Continental Shift

We’re continuing the discussion of steps to take to ensure your health is protected.

Medical kit
The travel doctor you attend for your vaccinations will also be able to supply you with a travel medical kit. While you may already have a household medical kit, the travel medical kit differs in that it is designed to deal with some of the ‘Bali belly’ troubles you might encounter in your first few months (or, just as a wild example, on the plane on the way over there. Yes, I am speaking from experience, more’s the pity).

It will contain various prescription and general medicines, antibiotics and creams that will treat: (more…)

A vitally important step in preparing for your overseas move, especially if you are going to the developing world where disease risk is higher and medical care can be more difficult to organise, is to ensure your health is protected.

Protecting your health covers a range of areas:

• General health check-ups
• Vaccinations
• First aid
• Medical kits
• Other medical/health supplies
• Health insurance
• Safe sex.

These are preparations you can make before you go. Then, as soon as you arrive, you should (more…)

In organising your move overseas, there are a lot of practicalities you need to sort. We’ve been discussing these over the last few weeks, and this week, we’re looking at how to sort out your taxes.

Your tax responsibilities and rights will change the moment you take up residence in the new country and will vary depending on things like your income source, length of residence overseas plus length of visits home, and even location of bank accounts and so on. (more…)

dangers you might not expect, Malawi

If you’re not moving countries because your company asked you to, and you’re not moving countries because you’re retired and want a holiday lifestyle in a new country, then you’ll most likely need to find a job.

It’s much easier to have your desired career in mind when selecting your new country in the first place. This is both in terms of work opportunities in your current career, and work opportunities in a new career, which might even be the primary driving force for the move in the first place.

If, for example, your skillset is in IT, a low-tech village in country France is more romantic than realistic (though telecommuting may soon change all that – your village might be perfect…if it has broadband capability).

Even if you are sticking with your current career and planning to move to a big city where general job opportunities will likely abound, it may be a wise move to check the overall availability of jobs in your particular line of work; that may be the deciding factor in choosing one city over another.
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castle, somewhere near Nice, France

If you’re able to carry out pre-move visits to your new country, one of the things you should try and line up for your more permanent return is renting or buying a house.
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You’ve decided where you’re going and begun to plan your organisational steps to achieve your goals. Now it’s time to look at some practicalities for when you arrive in your new country. One issue is that of learning a new language.

Arabic writing, Libya

If you are moving to a country that does not speak your language – and I am going to assume that your mother tongue is English – then I strongly advise you to learn its language.

There are a number of reasons for this advice. Obviously, and foremost, it is to be able to communicate. However, even if English is widely spoken where you are going, you should try to learn the language, and try to go beyond a few common phrases.

Benefits of doing this include:

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Even visiting a country for a short-time holiday often requires obtaining visas for entry and exit. For a longer-term stay in any country – ‘longer-term’ being anything from six months to several years to permanently – you will require some kind of visa, work permit or residency. The type of visa or permit required will differ depending on:
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The last few weeks, we’ve talked about the steps you need to plan for in finalising your connections in your home country. We focused on selling your house first, but what about all those other little things – mail, voting arrangements, and so on?
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You’ve started to take steps to roll up your old life, and your first decision was to sell your home.

Treaty house, New Zealand

Here are some tips for selling, from here, to help you with selling your home: (more…)