5 Tips For Those Who Are Thinking About Becoming An Expatriate

Every year thousands of people make the decision to move permanently abroad and to make a new life for themselves in a new land. For a significant number of these people this will be one of the best decisions that they have ever made, but for many other people their dream quickly turns into a nightmare. Here are just some of the many things that you will have to consider.

� Make sure that you really do want to move permanently abroad.

We all know that the grass is always greener on the other side and it is extremely easy to conjure up a heavenly picture of life in the country of your choice. But, when you arrive, you may well discover that the grass is a lot greener back home. It is also normally the case that your thoughts about a foreign country as a holidaymaker is very different from that as a resident.

Not only is it essential to visit the country several times before deciding to live there, but you ought to make your visits at different times of the year and for increasingly lengthy periods of time. You also have to try 'living' in the country by renting a house or apartment and living as far as possible as you would as a resident rather than a holidaymaker. If you still feel that moving 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 decision.

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

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

In the majority of cases you will have to meet strict visa requirements and some of these might be inconvenient, costly and leave you without much security. The very last thing you wish to do is to cut your ties with home, purchase a condominium and get your children settled into school only to discover that you are not permitted to extend your visa and are given two days in which to get out of the country.

� Examine your financial position carefully.

Think carefully about just how you will support yourself in your chosen country. For example, do you plan to seek employment once you arrive to provide you with an income, or do you plan to fund yourself from saving, investments or retirement income from home?

If you wish to seek employment overseas then just how simple is it going to be to find a job? If you are able to get a job, what kind of salary can you expect? Indeed, will they permit you to work at all? A large number of countries will require you to apply for a work permit and these are frequently only issued in exceptional circumstances or for employment that requires specific skills or qualifications. In a lot of cases your visa will clearly state that you are not permitted to seek employment.

If you intend 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? For example, if you are taking retirement income overseas will it keep pace with rising costs? In many cases you are allowed to draw 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 start to take it overseas.

� Consider what to do with your assets back home.

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

Of course your home is far more than a mere asset as it also gives you a tie to your home country and provides you with an address back home which may 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 can only send the new card to the registered address in your home country.

As far as your personal possessions 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 along with you. But just how simple is it to ship things out and what will it cost? You will have to look carefully too at the rules in your chosen country. Some countries will permit you to bring more or less whatever you want into the country, but others will have strict importation limits or impose high import taxes. In many cases for example it would be far less expensive to purchase a new car than to import your own car and suffer high import duty and perhaps to have to have the car altered to satisfy local requirements for registration.

� Examine the facilities for healthcare.

You may be fit and healthy today but, if you are thinking about moving abroad permanently, then a time is going to come when you will have to make use of the local healthcare facilities. So, just how good are the local facilities and how well do they stand up against the facilities that you have grown accustomed to?

Another extremely important consideration is the availability of public healthcare. If you live in a country with publicly funded healthcare, like the UK, 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. On the other hand, if you are accustomed paying for your own healthcare, you could be pleasantly surprised to discover that you obtain the same level of or even better medical treatment at a fraction of the cost.

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

This brief list of just five tips is certainly not exhaustive but it will hopefully give you a starting point and set you in the right direction. Becoming an expat is a huge step and one that needs a great deal of careful thought.