So you're an American considering moving to another country. Okay, I can tell you some practical things about that.
1) You need more money than you think. Moving overseas is expensive and expats are easy to take advantage of, so often you will be paying above market rate. At least initially; eventually you know more of the local culture, and have local friends who help.
2) Get/renew your passport right now. If you have dual citizenship, make sure that passport is current too.
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3) Research countries. If your employer is willing to let you work from a foreign country, look into where you are eligible for a digital nomad visa. These are typically much faster to be processed, and usually allow you to bring your American job with you. But your employer will likely have to sign your visa application. There's no doing this on the sly.
4) Or if you can afford to not work while figuring out next steps, some offer extended tourist visa to Americans. E.g. Albania's is 1 yr
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5) Leave most of your stuff behind. Container shipping is expensive and slow, then so much of your things bought for American life turn out to be incompatible with your new home. For instance European bed frames, mattresses, sheets, and pillows are different dimensions from US. You also may find that elevators are less common and stairs/halls are much narrower. The furniture you couldn't part with may literally not fit.
6) Anything with a plugin motor will be fucked. Don't bother.
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7) Prioritize bringing sentimental things and documents. Those are what are irreplaceable. Everything else, start over when you're settled into your new homeland. I left with 4 boxes. In retrospect I regret not springing for a 5th. But that's all.
8) You will need a US address for a while. Get a virtual mailbox. They accept letters and packages on your behalf, can scan letters, consolidate boxes, and forward to wherever.
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9) Transfer your US number to Google Voice before you leave. They only will do it while your phone is in the US.
10) Research mobile service rates in your destination country. Beware clinging to expensive US service instead of switching to a much more affordable local plan. You need a local number anyway.
11) If you have pets, you need the USDA APHIS website on exporting animals + a vet who has it memorized. The wet signature requirement is a nightmare. That's a whole other long thread.
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12) Your insurances likely won't cover you living overseas. P.S. Travel insurance is for covering costs of interrupting a trip. No, what you want is INTERNATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE. Welcome back to the world of preexisting condition exclusions! Hopefully later you'll be able to switch to national insurance.
13) Be braced for much lower income and/or much higher taxes.
14) Many destinations that are most appealing for US expats have housing crises. Housing there will be expensive & HARD TO GET.
15) Before you leave, download every phone app you think you'll ever need. Especially re banking. You're about to discover how many apps are country locked, then you won't be able to download them anymore.
16) Get an account with Wise or Revolut (US). You'll be able to easily and cheaply transfer money from your US accounts as needed, and convert it to local currency. They also offer debit cards.
17) You're thinking that you'll skip visa hassles by getting citizenship in the country your ancestors came from. Sorry, that's not happening in the 2 months before inauguration day. Just obtaining your ancestor's naturalization document from USCIS is 1-2 YEARS minimum. P.S. If your ancestors are from Italy, note that there was a major change last month that eliminated that dream for countless people.
18) Start studying your new language now. Using real textbooks, not gamified apps.
20) Gather all the medical records. Have your medical providers give you copies of everything, INCLUDING MEDICAL IMAGES, on a CD. You may have to request the images separately from the rest of the records, fyi. Even if the images didn't show anything important, doctors may find them crucial later as a Before to compare to an After.
21) Refill all your prescriptions right before leaving. 90 day supply. Transport via carryon, in the original packaging, along with prescriptions for customs.
23) Join some groups for expats who live in your destination. Reddit or Facebook usually have something suitable. Ask what American ingredients are impossible to get there. You may want to bring along a few items. (But check the destination's import restrictions on food and agricultural products because some items can't cross those borders with you.)
24) Pack your measuring spoons and measuring cup. You're not going to be able to replace those anywhere but the US or UK.
28) Time to learn Celsius!
40+ C is Florida's butthole in summer.
30s C is what do you mean this country doesn't believe in air conditioning??
20s C is delightfully pleasant.
10s C is sweatshirt/jacket weather. Single digits is coat/parka weather. (Or if you're a Californian like me, 10s is sweater+coat and everything else is parka.)
0 C is freezing point of water.
100 C is boiling point of water.
16 C is 61 F.
29) Go through wallets. Renew everything with an expiration date, including driver's license and all bank/credit cards. Yeah, even library cards. You're gonna want to have access to that American ebook collection. Even if your new homeland has English works in the library collection, they may not stock the American authors you favor.
30) Don't close bank accounts yet. Many foreign banks are wary of taking an American customer bc of the extra reporting requirements and IRS up in their grill.
31) Read up on FATCA. Seriously, it's easy to make a mistake and the fines are brutal.
32) Everyone in the household with a driver's license needs an International Driving Permit from AAA. $20 per person.
33) Which side of the road does destination country drive on? How long can you drive with US license+IDP instead of a local DL? Will local carriers insure you on a US license? Is there a treaty allowing swapping US license for local DL? How expensive and convoluted is licensing from scratch?
34) Research whether any members of household, whether humans or animals, need different vaccinations for the destination locale. There can be different diseases or parasites that carry risks that an American is blissfully unaware of. For the humans, check with a travel medicine clinic. For the animals, check with vets in both countries.
