Moving outside my country?

[Drizzt]

Hi all.
Me and my girlfriend are thinking about moving to another country before we are too old
As places, we were targetting Australia/Canada/USA.


Have you got any suggestion at all?
How to find work that far?
What I should expect to be most difficult?

Ideas?

[schmosef]

That's funny, I've been thinking of living in Europe for a year, before I really settle down (probably Israel). Italy is very appealing.

Why do you want to leave Italy?

[Drizzt]

That's funny, I've been thinking of living in Europe for a year, before I really settle down (probably Israel). Italy is very appealing.

Why do you want to leave Italy?

Well...first, the quality of life is not that good. The medium house rent here is about 1/2 to 2/3 of a wage for rabbit hole, for a decent house it's a full wage or more.
Moreover, buying houses is impossible.
To buy a house you need a mortgage. A house that cost 100k of work to build euro is valued about 200k to buy (really, I work in the market of house selling, those are prime hand values). To pay that, with a decent wage, you need a 30 years mortgage. A 30 years mortagage means that you are going to pay AT LEAST 350k euro. That is, a monthly 972 euro.

But...you can't pay more than a third of your wage, so you cannot get the mortgage!!!
So, with a medium wage (that is, about 1k euro), at max you can buy a 100k house, that means a 30 square meters if you are lucky



Second, people here are a bit "negative". No one search for success, no one live fully. On sunday I went to a mall that is 70 kmeters from my house.
Nobody wanted to believe me, for 70km are way tooooo much.
I'm going to move temporally to a new house that is 30km from where I live. My friends have all said that is too far and that they will never come to meet me...


Third, we want to see different places and live different cultures

[Brian Ellis]

The three places you mention all require very skilled persons able to do jobs that can't easily be filled by locals. You will find it very difficult to get a visa of a type allowing you to work unless you have such good qualifications.

If you do think you can persuade them that you can do this, then I recommend you try and get a job before you arrive or, at least, a few interviews. Remember that, if your skills are specialised, standards will be very different. For example, I know that a skilled electrician cannot get a job in Oz until he has passed an exam in the local wiring regulations, so study whatever you need to study beforehand.

Even under the most favourable conditions, I've one word of advice to anyone who is relocating across to a different culture: it is going to cost you a lot more than you think - I know! Why? Even if you have a job lined up, it will probably take the best part of a month just doing the bureaucratic part, finding somewhere to live, buying what has to be bought and so on. Carefully work out what three months' rent plus living in a hotel for 2-3 weeks and living will cost you, including wheels and so on. Do NOT deduct anything for potential salary. Double that sum, because you will have grossly underestimated, and have that in your pocket (or in a bank) before you leave. Consider that sum as a-goner, because it will go before you can start to stabilise your position. Been there, done that Do NOT buy property until you've settled down for 6-12 months and have got to know the area and the customs.

[xortam]

We have a saying ...

"The grass is always greener on the other side."

You might be very surprised at the high cost of homes in the U.S., even if you locate in less than desirable areas.

Australia was relatively expensive compared to their wages unless things have changed dramatically in the last 15 years. Jobs weren't that easy to come by as I recall.

Canada may be your best choice among the three but others will know better.

[Tjalfe]

I moved to Canada along with my parents and siblings back in 1994 from Denmaark, and we all love it here. I have not even been back visiting since we moved. getting an immigration visa may not be the easiest thing, if you have family here, make them help you by sponsoring you, if possible.

Some random information about here:

Check out house prices in Canada @ www.mls.ca
Mortgage rates here is around 5% for a 5 year term on a 25 year mortgage (you negotiate the rate only a few years at a time here) ( minimum 5% down payment is required, preferrably more)

for jobs and such. www.monster.ca , www.workopolis.ca and there are a few others

Minimum Wage here is $7/hour, a 2L bottle of coke ~$1.50, Usually you have to add 15% to all price tags you see for taxes.
Income tax: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/business/tod/menu-e.html
download TOD and it will tell you how much tax you pay with a given income.
Winters here are Cold ( hardly a surprise I guess) but summers can easily compete with italy for heat ( just add humidity).
House prices in the bigger cities are pretty high, with $300.000 being way too common these days as the starting price . if you move to the east coast, $100.000 will give you a nice house, but they usually have few jobs there. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me and I will gladly help

[Lizzard[MPE]]

i think you should take a vacation to all these places first.

[lecter]

Thailand is a very easy-going place to live and it's definitely different compared to Italy...just by teaching English it is quite easy to get by on a day by day basis.

[KvHagedorn]

Supposedly India is a very inexpensive place to live. Anyone know for sure?

[lecter]

It is, if you're willing to live in some shitty city...in Mumbai or Bangalore rent prices & such are not cheap at all, or so my Indian friends tell me.

[ZokesPro]

i think you should take a vacation to all these places first.

This sounds like a wise choice, just in case you end up moving somewhere you end up not liking.