International Moving Quotes

Expats continue to face a challenge getting credit when they move abroad. This can make the simplest financial services, such as getting a bank account, very difficult and source of great frustration for a lot of people when they move abroad. A recent article about expats and credit on WSJ.com re-examines the issues involved:

U.S. lenders rely heavily on credit reports and scores, more so than in other countries, relocation experts say. That reliance can pose challenges for returning expatriates and foreign nationals whose companies bring them to the U.S.

“Even though we are in a global marketplace, the credit marketplace is still very segmented by country,” with different rules and standards, says Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education at credit bureau Experian.

That means your credit experience in one country isn’t shared when you move to another country. The result: Even senior foreign nationals on assignment to the U.S. often “cannot open a bank account or get a line of credit,” says Ed Hannibal, North American mobility leader at consulting firm Mercer.

Expat finance will always be a critical aspect of expat life, and it’s one that should be addressed before moving overseas. Too many expats assume that financial services will be just like they were in their country, and that is just not the case.

Expats everywhere have to deal with bureaucracy on both ends of their journeys. Many people considering an international transition often wonder what that exactly means, and how they will handle all of the frustrating legwork involved. Here’s a great article from the IrishCentral.com that gives some sense of what the potential expat might be in for:

After some time, a man in a suit and overcoat carrying a briefcase and acting like he was in a big hurry walked past and said with annoyance that they’d been announcing that no more numbers would be given out that day. Others in my line complained that the office was supposed to be open until eight. He spoke with some people behind the counter and said they hoped to be giving out some more tickets soon, and that we were queuing outside of the designated queue spot and had to move the three feet to the left where the ropes were. An argument over maintaining the original order of the line ensued.

Sounds like expat heaven, doesn’t it? A nice reminder to anyone considering an expat assignment or retirement abroad that there is a lot more to living overseas than an exciting new life filled with cultural exhilaration.

If you’re Irish and looking to Work Abroad, what country are you likely looking at? Well, if you believe the scuttlebutt at the Working Abroad Expo in Dublin, Canada is held in high regard for those seeking to hop the pond:

The recurring motif of this weekend’s Working Abroad Expo at Dublin’s RDS was the maple leaf, with many attendees saying they were looking for the chance of a new life in Canada…

Michelle Noone from Caltra in Galway, who was there with her husband Declan, said they were going because “we can’t see things getting any better here.” But there were also those who said they were going out of choice. Ruth O’Neill (25) from Dublin, an employed chemical engineer, said she was looking forward to the chance to live and work abroad.

Johanne Doucet, of building company LaFarge, said they had received over 100 applications for 10 assured jobs, adding that the company’s “big problem” was that it had too many applications.

Obviously the ongoing economic climate remains a significant challenge for many business environments. It’s interesting to see people discuss their motivations for moving abroad. For some people it’s a wise career move, while others feel that the writing on the wall isn’t encouraging enough at home to forgo an opportunity to move abroad.

Italy’s talent is once again moving abroad, according to a recent article on Yahoo!. These expats have turned to other nations to find a better environment for their respective industries:

For more than a century unskilled Italians have gone abroad to escape poverty, but these days the people running for the exits are among the country’s top brains.

A growing wave of technologists, researchers and entrepreneurs is flowing away from the motherland. Few think this weekend’s elections will do much to alleviate the gloom.

“I am Italian and I love Italy. But every time I come back to visit, I see the country is sliding a little further back,” said Andrea Ballarini, an economics graduate who left for the U.S. West Coast nearly three years ago…

“My business partner and I bought a ticket for San Francisco. We just wanted to check Silicon Valley out. We never came back,” said Ballarini, who was won over by the pro-business atmosphere of the West Coast and now runs a virtual business fair platform called HyperFair.

Wow! Did someone just call California pro-business? Hopefully he means the environment among fellow entrepreneurs, because he sure can’t mean the tax environment. Wonder how the taxes in Italy compare to the taxes in California? Are the taxes in Italy so repressive that they’re more business friendly than California?

