So, once you’ve resolved the issue of being able to legally reside somewhere, you’ll no doubt want to give some thought as to what you’re going to do and how you’re going to support yourself once you’re there. In almost any coun-tr y on earth, at least some Americans are living and working. Some methods require skill, others ingenuity and some are the result of dumb luck. Persistence never hurts. And there are even a few overseas gigs that are just about there for the asking.
Generally, your choices fall into four categories:
Non or Low-Paying:
Students, interns and volunteers get easy visas, make contacts, and begin to lay the foundation for a career abroad. The question is, can you support yourself until that career happens?
U.S. Employment:
Get hired or transferred by a U.S. based enterprise and you’re paid in dollars, the visa hassles are usually handled by your well-connected employer, and there’s usually a living stipend thrown in as well. While it’s more than possible to leave the country while still working for the United States Government (or one of its bloated portfolio of private contractors), most people who go the Getting Out route would prefer to avoid that kind of attachment. Working for a multinational with branches all over the world (or at least elsewhere in the world) and angling for a job when one opens up overseas is probably the best strategy.
Work for a Local Company or Organization:
Landing a job abroad is a lot more difficult since it requires learning the hiring protocol of a different culture. The visa challenges are more daunting; usually this requires that a company representative vouch that no local candidate could fill the position. In the case of the E.U., a candidate must first be sought among all member nations. You are usually, for better or worse, paid in local currency. If your job is in one of the progressive democracies, you can expect a healthy benefits/vacation package as well. You might try and work for a foreign company with a branch in the U.S. while you’re still living here. Then suck up to the manager who can have you transferred to their home office.
Choosing to go abroad (and more to the point, actually following through and doing it) generally requires a bit of self-sufficiency so it’s not surprising that a good percentage of expatriates hustle up their living on their own, too. Working for yourself involves fewer bureaucratic hassles since governments are lenient with visitors who pay their own way and don’t put a strain on the employment market. Freelance writers, photographers, designers, Internet entrepreneurs and overseas business operators form the core of America’s mobile class. Yoga teachers, chefs and massage therapists do it pretty well too. Musicians can always swing a few pennies busking at the nearest Metro station, and they’re used to a lifetime of starvation, anyway. More ambitious and enterprising types even start businesses abroad, typically, but not necessarily, in the tourist or expat trade. This involves a few more hassles, since that means you’re usually operating under more government rules and regulations.
In this section we present a few examples of common hustles expats abroad engage in and tell you how you can be one of them. You can find additional links in the resources section in the back of the book. You’ll notice that many jobs can fall into more than one category. Teaching English, for instance, can be done through any of the four methods described above. Likewise, many a successful strategy involves combining options—say, working part-time at a hotel, tutoring English on the side, and maybe even selling a newspaper or magazine article or photograph here and there. Use the elements you need and make something that works.
For students, the ticket out couldn’t be simpler—continue your courses, but do it in Wales, the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Bali, Melbourne, or wherever strikes your fancy. While many expatriate options ecessitate putting your career track on ice, carefully choosing your study abroad program allows you to continue your merry climb up the ladder of success while enjoying an extended absence from the United States. Most countries cast a relatively favorable eye on education-seekers, and student visas are issued more liberally than residency permits. Many allow you to hold a part-time job, too.
The simplest option is right on your own college campus. More than likely, they have a study abroad office. If your school lacks an overseas program, fear not. Certain colleges, such as the Institute for Study Abroad at Butler University (www.ifsa.-butler.org), specialize in semesters abroad. Most programs ferry you to English-speaking countries but not exclusively. SUNY Brockport offers semesters studying Vietnamese culture geared toward English speakers at the University of Da Nang. More are listed in the resources section. Expect to find packages that are nearly all-inclusive—tuition, housing and usually meals, books, language lessons and a bunch of culture tours thrown in for good measure. And the affiliation with a U.S. university means your credits stand a good chance of being recognized by whatever institution ends up issuing your diploma.
While costs vary, figure on paying anywhere from $8,000–$15,000 a semester. Compared to what you might be paying at a lot of U.S. private—and even public—institutions, this can be competitive or even a bargain, especially since most expenses are taken care of. For the relatively privileged, it’s something Mom and Dad wouldn’t feel guilty shelling out for. And for the rest of us, there’s still all the usual financial aid hustles available to stateside students—loans, grants, scholarships and work/study, with a few added twists.
Most of these options top out at one year, but if you’re intent on getting out for longer, or if you would care for unlimited options of curriculum and locale, you can enroll directly in a foreign university. You can take Russian language at Moscow University, Accounting at Heidelberg or simply get your dentistry degree at Montreal’s McGill University. Of course, if your language skills aren’t up to par, you’re pretty much restricted to English-speaking programs. Other disadvantages include a greater chance that your hard-earned college credit will not be transferrable. And while financial aid options are more limited (there are student loans to some recognized overseas universities, and some scholarships do pay for study abroad), many overseas university tuitions—even for international students—are often a fraction of what they are compared to the U.S. Particularly worth checking out are colleges in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The whole idea of tuition still hasn’t fully caught on, though it is spreading. Extra fees are also sometimes charged for international students. For a good rundown of university options abroad, see www.studyabroaduniversities.com. Information about scholarships and other aspects of international study can be found at www.scholars4dev.com.
The David L. Boren scholarships of the National Security Education Program provide up to $20,000 a year to have students go abroad and study exotic cultures in far-off lands—Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Kenya, Vietnam. The downside is that when you’re done, you have to agree to work for the U.S. intelligence community—in other words, become a spy. See here: www.iie.org.
I taught English and afterschool art and theater at a Franco-German school, took German and got my Magister at the local Uni. Now working on a doctorate and doing my at-home marketing job.
European universities are cheap (like $1000/semester) and many countries are moving toward the BA/MA system, including Germany. Anyone who is thinking about shelling out for private school in the Liberal Arts should really consider doing a degree in Europe instead. If you can pass the language test (which I did easily after a year of intensive German), you can get in. French schools have a more rigorous application process. Germany is basically first come, first serve, except for the sciences, which are competitive. Professors in Germany often allowed me to write papers in English. If you want to be a doctor or a lawyer, stick to the U.S. schools. But if you are going to study art history, sociology, or even English lit (for the truly lazy American student), do it in Germany where it won’t put your parents in the poorhouse.
I am a post-doctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and an independent musician (bryyn.com). As a post-doc, my research field is in cardiovascular hemodynamics and craniospinal disorders/neuroengineering.
I was recommended by a personal contact for the position. I think it is nearly impossible to move to Switzerland without a direct contact with someone who can find you a job. Or you can try and work for Nestlé or Philip Morris.
So you want to get out right now, have a visa, a job, a place to live and—what the hell—a new purpose in life? The easiest, cleanest ticket is Uncle Sam’s own Peace Corps. Since 1960, when President John F. Kennedy conceived of the idea, the Peace Corps has been the outfit of choice for disgruntled Americans seeking to bid their country goodbye. Between 7,000 and 8,000 volunteers a year move through the Peace Corps which now operates in 77 countries—Colombia, Sierra Leone, and Indonesia being the most recent additions. Apply today, and within a year, you could be on your way to somewhere far, far away—all expenses paid.
Will they take you? If you are over 18, have U.S. citizenship and hold a college degree, chances are good. Even applicants without four-year degrees have been known to squeak in. While its roots are in agricultural development, the Peace Corps have been active in AIDS prevention and control as well as information technology, so should you have some kind of background in computers, management or agriculture, you will find yourself actively courted. Those who don’t bring any particular skills to the table are most often pressed into service teaching English.
What’s the deal? You serve two years plus 10–12 weeks training. Volunteers get free transportation to and from their assigned country, are provided living expenses comparable to what the locals make, and all health coverage is paid for. And when it’s all over, a lump sum of $7,425 (technically that’s $275 for every month you serve). So unless you have debts to pay, you can tread water financially. And if your debts happen to be of the student loan variety, relax, they’re deferred and some loans may even qualify for partial cancellation once you’ve completed your term of service.
