5 Tips For People Who Are Contemplating Being An Expatriate
By:
Donald Saunders
Each year many thousands of people decide to move permanently abroad and to make a new life for themselves in a foreign country. For a lot of these people this turns out to be one of the best decisions that they have ever made, but for many others the dream will rapidly turn into a nightmare. Below are just some of the numerous things which you will need to consider.
� Make sure that you really do wish to live permanently abroad.
We all know that the grass is always greener on the other side and it is all too easy to paint a heavenly picture of living in your chosen country. However, once you arrive, you could well find that the grass is now a lot greener back at home. It is also usually the case that your picture of a country as a holidaymaker is considerably different from that as a resident.
Not only must you visit the country a number of times before you make any decision to live there, but you ought to visit at differing times of year and for increasing lengths of time. You also need to try 'living' in the chosen country by renting a house or apartment and living as far as is possible as you would be living as a resident rather than a holidaymaker. If you still think that moving is the right choice after spending a few months or so 'living' in the country, then it is a fair bet that you would not regret your choice.
� Make certain that you fully understand the immigration policy of your chosen country.
Look carefully at the current immigration rules of your chosen country and also take a look at its past history on immigration and any published or rumored plans for the future.
In many cases you will have to meet strict visa requirements and these may be inconvenient, costly and leave you with little security. The absolute last thing you ought to do is to sever your ties with home, buy a house and settle the kids into school only to find that you are not permitted to extend your visa and have seventy-two hours to get out of the country.
� Examine your financial position very carefully.
Think very carefully about just how you intend to support yourself in your chosen country. Do you, for instance, plan to seek employment once you arrive to furnish you with an income, or do you intend to fund yourself from investments, savings or retirement income from home?
If you plan to seek employment overseas then just how easy is it going to be to find a job? If you are able to get a job, what sort of salary are you likely to get? Will they let you work at all? A large number of countries will require you to apply for a work permit and these are sometimes issued only in particular circumstances or for employment that requires specific qualifications or skills. In a lot of cases your visa will expressly say that you may not seek employment.
If you are going to fund your stay from sources at home, do you have enough resources not merely for today but for the next ten or twenty years or beyond? For instance, if you are going to be taking retirement income overseas will it keep pace with the rising cost of living? In many countries you are allowed to receive retirement income overseas but, if you decide to do so, you will lose any cost of living increases and your pension is fixed at the level at which you start to draw it overseas.
� Consider what you will do with your assets at home.
If you own your home do you intend to sell it, rent it out or simply leave it sitting empty? What do you intend to do with your car, furniture and other personal possessions?
Of course your home is much more than simply an asset as it also provides you with a link to your home country and gives you an address back home which could be very useful if you do not have family or friends who are happy to let you use their address. You only have to wait until your credit card expires and your bank informs you that they will only send the new card to the registered address in your home country.
As far as your other possessions are concerned you could of course dispose of many of them if you wish, retaining only those or particular sentimental or real value, or you could take them with you. But just how easy will it be to ship things out and how much will it cost? Look carefully too at the regulations in your country of destination. Some countries will permit you to bring more or less whatever you wish into the country, while others will have very strict limits on importation or levy high import taxes. In many cases for instance it would be much less expensive to buy a new car than to ship your own car and pay high import duty and maybe to have to have the vehicle altered to comply with local requirements for registration.
� Take a very careful look at the provision of healthcare.
You could be on top of the world today but, if you are thinking about moving overseas permanently, then a time will come when you will need to avail yourself of the local healthcare facilities. Just how good are the facilities and how well do they stand up against the facilities that you have grown accustomed to?
Yet another very important consideration is the provision of public healthcare. If you live in a country that has publicly funded healthcare, such as the UK, then you may be more than a bit surprised by the cost of medical treatment when you find yourself in a country which has only private healthcare. On the other hand, if you are used to paying for your own healthcare, you might be very pleasantly surprised to find that you can get the same level of or better medical treatment at a fraction of the cost.
Whatever the case, however, this is one thing which you will need to check out very carefully and you will most certainly wish to have some sort of expatriate health insurance plan.
This short list of just five tips is far from exhaustive but it will hopefully provide you with a starting point and set you in the right direction. Deciding to become an expatriate is a very big step and one which needs a great deal of careful thought.
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
