You need English before you move
In many countries, an English level is part of the visa requirements, and the bar is rising.
In the UK, from 8 January 2026, new applications for the Skilled Worker, Scale-up and High Potential Individual visas require B2 instead of the previous B1. You have to prove it in all four skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The next change has already been approved: from 26 March 2027, B2 will also be required for permanent settlement on most routes.
In Canada, language affects your chances of an invitation through Express Entry. A single candidate with CLB 7 in every skill gets 68 points for language, with CLB 9 — 124. A 56-point difference often decides whether an invitation comes in the next draw. The rules change often, so check the requirements on official websites before you apply.
Where English helps even when it isn’t the official language
English is useful even where the official language is different. In the UAE, foreigners make up about 89% of the population, and English is their common language. In Dubai, where the official language is Arabic, residents use English in everyday life far more than any other language.
Europe looks good too. In the EF 2025 English proficiency ranking, the top places went to the Netherlands, Croatia, Austria and Germany. In countries like these you can sort out many everyday things in English while you learn the local language.
English and work in a new country
Statistics Canada collected telling data: it studied about 100,000 immigrants who arrived through Express Entry in 2015–2018. The language test score barely affected whether a person found a job in the first years. But each of the four skills affected earnings.
Language turned out to matter as much for early earnings as Canadian work experience before the move, and more than education and age. For example, comparing reading levels, immigrants with CLB 7 earned about 25% less than those at level 10 and above; for speaking, the gap was 19%.
Put simply, you can find a job with average English, but strong English helps you earn more.
Everyday life: the doctor, housing, phone calls
The most important conversations after a move are often everyday ones.
The doctor. In a study of six US hospitals, adverse events among patients with limited English involved physical harm in 49.1% of cases, compared with 29.5% for English-speaking patients. For patients with limited English, such events were more often caused by communication errors: 52.4% against 35.9%. So it is worth preparing medical vocabulary and the ability to describe symptoms in advance.
Housing. First contact with a landlord often happens by phone, and the impression is formed by voice. In an American experiment, the same person called landlords speaking in different dialects, and it turned out that landlords turn prospective tenants away based on the sound of their voice alone. A similar result came from Bremen in Germany: callers with standard German pronunciation were invited to view flats most often.
Phone and noise. Understanding someone on the phone is harder than in person. When a listener can see the speaker’s face, they recognise accented speech in noise better, and lip movements help them most of all. On the phone that cue is gone, so the listener relies on sound alone.
Understanding the locals
Many people who move notice that they understand textbook English well, while the speech of neighbours and colleagues blurs into a continuous stream. Researchers call the ability to split the stream of speech into words the main difficulty and the strongest predictor of how well a person understands a second language by ear.
Noise is another difficulty. Listening in a non-native language takes effort in itself, and background noise hinders non-native speakers more than native ones. Cafés, public transport, open-plan offices are exactly where most everyday conversations happen.
Pronunciation training helps. A meta-analysis showed that training learners to tell sounds apart improves both perception and pronunciation: once you can distinguish similar sounds yourself, it is easier to recognise familiar words in fast speech.
Feeling that you belong
A move also means a new social circle. Psychologists Agata Gluszek and John Dovidio found that a non-native accent is linked to a weaker sense of belonging to the country. People with an accent expected prejudice and ran into communication difficulties more often. The good news is that a positive attitude to your own accent is linked to a greater willingness to speak the language. Confidence in how you speak makes it easier to start conversations with neighbours, colleagues and new acquaintances.
How to learn English for a move
1. Start with the requirements. Find out what level and which test your visa needs, and how long the result is valid. Build your preparation plan around that.
2. Learn through everyday scenarios. List the situations of your first months: renting, the bank, the doctor, school, public services. Collect words and phrases for each. Learn medical vocabulary first.
3. Practise phone calls. Rehearse typical calls: booking a doctor’s appointment, arranging a flat viewing, checking an order. Record yourself and listen to how clearly your name, address and numbers come across.
4. Listen to real speech. Podcasts, videos by bloggers from your new country and local news will help you get used to the pace and to how words run together.
5. Work on pronunciation regularly. Short daily sessions with feedback work better than rare long ones.
How pronunciation helps after the move
People understand you the first time. No need to spell your name letter by letter or ask again at reception. That saves time and nerves in every everyday conversation.
Phone calls go more smoothly. Once your sounds are in place, the listener understands you without the help of lip-reading, even on a bad line.
You understand the locals better. Training sounds develops your ear, and fast speech gradually stops sounding like a continuous stream.
Making friends gets easier. Confidence in how you sound helps you join conversations, keep up small talk and feel at home.
How to train pronunciation with BClear Lab
BClear Lab is an AI coach for English pronunciation. The app runs in the browser on a laptop or a phone. The camera follows the movement of your lips and jaw, the microphone analyses the sound, and the app explains what to change in your articulation to get the sound right. That way you train exactly the articulation a listener usually reads from your lips.
A session takes 15–20 minutes a day. You can practise on your own, with no stress and nobody watching. The video is not recorded: recognition runs right on your device. It is built on Modern RP British pronunciation, and you can start from B1.
The app is getting ready to launch. Join the waitlist to be among the first to prepare your pronunciation for the move.
Sources
- UK, B2 from January 2026: eiglaw.com
- UK, B2 for settlement from March 2027: jpsimmigration.com
- Canada, language points in Express Entry: ansariimmigration.com
- UAE, share of foreign residents: en.wikipedia.org
- Dubai, English in everyday communication: en.wikipedia.org
- EF EPI 2025: ef.edu
- Statistics Canada, 2023: www150.statcan.gc.ca
- Divi et al., 2007: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Purnell, Idsardi, Baugh, 1999: journals.sagepub.com
- Du Bois, 2021: benjamins.com
- Seeing the speaker’s face and accented speech in noise: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- The role of lip movements: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Speech segmentation: castledown.com.au
- Perceiving fluent speech in a second language: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Saito & Plonsky, 2019: researchgate.net
- Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010: journals.sagepub.com
- Willingness to communicate and attitude to one’s accent: researchgate.net