The downside is that the Peace Corps is a bit like the army. You go where they send you, do what they tell you. You can rank your preferences when you apply, but there are no guarantees. If you’re ready to re-embrace America when your term is up, you’re on a flight back to America. If that period has only whetted your appetite for the global lifestyle, you’ve got cash in hand and hopefully a Rolodex full of contacts to make your permanent escape a reality.
Peace Corps: Where Do They Serve?
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Eastern Caribbean, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Micronesia and Palau, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Zambia.
Contact Info:
Peace Corps
Paul D. Coverdell Peace Corps Headquarters
1111 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20526
800-424-8580
Right now, I’m an English teacher, living in a village of about 4000 people. I’ve been in Ukraine since September 2010 and at my work site since December. My days are mostly spent preparing lessons, teaching a couple classes of resolutely silent teenagers or squirming children, walking around the village, writing copious and irrelevant poems and essays for myself, talking to the elderly lady with whom I live.
I think for everyone who applies to Peace Corps, the paperwork and the wait seem endless. I began my application during my senior year of college, two years ago now. I was passed over for the first round—the recruitment officer who I worked with in Chicago was very encouraging throughout the long process. Once you are nominated to a region, your application then goes on to Washington. Then it’s a lot more paperwork, particularly of the medical sort. This took months for me to complete.
I had first been assigned a position in either Jordan or Morocco. By the time I had completed my mountain of medical paperwork (the application process can be a Kafka-esque nightmare of bureaucracy), those positions had filled up, so I was asked to serve in Ukraine instead. Even though Ukraine may not seem quite so foreign or mystical a country compared to my imagined Arabian nights, it really has an exoticness of its own.
It’s warm now and I have honestly never seen a more beautiful spring. Apricot and cherry trees have burst into white blossoms, and there are baby goats, baby ducklings, and baby cows everywhere. Little children greet you, Zdraste, hello, on the street, riding two to a bicycle and grinning at you. Everyone is outside now, working in their plots in the fields or in their kitchen gardens. Ukrainians don’t have a great reputation of welcoming foreigners, but once you’re in, they will shower you with delicious selections from these gardens: fresh produce, infinite potatoes, jams they preserved themselves.
Out here, there are no restaurants or even a supermarket, just a couple run-down, creepy bars. We have a few small stores. These sell mostly dry goods, but the big store by my school (by “big” I mean the size of a large-ish living room) has some produce like carrots and apples. To get to a supermarket, I take a 20-minute bus or electric train into the next town. In this town there’s also the bazaar, which every decently-sized town or city will have—on weekends they are bigger, with stall after stall of beautiful farm produce, eggs, milk, fish still flopping in tubs, giant bloody slabs of meat, preserves, as well as clothes, electronics, kitchenware, etc.
As for visas, the Peace Corps arranges that for you, as well as your living accommodations, three months of language and technical training, and a monthly stipend. I have no idea how I would survive in this country on my own, or without having taken Ukrainian lessons for four hours a day for weeks on end. I get on OK on the Peace Corps stipend, and while I can’t afford to go to bars or movies every weekend, I also don’t have very many temptations.
If you’ve got time and the urge to help, there are plenty of organizations that will take you on. Many may offer at least some kind of perk, such as travel expenses, a stipend or at least college credit, particularly when you bring a valuable skill set to the table. Of course, it’s important to know who you’re working for. The Peace Corps (and USAID) operates under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, though even the hippie-hearted tend to see the work that they do as benign. And they offer more pay and benefits than you’re likely to find anywhere else under the rubric “volunteer.” Other government programs that take on volunteers pursue a more palpable foreign policy agenda. Some Christian organizations do feed and clothe the needy; others take a heavier hand and try to evangelize the natives under the guise of humanitarian aid, often in countries where such activity is against the law. Most of the heavy lifting in the humanitarian world is done by NGOs—or non-governmental organizations. Regardless of their mandate or activities, if any organization is large enough, there will be some paying positions. For an extensive list of major volunteer organizations and their affiliations, organizational partners, etc., see the Resources section. Many organizations, such as Volunteer Global (www.volunteerglobal.com) are there to promote volunteerism in general and act as portals to affiliated programs, matching willing volunteers to needy causes. You can also browse ads for job and volunteer positions in the humanitarian and international development world at devnetjobs.org. You’ll find more listings online at www.gettingoutofamerica.com.
I came here in 2005 with an American volunteer organization, Volunteers in Asia, and was with them for the first three years in VN. As part of my volunteer term with VIA, I worked with an NGO charity organization, Friends of Hue Foundation, and also connected with several NGOs as part of my work. I primarily taught English.
As I had come before as a student to Vietnam, I asked about volunteer organizations that supplied teachers to Vietnam. One foreigner mentioned to me about ELIC (a Christian organization), WUSC (Canadian organization) and VIA (Stanford-based nonprofit volunteer organization). After looking at all of them, it seemed VIA was the best fit, primarily because of cost (it was the cheapest) but I liked the philosophy of the group a bit more as well. Due to the downturn of the economy VIA has had to scale back operations so it’s an organization that I appreciate greatly, but alas they have a very small presence in Vietnam now. Teachers for Vietnam (www.teachersforvietnam.org) has teachers in more rural areas in Vietnam, which I think is the most exciting place to be for an educator. Other high-profile programs here include UN Volunteers and ones operating through the Fulbright Program.
I think having an organization that supports you is valuable (especially if you haven’t traveled abroad before), but not essential. There are lots of opportunities to get involved in all sorts of projects informally here and they are not difficult to find. However, for access to more rural areas, it’s probably best to go with an organization.
The opportunities for volunteers to segue into something paid are large but primarily to be found in the larger cities—and the best-paying to be found in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City. You can certainly find teaching gigs in smaller cities and it will be highly appreciated but pay is less, though cost of living is significantly less, as well.
I now work full-time for a hospitality company. I am a trainer for staff working in five-star level hotels, apartments and restaurants, focused on English language and soft skills training. I work six days a week, 8:30–5:30 on weekdays and a half day on Saturday. I am by no means a wealthy expat but my family and I live comfortably and sufficiently above the local standard.
Unlike your parents, countries don’t really mind if you sit around all day doing nothing, as long as you spend money and don’t become a burden on the system. So if you’ve saved enough money, have a steady source of income, such as a pension, you can head to where the living is cheap and ride out your money in relative style. Retirees, in particular, are offered incentives by dozens of countries—many located in the tropics—who’d love a slice of the pension pie. In much of Central America and Southeast Asia, gray-haired Americans live a life of tropical luxury simply on what they get from Social Security. Boho slackers with a novel to finish might gravitate toward sophisticated and underpriced cities like Berlin and Buenos Aires. With costs low, and enough in the bank, you’re living easy. If you can scare up some under-the-table work or private lessons or sell a freelance article, so much the better.
If you are a United States citizen, you can travel and/or live in most foreign countries without affecting your eligibility for Social Security Retirement benefits. There are a few countries—Cambodia, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and many of the former U.S.S.R. republics—where they cannot send Social Security checks. (Exceptions to this rule are Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia.)
Almost 400,000 Social Security checks are mailed to beneficiaries living outside of the United States each month, and many more are directly deposited to expat recipients’ U.S. bank accounts. Recipients living in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and a handful of other countries can receive Social Security benefits from an international direct deposit service without any penalty. More details about receipt of Social Security benefits abroad can be found at: www.socialsecurity.gov
NOTE: Renouncing U.S. citizenship does not mean you forfeit your Social Security. That will only happen if and when the Social Security System (and the U.S. economy) goes bankrupt. Retired military personnel who renounce, however, do lose their retirement pay. Something to consider.
