5 Tips For Anybody Who Is Thinking About Being An Expat

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5 Tips For Anybody Who Is Thinking About Being An Expat - By: Donald Saunders, Posted on: 2007-09-14

Every year many thousands of people decide to move abroad permanently and to start a new life for themselves and their families in a new land. For a lot of these people this will prove to be one of the best decisions they have ever made, but for a number of others their dream will rapidly turn into a nightmare. Below are a few of the many things that you will have to consider.

� Make certain that you really do want to live abroad permanently.

We all know that the grass is always greener on the other side and it is extremely easy to paint a heavenly picture of life in the country of your choice. However, when you get there, you could find that in fact the grass is a lot greener back at home. It is also often the case that your view of a foreign country when you are a holidaymaker is considerably different from your view when you are a resident.

Not only is it essential to visit the country a number of times before you make any decision to live there, but you must visit at different times of year and for increasingly lengthy periods of time. You should also try 'living' in the chosen country by renting a condo or house and living as far as is possible as you would as a resident and not as a holidaymaker. If you still feel that relocating is the correct choice after spending six months or so 'living' in the country, then it is a fair bet that you would not regret your choice.

� Make sure that you understand the immigration rules for the country concerned.

Look at the present immigration policy of your chosen destination and also take a look at its immigration history and any published or rumored plans for change.

In many cases you will have to meet strict visa requirements and these may be inconvenient, expensive and leave you without much security. The very last thing you should do is to sever your ties with home, buy a condo and settle the kids into school only to find that you are not allowed to extend your visa and have seventy-two hours to leave the country.

� Examine your financial position carefully.

Think carefully about how you will support yourself financially in your chosen country. Do you, for example, intend to look for a job after you arrive to furnish you with an income, or do you plan to fund yourself from investments, savings or retirement income from home?

If you wish to look for a job overseas then how easy will it be to get a job? If you are able to get a job, what sort of salary can you expect? Indeed, will they let you work at all? Many countries will require you to have a work permit and these are often issued only in particular circumstances or for employment that requires special qualifications or skills. In many cases your visa will specifically say that you may not seek employment.

If you want to fund your stay from sources back home, do you have enough resources not simply for today but for the next ten or twenty years or more? If you are going to be receiving retirement income overseas will it keep pace with the rising cost of living? In a lot of countries you are permitted to receive retirement income overseas but, if you opt to do so, you will lose any cost of living increases and your pension will be pegged at the level at which you begin to receive it overseas.

� Consider what to do with your assets back home.

If you own your home do you intend to rent it out, sell it or just leave it empty? What do you intend to do with your car, furniture and other personal belongings?

Of course your home is far more than merely as asset because it also gives you a tie to your home country and affords you an address back home which could be extremely useful if you do not have family or friends who would be happy to let you use their address. Just wait until your credit card expires and your credit card company informs you that they will only send your replacement card to the registered address in your home country.

As far as your other belongings are concerned you can of course dispose of many of them if you want to, retaining only those or particular real or sentimental value, or you might decide to take them with you. But how easy is it to ship things abroad and what will it cost? You will have to look carefully too at the regulations in your chosen country. Some countries will let you bring just about whatever you want into the country, while other countries will have strict importation limits or charge high import taxes. For instance, in many cases it is a lot less expensive to buy a new car than to ship your own car and to suffer high import duty and maybe to need to have your vehicle adapted to comply with local requirements for registration.

� Take a careful look at the provision of healthcare.

You could be on top of the world now but, if you are thinking about relocating abroad permanently, then the time will come when you will have to avail yourself of the local healthcare facilities. So, just how good are those local facilities and how do they stand up against the facilities that you have grown used to?

Another very important factor is the availability of public healthcare. If you live in a country that has publicly funded healthcare, like the United Kingdom, then you could be more than a bit shocked by the cost of treatment when you are in a country with only private healthcare. On the other hand, if you are accustomed paying for private healthcare, you might be pleasantly surprised to find that you can get the same level of or better treatment much more cheaply.

No matter what the case, this is one thing that you will have to look at very carefully and you will most certainly need some sort of expat health insurance plan.

This short list of just five tips is far from exhaustive but it will hopefully give you a starting point and set you in the right direction. Becoming an expatriate is a huge step and one that requires considerable and careful thought.

Article Source: http://higradesearch.com

Donald Saunders writes on many subjects, in particular health, and is also himself an expat. For more information on international travel health insurance or on affordable health insurance in general then please visit MedicalHealthInsuranceToday.com

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