Editorial Policy
This page sets out how the guides on this site are written and maintained. It exists so you can judge how much weight to put on what you read here.
What we publish
Guides on three subjects: work that comes with visa sponsorship, borrowing and banking as a non-resident, and finding somewhere to live without a local credit history.
A guide gets written when the question is one people actually ask and the published answers are either wrong, out of date, or buried in official guidance nobody reads. If the honest answer is short, the guide is short.
Sourcing
Where a figure comes from an official publication — a government salary band, a visa fee, a statutory compensation amount, a lending rule — that is what we use, and we name it.
Where a figure comes from the market rather than from a rulebook — typical salaries, typical rents, lender pricing, what a given provider charges this month — it is a market estimate and should be read as one. These move. A number that was accurate when published may not be accurate when you read it.
Where no official figure is published, we say so rather than filling the gap with a plausible-looking number.
The distinction this site cares about most
The difference between a rule and a policy. A rule is set by a government or a regulator and applies to everyone. A policy is set by an individual lender, employer or landlord and applies only to them.
Most of the discouraging things people are told when they move countries are policies being described as rules. A declined application from one lender tells you about that lender. Where we can tell the two apart, we say which is which.
Dates
Every guide shows a publication date and a last-updated date. We do not quietly refresh a date to make old material look current.
Corrections
If a guide is wrong, it gets fixed on the page and the updated date changes. Substantive corrections — a changed figure, a reversed conclusion — are noted in the article rather than silently overwritten.
To report an error, email the address on the contact page. Specific beats general: the guide, the passage, and what the correct position is.
Advertising and independence
The site is funded by advertising sold through Google. Advertisers do not see articles before publication, cannot commission or block them, and have no influence over which products or providers are named.
Where a company is named in a guide, it is because it is relevant to the subject, not because of any commercial relationship. There are no affiliate links and no paid placements.
What we will not do
We will not advise on an individual immigration, tax, legal or financial matter. Giving immigration advice is a regulated activity in both the UK and the US, and we are not regulated to do it. Questions that turn on your own circumstances get pointed to someone qualified, not answered.
We will not publish anything that encourages misrepresentation on a visa, loan or rental application. The guides describe how processes work so you can meet them honestly.