Arriving
An address is the first thing you need and often the hardest to obtain
Most of the systems a newcomer has to enter are keyed to where you live, which makes proof of address the…
· 4 min read
Arjun Nair
Consumer editor, Globetrotter Talks
Arjun writes the explanatory pieces on arriving, visas & paperwork, money abroad and is unreasonably interested in the detail nobody else checks.
20 articles
Visas & Paperwork
Permission to stay comes in tiers, and a tier is not a step up from the one below
Most countries sort foreign visitors into roughly three bands by intended length and purpose, and the bands…
· 4 min read
Visas & Paperwork
Official sources, forums and hearsay rank in a fixed order that is never reversed
Almost every serious paperwork mistake made by a new resident can be traced to acting on information from a…
· 3 min read
Visas & Paperwork
The conditions attached to a permission are the part people read last
Most of the trouble long-stay residents get into comes not from being in a country without permission but…
· 3 min read
Money Abroad
Being paid in one country and living in another creates three separate questions
Where the money is earned, where it is taxed and where social contributions are due are decided by…
· 3 min read
Money Abroad
Keeping an account at home while living abroad has a shelf life
Banks are obliged to know where their customers live, and an account maintained at an address you no longer…
· 3 min read
Money Abroad
Pension and social contributions are the easiest thing to lose track of
Working across borders scatters your future entitlements between systems that do not talk to each other…
· 3 min read
Settling In
Registering with a local doctor is the step that makes a system usable
Most health systems are entered through a single point of contact, and a resident without one has access on…
· 3 min read
Settling In
The point at which a place stops feeling temporary is partly a decision
The shift from staying somewhere to living somewhere is rarely marked by an event, and people who wait for…
· 3 min read
Leaving
A departure date turns the place back into somewhere you are visiting
Once leaving becomes a fixed fact, the relationship to a city changes immediately, and the final months are…
· 3 min read
Leaving
A period abroad leaves a gap in records that were built for people who stayed
Employment histories, credit files, medical records and reference checks are all national systems, and a…
· 3 min read
Leaving
Deciding to leave and deciding where to go next are two separate questions
People routinely merge them, which produces both the return home that was never really chosen and the stay…
· 3 min read
Visas & Paperwork
Citizenship and residence are governed by two different bodies of law
Permission to live somewhere and membership of the nation are separate legal questions decided by separate…
· 3 min read
Money Abroad
Filing in two countries is normal and is not the same as paying twice
A person with a foot in two tax systems may have obligations in both, and the mechanisms that stop the same…
· 3 min read
Money Abroad
A will written at home may not reach what you hold abroad
Estates are settled under the law of more than one country when a person has lived in more than one, and…
· 3 min read
Settling In
The day you stop translating in your head arrives without announcement
Somewhere past functional competence a second language stops being decoded and starts being understood, and…
· 3 min read
Settling In
Going home for two weeks is a visit, and you are the guest
A trip back is imagined as a rest and usually turns out to be a schedule of obligations conducted in…
· 3 min read
Leaving
Leaving in a hurry is an exercise in triage rather than tidiness
When a departure is decided for you by a job, a family emergency or a change of circumstances, the only…
· 3 min read
Leaving
A stay that ends early is a decision rather than a failure
Three months in, with the excitement gone and none of the compensations yet arrived, people face a genuine…
· 3 min read
Leaving
Keeping a foot in the door usually costs more than it preserves
People leaving a country often try to remain half-present, holding an address, an account or a status they…
· 3 min read