Translator Couple Moving to UK. Advice Needed.
Thread poster: Artars
Artars
Artars
Local time: 06:36
English to Turkish
+ ...
Aug 4, 2020

Hello,

I’ve been working as a translator for 10 years here in Turkey. I work freelance for 3 different translation bureaus. My mothertongue is Turkish and I have native fluency in English and in French. I Translate – Edit – Proofread – Page Design – Transcribe Turkish - English - French documents. My areas of work include:

• Commercial registry/Official gazette
• Tender Documents
• International Business Contracts
• Congress Speeches<
... See more
Hello,

I’ve been working as a translator for 10 years here in Turkey. I work freelance for 3 different translation bureaus. My mothertongue is Turkish and I have native fluency in English and in French. I Translate – Edit – Proofread – Page Design – Transcribe Turkish - English - French documents. My areas of work include:

• Commercial registry/Official gazette
• Tender Documents
• International Business Contracts
• Congress Speeches
• Technical Manuals / Brochures
• Medical Reports / Certificates, Insurance Policies
• Web sites

My husband’s work experience is on Foreign Trade in international companies. He is fluent in English and we are planning to work together as translators.

We are going to move to the UK, preferably around Cambridge.
Do you have any suggestions for finding clients? Or is contacting translation bureaus for projects a better option? Are French and Turkish languages sought after? Any insights/advice would be greatly appreciated
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Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 03:36
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Work in the virtual world Aug 4, 2020

Artars wrote:
Do you have any suggestions for finding clients? Or is contacting translation bureaus for projects a better option? Are French and Turkish languages sought after? Any insights/advice would be greatly appreciated

I don't see why you would be restricted to UK clients. I moved from France to Spain and only lost one client. So I urge you to be prepared to work with anyone anywhere (agencies and direct clients) that seem trustworthy.

Good luck with the move.


Elina_Poste
Jorge Payan
Alison Jenner
Philippe Etienne
Artars
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:36
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
Visa? Aug 4, 2020

Artars wrote:
I’ve been working as a translator for 10 years here in Turkey.
...
Any insights/advice would be greatly appreciated

Being somebody with a non-British spouse, the thought that immediately springs to my mind for two people who are apparently not UK citizens is what your legal status would be. It's not easy to gain permission to live here.

As for local agencies, as Sheila says, looking online is probably more effective. Unless you specialise in biosciences, in which case Cambridge might be an interesting area.

Regards,
Dan


Barbara Carrara
Joe France
Artars
 
Thao Nguyen
Thao Nguyen  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:36
Vietnamese to English
+ ...
Agree with both Dan and Sheila Aug 5, 2020

Dan Lucas wrote:

Artars wrote:
I’ve been working as a translator for 10 years here in Turkey.
...
Any insights/advice would be greatly appreciated

Being somebody with a non-British spouse, the thought that immediately springs to my mind for two people who are apparently not UK citizens is what your legal status would be. It's not easy to gain permission to live here.

As for local agencies, as Sheila says, looking online is probably more effective. Unless you specialise in biosciences, in which case Cambridge might be an interesting area.

Regards,
Dan


Being a Vietnamese national living in the UK on a spousal visa, I can attest to this. You'll need to look into this if neither of you are a UK citizen. If one of you are, the other needs to apply for a spousal visa and given that you'll be working freelancing, it will be really difficult to give proof of income to sponsor the other person to join. You'll be looking at at least 12 months apart (2-3 months for the UK citizen to get everything together, 6 months to make enough based on the threshold, 3 months to apply and wait for the visa result).

If you manage to move to the UK, might be worth looking into registering your business. I am registered as a sole-trader but for a two-person team, I am not too sure how that works. Someone else here might be able to help with that.

[Edited at 2020-08-05 11:49 GMT]


Tom in London
Dan Lucas
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:36
Member (2008)
Italian to English
NIghtmare Aug 5, 2020

I don't want to sound unwelcoming, but because of Brexit and the generally hostile environment the British government has deliberately put in place to keep out Johnny Foreigner (unless he has a lot of ££, in which case no questions asked) I would have thought that this is the worst possible time for anyone who was not born in the UK to think of coming here to live and work.

Aside from that: I am based in the UK and none, repeat none, of my clients are in the UK.

To m
... See more
I don't want to sound unwelcoming, but because of Brexit and the generally hostile environment the British government has deliberately put in place to keep out Johnny Foreigner (unless he has a lot of ££, in which case no questions asked) I would have thought that this is the worst possible time for anyone who was not born in the UK to think of coming here to live and work.

Aside from that: I am based in the UK and none, repeat none, of my clients are in the UK.

To me it sounds as if the OP's first port of call (after having established that they can settle here and work) should be an accountant. There are some basic questions that will require professional advice, and paperwork that must be done correctly.



[Edited at 2020-08-05 11:15 GMT]
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Philip Lees
Artars
Mirelluk
Marta Guerrero
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:36
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
If they meet requirements, they're welcome Aug 5, 2020

Thao Nguyen wrote:
If one of you are, the other needs to apply for a spousal visa and given that you'll be working freelancing, it will be really difficult to give proof of income to sponsor the other person to join.

