Each year many thousands of individuals decide to move abroad permanently and to make a new life for themselves and their families in a foreign land. For many of these people this turns out to be one of the best decisions that they have ever made, but for a large number of others their dream rapidly turns into a nightmare. Below are just a handful of the many things that you will need to consider.
� Make sure that you really do wish to move abroad permanently.
It is often said that the grass is always greener on the other side and it is far too easy to create an idyllic picture of life in your chosen country. But, when you arrive, you might well find that the grass is a lot greener back at home. It is also usually the case that your opinion of a country as a holidaymaker is considerably different from your view as a resident.
Not only should you visit the country several times before deciding to move there, but you need to visit at different times of the year and for increasingly lengthy periods of time. You also need to try to 'live' 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 and not as a holidaymaker. If you still think that relocating is the right choice after spending a few months or so 'living' in the country, thenthere is a good chance that you will not regret your choice.
� Make certain that you understand the immigration rules for the country concerned.
Check on the current immigration requirements of your chosen country and also look at its immigration history and any published or rumored plans for the future.
In most cases you will need to meet strict visa requirements and some of these may be inconvenient, costly and leave you without a great deal of security. The very last thing you should do is to cut your ties with home, buy a condominium and settle the kids into school only to find that you are not permitted to extend your visa and are given seventy-two hours to get out of the country.
� Take a very close look at your finances.
Think carefully about just how you intend to support yourself financially in your chosen country. For instance, do you plan to seek employment once you arrive to give you an income, or will you fund yourself from saving, investments or retirement income from home?
If you intend to seek employment overseas then just how easy is it going to be to get work? If you are lucky enough to find work, what kind of salary are you going to get? Will you be allowed to work at all? Many countries will require you to have a work permit and these are sometimes issued only in exceptional circumstances or for employment that requires specific skills or qualifications. In many cases your visa will expressly state that you are not permitted to seek employment.
If you want to fund yourself from sources at home, do you have sufficient resources not merely for today but for the next five or ten years or more? For example, if you are going to be taking retirement income overseas will it keep pace with the rising cost of living? In a lot of countries you are allowed to draw retirement income overseas but, if you decide to do so, you lose any cost of living increases and your pension is pegged at the level at which you start to receive it abroad.
� Consider what to do with your assets at home.
If you own your home do you intend to rent it out, sell it or merely leave it sitting empty? What do you intend to do with your furniture, car and other personal possessions?
Your home of course is much more than a mere asset because it also provides you with a link to your home country and provides you with an address back home which might be very useful if you do not have friends or family who would be happy to let you use their address. Just wait until your credit card runs out and your credit card company tells you that they will only send the new card to the registered address in your home country.
As far as your personal possessions are concerned you could of course dispose of many of them if you want to, retaining only those or especial sentimental or real value, or you might decide to take them with you. But just how easy is it to ship things abroad and what will it cost? Look carefully too at the rules in your chosen country. Some countries will allow you to bring just about whatever you wish into the country, while others will have strict limits or levy high import taxes. In many cases for example it would be far cheaper to buy a new car than to ship your own car and suffer high import duty and maybe to need to have the vehicle adapted to meet local requirements for registration.
� Examine the facilities for healthcare.
You might be fit and healthy today but, if you are thinking about relocating overseas permanently, then a time will come when you will need to make use of the local healthcare facilities. Just how good are those local facilities and how well do they compare to the facilities that you are used to?
Another very important factor is the provision of public healthcare. If you live in a country with a publicly funded healthcare system, like the United Kingdom, then you might be more than a little shocked by the cost of medical treatment when you are residing in a country with only private healthcare. Of course, if you are accustomed paying for your own healthcare, you could be pleasantly surprised to find that you can get the same or even better medical treatment much more cheaply.
No matter what the case, healthcare is something that you need to examine very carefully and you will most certainly want to have some sort of expat health insurance policy.
This short list of just five tips is far from exhaustive but hopefully it will provide you with a starting point and set you in the right direction. Deciding to become an expat is a huge step and one that needs a great deal of careful thought.
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