How exactly did I move from the U.S. to Europe? How did I actually make that move? What steps
did I take? How did I get a job and a visa? I get these questions a lot. So today I'm
going to do my best to answer them.
Hey everyone! I’m Dana and you’re watching Wanted Adventure Living Abroad.
Just a heads up this is definitely not the only way to move from the U.S. to Europe but
this was my way. This is how I did it. But there are many different paths that you can
take, Europe is a big place and things work differently from country to country, and everyone
is different as well! So definitely do not take this as the one and only way to do it, the only
way to follow. Everyone has to find their own way and what works for them.
First question: did I have a job lined up in Europe before moving there? No. I had no
job. I sold everything at a yard sale and bought a one-way ticket to Prague and moved
there knowing that within the first 90 days I needed to find a place to live, get a job,
get that longer stay visa, and make it work. Or move to some place else. I knew I did not
want to return to the U.S., at least not right away, so I just figured, I don’t know, if
it doesn’t work out in Prague, I’ll go to Asia. I don’t know. I didn’t really
have a plan. I was just following wherever life took me.
So that’s my first tip for you. Don’t have too many expectations of what should happen.
Expectations will make these things more stressful,
and not having expectations should, hopefully, make it a lot less stressful. In the end I
did get a job and a visa in Prague, but if I hadn’t it would have been okay, because
I would have just gone somewhere else. And having that mindset, for me, it really took
the pressure off and made everything about the move a lot less daunting and scary.
And who knows, maybe if things hadn't worked out in Prague, now I’d be making videos
in Japan. No idea. A year later when I moved from Prague to Munich I noticed that it was
really a lot more stressful because I had my, my heart set on making it work in Munich,
specifically, because I wanted to live there with Mr. German Man, so it was a lot more
stressful trying to get that visa because I was no longer open to just going wherever
life took me, I wanted to direct the train and direct my path. So, if you can be more
flexible, in my experience, that really, really helps. And, you know, sometimes the world
just has some amazing experiences to offer you that you never would have even thought
of! So if you can just go wherever life takes you, sometimes that’s when the most magical
things happen.
Before leaving the U.S. to move to Prague, I did sign up for a month-long TEFL course
in the city, so that I would have a place to go each morning for the first four weeks
and meet people. I knew that making connections was important and I figured, I don't know,
maybe teaching English would be a way for me to get that longer stay visa. So, the TEFL
course was as much for stability, as meeting people, as just I thought having a TEFL certificate
could come in handy at some point during my abroad adventure, wherever it took me.
Another question I get is: so then, how do you find a job when you don’t know anyone
abroad and you don’t speak the language? Okay, well first of all, learn a little bit
of the language before moving abroad because even if you’re not fluent, if you show up
at a job interview and you can ask how the people are doing and say hello in their language,
make a little bit of small talk, it really goes a long way. And secondly, you don’t know anyone?
Meet people. As quickly as you can. That’s why I signed up for the TEFL course even though
I didn’t know if I would end up teaching English. When I arrived in Prague I went to
meet-ups, I quickly found the English language forum online. Here in Germany it’s ToyTown.
In Prague it was Expat.cz, and there you can find meet-ups and groups and they have a jobs
section that I checked once or twice or more times a day.
From the moment I landed in Prague I was looking for a job. I told everyone I met, hi I’m
Dana, I’m looking for a job. Hi, I’m Dana, I'm looking for a job. But I couldn’t get
just any job. I needed a job that would sponsor a longer-stay visa. Now, I am no visa expert,
but the way I understand it is, it needs to be a job for which there’s a reason they
are giving it to you and not to someone from that country. So that's why English teacher
is such a big one.
I didn’t want to limit myself to teaching English, but I realized that my skill as a
native English speaker would probably be my biggest selling point, so I applied everywhere
I could find online for which I could think that English and my native speaker abilities
could possibly be important. And like I said, every single person I met, I told I was looking
for a job related somehow to English. In the end I got a job at a computer helpdesk call
center, first level support. It had been outsourced from the UK, because it was cheaper
to have it in Prague, and I was hired for my native English skills and they sponsored
that longer-stay visa.
Another question I get is: did you have a place to live before moving abroad? Well sorta.
I booked a month-long stay in a hotel in one of those high-rise buildings out in the outskirts
of the city that cost, um, 8000 crowns for the month, which at the time, 7 years ago,
was about 400 dollars. And for that I got a tiny, little bed and a toilet and a shower.
So I gave myself a month in there to actually find a real apartment.
The next question that I get asked quite a lot is: how much money should I have saved
up before moving abroad? And the answer to that really depends on you and where you're
moving to. Prague, for example, is a lot cheaper than here in Munich. And how much to have
saved up depends on what you’re comfortable with. In some countries there are other options
for getting longer-stay visas besides getting a job to sponsor you, for example studying.
Studying the language or studying in university. But I believe with some of those visas, you
can’t necessarily work as well or you can’t work as much, you can only study. So then
you’re just spending, spending, spending and not earning, or not earning that much,
so then obviously you would need to have more saved up before going. But if you’re planning
on trying to get a job to sponsor your visa, well then you’d have to land a job within
the first few weeks or hopefully month of getting to the country, so theoretically you
really wouldn’t be going that long without earning money. Unless of course that doesn't
work out, in which case having more money saved up would allow you to be more flexible.
And then I also get asked: do you speak German or did you speak German before moving there?
And, like I said before, it is good to learn at least a little bit of the language before
showing up in the country. I did that with Czech and with German as well. I wasn’t
fluent, definitely wasn't fluent, but I knew enough to have some small talk and I found
that really goes a long way with people. Just showing that you’ve made an effort really helps.
So my question for you is: what other questions do have about moving abroad and, if you've
done it, tell me about your moving abroad experience. Where did you go, how did you
do it, and what advice would you give to people who want to move to that country?
Please let me know in the comments below.
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
And, like I said before, it is gurd...gurd, gurd. It is gurd. It is gurd. How you doin' today? I'm gurd.