What country should I move to?

[Aweechange]

Wasn’t sure if this was better off in living overseas or chat but I basically I’m after some ideas of places to relocate to!

I’m a British citizen, late 30s, no partner or kids and don’t own a house here.

I want to leave the UK for various reasons - l’m in the north and the grey sky and weather for a large part of the year gets me down. Also I feel things have just gotten worse with public services and anti-social behaviour etc nowhere is perfect and I’m not trying to find a utopia but I’m just wanting to give another country a shot!

Spain is on my list of places to move and I’m currently learning Spanish. But wanted to know if anyone had any more ideas of places I could relocate to? I’m open to suggestions of anywhere in the world that would take me! I’m hoping to leave by December.

What skills do you have? It's much harder after Brexit.

What is your job?

Good question - should have mentioned that! I have 7+ years experience working in corporate communications and social media.

Right now I work full time for a company but I’m thinking of doing the digital nomad visa for Spain if I can find either remote work for a company or freelance (remote ) work so I’ve started applying for remote roles and trying to find out how to freelance!

What languages do you speak well enough to work in your field in?

I speak just English fluently which is fine as
all the remote roles I’m finding are UK/US companies who are requiring only English.

I’d be happy to learn the language of the country I’m in though as a social/functional thing - but not planning to work in a foreign language.

Communications/marketing/policy - I’m looking for that kind of work but remote!

Everyone I know seems to be moving to Portugal at the moment !

I went to Lisbon a few years ago and I loved it! That’s definitely somewhere to consider too.

I'd be wary of Spain OP. Loads of issues over there at the moment. Not sure about Portugal, but I would give Spain a wide berth, it's riddled with problems and because immigration/housing is such a hot issue with them, you never know what might happen next.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14744453/A-warning-Britain-Brought-knees-crackpot-Net-Zero-obsessed-socialist-government-dystopian-Spain-offers-chilling-vision-possible-future.html

Spain is a beautiful country, and amazing to visit, but a relocation is something else.
If it's just the weather, there are lots of options. What else is on your list?

If your employer is uk based they may not allow you to work abroad as if they dont have an entity in that country it would create one and cause them additional tax burden. We had someone move to a EU country during covid neither he nor manager thought to mention it and by time HR and group tax were aware years later there was a £200k tax bill (£80k of which was the individuals) to deal with. Whatever you do be honest about it.

What about Canada?

With your professional background you would need to be fluent in the local language in order to work there really. I’m living in a non English speaking country and it’s standard for marketing and communications even in international companies.

I think she wants a warm country.

I agree, I’ve lived in a few countries with my dh’s job and one of the most important things to consider is the attitude towards immigrants.

I think especially if you have just happily pootled along living in the country of your birth and being white where nobody talks about how they don’t like immigrants in everyday conversation and then you go and live somewhere else and you end up telling yourself that when you go and go to buy apples you will try not to speak so that people don’t realise you are an immigrant.

Not everywhere is anti immigrant of course. How about India? 🇮🇳

Thanks for this. I’ll have a look into it! I’m actually visiting there for a couple of weeks over the summer so I’ll try and ask some immigrants what the situation is there.

What else is on your list? @MagdaLenor

Portugal is somewhere I’ve considered.

The U.S. was on my list but I always knew realistically it’s way harder to get in there plus I’ve now been turned off going thanks to the political situation there.

Yes I’m aware, my current job for example doesn’t allow you to work remotely abroad - unfortunately for me. They allow it for a week or two in special circumstances sometimes but it’s not really a thing.

I would love to stay in Canada but I’m over 35 so I’ve missed out their working visa :/ not sure if there’s any way for me to get in there unless I was hired by a Canadian company.

Yep, as I’ve mentioned upthread I’m talking about working for companies based either in UK/US or somewhere else which require English only. I’ve seen those remote roles advertised on the usual UK websites.

Definitely, not intending on applying for jobs in Spain.

Have you considered moving to southern England? It’s slightly warmer and sunnier and you wouldn’t have any language issues.

Good point. I do want sunshine but have lived on east coast America before and loved it.

Although it had cold winters, it was far less grey and gloomy and there were great spring, summers and autumns.

I know Canada is further north and colder, but I think they still get decent summers and autumns. I can handle cold or even grey weather but I just feel there’s too much of it here for my liking 😆

That would be a last resort but yes if I’m unable to sort myself out to move to relocate abroad that may be an idea.

The only thing is I’m not sure if I could afford it 🤔 I know rents are a lot cheaper up here where I am!

Australia? The general vibe is much cheerier apparently.

Not everywhere is anti immigrant of course. How about India? 🇮🇳 @KumquatHigh

I wouldn’t know the first thing about moving to India and it’s so far away!

I’d imagine it might be quite difficult for a westerner to live there though if they weren’t rich or a backpacker/monk type person unless they had family there?

I stayed in East Asia many years ago and absolutely loved it but I was part of a teaching programme so I was instantly given help to navigate the country and immediately became part of the foreign teachers community. So it wasn’t all that adventurous 😆

@Goingawayistricky I’ve heard it’s much cheerier too! It must be all the sunshine ☀️

I will seriously consider that but again I know it’s hard to get in at my age. An old uni mate of mine relocated there during the pandemic and has created a whole new life out there.
It’s lovely to see her pictures. She’s a medical professional though - they’re in demand unlike comms professionals!

My only other reservations with Australia is the distance and the spiders lol

Anyways thanks for these ideas everyone, I need to start researching visa requirements for all these countries and make a spreadsheet!

I’m considering going to Spain in November for 3 months initially and see how it works out before giving up my flat.

If I don’t like it I can come back home, regroup and maybe try another country later, but either way at least I’ll have avoided the worst of the winter here and got some vit D.