What do I do for work/money? Pray. Just joking. I’m living off of savings and income from the sale of my Chicago condo, which was sold “just” before the crisis hit. I moved to an apartment in Chicago for two years before moving to Mexico. I’m also painting and have already sold three paintings, am being represented by a very modern highend store right now. I’ve only been here a few months.
My strategy to make my money last longer was to leave the U.S. There, it felt like my money was pouring out the door. Now I feel that the flood has become a trickle. I will be eligible for Social Security in 1½ years, which you DO get here. I want to paint and make it my life’s work.
I am living off a small pension and trying not to dip into savings too much. Social Security pension from the U.S. is payable in Denmark. I also receive small pensions from both Canada and New Zealand. I was not aware that I would qualify for a pension in either country. The Danish pension authority supplied me with applications for pensions in both countries when they found out that I had lived in those two places.
I don’t work any longer but in general the work week here is shorter than in the U.S. 37 hrs/week is the norm. Vacation time is five or six weeks for most people! Maternity leave is six months with possibility to extend to a whole year with 80% pay for the mother and a couple of months 80% paid leave for the father.
This doesn’t seem to be an ideal place to retire unless one has family here. The language would be difficult to learn at a late age, the cost of housing is also much higher than the U.S., not to mention the cost of goods and services. I am retired here because I already own a house without a mortgage in a place in the country that I enjoy living.
If you’re an American, chances are you speak English. A lot of people in the world don’t and desperately want to learn how. It’s the language of science, of business and of popular entertainment. That may explain why teaching English as a second language has become nearly synonymous with expats trying to make a go of it overseas without any special skills or knowledge. Overseas English language schools will usually arrange for visas and sometimes even accommodations. You often don’t even have to know the local tongue, because classes tend to be immersion deals and often all that’s required is that you converse. Other schools tend to emphasize more structured lessons, but still done entirely in English. No surprise that the real money is in teaching business English and that standards for these kinds of gigs tend to be higher.
What do you need? In some cases simply being a native speaker is enough. Many English language schools prefer that you have a university degree and some teaching experience. But if this is the way you’re thinking of going, then a formal certificate in teaching English known as TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) not only provides the most opportunities for jobs (many schools, businesses and organizations will not hire you without one), but schools offering these certificates will usually assist with job placement. A quality four-week program can cost around $1,300. There are scams galore, so be sure to carefully research the organization you’re dealing with before turning over money and packing up.
Important criteria that you need to look for in a TESOL Certificate course include at least 100 hours of time spent in the classroom studying how to be a teacher, and at least six hours spent actually teaching actual students under the direction and supervision of a trained, experienced teacher. Of course, if you’re intrepid and resourceful, you can post ads and try and scare up students yourself, whatever your certification level.
The greatest demand for English teachers is in China, Japan and particularly South Korea. Schools in these countries offer competitive salaries, frequently with room and board—and some even offer airfare. Russia and increasingly Poland offer the most opportunities in Europe.
The English-teaching scene is Germany is pretty robust and you can come on a tourist visa, get hired and have your visa extended as long as you have classes.
Generally, any non-English speaking country has some jobs for English teachers, but in areas where salaries tend to be low and there’s little investment or emphasis in getting the population international business-ready, you’ll find the pickings much slimmer...unless you’re willing to volunteer. In which case, you’ll find yourself much more in demand.
Your first stop is probably to log into all things English teaching at Dave’s ESL Café (www.daveseslcafe.com.) More resources can be found in the Resources section.
I’m an ALT (Assistant English Teacher) and member of the JET Programme working for the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Education. JET works as a kind of liaison that matches members with contracting organizations (usually schools or boards of education). Although you may request a specific placement during your application period, you are offered an assignment only once. This means that if you want to work in Tokyo but are offered a position in rural Hokkaido, you may not negotiate. I made three requests and was placed in an entirely different region of Japan from all three. Still, I’ve enjoyed my experience.
I work at two different schools. My main school is a public senior high school, and I work 8:30–4:30, Tuesday-Thursday. My main job is to prepare lessons and team teach with several different Japanese English teachers. I also play a large part in running the school’s English Club and often support the English department staff by clarifying English grammar points when I can, marking papers, or whatever else they need me to do.
The other school I work at is a public part-time school, where I work Monday 1:00–9:00 and Friday 9:30–5:30. My job at this school is very similar to what I do at my main. My salary is 3,600,000 yen ($45,000) per year. That’s enough to live comfortably and send home about 50,000 yen ($625) a month to pay off my student loans, but haven’t saved a whole lot of money during my time here.
I also studied in Japan twice before coming to live here. I highly recommend study abroad. For one thing, studying abroad is a good way to test the water and see if you like living in another country and how well you can cope with culture shock and all the challenges that come with being in a foreign country.
If you know where you want to live in the future, as I did in my case, studying abroad there is also a good way to do some recon, as it were, and to start learning the native language if it’s not English.
I work as an English teacher, but am directly hired by a city’s board of education. I teach in junior high schools mainly but occasionally teach a few hours in elementary schools too. Teaching is not my desired career choice but for now it supplies a stable income and gives me enough time to work on my passions. The most enjoyable aspect of the job is interacting with young people directly and getting so much inspiration from their young minds. The only advice I have for aspiring teachers is be yourself but be flexible. Use your personality and your humor as a way to interact with people; don’t be just a “teacher,” be an artist. Use this experience as a platform for improving your social skills in Japan.
I run a small blog about design, fashion, and vintage at www.bandanna-almanac.com. It is a side job but it keeps me making stuff and to get out and explore the country. The more things I find the more I discover about myself and what it is I am passionate about.
I had a fantastic, well-paying job at an art gallery in Los Angeles, but felt restless and creatively unsatisfied. I wanted to relocate and reinvent myself. So I started looking for work on Dave’s ESL café. Combed through the posts and decided to apply with AEON to work in Japan. The interview process was funny. It consisted of two white businessmen showing videos and talking about life in Japan, their Japanese wives, and how great the sushi is. The second interview was to teach a mock lesson to your fellow interviewees, like an audition. They called me back for a third time and asked where I would prefer to work. I said near Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or other major city. My interviewer pulled out a map of Japan and pointed to the southernmost tip and said there was a little town there with a tiny population, nothing nearby and no other native English speakers or Western teachers. It is also isolated by a mountain range that’s impassable in winter. He asked me how that sounded. I said it would be tough to be that remote, and I’d prefer to be somewhere more populated. I received a rejection letter the next week.
I started considering Korea. At first all the negative rants online turned me off, but the salary and glowing endorsements from Korean friends in L.A. convinced me. I found a good recruiter who was honest and realistic about what to expect. I chose to teach in private school versus public because of the higher salary, smaller classes, and guaranteed location. Public schools have the advantage of much more time off, but they pay less and you cannot choose your location.
After several months getting the paperwork together for the E2 visa, I hopped a plane to Incheon. FBI background check regulations add 12 weeks to the paperwork process, so it’s important to allow enough time. The other option is to head over on a tourist visa, then make a visa run to Japan.
Representatives from the school were waiting at the airport to pick up the incoming teachers and drive us. Thought it was strange that they insisted on taking us by the school at 10 p.m., after we’d all been on 14-hour flights. To my great relief it was just to see the exterior and then they dropped us off at a nearby hotel. We wandered the streets just soaking up all the lights, trying random restaurants (no easy feat for a vegetarian who spoke no Korean) and laughing at all the misused English on signs.
Experienced teachers know that establishing discipline on the first day of class is crucial. I made the mistake of trying to make the first day fun, but it ended in total chaos. I was kicked, bitten, dong chimed (translates literally as poo stab), and had to call for reinforcement from the manager to handle 10 five-year-olds. I went back to my apartment, cried like a girl and thought about leaving. Then I got mad, toughened up and pulled it together. Now my kids snap to attention and line up on command. Once discipline is established, then you can have fun with the students. They will feel safer and happier knowing the rules and limits. They give me presents, draw pictures, and we have a great time together.
