₦airaland Forum

fullclub:
The debate around relocating abroad (“Japa”) has intensified after media personality Dele Momodu claimed that anyone who spends ₦30 million to leave Nigeria is a fool. His statement sparked mixed reactions online, with some agreeing while others says that that 30 million is nothing compared to the financial reward that comes with japa

Having lived in the UK for some time now, I’ll share an honest perspective on the financial reality of life here, especially for those considering selling anything just for relocation.

Breaking Down Earnings in the UK

For context, I work an average of 36 hours per week (9 hours daily for 4 days), meaning in a month, I clock 144 hours of work.

Minimum wage in the UK is £11.44 per hour, and most employers are required to pay this, except in cases like apprenticeships.
144 hours × £11.44 = £1,647.36 per month
After tax deductions, which depend on factors like number of jobs and tax codes, my take-home pay is around £1,479.55.


Monthly Expenses in the UK
Here’s a breakdown of my fixed monthly costs:

House rent – £700
Gas & electricity – £120
Council tax – £110
Water bill – £43.46
Food – £200
Transport – £140
Phone bill – £52 (for two people

Total expenses: £1,365.46
Remaining balance: £114.09
Although i could have chosen to work up to 5 days which would have given me total income of 2059 and 1775 after tax but to give my partner a chance while i take turn to look after the kids

Note: food is extremely cheap and affordable unlike in Nigeria. That's why most that relocated after few months they look revived and fresh

Now, factor in additional responsibilities. We send £150 monthly to family back home in Nigeria. My wife, who works part-time (two days per week because of our baby as leaving the children will risk losing them to the governmen), earns about £732 per month, which we try to save, though unforeseen expenses (baby food, transport, etc.) often reduce our savings to around £500 per month.
Aside this we spent over 4000 pounds this year alone for health insurance. Yes its a must you pay it and funny enough i have not visited the hospital once since i arrived.

More worrisome is the endless billing from home , the billing from friends and extended family is out of this world, from your pastor who want tithe in pounds and thinks it's because of his or her prayer u went out, to your siblings, to your inlaws, to secondary schools friends, university's friends to even your street guys to Facebook friends. Those who will quickly open Opay account for their 3 years old child and forward you school fees or birthday bill. What about those who forwarded us their house rent bill to help clear their rent of over 500k abeg na

A lot of Nigeria said if they are offered 50 million and japa, they will prefer japa as they will earn more over when i read this comment on Facebook i just laugh hard as this is not the case as a research said that over 39% of UK residents have a minimum of 1000 pounds as savings this means that Despite earning in pounds, many struggle with high living costs, taxes, and bills but on the other hand In Nigeria, ₦50M can fund investments that generate steady income.
In the UK, unless you’re in a high-paying field, you will mostly live paycheck to paycheck


Comparing Life as a Single vs. Married Individual Abroad


Single individuals have a higher chance of saving since they have fewer responsibilities.

Married couples without kids can maximize their earnings by both working full-time while covering expenses from one salary and saving entirely the other salary.

Families with children face higher expenses, including childcare, health insurance, visa fees.

This is why adequate preparation is crucial before relocating, especially for families


Is Dele Momodu Right? Should You Japa with ₦30M?
We should understand that Dele Momodu is an elder and vastly traveled and he knows what is obtainable in Europe and America.
His point is valid if you look at finances alone because at the ene of the day almost all you make goes back to the system. But If insecurity concerns and food inflation in Nigeria didn’t exist, staying back with ₦30M would be a better financial decision as you could expand your business.

Another thought is the issue of owning a house. An average 3 bedroom house cost over 300k pounds and i have worked with colleagues who are in their late 50s struggling to work and pay off their mortgage so as to be free while me in my 30s own over 3 house back in Nigeria . Some pays mortgage for over 35 to 40 years but shockingly most they end up selling it at old age hand over this money to care homes to take care of them till death. Note children dont have any responsibility of taking care of their age parents they leave their lives while the parents uses proceed from their house to offset this bill

Final Thoughts: Should You Japa?

Japa is not a one-size-fits-all decision. If you have ₦30M and solid income streams in Nigeria, it might be wiser to invest and build wealth at home. But if safety and quality of life matter more, than wealth accumulation then relocating might still be the best option but must be done tactically especially when coming on student visa as one academic error could throw u off.

Bottom line: Japa is not a magic solution—it requires careful planning, a realistic mindset, and financial discipline.

Picture below is my phone bill

There other bills i chose to ignore like the tv bill. I didn't buy tv because i know that one will end in another billing

tenderjunkie:
I know if I have an MSC and BSc, I only have to evaluate the MSc.

However, I have 2 cases.

