Emigrating Overseas?

Hi there: how are you? Summer seems to be receding further and further away…roll on my holiday to Morocco in October, where the weather no doubt will be lovely!

I have been chatting to a number of people recently about emigrating: many are the reason they give but one of the chief ones seems to be lack of employment here in the UK. When you hear news like social housing firm Connaught, which employs 10,000 people, going into administration on Wednesday it is food for thought indeed. But the question is: will it be any easier to find employment abroad - and how will you set about doing this?

First, the nuts and bolts. EU citizens are not required to have a work permit in order to work in the EU. However, you will need proof of residency once you do get a job. To do this you usually apply to the Immigration Department. Non-EU citizens are generally required to have a work permit and a residence permit in order to be employed abroad and can be a harder nut to crack.

There is no doubt about it: first prize is either to get a transfer abroad via your present form or to line up a job before you move. You may think of contacting the local embassy of the country you are thinking of moving to for assistance, or perhaps find yourself a blog or Internet site that deals with getting jobs in the country you are planning to move to.

If that fails, what next?

As an English speaker, the first job that springs to mind is that of teaching English – of course this only really applies in countries where the first language is not English.In most countries there is a desire to learn English, not the least as it is generally considered the business language of the world.

While still in the UK you can search for teaching jobs in publications such as the TES (Times Educational Supplement) and the Guardian EFL pages on Tuesdays. Alternatively, certain ESL (English as a Second Language) websites like ESL employment and tefl.com can be useful. Upon arrival you can try local newspapers or perhaps employment agencies or international companies. Some British Council offices are helpful too as they produce lists of local schools and can point you in the right direction.

Tourism is another promising field of employment that you could try; jobs here are mainly available in the summer. You may think that this sort of work won’t pay the bills for ever but at least you can be looking around while earning a few cents.

For business related opportunities, the bigger cities should be your focus.


How to seek out jobs:

• English periodicals. Here you will find a selection of jobs from teaching to secretarial, advertising and sales

• Job agencies, especially in the larger cities. Remember to have your CV and references to hand

• Ask around - try that friendly shop owner, or pop into an Estate Agent...if they don’t have anything, they may know someone who has. Personal contacts can be very helpful when looking for a job

• Contact working expats, either personally or through the Internet: they have been where you are and may well be able to help

• Place ads in papers, bar notice boards, at the golf course, in shops etc.

Other options:

• A large number of UK recruitment agencies have permanent bases abroad – ask large employment agencies in the UK before you move if they have an office in the country you are moving to

• Try informal methods of recruitment such as word of mouth, networking and speculative applications, especially for small and medium-sized companies.

Self-employment

If you are an EU national or a permanent resident with a residence card you can work in a EU country as a self-employed person or a sole trader. As such, you must meet certain legal requirements and register with the appropriate organisation.

Getting started in your own business

Just a few very basic points:

• If you plan to run your own business, give careful consideration to where you will be living in relation to your customers

• Make sure that you are doing something that is different, something that will benefit your potential customers and make them more inclined to deal with you

• Be sure that there is enough demand for your product or service and that there are sufficient customers to keep you in business

• There are very few businesses that are profitable from the start. It’s therefore very important that you budget for start up costs and that you have sufficient funds to keep you and your family going until the business starts to make a profit.
  

Need any help at all? The friendly team at the OCG Resource Centre chat to people moving abroad on a daily basis and may be able to help. Call them on 0207 898 0549 - there is no cost or obligation at all and you may find just the information you need.

I hope this has given you a few ideas. I’d love to hear if your plans include working abroad and, if so, what your strategy is?

In the meanwhile, I am going to get back to my job of happily tapping away on my computer in the good old UK! Take care until next week,

Carol.

A ray of light in the gloom...

The news from Greece is not good this week, to say the very least. An estimated 100,000 people took part in the march in central Athens to protest austerity measures being pushed through by the government and sadly three people died in the ensuing mayhem.

The measures were instituted at the insistence of the EU and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Greece's inability to keep borrowing at exorbitant rates, coupled with the delay in decisive action to remedy the situation, led to the rapid collapse of the Greek bond market. This in turn affected Portugal and Spain, driving the euro lower against the dollar and sterling and prompting losses on all Western European stock markets and Wall Street.