I am an English teacher at a hagwon, which is a private English academy in Korea (as opposed to public schools). If you’re trying to be an English teacher, work is not too difficult to find, especially in Korea. Anyone who’s a citizen of an English-speaking country and the holder of a university degree can get a job teaching English in Asia. Period. When I applied to work for AEON in Japan, they held interviews in Austin, Texas. For Korea, I contacted the school directly after a search on Seoul Craigslist Jobs (accepted within 10 hours of applying).
I’m an English language expert for a research institution. I work with scholars—from those working on their doctoral degrees to those working as full professors—on improving their writing. I help with grammar and style, plus I am familiar with how academic publishing works so I help people navigate the publication process. Much like my initial job in Germany, that I fell into, I sort of fell into this job. I bypassed most of the German bureaucracy and procedures that go with job hunting and I never actually wrote a German-style résumé.
Generally speaking, though, I would advocate that anybody moving abroad research what is appropriate for your target country. For example, if you want a job in Germany, the vast majority of people need to include information about their personal life in the résumé package that would be illegal in the United States (for example: date of birth and marital status), as well as a professional studio head shot.
The easiest job for Americans moving to Germany to find is probably teaching English—but from what I understand it’s not a career choice for people hoping to live the high life. I’ve also heard that some of the language schools work their employees fairly hard and are not always forthcoming with payment. It’d probably be wise to investigate the school before agreeing to work for them.
For first seven years I taught English as a Foreign Language, which was my only source of income, and I supported myself well enough to live adequately and to travel extensively. Since 2007, I have been retired and living on Social Security and a small pension, but still enough so that I average about three to four times what the average Hungarian makes in a month.
When I first arrived, I did work on the black, and was paid in cash without need for receipts or other paperwork. As I got more teaching jobs on my own, companies for which I taught required official receipts, obtainable only when one is a legal resident with work permit, so I had to have official status. No bureaucratic troubles, as I used a local company to help me get my paperwork. I also set up my own company for billing purposes.
When I was teaching full-time, I taught 13 classes per week, each of 90-minute duration, which equaled 20 clock hours a week, or half-time. English teaching (I specialized in Business English) brought me a minimum of $1,500 per month when I taught full-time; since rent and utilities averaged around $400 per month, I did quite well, dining out often, partying (to excess) and traveling extensively.
I did have some savings, which I used as needed. I lived off my teaching income when I taught, and now I live off retirement income only (with a small nest egg as backup for emergencies). My retirement income allows me to live a good, if not extravagant, lifestyle, and I still travel extensively.
Employment RecruiterI work full-time as a recruiter for an American company that works remotely in Buenos Aires. We have a small office, and all of the employees are also expats. My work is all in English, and my clients are all in the USA. This makes me feel not so far from home, and it is the type of job I would enjoy doing back home.
Before that I taught English to business executives in local companies as a private teacher. I came here without a job or any connections, but have had great luck finding opportunities via Craigslist. That is how I found several English classes and my current recruiting position.
How does a pay scale of $43,000–$56,000, plus medical, dental, relocation costs, 10 paid holidays and up to 45 vacation days per year sound? You’ll travel to exotic destinations and meet heads of state, important businessmen, and other dignitaries and, best of all, you can ignore parking tickets with impunity. The downside is, you won’t have any say in where you go, who you see and what you do. But as you’re the representative of the U.S. government and its policies, it’s not a great escape for the politically disgruntled.
To join, there’s a written exam, a background security check and a medical examination in addition to face-to-face interviews. You will be asked to choose one of the five career tracks: Management Affairs, Consular Affairs, Economic Affairs, Political Affairs, or Public Diplomacy.
Requirements vary, but generally you’re expected to hold a four-year university degree. You don’t have to speak a foreign language (they’ll teach you), but applicants with Slavic, Middle Eastern, and Asian languages are actively sought. www.careers.state.gov
The kinder, gentler arm of the U.S. Foreign Service is USAID. A kind of career extension of the Peace Corps, it offers similar pay and benefits as other Foreign Service posts, but the focus is more humanitarian, at least that’s what they say (www.usaid.gov/careers).
Also worth remembering is that U.S. military bases often hire civilian employees for administrative, IT, maintenance and other tasks. And with around 1,000 of them dotting the planet, if you have the skills, are located (or are willing to relocate) nearby, and don’t mind carrying water for the empire, you can land a job there without ever having to worry about discharging a weapon. You get paid in dollars and as you’ll be working on a little island of America, you don’t really have to mess too much with the government bureaucracy of the host country.
You can find a list of U.S. military bases abroad at Militarybases.com. Most have websites where jobs are advertised. You can also find openings by visiting www.federalgovernmentjobs.us and typing “overseas” (or your desired country/area) in the search engine. These jobs are GS (i.e., government service), meaning you are essentially on the civil servant pay and benefit scale. Be aware that only some overseas positions are open to U.S. citizens.
Private U.S. Miliary Contractors
Civilian contractors means more than mercenaries. Military installations are like small cities, with restaurants, shopping centers, sports facilities and just about anything you’d find off-base. College campuses, even. The jobs—from flipping burgers to systems programming—are filled by civilians. The University or Phoenix (www.phoenix.edu) and the University of Maryland (www.ed.umuc.edu) hold contracts for “educational services for the U.S. military.” They have openings in both academic and non-academic areas. At the burger-flipping end of the spectrum, try the job board at The Exchange (odin.aafes.com), the outfit which pretty much provides all the back-home consumer comforts (from retail stores to fast-food restaurants) to the men and women in uniform around the world.
I’m with USAID as an Education Advisor in (undisclosed Third World location) putting such children’s shows as Sesame Street on the air and setting up home-based schools around the country. My husband is with the State Department. We are with our two children and are having a great time. My husband and I met in the Peace Corps where we were both teaching English, and though we went back to the U.S. to start our family, we left again and have no intention of ever doing anything other than what we are doing. His job keeps us in a house, and I have the freedom to find any number of fantastic work experiences, either paid or not. It’s an incredible luxury and I love it.
USAID is separate from State, but USAID direct-hire employees usually are in the embassy with State, for example, and share some services, depending on the post, like human resources, furniture pool, housing, etc. USAID is not a cabinet-level agency, so the head of USAID is called “the administrator” rather than a secretary, but he is roughly equivalent to the Secretary of State. So, you see, we are not the same agency, but very close cousins.
The overseas job market is like the domestic job market, only more difficult. The hiring protocols—-from the way to behave in an interview to how to discuss salary—are different from those in America. Certainly, the higher up the education and experience ladder you are, the more likely you are to find work. Demand tends to be high for people with a background in information technology, engineering, oil and natural resource development, banking and finance, and health.
While there is a general disinclination to allow foreign workers to take jobs that could go to a locals, labor shortages do exist in some countries. Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and many of the oil-producing countries of the Middle East all rely on expatriate labor. Poorer countries, as you might guess, pay poorer salaries. Matching your background to a nation’s needs is a good place to start if you’re looking to make a career-track move.
Internet searches will turn up hundreds of sites for overseas jobs, and only a fraction are legitimate or helpful. General job sites such as Monster. com have extensive overseas listings, but expect limited results. Craigslist.org has branches in almost every major city and their classified ads are geared toward English speakers. It’s certainly worth a peek, though the want ads are a nest of tightwads. Needless to say, your chances are far better searching locally and applying locally. The job ads in the trade journals and websites of particular industries are also a better source, provided you have the skills and background in that industry.
The easiest way to get employed overseas, of course, is to be transferred there. Working for a multinational corporation is your best bet or, if not, at least a growing enterprise that opens branches in foreign countries.
College students or recent grads should also consider internships. From the U.S. State Department to the U.N. to hundreds of overseas organizations, corporations, and NGOs, the opportunities for an internship are endless. Some even pay or provide room and board. You can help design PlayStations for Sony in London or design floor space with an architectural firm in Stuttgart. Many of these internships lead to permanent positions overseas, whether as part of an established career track or as a result of networking and making contacts. Additional job resources can be found through websites listed in the Web Resources section at the end of the book.
