Six tips for first-time expats

Planning your move to another country? If so, you may be excited and anxious in equal measure.

Becoming an expat is an amazing experience, but the first year can bring challenges as you adapt to your new adopted country and culture.

But fear not! We’ve put together a list of seven tips to help you jump in with both feet so you can start enjoying your life as an expat from the get-go.

1. Do your research

Before you take the plunge, make sure you know what you’re jumping into.

Learn as much as you can about all the fun things, like taxes, healthcare, and insurance, as well as less obvious stuff, such as mobile phone providers and public transport links. The more prepared you are for life in your new country, the easier and more enjoyable it’ll be when you arrive.

Researching your new local area is also essential, but requires a much more practical approach. Try visiting and perhaps living short term in a town before committing to a purchase or a long-term lease. A month-on-month tenancy or an Airbnb property will allow you to experience the area first hand before deciding whether you want to set down roots.

2. Explore the culture

Once you’re standing on new soil, get out and explore.

Roam the streets by foot and start drawing a map of the locale in your mind. Explore the outskirts, visit the shops and cafes and parks, and venture off the beaten track to find shortcuts and hidden gems. You’ll not only gain useful knowledge about the area and its amenities, but you’ll also start to develop a sense of familiarity with the place.

But exploring goes beyond just travelling around your new town. You need to get stuck into the culture. Find out about any local traditions, habits or cultural practices and give them a go. This way, you’ll start to turn that physical familiarity into a deeper feeling of belonging.

3. Join the community

Of course, in order to truly belong, you’ll need to make some friends, and this is particularly important for a newly arrived expat.

Often when we move countries we’re leaving behind friends and family. Meeting new people can help you manage feelings of homesickness or missing your loved ones.

Friends also fulfil a practical role as well as an emotional one. They can provide support, advice and information, all of which are incredibly useful when you’re trying to settle into a new area.

While expat groups are great, and you should certainly seek out and befriend other expats, make sure you also mingle with the locals. You’ll learn new things, make great friends, and truly become a part of the community.

Introduce yourself to your neighbours, attend local events, and just speak to people you see out and about. You could also use the digital realm to connect with new people, perhaps searching for Facebook groups or using the Meetup app.

4. Learn the lingo

This tip goes hand-in-hand with the previous two. If you really want to embrace your adopted country’s culture, and make friends with the locals, then learning the language is essential.

It demonstrates that you’re willing to make an effort, and your new neighbours will definitely appreciate it.

From a practical perspective, it will also make your new life a whole lot easier. As your grasp of the language grows, you’ll be able to navigate day-to-day life with ease.

There are plenty of free language-learning apps available, such as Mondly or Duolingo. It’s also a good idea to download Google Translate, which can translate text, voice and even images captured through your camera – the perfect tool in a linguistic emergency.

5. Create consistency

While it’s really important to jump into your new life as an expat, immerse yourself in the local culture and try new things, it’s just as important to not completely abandon who you are and where you come from.

You’re bound to change, and that’s usually a positive thing, but it can be quite overwhelming.

By maintaining some consistency with your pre-expat life you can anchor yourself to something familiar, which can in turn help you adapt to change.

Perhaps bring a few choice possessions with you, some items that you’re sentimentally or personally attached to. Photographs and furnishings are great, as they can make your new dwelling feel like home.

Also, try to continue any pastimes or hobbies you enjoyed before the move. Find out if there are local clubs or venues that you can attend.

This continuity can keep you grounded during a period of rapid and radical change: even if you’re starting a new chapter, it’s still your book.

6. Keep in touch

Likewise, try to keep in touch with family and friends back home.

Even though the internet makes it ‘easy’ to connect, it can often be hard to find the time to check in with distant friends. You may be completely caught up in the excitement of your new life, or it might just slip your mind.

Try scheduling in time, perhaps daily, weekly or monthly, to chat with the people most important to you. Just as with joining the community and creating consistency, this can help you to overcome feelings of homesickness and instability at a time when you might be feeling a huge mixture of emotions.

7. Figure out your finances

Last and emphatically not least, have a financial plan.

Now, the level of detail this plan has could depend on what kind of expat you are. If you’re providing for and moving with your family then you’ll likely want a watertight budget with additional contingencies in place.

But if you’re twenty-something and going solo as a digital nomad then perhaps you can risk playing things a little looser.

Either way, you’ll need to make sure you’ve got enough money to live on, at least temporarily, as well as a back-up fund for emergencies.

You’ll also need an efficient way to transfer money, so that you can quickly and easily make and receive payments overseas.

With the Currencies Direct app, you can make on-the-go exchanges 24/7, without any transfer fees. And as a specialist forex provider, we offer far more competitive exchange rates than most high-street banks are able to.

So those are our tips for first-time expats. Hopefully this advice will help you optimise the positives and overcome the challenges of moving to a new country. Just remember to plan, prepare, and jump into your new life as an expat with enthusiasm.