So, you’re considering immigration.
I’m going to cover what to start thinking about, what you’ll need, where to look for information, and some gotchas I found during my own immigration.
First, Goals:
What are the top three to five things you’re trying to address by leaving? No place is perfect, so knowing what your priorities down should quickly narrow down your search.
I found this resource to be a really good starting point if you don’t know much about other countries: Expat Insider 2020
Let’s Talk About You
Points
Many countries evaluate a potential immigrant with a points based system. Often, that evaluation is available on the country’s website. They’ll ask you things like your age, your profession, level of experience, health, etc. This is a good quick way to find out how attractive you are as an immigrant candidate. The places I’ve looked at are a bit stricter on this. If you don’t reach the threshold for points, I don’t think you can get in. But again, country’s policies vary.
What is your profession? If you’re married, what is your partner’s profession?
Countries will offer visas based on the country’s perceived need for a particular profession. Countries will frequently list on their government website which professions they’re looking to attract. If you’re not on that list, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get a visa. Although at that point, your options are specific to the country you’re looking to get into. If you’re married, one of you will be the primary applicant, and the profession really only matters for the primary applicant.
What animal or person attachments do you have?
Bringing over pets can be a challenge. Each country has their own intake process, so you’ll have to research your options there. At least in Australia, the intake process is strict and rigorous in order to make sure that the local wildlife won’t be affected. It looked pretty expensive, too. For people, the countries I researched generally only had processes for yourself, your partner, and kids. If you need to bring in other family members, you may be out of luck, especially if they’re older. Again, you’ll need to do your research on what the country’s policies are.
What ethnicities are you?
Unfortunately, every country I looked up is racist to some degree. You’ll want to read up on who is usually the target of racism, and to what degree it’s a problem. I think it’s fair to judge a country by the condition of their most vulnerable population. You never know when you’ll be the next target.
Health
Unfortunately, countries prefer healthy immigrants. Anything written down in a medical record will have to be declared. If there is no written record of an illness or condition you have, does it actually exist? I’ll leave it up to y’all to decide. You will need to get a health assessment though by a doctor that has the proper certification/connections to be recognized by the relevant authorities.
Are you trying to move somewhere permanently, or temporarily?
There are temporary and permanent visas. Sometimes you can get a temporary work visa for a few months or years. If you find you can’t get a permanent visa, you can look at getting a temporary one and see what your options are for getting a more permanent one while on your temporary one. A common way that people use to get in a country is with a student visa. During your studies you may be able to get work, and that employer may sponsor you in order for you to get a work visa.
Piling The Paperwork
Do you have a passport?
Regardless of what your plans are, if you don’t have a passport, please get one. During COVID-19, the US furloughed thousands of employees involved in processing passports, effectively almost shutting that department down. The documentation requirements have been changing in the US lately, so the sooner you get one the better. Renewal doesn’t require you to provide all the documentation each time, so keeping your passport up to date is way easier than filing for one when you need it, especially since passports can take a month or more to process.
You may be asked to provide a certified copy of your passport. In the US, this is almost impossible to do. If you get this far, here are the instructions. The process for doing this is not written anywhere, and it took me hours of calls to find the answer. In Australia, just about any pharmacy can provide a certified copy of your passport.
How challenging would it be to get your work history, rent history, and family documents such as marriage certificates and parent’s birth certificates?
Each country is different for the details of what documents you’ll need to provide, but it’s pretty safe to say you’ll want to be prepared to submit your work and rent history for the last 10 years or more. For work, you may need the company name, address, phone number, date started, date ended, manager, and manager contact information (this last one is funny because your manager from 2007 is surely still working there and remembers you). For rent, usually date started, date ended, and address will suffice. You may need a reference from your landlord, neighbors, or real estate agents to vouch for you as a good law abiding citizen (I didn’t need this for the visa, but I did need it to get a place to rent.) You’ll also want dates for gaps in rent and employment.
What languages do you speak?
Sometimes, a country will require a language proficiency test to prove that you can live and work there without issue. If an English test is required, I recommend the IELTS test. It doesn’t try to trick you, and plenty of study material is available for it.
Have you ever traveled to or lived in another country before?
You’ll probably need to declare those places and dates visited. Also, having that experience under your belt should make it easier on you to acclimate to living somewhere new.
Signing Paperwork
You’ll need to be familiar with notaries and apostille. Some paperwork will require you to prove you were the one that signed the form. The details of this vary by country, but essentially a notary is a person certified by the state to verify you were the one to sign the form, usually by checking your ID and stamping the form. Sometimes you’ll be asked to have your document signed by an apostille. This is a state/country level notary, where the government verified that the notary was indeed certified to notarize the document.
