FATCA (Form 8938). Higher thresholds for Americans living abroad: $200,000 in foreign assets at year-end ($400,000 filing jointly).
- The ISA trap. The UK's beloved tax-free Stocks & Shares ISA is not tax-free to the IRS — the US doesn't recognize the wrapper, and UK funds held inside are PFICs, a category with punitive US tax treatment and per-fund paperwork. Standard expat-specialist guidance: don't hold non-US funds in an ISA as a US citizen; get cross-border advice before investing in the UK at all.
A guide is not tax advice, and this corner of the move is the one place worth paying a professional who does US/UK returns for a living — the highest-scoring finance threads in every expat community are from people who learned that afterwards.
The financial checklist before you fly
Everything above condenses to a short pre-departure list. The theme: your last month in the US is your one cheap chance to fix things that get expensive to fix from abroad.
- Audit your recurring charges. Every US subscription follows you across the Atlantic and keeps billing in dollars. Go through every place subscriptions hide and cancel what won't make sense from the UK — before the move, while calling customer service is still a domestic phone call.
- Decide every account's fate on purpose. Keep one US checking account and one US credit card (kept alive with a small recurring charge), confirm your bank's policy on foreign addresses, and deal with your brokerage before you leave — the full account-by-account guide.
- Set up US-side logistics that need a US presence: a way to receive 2FA texts (port your number to a VoIP service before losing US service), online access to every account, and paperless statements everywhere.
- Pre-fund the landing buffer in an account you can actually draw on from the UK, and set up a multi-currency account (Wise or similar — note these are e-money services, not FSCS-protected UK banks) so you have a UK sort code before a UK bank will take you.
- Book the tax conversation with a US/UK specialist for before your first UK payday, not after your first UK April.
Know your numbers before you change countries
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