Would you like to be one of the 24,000 people employed by the United Nations all over the world? Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pulls down $227,253 but entry-level jobs start at around $35K. There’s added benefits for hazard assignments, and spouses. The flag and uniform are pretty snazzy, too. Competition is fierce. Junior professional candidates must have a B.A. degree and be less than 32 years old, and take the National Competitive Recruitment Examinations. Professionals need advanced degrees, and, depending on the position, must have anywhere from two to 15 years of field experience. To find out if there’s a place for you inside the world’s most bloated bureaucracy, visit the United Nations job vacancy board at www.jobs.un.org.
I work for a global marketing research company as a project manager and it’s my job to oversee our research studies. I was specifically brought to the Hong Kong office to assist my team with a new tracking study that is going to be conducted in eight European countries over the next year. In Chicago, I would work eight hours a day and if I worked more than that, at my grade level within the company, I was entitled to overtime pay. When I accepted the job in Hong Kong, I moved to a new company grade level, and am no longer entitled to overtime pay. The Hong Kong culture is very much focused on work and working long hours. Working abroad also has its perks. I was able to get a raise, a housing allowance (Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world in terms of housing), and I will qualify for the U.S. tax exemption, so I will only be required to pay the local Hong Kong taxes.
I’m a dancer and vocalist at Disneyland. Right now we’re rehearsing for the big 5th anniversary, “Celebration in the Air.” I’m also training to be a Face Character. Those are the people who walk around the park as Disney characters—Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty. What I think is interesting is that it takes more training to be a Face Character than to learn all the songs and dances.
My boyfriend’s friend’s cousin got us in the Disney front door. We still had to audition for our separate roles. We mostly went for it as a way to escape our career ruts and because it’s just totally different from anything anybody we know has ever done. Whenever I audition for anything there’s really nothing to set me above the competition. Now I’ll have Hong Kong Disneyland on my résumé. If nothing else, people will ask what that was like and it will give me extra time to make an impression.
My schedule varies and I work my butt off, but I actually got a vacation after just a couple of months on the job. You can’t beat that.
The job search process is pretty much the same for an architect no matter where you go. I basically just asked friends if their offices had Beijing branches. I also looked on the Internet. There are also a few international job sites specifically for architects and engineers. I also had friends who had worked in Beijing. Once I compiled a list, I put together a packet of work samples and a cover letter and emailed them to all the firms on my list. Employers are mainly concerned with how long you are willing to stay in China. There are a lot of expats working in architecture, but the turnover is pretty high. China attracts a lot of young architects who are still in school or fresh graduates who are unable to get jobs at home. So if you are willing to stay beyond a few months, you are more attractive to more firms.
There is a big range of firms in Beijing. There are a handful of corporate international offices, a smaller number of super famous international studios, internationally known Chinese offices, and then there are the local government offices. Kids in school usually intern in the famous Chinese offices, but they work insane hours with virtually no pay. The work is really interesting, but you burn out quickly. I worked in an international office that fell somewhere between a corporate office and a studio. I worked on anything from master planning of cities to mixed-use office/residential/malls. The scale of the work is huge and totally different from anything in the U.S. I also worked on more schematic competitions.
I have mixed feelings about my experience in China. I think it was a great experience professionally because I was exposed to a type of work that I would never have experienced at home. Things in the States are a bit limited by code and regulation. Clients are unwilling to do anything risky. In China, things are limitless and that teaches you to think a bit differently, but at the same time everything here is about getting the biggest bang for the smallest buck. No one cares about quality. If the government has a code that won’t let you do something it is common to submit fake drawings to the government and simply change the design once it has been approved. It is also not uncommon to just pay someone off.
Getting the job was easy...especially since people with experience in the games industry are in demand in Australia. The job market in Australia is generally quite good. Even during the Global Financial Crisis, there was still pretty low unemployment. On-the-job training and other sorts of career advancement opportunities are not as readily available in companies in Australia, and expenditures on employee retention are scarce. On the other hand, the workplace and work is significantly less stressful here (although it appears to be getting more and more stressful).
I run a factory that manufactures heavy trucks. My wife has an online business selling fabric and other quilting stuff. I came over to Russia already having arranged to do what I’m doing. I’ve met people who did it the other way around, and that also seems to be a viable option. On what I make, we’ve been able to take major vacations at least once a year (last year was driving to Paris so my kids could go to Disneyland); my wife has been able to fly back to the States at least twice a year. That last wasn’t terribly expensive, though. Regular life in Russia is cheap enough that making even a couple grand a month is going to leave you able to sock away a goodly chunk of your income for whatever you want. We’ve long ago paid off any outstanding debts we had from the U.S.
I came to Sweden with my job, working in marketing for an international retail company based across the sound from Copenhagen. My background was a liberal arts education followed by 10 years working on Madison Avenue in account management. By taking a position with a foreign-based company, you significantly increase your chances of getting a job abroad, since you can request a transfer or apply for a position with the company where they are based. This is usually looked very favorably upon, as experience in the home country allows the company to then transfer you back to your own home country knowing many of the business and social nuances of the company’s leadership. You become a “local with credentials.”
I have now been working in Sweden for 12 years, while living in Denmark. The Scandinavian way of working is consensual in most ways. Bosses don’t decide, they lead. Co-workers don’t follow, they provide direction. It may take longer to decide where you want to go, but once the direction is set, all are pushing very hard in the same direction and arrive together. You have to appreciate this way of working to succeed within a Scandinavian company.
If you don’t have the opportunity to move here with a company, then look at your company’s competitors in Denmark to see if there are any that are recruiting. Obviously your experience in the identical field will be appreciated whether you got it in the U.S or down the street. I also recommend using the specific skill/education that you have and applying for jobs in Denmark that are listed online in English. There are quite a few international companies based here or with large offices/labs, etc. here that recruit internationally. I know several people who got their jobs that way. The businesses that are big here are IT, pharma, retail, shipping, telecom, and service industries. Big names in Scandinavia are Maersk, H&M, Eriksson, Novo-Nordisk, Bang ε Olufsen, IKEA, Statoil, ICI.
Do you dream about stringing for newspapers and magazines, selling overseas news and travel stories and financing your life abroad as a foreign correspondent? Well, wake up. If you’re not already making your living in the writing game, your chances of achieving that lifestyle anytime soon by moving abroad are not very good. Even seasoned writers find themselves struggling unless they are part of some large news organization. Stringing gigs (freelancing stories to a newspaper’s foreign bureau) are disappearing along with the publications that hire them. Only a handful of travel publications pay decently, and competition for those is stiff. Most local English language expat publications don’t offer much in the way of compensation. And the Internet has driven down the rates for the written word to the point of being a virtual sweatshop.
Things are even less rosy for photographers. Often, reporters will be asked to provide photos and sometimes even video (for streaming on a website) along with their articles.
But if you have talent and perseverance, and have another avenue of income in the meantime, you can become one of a handful of lucky scribes in every foreign city who make the overseas dream a reality. Freelancing for publications in the U.S. also means you are eligible for a self-employment visa, which is far easier to obtain than a work permit. However, it can be quicker to land a job with an American newspaper and eventually request a transfer, in which case visa matters will be all but taken care of. Also, mediabistro.com and journalismjobs.com run ads from overseas news organizations looking for staff.
If you’re lucky—which means being either young (recent graduate) and promising or a veteran with a hefty list of accomplishments—you can receive a fellowship to report from a foreign land, observe its culture and/or media operation, or even help set one up in a country where their media is not as well-developed. Even if the fellowships are short-term (some are as short as two weeks), you can still make contacts both in the host country and among the international journalism set that can prove invaluable toward sustaining a future life abroad. The Society of Professional Journalists (www.spj.org) keeps a pretty extensive list of available awards.
