Expatability Chat

Send a text Well, it’s December. What a year this has been. And there is no denying that it’s been probably the most difficult year most of us have ever experienced.  Christmas overseas in general is a bit weird if you’ve spent most of your previous Christmases in your home country. And this is often a difficult period for expats, due to expectations from our families in our home country and the p...

Send a text Tips for finding your ideal home overseas Something I’d highly recommend is to move into somewhere temporarily. It’s a great way to trial run the neighbourhood you are considering. Spend a few weeks or months getting settled into the country and the lay of the land and work out where and how you want to live. If you’re prepared to live out of boxes for a while, then you can take your t...

Send a text Some of the legal aspects of moving and living overseas. Vital information on what you need to know before you move overseas, from a legal point of view. Including crucial information about moving overseas with your children. What you need to know before you move abroad with kids, in relation to international law on habitual residence, The Hague Convention, and paperwork needed when tr...

Send a text An overview of the main types of expat education options available and how to choose the right one for your child. Tips and advice on what to keep in mind when choosing a school abroad. Do you choose a local school or an international school? Home education or virtual school? How to find a school for your SEN child and more! Sometimes parents put too much emphasis on trying to find a ‘...

Send a text Choosing a removal company for your move overseas How do you find the best international removal companies? How much is a removal company? How do you know you are choosing a reputable firm? Start looking early! Plan a long way ahead because there is a lot involved. And don’t go for the cheapest option. There’s more to this big move than price.  Tips on the extras to look out for, so yo...

Send a text Why being proactive is important for the accompanying expat partner Don't live as a shadow in somebody else’s life. Live your own life; one that feels right to you. As an expat partner, the emphasis is on you being proactive. Why? Because all the people you’re (hopefully) meeting will probably already have established lives. They aren’t waiting for you to slot into their lives, so...

Send a text Why being the expat partner makes such a difference and what extra challenges the accompanying expat partner faces. These challenges can lead to a loss of confidence and a rapidly disappearing self-identity. To start with, we get labelled as ‘the trailing spouse’… We don’t like that. Our identity is immediately stripped from us and we are given a demeaning and disempowering label. We a...

Send a text Expats are at double the risk of mental health conditions compared to people who never move abroad. And over half of those who are unhappy living abroad say that not having a personal support network in the host country contributes to their unhappiness. We have great hopes for our new expat life, but reality often lets us down. We realise that expat life is not the Instaperfect dream w...

Send a text How to organise your packing and shipments efficiently An overview of how to organise your possessions into the different transportation options you have for your move overseas. Tips on what to pack into shipping containers, air freight, luggage and carry-on. Plus information about taking your vehicle overseas.  Get expat life support at every stage of your expat journey - from home to...

Send a text How to make the most of your look-see trip The "Look-See" Trip is an exploratory visit to the country you’re moving to - an exploratory visit or a pre-location visit. It is important to make sure that your look-see trip is planned efficiently so you can get as much done as possible on the visit There’s a lot to achieve in a relatively small period of time, so I hope this guid...

Send a text Decision, Decisions, Decisions! Making the decision to move overseas in the first place is huge; it starts with ‘should we stay or should we go?’ And just spirals from there. All this decision-making pressure can become too much, particularly when we are moving overseas and there are so many unknowns to factor in.  We make between 1000-5000 decisions every single, normal day. Which is...

Send a text How to research effectively I expect the first thing you did as soon as you heard you may be moving overseas was to start researching your potential destination. Sounds obvious, but you would be surprised at how many people make assumptions about a country and don’t bother to research it. People who make the most successful transition abroad are those who are fully prepared and have do...

Send a text What to expect when you’re expatting. And why preparation is SO important to prevent the possibility of ‘expat failure’, ie returning home sooner than expected. There’s obviously a lot more to this topic than I’ve covered in this episode, however, any information is better than no information in this subject! Being properly prepared for expat life, and going into it with an open mind,...

Send a text Overwhelm - that paralysing feeling you get when you look at the huge amount of stuff you need to do before you move and have the pressure to get it all finished in time. Being overwhelmed and exhausted leads to poor decision-making. You have too many decisions to make, and a finite time in which to make them, and that can cause ‘decision fatigue’. Overwhelm is an emotion caused by fee...

Send a text Just a quick episode today – all about how to settle your kids quickly into their new home overseas and how to recognise culture shock in children.  There’s a saying that “a happy mother means happy children”, and that is true. However, when you first arrive in a new house, it’s much easier for mother to be happy if the kids aren’t playing up. On the whole, most children are more resil...

Send a text How to move overseas with your pets Moving abroad with pets can be done; it’s not really difficult, but you need to think this through this very carefully for both you, your family and your pets’ well-being. Pet relocation is not a cheap undertaking, and the paperwork can be an absolute nightmare.  And it’s not something that can be planned at the last minute. Some countries have a pro...

Send a text Tips for starting a new school, returning to school after the COVID lockdown interruption and advice for helping your child start school after home education. Starting a new school is very daunting. Starting a new school in another country can be even more overwhelming. Sharing tips to help make the first day of school a less stressful event for your child AND you! Also, taking a look...

Send a text The key to success from the start of your expat life is to prepare before you leave your current home. With insider tips on what to pack in your suitcases to make sure your entire family settle quickly to expert advice on what to do in the first day or so after arriving at your destination. The tips and tricks in this episode will ensure you’re ready to hit the ground running in your n...

Send a text This episode is dedicated to everyone who is feeling isolated right now – expat or not. I’ve been hearing from many expats recently that this topic - isolation - is particularly poignant right now. And this goes for recent repats, and non-expats too, of course. When you move overseas, you’re expecting a fabulous new life. Moving overseas is exciting. It heralds great change; perhaps th...

Send a text Before you say yes to a move overseas.  Conversations to have with your partner before going for an international assignment.  Most problems arise from assumptions and unfounded expectations. So deal with those before you agree to move.  Maybe you're not completely 100% sure about this massive decision just yet. Maybe you’re not sure if expat life is right for you? Maybe you have...

Send a text Exploring the culture shock of COVID19, lockdown and comfort zones. In the past few months, life around the globe has changed beyond recognition as an invisible and deadly enemy has forced us all into varying degrees of lockdown. The dramatic changes to our daily lives caused by the COVID19 pandemic happened so fast that we didn’t have much time to contemplate the effect it would have...

Send a text “Every goodbye calls for preparation, but most times, life takes us by surprise.” - Elisabetta Gnone Repatriation after an expat assignment is hard for everyone. It's even more difficult when your move back home is unexpected, unplanned, and unwanted. This time of year (June/July) is traditionally the time expat families move on.  But this year, the COVID19 pandemic has forced man...