How did you move overseas?

[paranoiaofpufflings]

I want to ask people, how did you come to move overseas, if it was not for a relationship or a job?

I’ve always fancied moving overseas, no specific place in mind - loads of places appeal!
I have a successful career but it’s not a job that would be sought after on a skills list anywhere.
And I’m not in a relationship, so there’s no one I can “follow” overseas anywhere.
I am in my 40s, so have 20 or so years more of working, and I do need (and want) to work to live well. I’d just really love to try life somewhere else for the sake of change, adventure, new life experiences, different way of living.

Whenever I have browsed job listing abroad they always state you must have the right to work in the country, but as a UK citizen I don’t have that right anywhere.

So how do people do overseas moves, when not for a relationship or on a work sponsored visa?
Do I just pick a country and go? How did you do it?

Can you take a sabbatical from your current job?

I’m not British, but I randomly applied for a US visa from my EU home country, got one, went and lived in the US for a few years in various places, doing casual work, then moved to the UK to study, then did another postgraduate degree in Paris and worked there for a while. Then back to the UK for a doctorate, then moved to London, then worked in Ireland and the ME. Now in Ireland and will stay till DS leaves home. After that DH is keen to live in Italy and could easily move there professionally. Me, less so, but I could up my freelancing. I speak five languages fairly well, and can work anywhere in the EU, which helps.

So this is the sort of question I wondered. You say you just applied for a US visa and got one. So that meant you could go and work in the US? Is that what I need to do? I was always under the impression (don’t know where from) that you needed to have a job offer or be on a skills shortage list to apply for a work visa anywhere.

Overseas studying - I have actually looked at this and would get a student visa easily. But the cost of the courses for masters and postgraduate are just so expensive everywhere!

I have a flat here in the UK I could rent out. But I worked out that when you take off the estate agent fees, income tax, my mortgage payments, I wouldn’t be left with much, certainly not enough to live off if I was a student.

I moved to Spain a few years ago with my partner, but we had our own business in the UK so we employ ourselves through that. Thanks to brexit it’s not easy anymore, but you can get a digital nomad visa to live here if your business agrees to continue to employ you remotely if you move. I even have a remotely working NHS doctor who lives next door!

you do have to do a lot of research to make sure it’s possible to move to the country you want to go to, and allow for the fact it is going to be expensive however you do it. Also, allow a lot of time. And if you need a visa, a lot of patience!

What work do you do OP? I moved to the Cayman Islands in 2007 and there are roles here if you’re in the legal or financial services industry.

Worked for a company with a US office and then transferred. The inter company transfer visas are pretty easy to get as long as you’ve worked at the company for at least a year and don’t have a criminal record.

I work in the civil service doing project management. Very transferable skills to any project work, but definitely not a skills shortage anywhere.

I decided I wanted to emigrate and live in a particular city. It is notoriously difficult to get a visa to emigrate to this country so I went through my employer (big global presence) and transferred offices. Still wasn’t easy. Whole process took 18 months, from expressing interest to my bosses to landing at the airport as an ex-pat.