Sure, the most important consideration when we decided to move to another country was to make sure that we actually had a legal way to live there, but beyond that there were so many other things that had to fall into place in order to make it happen.
Think of all the things you usually have to do when you plan a move, then double (triple?) them. Yes, you have to find a new place, sell your old place and pack, but that’s just the beginning of the list.
Not that those things are easy in an international move, they definitely aren’t. Finding a new place in a country with a housing shortage would have been nearly impossible without someone local to help (in our case it was Brian’s cousin who thankfully knows just about everyone in this town/county/region/country). We were extremely lucky to be able to get a great offer on our house very quickly, thanks to a seller’s market and an amazing Realtor (thanks Matt Harnick and team!). And as for packing, we had a small pod going as overseas cargo and a bunch of suitcases on the plane, but we had to get rid of everything else we owned. We had a Dumpster, sold things, gave a lot of stuff away, and some things will eventually have to get hauled away by a junk company. Without the help of my mom, my aunt and a lot of friends, there is no way it could all get done. Honestly, without my mom, a lot of things wouldn’t have happened. Including me.
Anyway, aside from those normal moving hurdles, here are a few other major tasks to make this move happen.
Work
You can’t just move to another country and continue your remote work as usual. You need to make sure your company has a license to operate in your new country. Even if they do, there is no guarantee that they will let you make the transfer (as I unfortunately learned). It is also really hard to line up work in another country before you get there. A lot of companies immediately reject your application if it is not geotagged from the right place.
Bank Accounts
What we learned is that you can’t set up a local bank account without actually being in the country (even online), and there are a lot of things you can’t do without a local bank account. I was able to set up an account on Wise to transfer in money from my US bank account and convert dollars to euros, then transfer euros to our landlord to pay the rent, but the Wise account doesn’t actually count as a local bank account. We had to wait until we got here to set up an account so we could get health insurance and cell phones.
School
Getting our son registered for school was another interesting hurdle. We reached out and were able to get information and start the registration process, but in order to formally register for school, the student has to have a PPS number (the Irish version of a social security number). The wrinkle here is that you have to go to an in-person appointment to apply for the PPSN, and Brian needed to have one as well. Luckily, the school was willing to hold a place for us without a formal registration, but they weren’t able to formalize his course selection until he could be officially registered. We’re hoping he can get the classes he wants, we’ll find out soon.
The other interesting part of getting registered for school was figuring out exactly what year to register for. The classes we have in the US don’t really translate to the Irish school system, so his transcript was pretty much useless in making the decision. We’re pretty much going with our gut and hoping for the best.
So needless to say, there are lots of things that have to be done prior to your move. The best you can do is make a list and knock things off one at a time (and then add some more). With the right friends and family who are there to support you, anything is possible.
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