Before getting to London:

• Booking your flight: look on Skyscanner or Kayak for cheaper flight from your town to “London Any”. London has mainly 5 airports: City Airport, Heathrow (55 min tube 4GBP ticket), Gatwick(30 min train “Gatwick Express”, 20GBP), Luton(40 min train, 15 GBP), Stansted (1h 10min bus “National Express”, 10GBP). Prices and times approximated.

• Book accommodation for the first nights: Book a hostel or a room on a private flat/house on AirBnB (recommended). Price 17 GBP/night shared room in a hostel, 25 GBP/night private room on AirBnB. Which area to stay? definitely zones 1 and 2. Best areas; look around Shoreditch if you are willing to work in the Tech City. Another recommended areas are the south of the river London Bridge, Southwark and Lambeth, it is close to the City and good value.
• Start online networking through Linkedin beforehand. Join groups and connect to professionals related to your profession. If you are a developer join: Foreign software developers looking for a job in London.
• Also plan your offline networking. Look for events on Meetup.com. If you are Spanish developer I recommend Tapas Valley, other international communities can be found on IDinLondon.

First day in London:

• Transport within London: get the Oyster card on any tube station (refundable 5GBP per card) top up weekly 30GBP/week approx.

• Phone number and 3-4G: get a pay as you go sim card. Only 13GBP for 1Gb data and 200 voice minutes. Look for Three and EE stores. Remember to bring an unlocked smartphone. Download then CityMapper to get around in London.
• Get some cash in Pounds. Take care when using the card as it seems that there are no charges when buying in shops but there is a hidden 3% exchange rate. Best way to get a good rate is to place a “Fast Track Branch Collection service order from the website Thomas Exchange Global.

First week in London:

• Apply for a National Insurance Number here (NIN). Most employers will require your NIN or at least the temporary one.
• Open a Bank Account: you will need first a proof of address, a postal card will be enough. Some Banks might be difficult if you do not have yet a job, we recommend Barclays, Santander, Nationwide, .

These are the basics to get started, while you sort them out you might be looking for a job and for accommodation.

If you are looking for a tech Job have a look to this guide: London needs software developers. How to find a tech job?

Looking for long term accommodation, best option is to share a flat, look in the following sites: spareroom.co.uk, gumtree.com, London Flatmates.

To make things smoother we recommend you to find a sponsor, usually a friend or relative who lives in London and will help you to digest all this information and help to resolve the challenges you will find the first days in this city. If you are ready for the challenge I might be able to help, contact me through Linkedin on: linkedin.com/in/joansenent