Every year thousands of individuals decide to move permanently overseas and to start a new life for themselves and their families in a new land. For a significant number of these people this will prove to be one of the best decisions that they have ever made, but for many others the dream will quickly turn into a nightmare. Here are just a sample of the many things which you will need to consider.

� Make sure that you really do wish to move permanently overseas.

They say that the grass is always greener on the other side and it is extremely easy to paint an idyllic picture of life in your chosen country. However, when you arrive, you might well discover that the grass is now much greener back home. It is also generally the case that your thoughts about a country as a holidaymaker is quite different from that as a resident.

Not only is it essential to visit the country a number of times before deciding to move there, but you should also do so at different times of year and for increasingly lengthy periods of time. You should also try 'living' in the country by renting a house or condo and living as far as possible as you would as a resident rather than a holidaymaker. If you still feel that relocating is the correct choice after you have spent several months or so 'living' in the country, then it is a fair bet that you will not regret your choice.

� Make certain that you understand the immigration rules for your chosen country.

Look at the current immigration rules of your chosen destination and also take a look at its immigration history and any known or rumored plans for change.

In many cases you will need to meet strict visa requirements and some of these may be inconvenient, expensive and leave you with little security. The absolute last thing you ought to do is to sever your ties with home, purchase a condominium and get your kids settled into school only to find that you are not permitted to extend your visa and have forty-eight hours to leave the country.

� Take a very close look at your finances.

Think carefully about just how you plan to support yourself financially in your chosen country. Do you, for example, plan to seek employment after you arrive to give you an income, or do you intend to fund yourself from investments, savings or a pension from home?

If you plan to seek employment overseas then just how easy will it be to find work? If you are able to get work, what kind of salary are you likely to get? Will they allow you to work at all? Many countries will require you to have a work permit and these are sometimes issued only in exceptional circumstances or for employment requiring specific skills or qualifications. In a lot of cases your visa will clearly say that you are not allowed to seek employment.

If you are going to fund yourself from sources at home, do you have enough resources not simply for today but for the next ten or twenty years or more? For example, if you are going to be taking a pension overseas will it keep pace with the rising cost of living? In a lot of countries you are allowed to receive a pension overseas but, if you opt to do so, you will lose any cost of living increases and your income will be fixed at the level at which you start to take it overseas.

� Think about what you will do with your assets back home.

If you own your own home will you rent it out, sell it or simply leave it empty? What will you do with your car, furniture and other personal possessions?

Naturally your home is far more than a simple asset as it also provides you with a tie to your home country and affords you an address back home which might be extremely useful if you do not have friends or family who are happy to let you use their address. You only have to wait until your credit card runs out and your bank tells you that they can only send the replacement card to the registered address in your home country.

As far as your personal possessions are concerned you could of course dispose of many of them if you wish, keeping only those or particular sentimental or real value, or you can take them along with you. But just how easy is it to ship things out and how much will it cost? Look carefully too at the rules in your chosen country. Some countries will allow you to bring more or less anything you wish into the country, but other countries will have strict limits on importation or impose high import taxes. In many cases for example it would be far cheaper to purchase a new car than to ship your own car and to pay high import duty and possibly to have to have the car altered to comply with local requirements for registration.

� Take a careful look at the provision of healthcare.

You might feel fit and healthy now but, if you are considering relocating abroad permanently, then the time is going to come when you will need to avail yourself of the local healthcare facilities. Just how good are those facilities and how well do they compare to the facilities that you are accustomed to?

Yet another very important consideration is the provision of public healthcare. If you live in a country that provides publicly funded healthcare, such as the UK, then you may be more than a bit shocked by the cost of medical treatment when you find yourself in a country with only private healthcare. Of course, if you are accustomed paying for private healthcare, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover that you obtain the same level of or better medical treatment far more cheaply.

No matter what the case, healthcare is something which you will need to examine very carefully and you will most certainly want to have some form of expatriate health insurance plan.

This short list of only five tips is far from exhaustive but hopefully it will give you a starting point and get you going in the right direction. Becoming an expat is a very big step and one which requires a great deal of careful thought.

Donald Saunders writes on many subjects, in particular health, and is also himself an expat. For more information on     in general then please visit MedicalHealthInsuranceT   om