Every year many thousands of people decide to move overseas permanently and to start a new life for themselves in a foreign country. For a significant number of these people this will be one of the best decisions that they have ever made, but for many others their dream quickly turns into a nightmare. Here are a sample of the many things that you will need to consider. � Make sure that you really do wish to move overseas permanently. There is a saying that the grass is always greener on the other side and it is all too easy to imagine an idyllic picture of living in your chosen country. But, once you arrive, you could well find that the grass is now much greener back home. It is also generally the case that your thoughts about a country as a holidaymaker is considerably different from your view as a resident. Not only must you visit the country a number of times before you make any decision to live there, but you should also visit at differing times of 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 rather than a holidaymaker. If you still feel that moving is the right choice after spending six months or so 'living' in the country, thenthere is a pretty good chance that you would not come to regret your decision. � Make sure that you fully understand the immigration rules for the country in question. Look at the current immigration requirements 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 have to meet strict visa requirements and some of these could be inconvenient, costly and leave you with little security. The absolute last thing you ought to do is to cut your ties with home, purchase a house and settle the kids into school only to discover that you cannot extend your visa and have seventy-two hours to leave the country. � Examine your financial position carefully. Think carefully about how you are going to support yourself financially in your chosen country. Do you, for example, intend to seek employment once you arrive to provide you with an income, or will you fund yourself from investments, savings or retirement income from home? If you are going to seek employment abroad then how easy is it going to be to find a job? If you can get a job, what kind of salary are you likely to get? Will you be allowed to work at all? Many 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 skills or qualifications. In a lot of cases your visa will clearly say that you are not permitted to seek employment. If you intend to fund yourself from sources back home, do you have enough resources not just for today but for the next five or ten years or beyond? For example, if you are going to be taking retirement income abroad will it keep pace with rising costs? In many countries you are permitted to draw retirement income abroad but, if you choose to do so, you lose any cost of living increases and your income will be pegged at the level at which you begin to draw it overseas. � Think about what to do with your assets at home. If you own your own home do you intend to sell it, rent it out or merely leave it sitting empty? What do you intend to do with your car, furniture and other personal belongings? Of course your home is much more than a mere asset as it also provides you with a tie to your home country and provides you with an address back home which could be extremely useful if you do not have friends or family who would be 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 your replacement card to the registered address in your home country. As far as your personal belongings are concerned you could of course dispose of many of them if you want to, retaining only those or especial real or sentimental value, or you could take them with you. But how easy is it to ship things abroad and what will it cost? You will need to look carefully too at the regulations in your chosen country. Some countries will let you bring more or less whatever you wish into the country, while other countries will have strict importation limits or levy high import taxes. In many cases for example it would be a lot cheaper to purchase a new car than to import your own car and to suffer high import duty and possibly to have to have your vehicle altered to satisfy local requirements for registration. � Take a careful look at the facilities for healthcare. You could be fit and healthy today but, if you are thinking about moving overseas permanently, then the time is going to come when you will need to make use of the local healthcare facilities. Just how good are the facilities and how well do they compare to the facilities that you are accustomed to? Another extremely important factor is the provision of public healthcare. If you come from a country with publicly funded healthcare, such as the United Kingdom, then you might be more than a little surprised by the cost of treatment when you are in a country that has 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 treatment much more cheaply. Whatever the case, however, healthcare is one thing that you need to check out very carefully and you will most certainly have to have some form of expatriate health insurance plan. This short list of only five tips is certainly not exhaustive but it will hopefully provide you with a starting point and get you going in the right direction. Becoming an expat is a huge step and one that requires considerable and careful thought.
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