Hi everyone! I'm looking for some help. I love to travel and experience other cultures. I've rubbed off on my family too The point? We would like to move somewhere in Europe for a year or so. The problem I seem to be coming is work. Although we are not poverish, we are not rich. We will sell our house and therefore have a little bit of money, but not much and will need to be able to work while we are there. Any suggestions on how to accomplish that? My husband is a concrete finisher and I am in finance, clerical.

Also, we have a teenage daughter, who may or may not come, but will need to attend school, in English.

Please share any suggestions you might have, I'm just starting my research and could use a ton of help. Thank you

Hi. We have done the same thing - selling up in New Zealand and moving to England for 2 years. It was a huge move especially for the children (11year & 10year olds when we shifted). We have been away from NZ for 5months now and there are good days and bad days...we certainly miss friends, family and NZ life style, however our objective in the move was to experience life on the other side of the world. We chose England because of the language issue but we are enjoying the opportunity to travel to such a wide range of countries and cultures. My husband is an accountant and has found no trouble getting contract work (we have a UK Ancestry visa which allows us to work). Good luck with the move and feel free to ask lots of questions.
Amanda

I guess every country has differnt requirements, but here in Italy you would be unable to work unless you had a company willing to hire you in advance and 'sponsor' your move. Since neither of you works for an international company, and since many international countries no longer post people to Italy because of the costs and bureaucracy, you'd have to be able to prove that you could live here without working.

I think the first thing you need to do is figure out what countries attract you. Do you speak any foreign languages? Have any European heritage that would allow you to get a passport from another country? Once you have a short list of countries, do an internet search for the embassies/consulates of those countries to find out what their requirements are.

The biggest problem is legally living in Europe, you need to either, have a job and get a work visa, have enough money to come on a retirement visa (but with this you are not allowed to work)come on a study visa, or have dual citizenship with a country in the EU.

Moving to England or Germany for example is easier than moving to Italy or France or Spain. Italy is close to impossible now to do it legally.

You don't say what country you are coming from. Or if you speak any other languages.

Welcome to Slow Travel, AN

Cristina's website, www.expatsinitaly.com is probably your best forum to consult in the matter of relocation to Italy. Cristina is also a member of this board and she has just posted a reply a bit earlier, above.

There is also a wealth of information, which in due course you may need, on our main website, Slow Travel.

quote:

Originally posted by Nick z:
You don't say what country you are coming from.

I just assumed they were from New Zealand, now living in England. But no, they don't say if they speak any foreign languages. That would certainly be a one of the deciding factors!

We are coming from America, my husband speaks fluent Tongan, but that won't help much. I can get by in French and Spanish, but neither my husband nor daughter can.

This is probably not the forum to provide a great deal of insight into your desire. You would do better to check out expat sites. The best for Italy is Expats in Italy another site is: Moving Abroad There are many others. Give Google a workout.

Maybe Eastern Europe. The areas still outside of the EU. Might be easier. Certainly less expensive.

You could easily make train trips west for a weekend or longer.

quote:

We will sell our house

Hi, are you serious about selling your house?
I hope not just to move for 1 year in Europe?

You would need to find a job first. If you can't you will have hard time to find even an apartment in some places as you need a reference to rent.

Secondly, before doing so, have you considered staying for 3 months or so in a summer, so you won't disrupt your dauther studies?

If you still want to spend 1 year, why not putting her to a french (other) school, private schools do have some intensive language studies. So she will be fluent in French or Italian after 1 year? It is always interesting to have the child learn another language.

I learnt french much faster than my parents and so I was able to communicate and to guide them at the age of 8.
Just consider it.

To start with you will need to understand what is implied for each country. Then chose your country, or go by a contract.

Personally, I wouldn't go to Eastern Europe. The shock might have been too big. Secondly, anyone in those countries just dream of escaping because of problems and low salaries (I am exagerating here, but really the situation is not that great in these countries, and there is a challenge to find a job).
Good luck.

Some of the other responses are correct; there are other message boards that are better equipped to answer the long list of questions that you'll inevitably have.

That being said, my family and I are permanently relocating to Europe in 6 years, and I've done a LOT of planning and research. As you're coming from the States and going to Europe, if either you or your spouse wish to work and are entrepreneurs, I'd highly encourage you to do some research into what's commonly called the "Dutch Friendship Treaty," a U.S.-Netherlands treaty that makes it very straightforward for any U.S. citizen to relocate to the Netherlands for the purpose of starting a business. Legal residency and the ability to legally earn a living without relying on a sponsoring company make it a pretty attractive deal.

All of this being said, if you are seriously only interested in staying for a year, this might not be the program for you.

In any case, it's something to look into.

We have permanently (or as permanent as it gets for us) relocated to Spain, from Australia. However, and it is a BIG however, we are not allowed to work in Spain. We can only afford to do this as I work overseas and my husband is very happy not to work.

