Escape South Africa

Am I glad you stumbled across this Blog. I intend to use this Blog to inform everyone how I have been very fortunate to travel the world and ultimately make up my mind to leave SA.

It all started when I matriculated 10 or so years ago. I wanted nothing more than to work in the US and the UK. As luck would have it, an opportunity presented itself in a job I had which allowed me to contract in the USA for one year and then to become a "temporary employee" for 18mths.

After my two and a half years in the USA my eyes were certainly opened and my outlook on life changed radically. Ironically, I learnt more about South Africa while I was away in the USA than all the time I had lived in SA!

Towards the end of my stay in the US, I had formed this picture in my mind of how great returning to SA would be. I had gained valuable new skills in the States and could now boast that I had international qualifications and experience. To cut a long story short, I could only handle working in an incompetent environment for 18 months! The funny thing is, I knew within arriving in SA after 2 weeks that I wanted to leave for overseas again. It just didn't feel right to stick around and my 18 months back in SA proved that.

During the time I was in SA I frantically researched work visa options. I started applying for Permanent Residency in Australia but after waiting over a year I got impatient (and more unhappy in my slavery of a job) and decided to apply for an HSMP (more on this later) work visa. The UK work visa came through in two weeks and I resigned, and a month later I was in the UK.

What I would like to do is post a couple of blogs as to how you can approach obtaining work visas that allow you to work all over the world. Oh, don't worry, I don't have a degree so don't worry about that! ;-) I can also recommend various agents that assisted me with the process and provide the ultimate cost of a visa (more affordable than you think). These are agents I have had amazing service from. So what do I get out of providing all this? Satisfaction in knowing that I have helped someone escape hell in the making...aaaah....karma!

This blog won't be just about visa information though. I will also post all the various sources of information I have used in coming to my decision to leave SA.

Anyway enough waffling. Thats just a brief introdution about me. Tomorrow I will post the first blog regarding obtaining a nice shiny new work visa that will allow you to escape SA!

I can feel the excitement already!