British Expatriate Network

Good day to all.
I am a new member. I have been an expat for 21 years, 19 of those in Japan where I still live.

When my son was born 18 odd years ago I registered his birth at the UK embassy in Tokyo and received his UK birth certificate.

Since then he has had 2 passports of his own and originally inclusion in mine as a toddler.

Now he graduated high school last year and is a talented musician. He wanted to study at one of the major music conservatories in UK. He was luck enough to be accepted by all 4 he applied to.

However, here is the rub. If he had been living in the UK for 3 years or more before entering college (he or me paying UK taxes), he would be eligable for school fees at GBP 3,000 P.A. - In stead as a full UK pasport owner and citizen he has to pay a staggering GBP 16,800 per year for his tuition.

Is this right?

I tried to get all the national dailies to take up the story and the BBC news site, but was ignored. i went to the source myslef and had a series of mails to the department of education. seeimingly paying taxes gives you more rights as confirmed by DOE in answering my question. hypothetical Korean family with father being sent to UK working for Korean bank. Family set to return, but their college aged son wants to stay in UK to continue his studies. He would be allowed UK domestic fees as his father or his father's company have been paying UK taxes prior to this.

To add further insult to injery this is just a UK thing. I enquired at the Austrian Embassy in Tokyo about the pre-requisite for entering the Mozart conservatory in Strassburg.
1. Pass the auditions. 2. A year of German Language. when asked about fees my son's UK passport entitles him to pay European citizen fees which in Austria are even below the UK.

Absolutely shocking.

Tee.

absolutly paying taxed give you more rights than if you dont .
would you object if a person got cheaper or free educatuion in japan ( or whatever country you choose ) to live in when you had been paying taxes all your working life for that benefit .
these entitlements are paid for by the taxes the country deducts from its citizens pay checks .
Cus he is a citizen doesnt mean he *automatically* gets a free ride on others folks contributions to the national budget .

maybe you can tell me a entitlement citizens of japan get for being a tax payer and ill take japanese citizenship and avail myself of it .

In Japan, assuming that either dual national or permanent residence visa is held, domestic charges apply. In the case of Japan the top 2 music schools would have cost me about GBP 2,700 per year the same as in the case of Austria.

No wonder talented UK people leave the country!
When a country falls from the first world it doesn't stop on its way down it goes straight to 4th world status.

No manufacturing. No industry. A nation of middlemen only, hence prices in UK are so high.

My son is now an adult. Although I have no interest to return to the UK he wanted to study there. I paid taxes for nearly 20 years in the UK and I was earning a very good salaery and being taxed at the top rate. Why does UK automatically assume it has a right over and above other EEC countries rulings in these matters.

Anyone want to buy some North Atlantic Pesos?


T.

You are in for another shock when you apply for UK OAP. In Japan you will not receive yearly COL increases.

But your son is not in the country. He wants to arrive and train on the taxpayers pound without giving any guarantee that he will stay and pay taxes to reimburse the state. The taxes you paid before he was born are not relevant here.

Did the music schools know he had been resident outside the UK for the last three years?

I am sorry this has come as a shock to you -it is something we looked into before we even left the UK, but our children were already born then, so perhaps it was more pertinent to us. I had thought it was commonly known. I don't think it's unreasonable, and if my children look like wanting to go to school there, I will try to make the appropriate arrangements.

Different countries do have different rulings on different aspects of being an expat. For example foreign nationals resident in the UK can vote. In the US they cannot. There are arguments in favor of both approaches, and in general you will find the people who live in each country prefer the system they have. If they didn't, it would change.

Welcome to Brinet, by the way. I'm sorry it's something so frustrating that has brough you here.

in order to qualifty for UK benefits one must have lived in the country prior to leaving >age 18 or currently be a resident.

I have to be honest, I'm neither shock or appalled by this. Higher education tuition fees are heavily subsidised in the UK and it seems only fair that this benefit should be restricted to those who pay UK taxes for at least some minimum period. This shoul dbe regardless of nationality.

The only reasonable exception would seem to be those compelled to live abroad through government service or employers. (And I believe these are the exceptions).

I am in the same position, except mine little wonders won't be old enough to go to college any time soon. However, I don't pay UK taxes, and will not whilstever I live outside the UK. If my kids were to pay the subsidized tuition, it would be at the expense of people who have paid taxes.

I sympathize with you and your son, it must be very disappointing. Are their any charitable grants or other student aid available to him?

Welcome to Britnet.

Seems fair enough to me. The cost to attend Uni in the UK is still heaps lower than it is in the USA.

For me to do a MSc over here = $32,000
For me to do a MSc through distance learning at a UK uni (as a foreign student) = $16,000.

Yes, you did pay taxes for 20 years, but then you left. You will get a pension from those taxes, which seems like a nice deal to me.