Cost of living city rankings are published by several companies every year, and they are widely regarded to be an invaluable tool for help expats and HR staff alike. However, a recent article on WSJ.com highlights research that claims that these widely-publicized cost of living metrics might not be relevant for many:

“The purpose is to help companies who are moving staff to work in other countries to know how much they should pay assignees so they’re not losing out – to make sure they’re no better or no worse off by going to another country to work,” said Steven Kilfedder, ECA International’s London-based cost-of-living manager.

“It might be useful research for American executives who are going to work overseas and are paid in dollars,” said Tann vom Hove, a senior fellow at the City Mayors Foundation, a London-based think tank on urban life and economics. For local residents, “the research is more or less meaningless.” He added, of the city rankers, “I’m sure their research is good and honorable, but it’s aimed at a very limited client base.”

While there might be little relevance to local residents, it’s interesting to think about how the rankings impact expatriates that are NOT at the executive level. Aren’t these the expats on assignments that are at a far greater risk of getting lost in the shuffle while adjusting to a new country and culture? And when these expats meet with challenges that result in assignment failure, isn’t that still a big financial hit to the company or organization? I think that the researchers are coming from a perspective that looks at the far end of the spectrums, and, for whatever reason, are forgetting about the people in the middle.

Expats in Hong Kong find it cost prohibitive to buy property there unless they are permanent residents. Why? Come on! Do I even have to type it? T-A-X-E-S:

Hong Kong residents Chris Lane and his wife, Karen are planning to have a second child – but find themselves hampered by the city’s housing policy.

In October last year, the government slapped a 15% sales tax on property purchases by people who aren’t permanent residents in the city. Lane, a Californian, and Karen, with roots in both Hong Kong and Singapore, spent the last few years in Japan, selling real estate there before returning to Hong Kong, where it requires seven consecutive years of residency to qualify as a permanent rather than temporary resident.

So they found themselves out of luck. The couple owns a 1,100 square foot apartment in Quarry Bay, a middle-class neighborhood on the east side of Hong Kong island, but the new tax makes it practically impossible for them to upgrade.

The article points out a host of other restrictions in place, and who is able to navigate them and who has difficulty doing so. It’s an interesting article from the perspective of anyone interested in the impact of regulation on markets. Somehow you just know that expats aren’t an important consideration in these types of conditions.

An Expat culture shock report about living in Courbevoie, France was submitted a while ago, but it’s still catching the attention of some Expat Exchange readers. Here is an excerpt that provides some insight as to why:

If they speak another language in your new country, do you speak the language? If yes, did you learn the language before you moved or while abroad? If no, are you planning to learn the language?

Not planning to learn the language

What are the most challenging aspects of the new culture?

Just getting used to the French who are always afraid and scared. This is due to their training to be docile to authority. France is run like a civilian military, so you have to do things accordingly, but all is administered by uncaring state agents.

How significant was the culture shock you experienced when you moved abroad?

I merely dislike most of how things are organized in France. I prefer freedom which is lacking here. I still shop by phone in the USA and have everything sent to me. I refuse to shop in France for anything except medical care and food.

Did you “commit” any embarrassing or humorous cultural blunders? If you did and you’d like to share them, please do tell!

I dared to think the stores would be open daily, so often I forget and show up at the bakery when it is closed.

And, of course, there were some comments that followed. A reader wrote yesterday, asking “why go to France if [you] dislike it so much? Not learn the language? That’s a sure sign of this person’s attitude!!”

That is certainly one point of view, but another expat disagreed and wrote that:

I get what everyone is saying about “why go to France if you don’t like it?” and similar comments, but I also think it’s unrealistic to think everyone is going to like living abroad. People move overseas for complicated reasons sometimes, and it doesn’t mean they have to like it. This isn’t a perfect world.

What are your thoughts? You can reply in the comment section in the Expat culture shock report about living in Courbevoie, France.