Long term residency visas are easier to get for Spain than for, say, Italy or France - or so my research and experience would lead me to believe.

eliza3 can you recommend a site to get info on long term residency visas for Spain?

It seems that unless I teach English as a second language, there is no way to get over to Europe and work. So I am looking into doing that? Any suggestions or pointers there?
My other option is to find a way to work via internet. I'm looking at a few options there too, but would welcome suggestions.

The biggest problem I think we are going to have is school for my daughter. Average price of English speaking schools that I have found is $30,000 a year. Definitely NOT in our budget. Are public schools free in Europe if we have a VISA? Maybe we can get her a crash course in whatever language the country speaks that we end up in and she can study in that language. I don't know. Again suggestions, ideas, places for more information is more than welcome.

I have been getting discouraged about the move. It seems impossible, but I'm still trying. I wouldn't mind a glimmer of hope.

Thank you to everyone who has responded and an early thanks to everyone who still does. I appreciate it.

I think the rules are different for each country regarding schools and working etc...if you want to know about Italy you need to check out expatsinitaly.com....I am almost positive that every country will have their own website....this site in my opinion is not the best place to find your answers.

Just a comment on your daughter's education - I do not think you should consider a "crash" course in another language as a suitable plan for her, a high school level student, to study on par in that language. European high schools are quite rigourous academically and it does not seem possible that your daughter could learn a new language in a short period of time and be proficient enough to work to level. I teach in a small parochial high school; we occasionally enroll foreign students with limited English skills; they have a difficult time at first, often extending into another school year.

I hope that your family is able to experience life in another country, but you have to be knowledgable about visas, jobs, education - it is a long process and as many have said above, this site is probably not the best for what you need to know.

I have posted these questions on many other sites as well as looked up a lot of foriegn embassies. I have been researching this a lot and have run into a lot of walls.

Even though this site is not quite par on with what I am looking for, I have received more helpful information from slowtalks participants than any other site. I'm still looking elsewhere, asking questions anywhere that looks useful and doing research on the different countries.

But please don't stop sharing anything that you think is useful.

Not knowing if this is "quite par on" with what you are looking for, - since you say this site isn't, - I completely agree with Marcia and have felt concerned about your teenage daughter.
The language barrier aside, she is in an age group that is most difficult for uprooting and integrating into a different cultural-social group.
More than the adults, if she is well prepared - in language profiency and psychologically well conceptualized about what she is getting into - she can have an amazingly enriching experience; if not, expatriation can be a tough experience especially for her.

JilM - we obtained the information we needed for the long term residency visa from the Spanish Embassy website in Canberra, Australia.

While the requirements were pretty clear, we also spoke to them by phone and then went to see them - partly to reassure ourselves but also to meet them and let them know how serious we were.

It was all reasonably straightforward and we were reasonably confident from the beginning. We did have to provide a significant level of documentation of course and the visa needs to be renewed annually. We continue to face issues which most of the other expats here do not - partly as most non Spanish are either other EU citizens or illegal immigrants.

I doubt we would have done all this for a year but we really wanted to move to Europe.

On the subject of children - I do know from some of our British friends here that children have a really tough time adapting - the early teen years being the worst. They are frequently quite resentful at leaving their friends etc and do not see it as the opportunity their parents might.

Hi, I have an off-the-wall suggestion for you just to consider. (For background: My husband and I recently spent a year in Italy. We sublet our house during that time. I did some freelance work by telecommuting, but otherwise, we did not work for that year.)

Because selling one's house, funding the trip, finding a school, and dealing with visas can be such a hassle, what I propose is to do something to avoid all of that...

What if you rented your house for 6 months and took a shorter trip? The reason I say this is because after 6 months away, I realized that we had already had quite a lot of adventure and that we had already experienced the amazing feeling of not having to rush around seeing everything in two weeks. Sure, a year is better. But 6 months could give you the same experience of really being in another culture and perhaps you could avoid working if it's not a full year. (I don't dare address the question of working in cash while you're away. I don't think it's a wise move and we probably shouldn't really discuss breaking the law on this board.)

Ok, here's the second suggestion to avoid the visa hassle: You can spend 3 months in some countries without a special visa. Then you can leave and go to another country for 3 months. It wouldn't work with two EU countries (I believe) but, for example, you could spend 3 months in Italy and then 3 months in Switzerland and that is completely legal.

The school issue could be solved by going for 3 months of the school year and 3 months of summer. That would give you only 3 months of home-schooling to worry about. How old is your child? There is so much history to learn just being in Europe that I'm sure you could rival the best American schools just by trying to understand the history of where you are.

I hope you'll forgive my crazy ideas! I was just trying to think of some way to get around some of the obstacles. You have a great idea for an adventure!!

It is not so much EU countries but Schengen countries to be aware of the 90 day rule.

There is plenty of information on schengen on this board and other places.

This tells you what countries are part of schengen.

http://www.eurovisa.info/SchengenCountries.htm