A more realistic and less competitive plan might be to seek out organizations and businesses that need English language copy edited. In many countries, you can simply sign up with an agency as an English-language proofreader and editor. For those willing to reach a level of bilingual fluency, there is a far less scrappy world beyond English teaching: translating. The pay tends to be far better and you usually work from home. Most translators sign up with an agency (or a few agencies), who take a percentage but ideally, keep you supplied with paying work without you having to go look for it. The sites, www.proz.com and translatorscafe.com, are good places to start to familiarize yourself with the translation world.
The more entrepreneurial expats will often start a local English-language publication where they are, particularly if one doesn’t yet exist. These are usually online and require that the person also take care of the web development, advertising revenue and other aspects—or hire someone who will.
While I had several journalist friends here when I first arrived to Mexico City in 2000, I never imagined I’d be writing copy for a living. After all, my bachelor’s is in physics, and my first connections were largely through a painter friend with whom I had begun to seriously explore the art world.
Through hard work and sheer luck, I scored an assistant curatorship at a museum from 2001 to 2004, but I began to realize that as vibrant and fascinating a career in art is, most of the people doing it have major financial support from family, inheritance, etc.
I needed a Plan B, and when a journo friend took off to grad school, I jumped. They say that there are two ways to make it in print journalism: start at a little, local paper and work your way up to bigger and bigger ponds, or get a job at a foreign English-language paper sold to expats. Abroad, most editors for these expat papers are just looking for native speakers with good grammar and a willingness to learn.
When I found myself working for the first time in journalism as the Living editor for the Miami Herald International Edition’s Mexico Edition in 2004, I definitely found myself in a sink-or-swim situation with a wicked learning curve.
By the time the edition folded in 2007, I had gained a certain mastery over my editorial skills and had begun one-offing the occasional article on film or art. As an editor, I was frequently required to write up blurbs and filler for pages; however, I found feature writing to be an entirely different beast—wild but ecstatically fun to tackle.
Had I been Stateside, I doubt I would have ever had the chance to grow into this profession the way I did. I’m currently the Mexican correspondent for film trade mag Variety and a handful of other “strings”—journo slang for regular writing gigs.
I love the fact that I live or die by my words. It’s richly rewarding, giving me the creative outlet I’ve been searching for all my life, and it largely boils down to having had the huevos to break from my fairly comfy life in Austin, Texas, and face down the often mind-blowingly frustrating hurdles one faces living somewhere like Mexico City.
When I lived in Chicago I worked as an editor at McGraw-Hill (textbook publishing company). One of my co-workers there is married to a guy who is getting his Ph.D. in Chinese history. They moved to Beijing so he could work on his Chinese, and she has a lot of professors and academic big-timers in her family and knew someone who knew someone at the China Daily and got this job. I was traveling around the world and stopped in to visit them one cold February. Later, when they moved back to the U.S., my friend recommended me for the job. As I was kind of nomadic at the time, it was a perfect fit. I applied, was tested, tested again, tested again, interviewed, interviewed again and finally hired. I had experience working as a freelance writer and editor at McGraw-Hill (which being a “Fortune 500” has a lot of international cred). Also, most importantly, I knew someone.
As is usually the case with “Foreign Experts” in China (it’s a government-given title that has to do with visa status) on top of my salary they offered to fly me out here and set me up in an apartment across the street from where I work.
I have two websites, Wander-Argentina.com and Wander-Argentina.org, and also do freelance writing, editing, photography and translation. I took advantage of the wonderful educational opportunities here, completing a low-cost, one-year course in documentary film at the film worker’s union and now occasionally do short feature and travel videos. Thanks to my Latin American lifestyle, I had the time to figure out how to build a website and Wander-Argentina.com is now among the leading English websites about travel in Argentina. Recently I started a secondary website, Wander-Argentina. org, about work, study and volunteer here after watching the number of first-world immigrants to Argentina explode.
If you’re good with children, and can stand a background check, au pair/nanny is another way to go. It helps also to be female (this is one of the most reverse-discriminatory professions in the world), and young (usually under 27). Although people use “nanny” and “au pair” interchangeably, they aren’t really synonymous. A nanny, strictly speaking, is someone whose career is taking care of a family’s children on a live-in basis. There are even schools for nannies. Au pairs are usually of student (or slightly older) age and are brought over in the spirit of cultural exchange and generally work about 25 hours per week. Au pairs can expect room and board and a little pocket change, a simplified visa process (though generally limited to one or two years) and an opportunity to see family life abroad way up close. Nanny contracts can be more individualized and generally they get even more generous deals but there’s not the same fasttrack visa system, particularly if you are older than au pair age. Sites like Great Au Pair (greataupair.com) and Au Pair Search (aupairsearch.com) connect would-be nannies and au pairs with parents who need them, worldwide, while providing a variety of safeguards and protections for both au pair and the family. Also check out Interexchange (www.interexchange.org), which hooks up Americans with families overseas. Dozens more function within a specific country or region. You can find a searchable database at the International Au Pair Association website www.iapa.org (and more resources can also be found in the back of this book). Western Europe is prime nanny country, followed by Australia and New Zealand, but as the middle class expands in Asia and South America, expect more opportunities to open up in those regions as well.
Once you’re in country and have references, you can begin to offer yourself as a nanny. Experienced nannies can work through a local or international agency (many of the latter are based in the U.K.), browse the classifieds, or, as is often the case, land a job through word of mouth. This usually requires permission to seek employment in that country, but the hiring of undocumented workers for childcare is not exactly an unheard-of practice just about anywhere in the world.
Web Producer/Information Architect, Student Jeweler, House-SitterI was in NZ in 2004 traveling and did the research to figure out that my skills (IT and the like) are quite in demand. I decided to take a bit of hiatus from the advertising world and do something more chill, like nannying for a bit while I decided where in NZ I want to live when I finally decide to get back into an office. I signed up at greataupair.com and found a great family to come work for within three months. You pay $40, and then you can send messages to those you are interested in and they contact you with more questions if they are interested. The family that hired me set a time to chat via phone to see if we were a fit. After talking to three families in NZ, I decided on the family who had two little girls. Going from being a nine-to-fiver in the States to a nanny in rural NZ has taken some getting used to, but the freedom I’ve enjoyed was incomparable. After about seven months, I sent my CV to a job recruiter within the advertising industry in Auckland, and within a week, I had four companies interested in meeting me. Things take a bit longer here as what I do isn’t a low-paid position. Companies seem to take their time in really examining who they are hiring, because firing or laying off isn’t so easy here as it is in the States.
If you’re in IT, medicine or any of the others in short occupations list, you should be a shoe-in. In the advertising world, no matter where in the world you are, you sometimes pull long hours but those times were definitely few and far between here in NZ compared to the U.S. As a web producer and information architect, I worked about 40 to 55 hours a week but the high end was rare as people really respect the work/life balance. The fact that we get 20 paid days leave says it all. And if I needed more, they were fine with me taking the time off unpaid and there was no risk in losing my job.
I left full-time work two years ago to fulfill a dream of becoming a studio jeweler. I am studying full-time but still dabble in my past occupation on a part-time basis for extra cash for clients both here and in the U.S. The government here is supportive of students and offers a weekly student allowance (for citizens or permanent residents) to full-time students who qualify. As much as I’m thankful for the allowance, I knew it wasn’t enough to live on so the opportunity came up to house-sit a friend’s house just as I was leaving full time work for school and then out of that I saw the need for house-sitters as New Zealanders are a travelling bunch. I made a website to publicize my services and have been living free as a house sitter for over two years and plan on continuing this for as long as it’s viable.
If you’ve long since been priced out of the dream of opening your own restaurant, starting your own winery or managing your own seaside bed and breakfast in the United States, why not take your business elsewhere? Buy-in costs in Latin American or Southeast Asian countries are substantially lower than they would be at home—and because countries benefit from the investment (especially if you’re going to employ locals) the visa bar is lowered considerably. Those with serious venture capital (in the six-figure range) will find welcome even in the more immigrant-aversive lands.
