Expat Experience Part 5: Let’s Go!
No, you’re not ready to go to your new destination yet. First, go to the State Department web page and look up your destination, especially if it’s in the Third World. Are shots and vaccinations recommended? Get them. If your doctor doesn’t do them, she’ll know where to get the shots. Carry a record of the inoculations you get with your travel documents. There are some dangerous diseases in this world and you want all the protection that modern medicine can give. While you’re at it, go to your dentist, and get your eyeglasses prescription updated. If you’re taking regular medications, lay in a supply here. There will be pharmacies and dentists and eyeglasses where you’re going. But it would be annoying to have to cope with these issues when you arrive. Hopefully by the time you need eyeglasses again your energetic Duolingo work will have made you fluent enough to talk to the optician.
Did your long-term stay visa include proof that you have health insurance? If it did, you’ve already acquired health insurance that will work in your new country. If it didn’t, you want health insurance that will work in your new country. This is important for retirees to think about. Your Social Security, once it hits your bank account can be spent anywhere in the world. But Medicare and Medicaid only work in the USA. You cannot take it with you. Set up health insurance now. You want to have it, in case you break your thumb at your destination.
Now, your American home. You’re giving up your rental, or selling or renting your house, right? You’re not going to pay two rents, or leave your house sitting there empty. This is all wise and well. But think about where you want to receive your American mail once you move. There are things (replacement credit cards, for instance) that must be mailed securely, straight to you. You can hire a mail drop company that will resend your mail to you, anywhere in the world. Or, if you have a trustworthy friend or relative who agrees, use their address for all your important mail. Then change the addresses: all your bank accounts, financial institutions, insurance, Social Security, everything, to that address. Get as much switched to electronic or online that you can. Eventually, when you rent or buy that permanent home in Dubrovnik or Taipei, you’ll change your mail, one more time, to that address. But if you can’t do that yet, you have to do something.
More nifty angles: your credit cards. You’ll be charging things in Morocco. But you’ll be paying in American dollars. Will Visa or MasterCard charge you a fee to do this? Some cards do, and some don’t. The only way to find out is to phone the customer service number on the back of the card and ask them. Use only the cards that don’t charge you. Also, your cell phone — will they charge you more to make calls in Istanbul? Switch to a cell plan that gives you fewer fees. Eventually you may shift all your funds and your cell plan to your new country. But probably not right away.
Finally — you are about ready to book your airplane flights. One way tickets! Bon voyage, arrivederci, have a wonderful life in your new home! And send me pictures!