Please please come and tell me how you went about emigrating

[HariboAndWine]

My husband and I have decided to emigrate back to my home country at some point in the next couple of years. I can't wait but can't even begin to figure out the order in which to do things. We are both employed here and would both need to get jobs, sell our house etc etc. Would you mind telling me how you went about it

Entirely depends on your home country, and what his status is.
Does he have to apply for a spousal visa to be able to live and work there? How long does that take?

Every country has entirely different rules.

I would point you towards britishexpats forum, they have boards for most countries, and are generally v knowledgeable, with lots of people in the same boat.

My home country is New Zealand. My husband will need a spousal visa so will check the expats forum thanks. Just feeling a bit overwhelmed at the logistics

Hi Haribo, it can be quite overwhelming. What worked for me was to break it all down into little tasks. I had a spreadsheet with each task listed and a timeframe attached, e, g. Apply for NZ visa: T-12 months
Appoint EA, put house on market: T-8 months
Redirect mail: T-3 weeks etc
I think I still have my spreadsheet, PM me if you would like me to send it to you.

Hi Harobo, if you look on the "Where's best to live in NZ" thread there are quite a few people on there who have moved to NZ with one partner on a spousal visa - they may be able to give you some info.

Thanks all. I'll check out the nz forum. They've probably heard this question a thousand times!

Having just emigrated I think the visa is the crucial element - once you have that you can sort everything else.

Not sure what jobs you are in but my DH found it incredibly difficult to gain employment from the UK (and he is Australian) so in the end we waited until he could be transferred through his UK company (4 years after getting the ball rolling!)

We also didn't sell our house but rented it out to keep our options open. Are you definitely going to NZ forever - if not might be worth considering. If you have to sell it obviously depends on the market in your area how long you would allow for that and what you would do if you sell before you are ready to go (rent, stay with family/friends?).

The rest of it just seems to fall into place really - the main issues are definitely visa, job and house - if you can afford to I would probably go and sort the jobs out when you get there as it takes some of the pressure off trying to co-ordinate timings etc. You could get the visa, sell your house and then give notice at work and go.

I emigrated to Australia with Australian husband and DS1 3.5y ago and yes, getting the visa is definitely the first jumping point because it can take so long, everything hinges around it! When I got my visa, I had 1 year from date of issue in which to enter Australia - in other words, I then had a year to organise everything else. I expect it's similar to NZ?

Just to add you can emigrate at any point during the term of your pr visa (mine was four or five years long i think) but you have to first enter the country within the first year of the visa being granted - I did this by coming for a holiday.