₦airaland Forum

Gerrard59:
None offers a straight pathway to naturalisation (this should be her main target) and those who do are not English speaking. I doubt OP is prepared to learn another language. Also, those places have fewer blacks. But then, if Nigerians can be crude tribalists, nothing wrong in residing amongst racists.

Yes, i have family in one of those countries (free accommodation during study) but they give only one year post study visa and there is also the language barrier. Not particularly attractive to me.

1Sharon:
And leaving them in whose care?

It is not even an option, anywhere I go, they go.

optimusprime2:
Your profile no longer favours a total japa situation...
Major reason; You are a single mother of 2 sub eleven year olds. If you had a partner, the situation would have been a little more ideal as there would be wiggle room to save finances and grow professionally.

Should I Explain Why?

One Major challenge in the UK is childcare. And it doesn't help matters if you are a single parent with two kids under the age of 10 years old, because that will severely impact how you should hussle or work (you need to be back by certain times from work as you can't leave minors unattended to), which would also impact the kind of house you would need to rent (housing costs based on your earnings), and the area in the UK you would need to live (proximity to schools for your children).

To be sane in the UK, you need to work and when I mean work, I mean mind busting work, no day should be wasted slouching. Because bills, rent and taxes need to be paid, while keeping up with professional and career development which also cost time and money. Basically the more you combine jobs, the better for you. However, two kids in the picture will totally break your stride and create an extra ton of costs. Doing it as a single parent, makes it even crazier.

However, if you have family in the UK "who are willing to help", basically you could drop the kids over during weekends while you bust your weekend grind, be it studying pro courses/certifications or an extra hussle, or they can help pickup the kids from school every weekday while you run your 9-5, leaving you to pick them to your home conveniently when you are done.
Either ways it's still going to be a very difficult routine- infact typing this, is making me sweat for you already (Keeping in mind you are 95% going to begin with a care job, based on your stated skills and experience in tech).

And lastly when you factor in your "self life"... the dating scene in the UK will relegate you to the "single mom category" which is literally the far end of the pool regardless of your age and trust me that category has a knack for attracting classic nutters, especially if you choose to be open to "diversity".

Bottom line, If you earn approximately 2000£ per month in Nigeria in your current situation, then I suggest you suspended this Japa idea for now till your kids are grown, then perhaps, you could sponsor them to secondary school in the UK (which would still require you to have a steady stream of income).

Also, the dating scene in Nigeria is more sane for your profile, you are more likely to get a reasonable package.

So please Japa does not ideally fit your profile, unless you really want to throw things up in the air and see how they fall.

Why not just visit the UK with the kids for now to build travel experience and save Japa plans for the future?

You captured my fears correctly. Childcare is a big deal in the Uk and I don’t have family there. My kids are not babies but still not old enough to be left alone.
I intend to apply for visiting visa by the end of March, hopefully it’s approved and we visit to even get a feel of the place.

To everyone that has given an advice so far, thank you for taking your time to leave a comment.

I’m working on setting up a structure for the business, I want to see if it’s possible to run it without my physical presence and not be robbed blind. This country is ghetto, the relocation is mostly for the sake of my children (the deserve more than this contraption has to offer) but at the same time, I want to be careful so I don’t end up with regrets.


And for people asking about the nature of the business, it is simply buying and selling. I buy from Lagos market and sell online. You just have to be consistent, take good pictures of the items, invest in learning how to run sponsored adverts properly and set a good budget for the ads. You spend money to make money, grease Zuckerberg’s palm well and watch him do wonders for you. I didn’t learn all these overnight too, I tried other businesses and struggled before this became a success in less than 2 years. I know ladies making 10m, 20m, 30m on instagram almost every month from selling bags, hair and clothes generally. E.g finefunky (not sure I got the spelling right), everythingfashionitem1, laydee Lara, magmimibagdeals etc these are all ladies in their 30s. There is a lot of money flying around on social media, you just have to find your own approach to get a piece of the cake.

Please keep the opinions coming, God help us all.

Neptunium:
You're talking about you you you as if you're a single lady with no kids. No consideration of your kids, or you go leave children under 10 in in Naija? Your baby daddy or daddies sef nko?Biko, make una no lie to men in UK come say u no get kids ooo

Thank you for saying a bunch of nothing.

1Sharon:
Nigerians are sheep sha.

And what is this supposed to mean?

ednut1:
You make 2m monthly. But you applied to a job of 600k
You are a mother of two and still talking about singleness/ husband.

Lol 🤡

I didnt want to respond to you but I don't want your comment to derail the thread. To answer you, I applied for the job a year ago, my business was still growing then and I still felt I needed the job at the time. I make 500-600k weekly and there are people making even way more from online businesses. And the 2nd part, all people who have kids most have husbands right? I'm really trying hard to be civil here.

If you don't have anything meaningful to contribute, just don't bother responding at all.

Im a single mum of two (both under 10) in my early 30s. I make a profit of 2.1m -2.4m from my business monthly. And I just got an offer of a 9-5 job that should be paying about 600k monthly with a multinational (not sure if I want to take it in addition to my business or just face my business completely).
Edited to add: the reason I'm not sure if I'm taking the job is because it would require leaving home at 5/5:30 am and driving 3/4 hours everyday in lagos traffic, not sure I have that strength. On the other hand, apart from the extra money, it's a good way to meet more people, enlarge my circle. My business mostly online so I hardly go anywhere.

I have an opportunity to Japa to the Uk and I’m honestly unsure about going.

1. The plan is do some courses before I leave to increase my chances of getting a job in tech (non-coding) when I get to the Uk, how easy is that going to be And care work is NOT an option for me. I’m afraid to leave certainty for uncertainty.

2. I don’t want to relocate as a single lady. A lot of people in the Uk are single and lonely, I know because I have many friends there. I see babes coming to Naija in December to hustle for bf/husband. I don’t want to join that queue nor am I interested in doing ‘friends with benefits’ with anyone . I think the dating scene is kinda better in Nigeria (I stand to be corrected though).
Also financially and mentally, two heads are surely better than one.

Please I need your thoughts. I’m a longtime member of NL but I’m using this moniker for the sake of anonymity. Thanks, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Please lets be civil and polite with our responses too.