Immigration in Scotland

[O'Neille]

You said post-grad program so you'd be covered w/ an educational visa. Any program you'd be accepted into would have that information.

[McClef]

Marriage or Civil Partnership with a UK citizen would be one of the ways also.

But full information should be available from the US Consulate in NYC or the British Embassy in DC.

The thread title is slightly misleading as it's immigrating into the UK, not just Scotland which is not currently able to set its own immigration requirements.

[Mike1]

Be sure to examine all of the options available to you, before making the jump.

It was pointed out earlier you could enter on a student visa, which is true. A student visa will also allow you to hold a work permit, which you must have in order to get a job. However, the work permit for a student has limitations. You are only allowed to work something around 20 hours per week during the school term. You can work full-time during the holidays, however.

A spouse visa is fairly straightforward, but it also carries a probationary period of two years, so merely marrying a Scottish girl is no guarantee of anything. After the marriage, you will still need to work with the British Consul, here in the US. Your spouse would not necessarily have to be here with you for that process, but it will help.

Whichever direction you choose to take, be sure you jump through every hoop, dot every 'i' and cross every 't', because Home Office will have no pity if they discover you are trying to circumvent the system. I was engaged to a young lady in Clackmannanshire and when I would go across, I was always very careful to simply say I would be staying with friends in that area. Admitting we were engaged would have raised every red flag, as they would have suddenly been concerned I was trying to slip past the system. I was already attracting enough attention by showing up there every 2-4 months and they weren't shy about mentioning that to me.