This is true and important. It is also unrelated to Brexit. It has been difficult to get permission to live and work here since at least the first time I encountered the process, which was in the early 1990s. In some ways it has become easier. At least you can apply online these days, which is a huge improvement over trekking down to Lunar House in Croydon to wait in a vast room, in an equally vast queue.

That notwithstanding the UK state, as is evidenced by the quarter of a million non-EU people who immigrate to these islands every year, is not particularly anti-immigration. If it were, it would have taken steps to reduce immigration to negligible levels (which is the situation in Japan, for example). The mere fact that such flows exist proves that the UK remains attractive to many outside it, and that it is accepting of immigration. Immigrants have agency, just like the rest of us, and if they believe this country is an appealing destination there will be good reasons for that belief.

But the fact is that you can't just walk in. What the British state clearly does not want is inflows of people from other countries who cannot generate enough income to live off after arriving in the UK. I think that's a reasonable approach. As a general rule, I don't see why my taxes should be used to support somebody from outside the UK who cannot support themselves, and who is ultimately the responsibility of another country.

To come back to the OP's point, the British state is therefore keen to see hard evidence of income and, given the volatile nature of freelancer earnings, that can be difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, the minimum level of income per person required is not high (significantly less than the UK's median annual income), so if the OP has a convincing prospect of decent work, they should be fine.

Another approach would be for the OP to arrange a job before they come to the UK, which would simplify the process greatly. Or if the OP has family who are British citizens there might be a route through there, but seems unlikely given that OP is no longer a child.

I would strongly advise the OP not to wing it and come to the UK on a tourist visa. If you get caught, you'll likely be deported and penalised. I seem to remember that the standard response is to be barred from applying for a work visa to the UK for 10 years or something like that. It's really not worth it.

Regards,
Dan


Thao Nguyen
Artars
 
Artars
Artars
Local time: 06:36
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
OP here. Thank you. Aug 5, 2020

Hello again. Thank you all for your replies.

Maybe I should have clarified in my first post; we are thinking of applying through Ankara Agreement (ECAA Visa). In very basic terms, it lets you establish your business in the UK and the government tracks you if you really earn a certain amount. Naturally if our business doesn't work out, we won't have any reason to stay anyway.

Due to Brexit, there is a short time window. We may not be able to do it; but we decided to giv
... See more
Hello again. Thank you all for your replies.

Maybe I should have clarified in my first post; we are thinking of applying through Ankara Agreement (ECAA Visa). In very basic terms, it lets you establish your business in the UK and the government tracks you if you really earn a certain amount. Naturally if our business doesn't work out, we won't have any reason to stay anyway.

Due to Brexit, there is a short time window. We may not be able to do it; but we decided to give it a try.

So that part is already set. We are more interested in your experience as translators in the UK. Like looking for customers outside of UK is actually an excellent advice for us. Due to working for bureaus, we may be thinking too small when it comes to looking for clients.
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Dan Lucas
 
Thao Nguyen
Thao Nguyen  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:36
Vietnamese to English
+ ...
Looking at posts in Getting Established Aug 6, 2020

As Sheila has said, you can work with agencies/ direct customers from anywhere in the world. You can find similar questions and answers in the Getting Established forum. To sum it up,
- Pay for a membership. There are 282 paid English - Turkish translators on this forum and more than 2,000 non-paying members. If you do not pay, you'll be at the back of the directory and little chance to be seen by potential clients;
- Answer Kudoz questions. These are questions asked by fellow tran
... See more
As Sheila has said, you can work with agencies/ direct customers from anywhere in the world. You can find similar questions and answers in the Getting Established forum. To sum it up,
- Pay for a membership. There are 282 paid English - Turkish translators on this forum and more than 2,000 non-paying members. If you do not pay, you'll be at the back of the directory and little chance to be seen by potential clients;
- Answer Kudoz questions. These are questions asked by fellow translators in your language pairs. If your answer is chosen, you'll be awarded Kudo points. These points will improve your position in the directory. Having said that, without membership, even if you get 1 million points, you'll always be placed after the 282 paid members;
- As a paid member, you'll also have access to the Blue Board. As Sheila has said in many posts, do your due diligence, look for agencies that are trustworthy and send them your CVs. Be prepared to get response only from about 10% of them and even fewer converted into customers.

Now about your visa:
- If you already have clients, you can work with them in the UK. However, to prove to the UK government of adequate income, you'll need to get bank accounts asap. If your clients pay to your Turkish accounts, it's besides the point, isn't it? This means, getting accommodation sorted asap and making sure your names are on the contract. This is important as all other kinds of paperworks (NINO, register with HMRC...) in the UK require proof of address. It took me 4 months after I arrived in the UK to get my bank account as I moved there around Christmas time and after that we were going to move to another city, so no point to add my name to the contract.
- As Tom in London has said, get an accountant as well. They'll help you register with HMRC and do all the numbers.
- Maybe look into becoming a member of the ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting) to get more local clients. The cost is a lot though.

[Edited at 2020-08-06 06:37 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-08-06 06:38 GMT]
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Dan Lucas
Artars
 
Artars
Artars
Local time: 06:36
English to Turkish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks again. Aug 8, 2020

Thank you @Thao Nguyen for your detailed answer.

 


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Translator Couple Moving to UK. Advice Needed.






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