How To Move to Another Country the Easy Way

Want to move abroad? Avoid what I did. Do what I learned

Many people would like to live in another country but think it´s too risky and out of their comfort zone.

Fortunately, today we have better ways to move abroad. I did it the wrong way (so much that I almost killed myself), but I learned the easy path in the process, and I explain it in this story.

Who likes risk?

Risk tolerance varies significantly from person to person, but what I can say for sure, at least in my case, is that you will never enjoy it. You tolerate it.

My philosophy of life is: if there is a better way, take it.

All the better if it can be done without risk or with less risk.

I’m not interested in adrenaline.

I do something only when I consider it pleasurable, necessary, or sometimes unavoidable.

However, a few years ago, I decided to leave everything and move with my family to Mallorca, Spain.

And although the story has a happy ending, I did it the hard way and struggled a lot.

That’s why I ask myself how I would do it if I had to do it today.

How would I reduce the risk and enjoy the process more based on what I have learned?

The truth is that in the last few years, things have been getting easier for anyone who wants to live in another country.

And since the pandemic, they have started to get a lot easier, believe it or not.

The “castaway strategy.”

I arrived in Mallorca with a hazardous strategy.

It was a “leap of faith.” Travel first and make decisions on the spot.

Specifically, I traveled with a very general and undeveloped idea to create a digital marketing business and considered a plan B to start a traditional business.

I went through four different stages:

• The first year was dedicated primarily to getting a legal residence, a house, a school for the kids, etc. The digital business was ruled out for various reasons, and towards the end of the year, I got a minor contract for remote work, but that did not cover our expenses.
• The second year we opened a physical business which didn’t work out, and we closed at the beginning of the following year. The reasons are varied, but the main thing was knowing neither the sector nor the peculiarities of the local consumer — a genuine risk when trying to start a business in a new country.
• The third year I got a job in a local company and worked there for a year and a half.
• In the fourth year, I went from working in the Mallorcan company to working remotely for two companies in Argentina, one of them until a year ago when I started freelancing again for several clients.

I was finally able to organize my life in the place I wanted to be, but I did it through a winding and challenging road, learning with many bumps that ended with me at the hospital. Twice.

That´s why today, I would do it differently.

As the say goes: experience is a comb you get when you are already bald.

In my defense, I did something that many people who move to another country have done.

The classic thing is to look for a job or start some business.

And when I say job, I mean traditional employment in the country of residence.

That´s the “normal” thing to do.

The three amigos

I have three friends, Diego, Adrian, and Federico, who live in different countries and followed different paths.

Diego left in 2004 for Adelaide, Australia.

When the Australian government notified him that he was granted the citizenship he had requested years ago, he was given 30 days to enter the country or lose it.

In other words, he left the country with almost no time to get ready.

A mutual friend sold his house, and they lived on savings until he got a job, which took some time.

An emergency landing. But in the end, successful.

Adrián went to Paris in 2010. He searched for and found a job through a specialized employment website and had almost his entire selection process via Skype.

When he traveled with his family, he already had a contract.

Soft landing.

Federico had first lived in Vienna, having arranged an employment contract before moving there.

In 2018 for personal reasons, he decided to move to Warsaw.

When he brought it up with his boss, she suggested they continue the relationship remotely as most of the work could be done remotely.

Idyllic landing.

I tell these three stories because they are very different and serve to illustrate three different strategies:

• Searching for a job upon arrival
• Searching for a job on the Internet before traveling
• Negotiating with your employer to do your job remotely from your new location.

All three ways are valid, although they go in increasing order of desirability.

The first is to jump in and figure it out as you go (like I did).

The second is safer but involves changing jobs and employers.

The third is the best, in my opinion, because it involves the least change.

Diego’s option was the normal one all along. Adrián’s became more normal from the end of the 2000s.

But today, what is normal?

If I did it again.

Nowadays, there is another way to emigrate.

You can look for a remote job from the very beginning, that is to say, before you travel.

There is an explosion of sites and platforms to search for remote work.

A few years ago, this was available for people working in software development or design and usually in freelance format, i.e., short contracts or one-off jobs.

Then it became widespread for roles in marketing or business development in startups through Angel List, for example.

Today, one can look for a job, even at the management level, in finance, accounting, HR, sales, or customer service, to name just a few, on sites such as Remotive, Just Remote, or dozens of other platforms.

The reality is that the changes since I arrived make it very clear that there is another way to migrate.

Much easier, much safer, and much more pleasant.

What I would do today if I were in the same situation again would not be to move and look for a job.

First of all, what I would look for an income:

• before traveling
• not limited by a place of residence and
• not necessarily from a job

Is it possible? Yes.

Is it simple? Yes.

Is it easy? Not so much.

Although it is easier than before and a lot less risky.

This new process, which I would recommend to anyone looking to emigrate, is as follows:

• Create an online income (remote work, freelance work, a web business)
• Choose the ideal country of residence
• Apply for a remote work visa
• Search on the web for a place to live
• Travel

Very different, much more pleasant, and much more feasible. Less risky.

Before doubts assail you, let me clarify a few points.

Creating an online income is not just for IT people; it`s where a large part of the labor market is going.

This can be having a remote work or any internet income.

I´m not talking about a scam like “make money while you sleep” or any other hype from one of the many hucksters that, it is true, swarm around.

This is not even a technological trend; it is a profound social change.

Neither mandatory nor necessarily for everyone. But solid and growing.

Today Adrián, for example, could be applying for a job similar to the one he has, but remote.

That is, he would not have had to do the last interview online or have moved to work.

He could have worked wherever he wanted and received his salary in his bank account.

Moving is optional. Where to move is your choice.

This is increasingly common even for positions of some responsibility and, COVID has only accelerated the trend.

To sum up

We used to approach moving abroad as a process of travel somewhere first and then finding a job.

Or even finding a job at the destination before traveling.

However, today it is possible to take advantage of the separation between where you live and where you work.

It is possible to arrange your income first and decide where you want to live later, provided your income is location-independent (i.e. remote).

Whether you prefer a remote job or other web-based income is up to you.

It´s not always easy to get that, but it´s always rewarding and gives you priceless freedom.