Here are a few more article on Expat Exchange about Culture Shock:

Culture Shock! by Jim Kayalar.

Culture Shock: It’s the Little Things That Count in the Biggest Ways by Desi Downey

And, externally:

Culture Shock on Wikipedia
Culture Shock on Worldwide.edu.

Given the extent of the current financial crisis in Greece, it should probably come as no surprise that many Greeks are opting to expatriate to Canada.

President of the Hellenic Community of Vancouver, Peter Kletas, says he has had huge interest from Greeks of many different backgrounds about immigration to Canada.

“In the past month with the strictest austerity measures, we’re getting a lot of telephone calls and emails from people in Greece and they’re inquiring, ‘how do they immigrate to Canada and what are the job prospects here?’” he told the News 1130 Canadian radio station.

“We’re seeing people with university degrees that are looking to move their family for a better future here in Canada; from labourers to university professors.”

Upon reading that Canada is a popular destination, my thoughts turned to the expectations that the new arrivals have in terms of what the Canadian government will provide them. Another quote that from a Greek expat already in Canada perhaps offers a clue:

Ex-Greek restaurateur George Varvarigos has started working as an auto salesman in Toronto after moving from Greece late last year.

He told the Vancouver Sun newspaper, “[Canada] is a better environment with better chances for people who would like to do something in their life, to have a family, to have their job and to get paid for that and to look straight to the future.”

I liked the stress Mr. Varvarigos put on having a job and getting paid, which is a far cry from expecting the unsustainable number of government benefits and services provided to Greek citizens in the recent past.

So what happens when an expat has a medical injury abroad? It’s enough to give someone second thoughts about living abroad. And not just U.S. citizens. People in developed countries tend to have a certain comfort zone with their home country’s health care system, provided they can get quick access to it.

To give you an idea of what can happen, here’s a story on Fool.com that describes one expat’s “adventure” with a medical emergency while living in Guatemala:

On Sept. 8, 2012, after a celebratory birthday lunch in the city of Antigua, we headed back to our village. Upon leaving the bus, my family heirloom wedding rings caught on something as I took the last step down, and my right-hand ring finger was “de-gloved” — badly injured, with loss of not only skin but other soft tissue as well. Immediately, Billy hailed a tuk-tuk and we arrived at the emergency room of Pedro de Bethancourt National Hospital, where four doctors attended to me. My rings were cut off and I was given local anesthesia and a tetanus shot, was stitched up, wrapped up, and sent home. These doctors answered all our questions, wrote prescriptions, and made sure an appointment was scheduled for the beginning of the following week.

A day and a half later, I returned to Bethancourt. Doctors unwrapped my hand, took an X-ray, and two different surgeons spoke to me. Much of the tissue on my finger was already dead and there was the danger that I might lose it.


Probably the best message an expat or potential expat can take away from this story is preparation and research. Should you choose to decide to live abroad, or already do, you should be able to say, (1) this hospital or medical center is where I go in an emergency, (2) this is what’s covered and this is what is not, (3) these are the financial costs that I’m going to have to absorb, and (4) this is how I get home (including costs to do so) if I need to be evacuated back to my home country.

French actor Gerard Depardieu has taken the expat plunge. Why? Because Mr. Depardieu hopes living abroad will help him avoid the 75% tax rate on incomes over one million euros:

Depardieu, has recently bought a mansion in the southern Belgium’s francophone region. His new home is in the town of Nechin, located just about a mile from the border, where French expats notoriously make up 27% of the local population.

The move could allow the quintessentially French actor to escape the tax increases put up by the recently elected Socialist government in France.

You probably notice that we using the phrase “living abroad” loosely, as it is just one mile inside the border of Belgium. But, inside the border it is, and that might have significant implications for Mr. Depardieu over the course of the next few years. (It will be interesting to see if President Hollande follows through on his promise to reduce that tax rate after two years.)

Whether or not you agree with what Mr. Depardieu is doing obviously has to do with your political thinking. We’d be glad to read any opinions.

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