Be your own Archivist
You’ll need to be able to provide things like birth certificates and marriage certificates. Less obvious requirements are things like W2s and other tax documents that provide proof that you worked where you said you did. Again, the full list of paperwork required varies by country.
Cost
The cost of gathering the paperwork alone and meeting the requirements and testing can be a fair amount. There are also fees associated with the bureaucracy leading up to the visa submission, and then there’s the fee for the visa submission itself. For example, for Australia, working with a migration agent carries some pretty hefty fees. This cost will be particularly nasty if the country you’re trying to move to has a stronger currency than your own. If you want to move to a country whose currency is much weaker than your own, this process could be much more affordable for you. That said, after you move there, you may not be able to afford to move back.
Get Ready for High Stakes Logistics
Bureaucracy
So, some places are more complicated to settle into than others. For Australia for example, it’s recommended to hire a migration agent to help you through the visa process. In Germany, lining up your document requests in the right order and poking institutions to move things along is important to meet all the deadlines, so a relocation agent that knows the ins and outs is recommended. Do your research and factor those services into the costs of moving.
When I moved, I was expected to have an Australian job, an Australian phone number, an Australian address, Australian friends, and Australian identification, despite never having been to Australia before. I was able to barely get around this by politely explaining I didn’t have them, and I was lucky enough to have a job I could take with me. It’s important to remember that some countries are more experienced handling international affairs than others. Despite the multicultural diversity of the US, they are extremely poorly equipped to handle even the most basic of international affairs.
COVID-19
There are restrictions everywhere right now, and in some places they change regularly, sometimes daily depending on the situation. Look into the travel restrictions from your country to the target country. Also look at the quarantine requirements when traveling. You’ll also want to make sure that for the flight there, you know what the process is for passing through each country that is on the flight path. I learned the hard way that a flight ticket does not automatically give you person to fly through a country, even if it isn’t your final destination. You may or may not be required to pay a fee for quarantining upon arrival, depending on the country’s policy. The visa situation for many countries for now is a bit different. Australia for example shut down visa applications for a subset of professions until the risk of COVID-19 is “over”. Flights may also be pricier than usual, although that should start to stabilize.
Traveling Money
Each country is different about this. Some are more cash heavy, others rely more on cards. Make sure your bank can handle both outgoing and incoming international transfers. Mine can’t, so that’s been kind of an inconvenience. Making sure you have a credit card that is capable of international purchases is essential. Do note though that this will usually come with a 1% international fee charge for each international purchase. Keep in mind that before traveling, you’ll need to notify your bank so that the card is marked for international travel. If it’s not, your card will be declined when you try to use it, and that’s scary, especially when your phone doesn’t do international calls (happened to me). On that note, explore international phone plans. You’ll need it. You should probably have enough cash on you to last you a couple of weeks in case something happens. Again, how much that makes sense will depend on the country you’re going to.
Citizenship
One important thing to consider is once you have a visa, how difficult is it to renew it, and how difficult is it to become a citizen. When you look at the US, a difficult and long citizenship process can be dangerous and prevent you from accessing some of the very benefits you were trying to gain by moving. Each country handles becoming a citizen very differently, and some are much easier than others. Each country distributes rights for immigrants and citizens differently as well. It’s also worth noting what the consequences are for accepting citizenship. Your home country may ask you to relinquish your citizenship if you accept a new one. Strangely, the US “discourages” but allows dual citizenship.
Do you rent or own your current residence?
If you own your current residence, this is a headache. See if you can get rid of the house before you go. If you can’t, make sure you have a friend with a Power of Attorney set up for real estate transactions.
Accounting for emergencies
You may find yourself in a position where you need some paperwork while being far from home. If at all possible, I recommend having a contact you trust that can act on your behalf. You’ll use this person for anything you still need sent to an address in your old country, emergency contact info, and you may even need to provide a Power of Attorney before you go if you have some unfinished business, or if family estate laws are particularly hairy where you’re from. Depending on the visa you get, your ability to fly back and forth between countries may be limited.
You Really Need To Plan In Advance
Timeline considerations
Timelines vary, but expect to spend at least three months gathering all the paperwork you need to submit your application for a visa. It took me about a year with kids, but on my own it would have been about six months. If you’re in the US and the country is pretty insistent on having a certified copy of your passport, you could be looking at another six months. After submitting your visa, expect it to take eight months to a year to get a response. Could be more or less depending on the country and their workload. There are also usually constraints around how many countries you can have an active application for.
Overwhelmed?
Totally reasonable. It’s a pretty daunting ordeal, and not something to be taken lightly.