There is a great deal of bitterness in Greece as people feel that the man in the street will have to pay for years of corruption and prevarication by greedy and/or incompetent politicians. Prime Minister George Papandreou talks of the need for ‘decisive’ action as Greece earns an 11th-hour respite with EU-IMF aid package set at 120 billion euros over three ‘harsh’ years - but will he have the guts to push unpopular legislation through? Will the opposition put petty politics aside and put the country first? It remains to be seen…

What we sometimes lose sight of is how the economy is tied up with politics. As an example, close to 1,000 tourists on a cruise ship were stopped from disembarking in Piraeus by Greek unionists, protesting planned legislation that will allow cruise ships with foreign crews to dock in Greek ports. This prompted the cruise company to warn that it may suspend visits to Piraeus.

You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that, if this occurs, at least 1,000 tourists per week will no longer visit Athens as part of their Mediterranean cruise, and that’s just one cruise liner. It means that the alighting passengers will not eat at restaurants, visit museums or buy souvenirs – and bear in mind that tourism forms the backbone of Greece’s economy.

It does seem that there is a singular lack of forethought as to how strike action and protest marches will effect the economy – mind you, I suppose the same could be said about the BA strikes at a time when BA is struggling to keep afloat. Add to this the natural disaster of volcanic ash making tourists wary of travelling to Europe and it really does seem a recipe for financial disaster when Greece relies so heavily on turism.

All this would seem to be unremittingly gloomy, but interestingly enough, if you are in the process of buying property abroad right now it may not be.

On Wednesday sterling hit €1.16/£1 against the euro. If there is one single thing that you can do right now to protect yourself, it is to sign up with a reputable currency company like Smart Currency and consider ‘forward buying’ your currency. As Smart mentioned in an email sent out to all clients, and I quote: ” Even though the European Central Bank and the IMF say they have agreed a debt rescue package for the Greeks the markets remain unconvinced. And problems are spreading to other European countries such as Spain and Portugal, whose debts are much greater than the Greeks.”

You can buy currency at today’s rate for up to a year in the future. This means effectively that you will know in advance exactly how much your currency transfers will cost you. You will not have to be in the hands of whatever financial disaster may arise, and that includes any problems that may hit the UK. Frankly, the wisest course of action would be to pick up the phone and have a chat to a currency expert about this. Right now! Go to www.smartcurrencyexchange.com

Let me know how your plans to visit or buy in Greece are going. I am planning a visit in August and I can’t wait! Any ideas out there – what’s your favourite place? I’m toying with the idea of Hydra, Evia or perhaps Corfu…?

Take care…bye for now!

Carol.
www.greecebuyingguide.com

Living in Greece

Hello there!

My name is Carol. I immigrated to the UK - the land of my birth – in 2006, after spending a lifetime in South Africa. I had a serious health scare and it’s funny how something like makes you reassess your priorities isn’t it? It took me a very short time to realise that I wanted to be nearer both my children and their families in London and so I packed my bags, left behind me a wonderful job and many close friends to move here.

Anyway, as luck would have it, my daughter had a friend who was relocating to New York so I moved into her lovely flat for a while. Another friend of my daughter’s bore my CV off to her child’s school where it was picked up by my present boss’s wife…and here I have happily beavered away at The Overseas Guides Company ever since! My friends in SA were disbelieving at first: could it be true that I had a job that entailed visiting, writing about and endlessly discussing the country that I truly love – Greece? And they call that WORK?

Part of my job has been to travel abroad, to have a look at various property options and to meet all the property professionals that many of the OGC readers have come to use and rely upon. Crete, Corfu, the Peloponnese, Aegina, Athens...those are just a few of the places that I visited and established contacts that could offer OGC readers assistance.

I have talked to literally hundreds of folk who are taking the plunge and moving to Greece. I have also contributed to the Greece Property Buying Guide and it struck me that it may just be useful for me to share with you what I have learnt, both from my own personal experiences and from what I have picked up from listening to the many concerns, experiences and tales shared with me on a daily basis by OGC readers.

So do join me weekly as I chat about various aspects of visiting Greece with a view to buying property or indeed just to share a few thoughts on the country that I have been visiting for well over forty years. You never know, there may just be something that will help you, inspire you or just plain bring a smile to your face!
www.greecebuyingguide.com