I am no way expert in visa/permits (especially UK one) but doubt there is any other option than 5 years of residence (beside marrying with an EU citizen, investor visa or any bilateral agreement between UK/EU - Japan I am not aware of). And for spouse, afaik she'll have no problem with residence permit but it may be tricky to get work permit (which might not be practically required if it was an Internet business maybe)

All shops now use touch and go cards so you don't even need to swipe. The London underground also accepts touch and go credit cards to enter too (you are charged instantly).

Not all shops do contactless; the trend is very much there but I still encounter places which only have the old (ha! 'old') chip-and-pin machines on a daily basis.
That said, I'm willing to bet in 6 months that won't be the case, just a matter of places upgrading their machines.
(Co-op and Boots I use has contactless, Tesco and Sainsbury's don't yet for example, this is down in Brighton so not some backwater place either.)

The underground working with contactless however is great and how things should work.
(I wish they could sort this for the whole UK train network tbh, or at least have some unified smart card scheme. Right now I can use contactless to travel on the underground in London, and I have a smart card for travel to work, London and Gatwick, but if I want to get back to my home town I still need a dead tree format ticket... *grumbles*)

I'm in London so contactless is pretty much everywhere including Tesco and Sainsburys.

As for the train ticket I don't actually get to use the contactless because I commute from outside london so I just get a yearly season ticket that works on mainline and underground. Unfortunately this expensive ticket is little more than thick paper.

I don’t suppose anyone knows this, but just in case…

I know I will get whatever visa I need to be able to work there, since moving there by definition is because I was hired by a company.
But my fiancé wants to work as well, though not in a “skilled” trade, which means her ability to work depends on my status after we are married.
For that reason I need to know as soon in-advance as possible specifically what kind of visa I should expect going there as a senior game programmer.
One condition for her to be able to work is that her spouse (me) has “settled”: https://www.gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk
I would need to know what kind of visa I would have in order to know if I can even apply to settle, but from the test runs I did they all take 5 years anyway, which is out of the question.
Here is how she would apply: https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family

I’m guessing no one has gone through this, but I am throwing it out there just in case. I’d like to know this before I apply anywhere since it would be a waste of time if I get through the interview and then bring it up and they say there is no way.

L. Spiro

For a senior games programmer you'd need to be working in the UK for 5 years and 4 months before you can apply to settle. You'd also need a letter from your boss to say that you are still needed. Its doable but, I wouldn't be too confident.

I'm pretty sure the problem is going to be getting reliable information about what the UK rules and processes actually currently are. I've come to suspect that the difficulty of finding proper information and trying to understand what they want you to do is one of the tests to see if this is something that you're serious about.

Googling a bit it sounds to me that as a skilled worker you should be able to have your spouse come with you and also be able to work without having to officially "settle" (link and link) (assuming the 2nd link is reliable). What details, requirements, and paperwork are involved, I wouldn't know.

Best of luck to you.

I don’t suppose anyone knows this, but just in case…

I know I will get whatever visa I need to be able to work there, since moving there by definition is because I was hired by a company.
But my fiancé wants to work as well, though not in a “skilled” trade, which means her ability to work depends on my status after we are married.
For that reason I need to know as soon in-advance as possible specifically what kind of visa I should expect going there as a senior game programmer.
One condition for her to be able to work is that her spouse (me) has “settled”: https://www.gov.uk/settle-in-the-uk
I would need to know what kind of visa I would have in order to know if I can even apply to settle, but from the test runs I did they all take 5 years anyway, which is out of the question.
Here is how she would apply: https://www.gov.uk/remain-in-uk-family

Just to add, it's 5 years now even for marrying a British citizen.

But of course you have to do something to get into Ireland from the UK?

Ireland and the UK are part of the Common Travel Area.

While I'm not a member of the game development industry in Ireland, my impression is that there is not a huge amount going on here, with the possible exceptions of one or two high profile middleware companies as mentioned by walsh06. I don't know how complete a picture they paint, but the sites gamedevelopers.ie and imirt.ie ("imirt" is an Irish word meaning "to play") contains further information about the industry here.

That said, I believe Ireland and Irish cities tend to place relatively favourably on various lists of nice places to live, or having good standards of quality of life, for whatever that is worth.

While people from EU (Schengen or not) cannot stay in US, it obviosly does not play backward. Within EU, an individual can be anywhere for any span of time, working and earning if he pays his duties (or the employer of his). I have been living and working in Prague, but Czech and Slovakia has bilateral deals overcoming EU general deals though. I am still a client of Ceska Sprava Socialniho Zabezpeceni, and they out of a nowhere payed me "temporary invalidation" assurance :) (I was working an employee with big salary for long ;))

we used UK Yankee, which is specific to US citizens moving to the UK

I am no way expert in visa/permits (especially UK one) but doubt there is any other option than 5 years of residence (beside marrying with an EU citizen, investor visa or any bilateral agreement between UK/EU - Japan I am not aware of).

Just to add, it's 5 years now even for marrying a British citizen.

Afaik naturalization grants you instant permit for residence and working but still need that X years for becoming citizen.

Just imagine our children. “I’m English but my dad is American and my mother is Japanese.” Oh the fun they will have.

Fun? hmm, there is a chance such kids end up with identity crisis..