Most expats piggyback off the tourist trade—starting flat-rental services, guided tours, nightclubs, restaurants, and motels. Depending on how involved your business is, you’ll likely need a local lawyer, and sorting through those in a foreign culture can be an adventure in itself. Laws (particularly if they involve food), business practices and cultural habits can differ dramatically from what you might be used to at home.
We have a chambre d’hote, Narbonne Gites, in the middle of the city. Sometimes we work every day, about two-three hours a day, some weeks we don’t work at all.
In the chambre d’hote we do the usual cleaning and prepare breakfast too that is taken in our main dining room. We guide our guests to what they need or want in Narbonne, we market the property, take reservations.
We were living off savings before the chambre d’hote got off the ground and it looks like this year it will support us completely. The Americans and English we know all have their own businesses. One does dog breeding, others have gites (guesthouses) or home construction companies. One I know is a writer/astrologer and very successful!
I own a hotel, a restaurant and a farm. When I started here, I was running a business taking people on four-wheel quad tours. In 2005, I bought a seven-bedroom hotel and a restaurant next door with a liquor license. I bought the farm at the end of 2008.
When I had employees, I used to market the hotel. For the past year, I just have volunteers.
The way they have it structured is basically, after employees work for you for about two or three years, it doesn’t matter when an employee quits or gets fired. You’re responsible for their unemployment. So when you take somebody on and you’ve had them for 90 days, you are responsible for paying their unemployment when they leave. You will pay whether they quit or get fired, but there’s a difference in how much you have to pay them. If they’ve worked for you for a couple of years and you had to fire them, that’s the worst-case scenario for an employer. They’ll make more money if you fire them than if they actually show up to work. So you have employees that want to get fired and you have employers who will pay them to do nothing just because it costs more to get rid of them.
It can be a nasty situation. Here you’re guilty until proven innocent. If any employee makes an accusation, they don’t have to have any proof, and the government goes after the rich gringo and they are either going to have to prove their innocence or they’re going to have to pay fines.
So I don’t have any employees. I’m the only employee here. Anything else I have is either rented out or is run by a volunteer. Foreigners can’t make money working here unless they have ticos working for them, but they can volunteer. And they can barter. They can trade labor for housing and food. My accountant deals with the other paperwork. I keep things really streamlined. The amounts are really small. I mean, my property tax for a hotel, restaurant and a house is probably less than $200 a year.
The whole time I had my farm, I haven’t paid property taxes but my lawyer says it’s not a big deal. It’ll probably be only another $20–$30 a year.
I run a cash business. I keep a roof over my head, gas in my truck. I survive. When I had employees, I used to market the hotel, but now that it’s all volunteers, I just keep things to a minimum. The people that stay here are people who just show up and they need a place to stay. When I had employees, I had a website and we were full a lot of the time, but now my focus is on the farm.
It’s not like my farm is going to make a lot of money. Once I’m ready, I’m just going to live out on the farm and rent out the hotel. I don’t even want to deal with that anymore.
I know I can have the government come out to my land and they’ll actually plant trees and stuff, but then they’ll be out there all the time monitoring things and with the kind of structures that I want to make, well, I don’t need people poking around. I want to experiment and make a lot of cool structures and not have to ask permission for everything I do.
I want to get a community together but not some kind of community where we’re selling land or something. I want it to be more of a barter community where money is not really an issue. I don’t want to charge anybody rent. I just want to get away from everybody else’s thinking and just create my own reality.
I have been able to maintain a very nice lifestyle, though I am working about 60–70 hours a week. Hopefully this will decrease with time. I have had my real estate business for about three years now, and the visa business for about five years. I consider myself lucky enough to have had a remote network administration job from the States which has provided the foundation and time needed to get started here. My wife manages the businesses with me, and now she has a job that earns her much more than basic salary.
Some of the biggest challenges to me have been learning how to stay up with: 1) changing laws affecting businesses in a developing country; 2) Colombian bookkeeping; 3) when and how to pay taxes correctly; 4) keeping records of international money transfers and rules therein because after all this is Colombia; and 5) cultural work habits of Colombians compared to Americans.
Minimum-wage employees are plentiful, just mediocre. Minimum wage, $300 a month, plus benefits, for a total of around 850,000 pesos, or around $450. Worker protection rights are tight, so don’t try to get around that if you don’t have a contract with the employee, or you may get dragged into court.
Don’t expect the same returns on business in a developing country that you would get in another place. Workers can be cheap but your quality of work might not be what you expect. You get what you pay for, and with high poverty you always have to watch employees carefully for petty items. Trust is of utmost importance with our workers. Colombia along with other places has what I like to refer to as micro-economies. Lower commissions and lower prices for many service-oriented industries produce lower income, so you may have lower margins to work with.
Local authorities will come by and check your papers, visas, accounting, permits, taxes, etc, and if you’re up to par on all this then you’re OK, otherwise be ready to pay a $1,500 USD bribe or more to a lawyer to get you out of the mess. You should only operate storefront operations in certain zones or you will have to pay vacunas (“vaccinations,” i.e. bribes).
I also started ColombiaVisas.com to share information and experiences with other expats and Colombians, as well. Over the years, ColombiaVisas.com evolved into a fulltime business, handling a couple hundred visas a year, relocation services, and also helping expats set up about 50 companies a year in Medellín and Bogotá. I believe that running my businesses from the Internet has saved me from the exposure my friends have had with authorities.
Currently, I run two businesses in Belize. The first is an internet-based business called Wealth Ships, an expat relocation consulting service that helps others properly go through the three phases of relocation—research, preparation, and consulting. I began this business immediately upon arriving in Belize because so many people kept emailing me for help with their upcoming relocation or ongoing research process. Eventually I’d like to expand the service to countries other than Belize, via franchising opportunities. I’ve written one e-book in my “Follow Your Dream Compass” series on the Research phase, and plan on writing books on the remaining two phases soon.
The second business is more of a brick-and-mortar business called Red Roof Property Management. We help landlords with leasing and management of rental properties, absentee owners with caretaking and house sitting, and other miscellaneous services like utility setup or tenant locator services.
When I first moved to Belize, I initially moved to a part of the country that within three months I realized was not right for me. So I moved to a district in the Western part of the country called Cayo, in a town named San Ignacio. Upon moving there, I found it almost impossible to find a rental home. Once I did, I was appalled at the lack of formality in the process and realized there was probably a lot of landlords getting swindled due to that fact.
Since only a few realtors dabbled in property management (and only because they felt like they had to, not because they wanted to), I decided to open a company that focused exclusively on property management.
I found starting a business in Belize was actually quite simple. First, I went to the Town and/or Village board and applied for a Trade License, which I must renew annually. Next, I traveled to the capital and visited the Belize Companies and Corporate Affairs Registry, where I protected my business name by registering it. And that’s it!
If someone wants to secure their business from liabilities and creditors, they can consult with a Belizean attorney to set up a partnership, LLC, or corporation, but that certainly is not a requirement in the beginning. Every year as a business owner, you must file income tax returns, and if you sell goods, every month you must file sales tax returns for any sales over $6250 bze ($3125 USD). If you have employees, you must pay a social security tax, but that is a relatively simple and straightforward venture as well from what I understand, although at this time, we have no employees.
After three months of running Red Roof Property Management, we are doing incredibly well. One of our challenges has been educating the Belizean public as to what it is we do, but they are learning. And the other realtors have welcomed us with open arms.
Initially, my plan was to export ceramic products from Ecuador to the U.S. Cuenca is known for the high quality of its crafts, especially handmade ceramics. Like a lot of expats considering starting a business I quickly discovered that I faced a huge learning curve. I had no experience either in exporting or retail and, in Ecuador, I faced the challenge of acclimating to the culture.