35) Get COVID boosters shortly before departure. Travel exposes you to a lot of people who are highly motivated to carryout trips no matter how sick they are.
36) Have the family organize a day of indulging in all favorite foods and snacks. Some of them will turn out to be hard to get in your new homeland, so having a shared happy memory of that last experience is something to bond over when cravings hit.
37) Bring a favorite cookbook. Many cultures are not gonna consider American cuisine to be worthy of a place in their libraries and bookstores. Boo.
38) I see expat friends struggle most with schooling. Research:
Does daycare exist? Can kids enroll in school upon arrival, or will we have to homeschool on our own until the beginning of the next school year? Will kiddo be on a uni track? How is educational progress supported while the kid works to acquire a new language? Is religion part of public school curriculum/activities? Is there racism against immigrant children? Are queer and trans kids safe? Are learning disabilities accommodated?
Aside about that last one: don't underestimate how hard the transition can be for children. A friend's family was torn apart by how bad one child's experience was versus how innocuous it was for the other child. They now live on separate continents.
Child A was relentlessly bullied for being an immigrant. Months. The family is white, so didn't expect it and hadn't given the kids skills for coping with being a racism target. The child resorted to cutting when officials refused to help.
39) I don't know how energy costs elsewhere compare but be aware that energy costs are a major concern in a bunch of European countries. That includes gasoline/petrol. For example, here in Germany the regular non-premium automotive fuel is around 1,80€ per liter which is ~$8.75 per gallon!
40) Research what taxes and other govt mandated expenses there are besides income tax and VAT. These can be large line items that are overlooked by your new budget because the US doesn't have equivalents.
42) Photos/scans. They're really helpful for letting go of the things you can't bring along, and finding a different way to keep them close to your heart. Also really helpful if you ever need to apply for replacement docs. Super helpful for dealing with police/insurance if any items you packed get lost or stolen. Movers lost my stuff for months. I truly never expected to see any of it again. Devastating. Images were a lifeline in so many ways.
Pics of whatever "home" is for you are also a balm.
@cczona Greetings from Germany.
Please consider that kids have to go to school here (Schulpflicht) and that it is actually illegal to home school.
"Get COVID boosters shortly before departure. Travel exposes you to a lot of people who are highly motivated to carryout trips no matter how sick they are."
Agreed, and also: vaccines don't entirely stop you catching it. Worth having a well-fitting respi mask such as 3M Aura or Laianzhi HYX1002 for indoor spaces, esp if crowded. Some (most?) flights, they turn on the air conditioning at takeoff, so highest virus risk is while on the plane and _not_ flying.
Three panel design boat style fish-shaled black mask particulate respirator KN100 - Personal Protective Equipment Online
@xahteiwi @cczona No, the driver license should definitely not be at the bottom of the list. If you miss the deadline for exchanging your license, it may cost you thousands and a lot of time (plus driving restrictions) to get a new license in your new country. Or whichever other country you may go to later. Plus you may have difficulty renting cars because you are a "new driver".
Also, many employers require or prefer employees with driver licenses, even if they never get to drive.
@xahteiwi @cczona Another challenge: Not all driver license exchange systems are federal. They may be provincial, etc. Some may not accept US licenses, some may accept additional classes beyond light duty vehicles, some may require a test, etc. That may influence your choice of first jurisdiction *within* the destination country.
However, "international driver licences" are just confirmed translations. I used to carry one, never had to show it. But yeah, at $20, it's worth it, just in case.
I want to open with a premise: North American motorists driving in Europe are probably ill-prepared to operate a motor vehicle safely due an inadequate understanding of the local rules of the road. As a (mostly-former) motorist from North America who lives in Europe, a few general observations I have of European road transport are that … the roads require drivers to use contextual clues for safe operation You need to read the environment around you to infer what’s allowed and what isn’t.
@cczona I'd still keep a U.S. bank account permanently, because you will be on the hook for taxes with the U.S. always as long as you have the citizenship.
BTW: you should research whether the institutional will let you initiate ACH and wire transfers from abroad (many don't). You don't want to be caught without your money when you need it.
@cczona @matt My Schwab account can send International wires for free, which was amazing for genealogy research, but had anti-money-laundering rules where they would call me to confirm pretty often. "Did you really intend to send 15 Euros to this Standesamt, again?"
I was afraid I'd end up on a watch list of people who order suspiciously many 19th century birth records.
Wires also take days to clear. Like you, I now use Wise for instant SEPA transfers and pay a few cents.
@cczona @dgentry My old one that I opened when I lived in the U.S. Works perfectly. That might be the rub.
I also would not tell any financial institution you live abroad, BTW, outside of your bank. They might put a brokerage account into a locked state (technically can get the money out, but you can't do anything else with it). I can dig up the regulatory reason if you give me some time.
(Another thing missing from thread: how to manage retirement savings effectively and compliant. Oof.)
@cczona @matt We still reside in the US. We've been preparing for this eventuality for a few years.
We hired a US financial advisor familiar with expats to keep our US Fidelity, Schwab, and (hopefully) Chase accounts unchanged. The advisor is also helping with taxes etc — estate planning is especially difficult for a US citizen in Germany.
I also opened an account with the State Department Federal Credit Union and funded it with a small amount of money, will transfer more in if we need it.
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