Firstly, a Bsc in Nursing and a diploma in Midwifery, do I need to evaluate both?

Second, a Bsc in Pharmacy and ND in chemistry, do I need to evaluate both?

atoleybaba:
Good morning everyone. Please how can I get Nigerian police report from the Uk. I have gone to their website and I just don’t understand how I can apply from abroad

vickgrad:
Thanks @phabulous I Will discuss with him to get an affidavit

I have my full time job, the business is on its Own, so I added the business under personal details as I don’t intend to get points from the business.

The thought of getting clients references for the business is overwhelming….

I hope that makes sense?

vickgrad:
People of maple wood
I suspect this questions must have been previously answered, but I will like to ask again.

I have a lump sum of about 40% of my PoF deposited in my account

However this deposit was from a result of selling a percentage of my business

I have the sales agreement and cac documents too back this up,

However the depositors name is not the same as the buyers name in the sales agreement,

And I’m scared because I don’t Have any document to connect the depositor to the buyer as he said he was going to ask his assistance to make the deposit..

I wouldn’t Have Known if not that I was cross checking all my document

Note: name is only visible in SOA,
Can I just request Reference letter and put a LOE for the large funds that reflected September?

DWJourney:
Please guys, how can one pay for PR application? We have tried access bank where we put the dollar.

Please what are the alternatives ways you guys use to pay this money. Time is not by my side.


I need your help. I don't know why it is so difficult to pay this kind money from Nigeria.

shila8:
Thank you, so its a company account and the money is coming from my sister’s husband. Kindly advise further

shila8:
Is ot possible to get a gift of deed from my brother in law please

donbuscka:
KINDLY HELP WITH RESPONSE PLEASE..

I got this update yesterday being Friday.

Final decision - September 13, 2024:Your application is in progress. We will send you a message once the final decision has been made.

However, I did not get PPR or decision letter in my portal nor email. Just the pre arrival service letter.
How long does it take to get PPR after Final Decision update on my profile? Is it not suppose to be automatic?

Pls help with response.

ITA: March 13th
AOR: April 26th
Medical and Biometric Request: May 30th
Biometric: June 11th
Medical Passed: June 12th
Final Decision: September 13th

No PPR yet...

majorice:
Hello guys, please I need some advice.

I am in the UK, and my wife is pregnant. If i get ITA like next week, and submit documents requested,
- do I have to add a LOE explaining that my wife will deliver at some point early next year?
- I believe its after wifey gives birth that we have to add the baby as a dependant/Update POF? If so, what if wifey gives birth after we have already submitted ITA documents
- Finally, and most importantly, how do they handle the passport/NIN part? Will we have to wait till the baby has NIN/Passport before submitting all our passports together? Won't the time pass ?

I will really appreciate your responses

cc @dupyshoo I saw your comment on something similar that's why I tagged you

firelord222:
Hello people,
Please has anyone here had to learn French and take the exam to Boast their crs score(they had taken ielts but it wasnot enough and had to take tef or tcf). Please give us your story make we dey use you draw inspiration. Tell us ur huddles and how long it took u.
Because some of us have started learning it.

Thanks

eniola1010:
Please can someone help me look at this
Is it possible to add a dependent child during this stage? Not adopted or new born baby, but a dependent biological child which could not be added from the beginning because of some issues which has now been sorted.

Like family composition has changed. They were just two, now with the child they will be three.

Cc ontarioo aurorea1

eniola1010:
Lol cancel ke. Where u carry the matter go far gan o.

codedarrow:
My PR application was cancelled today. Police report issues What can I do please everyone.

phabulous88:
PPR and LANDING GIST

Timeline
AOR: 4th August 2023
BIL/MEP: 25th August 2023
Biometrics done/updated: 29th August 2023
ADR1 – Wife's passport
ADR2 – Schedule A for wife
ADR3 – Schedule A for me
PPR: 12th October 2023

The Decision to Travel:

kevoh:
Good Morning,
Can anyone help with suggestions with difference of surnames during WES evaluation.

I want to create a profile for my Wife's WES evaluation, which name should be put as the last name when filling the registration form? Is it her father's surname or my adopted surname. I am asking this because her statement of results and transcripts bear her father's surname.

leopardinatree:
its PPR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COME AND SEE WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE FOR ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been a long journey and i am grateful that it has finally come to an end. I apologize in advance if its a long read. It all began with Wes application in the December of 2022 and my IELTS just about a week after WES application. It took WES the standard 6 weeks processing plus 2 weeks to get my transcripts sent to WES, totaling 2 months.