When I complained to the lady who was helping me make business contacts—the same lady who sold me an apartment when I first came to the country—she suggested that I help her sell real estate to gringos, a market she was just getting into. I did, and over several months realized I could make a much better living helping her than trying to get my export biz off the ground.
The real estate partnership has lasted for six years and is still going strong. So long as you are not taking jobs from Ecuadorians, foreign residents are allowed to have businesses here. There is the usual government red tape associated with operating a business but it’s not really overbearing. Business tax rates are a little lower than in the U.S.
Combining a gringo and a local seems to be the best business model in Ecuador, especially if the business is aimed at expats and foreign tourists. I don’t actually sell real estate but I talk and write to clients about living in Ecuador, adjustment issues, legal matters, immigration—stuff I understand since not only had I been a newbie asking the very same questions a few years ago, but I was also in the publishing and advertising/PR business in Miami, San Francisco and Tallahassee, Florida.
Related to real estate, I also give presentations at conferences and seminars for gringos considering moving offshore.
Unrelated to real estate, I wrote “Ecuador: The Owner’s Manual” for International Living. I am also the Cuenca editor for the Miami Herald International Edition and pick up occasional “retranslation” work, rewriting tourist and business English written or translated by Ecuadorians for English-speaking foreigners. I’m not smart enough to do real translation work.
From 2002 to 2004, I worked part-time for an American organic certification agency and represented their company in Mexico. I simultaneously worked as a consultant to a certified organic processing facility located in Northern Mexico, traveling four to six times a year to visit the operations. In 2004, I struck out on my own and created my own business: Integrated Organic Services, Inc. which is incorporated in the USA. I am an employee of my company.
I contract my services as a consultant, inspector, and reviewer to companies in the organic industry, both in Latin America and the USA. Although I: 1) am contracted by U.S. organic certification agencies to perform on-site inspections in Mexico and Latin America, 2) am contracted by U.S. organic certification agencies to perform desk audits of certified organic operations and 3) am contracted by Mexican companies to perform consulting work, for the sake of simplicity, I ONLY report the first to Immigration.
The Mexican companies that contract my consulting services require Mexican invoices. Because my company is not incorporated in Mexico and does not pay taxes in Mexico, it cannot generate Mexican invoices. As such, my husband, who owns his own company, which does pay taxes in Mexico, bills all of my Mexican clients. He pays Mexican taxes on that income.
My skills as a filmmaker were all but useless here, so, after two years, all my savings gone, way into credit card debt (which I had never had in the States), I realized I needed to do something else. A lot of Americans, Canadians and Brits end up teaching English and when I realized I couldn’t pay the rent, I did the same. But it wasn’t enough.
I met a guy who ran one of the best tour companies in Rome. I had never considered tour guide as a job previously, but he hired me on a freelance basis. In the next few months, I picked up another freelance guide gig, learning more itineraries, then another and another.
In the beginning, I was mostly working for other people (who had already established business and websites) and had a few personal contacts inquiring for tours, but over the years, the balance gradually shifted. After two and a half years, I put up my own website and now I rarely do tours for other people, and I’m often so busy I have other people working for me.
It’s funny because I recall when I first moved here, my dad grumbled to my mom, “When is she gonna stop going to museums and archaeological sites and look for a damn job?” And now going to museums and reading books and visiting archaeological sites is my job.
Unfortunately it is becoming more and more difficult for a non-citizen to be a tour guide...so if you aren’t Italian or have a shot at picking up an E.U. passport, you should at least have a degree in a subject like art history, archaeology or something related, in which case you might get a license via something called the Bersani law. You have to have your transcripts translated into Italian and then the government decides if you qualify. This is how most foreigners manage it now although a lot of them still do it illegally also.
And remember, there’s 3000 years of history to cover here, so my advice would be to start reading and studying.
Until recently, independent contractor usually meant freelance writers and photographers and people who gave private lessons—-language, yoga, etc. Thanks to the Internet, armies of workers have become geographically independent of where their labor is consumed. In plain English, they can work anywhere they can get a (usually hi-speed) connection. Transcribers, graphic designers, technical writers and a host of other digital-based careers are moving into the virtual world. Websites such as contractjobs.com cater to this community, matching contract workers to contract jobs anywhere on the planet, while paydays get handled by PayPal. The rise of Internet-based telephones, such as Skype and Vonage and myriad of other smaller companies allow free or low-priced international calling and other features and free videoconferencing, as well. File transfer services such as DropBox (www.dropbox.com) allow you to create virtual workgroups and send and receive larger files than most email servers will allow. Many providers can rent you a U.S. area code and phone number (say 212, in New York) so you can maintain a U.S. profile, but the phone will actually ring at your computer in Colombia.
I was living in Santa Cruz, CA and working in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale). I would commute every day over Highway 17, a notorious death alley where we drove too fast over twisting mountain passes.
On an October afternoon in 1989 (I think), the Loma Prieta (World Series) earthquake destroyed the highway. It would be closed for at least SIX MONTHS. Since I had my own development lab on my property, and the phone lines were back up in two weeks, I started telecommuting. This was enormously successful, and when the highway was reopened, we saw no reason for me to resume physically commuting.
Meanwhile, my wife and I split up (amicably). She hates boats as much as I love ‘em, so since she was the boss, boats were out of my life during the marriage. With her out of the way (so to speak) my boating life resumed.
At a drunken sojourn at a conference in Newport Beach, CA, I gazed out at all the pretty sailboats and said “ya know, I could move aboard a boat and the boss would never know.” This was in ’96, I think. By 1999 I had sold my house (at an obscene profit) and bought Island Flyer, my Lagoon 37 catamaran, in West Palm Beach Florida. I left the States on April Fools Day, 2000.
I’ve been telecommuting ever since. At first with dinghy trips to Internet cafés, then via my Globalstar satellite phone (small data files), and now mostly through Wi-Fi services which are found on most islands. I have a booster kit to increase my range.
My payment is wired to an account in California. I do enjoy a tax break because my workplace (the boat) is located outside the U.S.
I’m a freelance digital illustrator. I send and receive correspondence with clients via email, and deliver my digital files as attachments. I don’t have clients within Thailand. My customer base is all Stateside so I don’t have a conflict with Thai laws, taxes or work permits. I make a modest living by American standards, but my money goes a lot further here in Thailand.
I have met many Americans living abroad that receive financial support from spouses or family, but I’ve supported myself. I work as a freelance graphic designer for companies based in the U.S., which I have done since 2006. This has allowed me to travel, work from the road, and live in any location with an Internet connection.
While I am still freelancing remotely, I mostly work at home in a space I’ve set up for myself. I work as a graphic designer for web and mobile applications, so all of the work can be done by sending files and communication over the Internet. I use Skype and Internet conferencing to present designs and have design reviews with the clients. I have a Wi-Fi connection here, and I keep an Internet key as a back-up in case the Wi-Fi connection goes down or I need to work on the road. I use Skype and online chat to keep in touch with my clients, which right now are two companies based in New York City. Since I worked for them while I lived in NYC, they know me well.
I work on a project basis, which means that work is inconsistent. There are times during the year when I work full-time and other periods where I am not on an active project. Being flexible is essential to being a freelancer. I always meet my deadlines, do work within the set budget, and make sure I put in extra time if needed to make sure the client is happy with the work. For me, missing a deadline or a phone call is not an option.
A hallowed tradition. Pubs, restaurants, and night- clubs are the popular picks among the permitless masses. Laws are sometimes more lax in tourist-related businesses and at any given moment, one of them needs a bartender, waitress, dishwasher, or chambermaid. For those willing to roll up their sleeves, agriculture is another industry that runs on an immigrant labor pool.
It is a breeze to work illegally in Italy if you are willing to work for cheap. You can nanny, wait tables, work in outdoor markets, be a model for art schools, clean houses, tutor English or whatever anyone will pay cash for. I did that for years.