5 Tips For Anybody

Each year thousands of people decide to move overseas permanently and to start a new life for themselves in a new country. For a lot of these people this proves to be one of the best decisions that they have ever made, but for a large number of other people the dream quickly turns into a nightmare. Here are some of the numerous things that you will need to consider.

• Make sure that you really do wish to move overseas permanently.

The grass is always greener on the other side and it is all too easy to conjure up a heavenly picture of life in your chosen country. However, when you get there, you might well find that in fact the grass is now a lot greener back at home. It is also generally the case that your thoughts about a foreign country when you are a holidaymaker is quite different from your view when you are a resident.

Not only must you visit the country several times before you make any decision to live there, but you must do so at differing times of the year and for increasing lengths of time. You also need to try to 'live' in the country by renting a house or apartment and living as far as possible as you would as a resident and not as a holidaymaker. If you still believe that moving is the right choice after spending several months or so 'living' in the country, then it is a fair bet that you will not regret your choice.

• Make sure that you understand the immigration policy of the country in question.

Check on the current immigration rules of your chosen destination and also take a look at its immigration history and any known or rumored plans for the future.

In most cases you will need to meet strict visa requirements and some of these could be inconvenient, costly and leave you with little security. The absolute last thing you wish to do is to sever your ties with home, buy a condominium and settle the children into school only to find that you cannot extend your visa and have forty-eight hours in which to get out of the country.

• Take a very close look at your finances.

Think very carefully about how you plan to support yourself in your chosen country. Do you, for instance, intend to seek employment after you arrive to provide you with an income, or do you plan to fund yourself from investments, savings or retirement income from home?

If you plan to seek employment overseas then how easy is it going to be to find work? If you are able to get work, what kind of salary can you expect? Indeed, will you be allowed to work at all? Many countries will require you to have a work permit and these are frequently issued only in particular circumstances or for employment which requires special skills or qualifications. In many cases your visa will clearly state that you may not seek employment.

If you wish to fund your stay from sources at home, do you have sufficient resources not simply for today but for the next ten or twenty years or more? If you are taking retirement income overseas will it keep pace with the rising cost of living? In many countries you are allowed to draw retirement income overseas but, if you elect to do so, you will lose any cost of living increases and your pension is pegged at the level at which you start to take it abroad.

• Think about what to do with your assets back home.

If you own your home will you rent it out, sell it or merely leave it sitting empty? What will you do with your furniture, car and other personal possessions?

Your home of course is far more than merely as asset because it also gives you a link to your home country and affords you an address back home which might be very useful if you do not have family or friends who are happy for you to use their address. You only have to wait until your credit card expires and your credit card company informs you that they will only send the new card to the address to which the account is registered in your home country.

As far as your other possessions are concerned you could of course get rid of many of them if you wish, keeping only those or particular real or sentimental value, or you can take them with you. But how easy will it be to ship things overseas and how much will it cost? Look carefully too at the rules in your chosen country. Some countries will let you bring just about whatever you wish into the country, but others will have very strict limits on importation or levy high import taxes. For example, in many cases it would be a lot less expensive to buy a new car than to import your own car and to pay high import duty and maybe to have to have the vehicle adapted to comply with local requirements for registration.

• Take a very careful look at the provision of healthcare.

You might feel fit and healthy today but, if you are thinking about moving overseas permanently, then the time will come when you will need to make use of the local healthcare facilities. Just how good are the local facilities and how well do they compare to the facilities that you have grown used to?

Another very important consideration is the provision of public healthcare. If you live in a country with a publicly funded healthcare system, such as the UK, then you might be more than a bit surprised by the cost of medical treatment when you are living in a country with only private healthcare. On the other hand, if you are used to paying for private healthcare, you may be very pleasantly surprised to find that you can get the same level of or even better medical treatment far more cheaply.

No matter what the case, healthcare is one thing that you will need to check out very carefully and you will most certainly need some sort of expatriate health insurance policy.

This brief list of only five tips is far from exhaustive but hopefully it will provide you with a starting point and get you going in the right direction. Becoming an expat is a huge step and one that needs considerable and careful thought.