On the 1st Feb i was ready to create my EE profile and so i did.
My IELTS was an overall band 7 and WES was a 3 year bachelor degree, putting me at roughly 320 something CRS especially being that my age was not working to my advantage. With this in mind i quickly sought to increase my scores; french was the only option along with redoing my IELTS to max it the second time around, which i knew i was capable of doing (don't come for me my village people, i know my english language skills ). The reason i didn't do well enough the first time around is because of various factors (but that's a story for another day).

In my state of desperation, i ventured into the idea of going via the study route but i knew carrying my many kids would have been too costly and i think my brain has expired so pulling it off would have proved taxing on my mental health and my pocket. I resolved to abandon that idea after speaking to a friend of a friend in Canada who proved to be pivotal in my journey. She shared with me an email from IRCC promoting the plan to target francophones in the upcoming immigration strategies. I read the email and realized that french was going to be my strategy, not only to increase points but to get the upper hand. By this time, i am already in the pool and looking for a french tutor to reawaken my french language skill as it had been about 10 years since i last took french language courses at Alliance Francaise. I managed to ask around and got a very good french teacher who agreed to do personalized classes/private tutoring to make sure i meet my goal in the short time i had given myself. Soon my teacher was confident in my abilities and encouraged me to make my first attempt. Which i did and didnt do as well as i should have, bringing me back to the drawing board to restrategize; giving emphasis on my weakest points. I fully immersed myself in the language, listening to podcasts, watching movies, listening to french music, (i recommend Lara Fabian and ofcourse Celine Dion). I was once again ready to make an attempt at TEF. I did and the new scores allowed me get a well needed raise to the ranks of CRS 380s. The cutoff at the time was somewhere in the upper 400s and the only thing i could think to do was to redo my IELTS. It was now around October of 2023. I considered the IT course mentioned here a number of times but decided to start with the IELTS retake.

Long story short as i was getting ready to retake my IELTS in Jan 2024, when lo alas, I received an NOI form OINP for the French skilled priority draws. I knew i had to fork out an extra 1500CAD and so i began to amass it. Just as I was working on that, I then received an ITA from the federal french CBD draw thus beginning my journey to PPR. In a nutshell, allow me to share my timeline:

EE profile creation: 1 Feb 2023
OINP ITA : 18 Jan 2024 ( idid not go through with it)
ITA: 1 Feb 2024 (just hours before the expiry of my profile... na God oo)
AOR: 26 Mar 2024
BIL/MIL : 1 May 2024
BIL linked: 15 May 2024
MEP: 22 May 2024
ADR: 31 May 2024
2nd MIL: 31 May 2024
2nd MEP: 8 Jun 2024
FD: 10 Jun 2024
PPR: 12 Jun 2024

I can only say thank you to everyone on this platform, all questions answered, all the wealth of information, all well wishers, all prayers, all the friends i made, everything and everyone. May everyone be awarded their PPR at the soonest. Special thanks to @honeysweetest, @ednut, @jasperonyx, @graciouswords. To everyone who posts advice on the platform, some questions i did not need to ask as they were already answered in other people's requests for information, thank you for your time and your selflessness. We can't do it without you.
In conclusion: Glory be to God, Most High, with Whom all things are possible. He says and He does. Great is His faithfulness and love.

Its with a grateful heart, i sign out.

joejoe3:
YEs

Gotocourt:
Hello everyone,
I am a graduate of Quantity surveying, 34yrs and single. I've not sat for professional exams. I just have working experience. Do I have chance of getting PR through Express Entry?
Thanks in anticipation

jakeroberto:
Hi guys,
I need your advice. Do you think I should apply for express entry now? I am currently a student here in Canada. I am not yet through with my studies though.

Theflint1:
Hello house, say I get an ITA, how many months should my POF be in the account for, and what's the earliest time I can have this money in my account? Do I need to have it in my account before I get ITA?

joejoe3:
Please I would like to know if the account for proof of fund must be a current account?

I saw it somewhere and was concerned because I have a joint savings account.

Benny27:
Hello everyone,
I’ve been given ITA but I’ve not yet submitted my application.
I have gotten my checklist of documents to submit.
With this new POF update, do I go ahead and submit the new amount or do I still need to edit my profile?

bankytee01:
Good day guys,

Please i need help/guidance on how to successfully get a job in order to increase my crs score in the pool. I have only been applying via jobbank but no positive result yet.
I am currently in the pool with a CRS score of 390 for one of the Agric noc under the Category based draw, so i hope to explore other ways of increasing my crs score without having to retake ielts. The ielts listening test has been a struggle for me and ielts fee isn't smiling again.

Bluebox:
Hello can money from a land sale be used as proof of funds for EE.as I just entered the pool and may get ita soon without having enough for the 6month bank statement.Any other idea to use as pof in this situation is welcomed.