McMadCow posted:

I wanted to tag this as Europe for maximum irony, to prove my worthiness as a dry-humoured Brit.
I came to the old London meetup thread with questions in 2011 when I had the urge to move to England for grad school, and I ended up living in London from 2012-2014. Thanks!
Without going into all the details, it's 5 years on and I've never really gotten over having to leave England. I've been working in my field back in the US after finishing grad school, but at the moment I'm in a bit of a transitional phase. If I were to drop everything and move tomorrow, I wouldn't mind a bit. So that seems like a good sign. I've considered applying to a PhD programme, but I work in the arts and it's not 100% necessary to teach at university level and the extra debt would torpedo me for life. Well, that's already happened with my Master's, so I'd be double torpedoed.
Which leaves simply packing up and immigrating to England's welcoming arms, as an enthusiastic Anglophile and holder of a UK Masters degree. How do I do this? I've been looking as the UK's visa and immigration site and there doesn't seem to be any sort of route to residency that involves showing up without employer sponsorship or a student visa. Surely there must be some way to do that? Is there an immigration lottery? I'd prefer to not go the sham marriage route, but I guess I'm not too proud.
I'm a photographer, but I don't do it commercially. At least not to the extent where I could support myself as a freelancer abroad. As my day job, I teach art photography.
US citizen, born and raised on the East Coast, living in San Francisco for the last 20 years. I've never felt quite so "at home" as when I lived in London. I'd like to get back. I'll be a good addition to England, I promise. I even like your food.