noelrdale

Hi ! First time on this site. My family and I (wife and 3 boys) are contemplating 5 year plan to start a business abroad, with a view to buy a house and live both in the UK and the chosen destination. Problem - where to go, where to look ?

Ideally (which I admit is a very big word) we would choose a destination that was as follows -: English spoken or an English speaking settlement; good all year round climate, better standard of living than the UK, good educational and job opportunities (for the kids), stable economy, safe, business investment opportunities, good health facilities, preferably oceanic, reasonable access to the UK, and uncomplicted entry requirements.

OK not asking much (I don't think so) - but is there really a dream destination out there ? Is there a place with our name on it ? Do you live there or know of such a place ?

Regards
Noel R Dale

jayr

Welcome first time caller. I'm not being funny but I think the English speaking nation that most fulfills your criteria is the UK:
English Speaking
Climate - average, no extremes of heat and cold
Same standard of living as UK, no better or worse
Good educational and job prospects
Stable economy
Safe
Helath facilties - ecellent given that they are free
Oceanic
Excellent and cheap access to the UK
No entry requirements

As for business investment opportunities there's nothing like investing in a market you know. Also why spend thousands moving abroad if you don't have to? Take holidays instead

VanishingDragon

Hello!

I would personally recommend the Costa Del Sol for you!

Its such a nice area with a huge English community. Theres no way you would feel homesick or out of place. Its all of those things you mentioned above and you dont need a permit to work there.

ScotinSpain

Hi,

Must agree with Vanishing Dragon, if you want the weather and 'near' UK you will have to look at the Med area and the French and Italians are not too welcoming. Cyprus is a possibility but is further away.

That leaves southern Spain (Andalucia) or Gibraltar. Both are very welcoming and the Costa del Sol speak nearly as much English as Gibraltar! Having said that you will be accepted more readily if you speak some Spanish and you will NEED it if you move off the Coast. Jobs in both S. Spain and Gib are not very well paid and mainly tourism related; bar work, hotels, etc. The building trades do not pay very well and are swamped out here.

Hope this help,



John

iaink

Try Canada,

Depends on your idea of good climate and reasonable access of course. West coast is on the Pacific Ocean, and climate wise is V similar to the UK, but a longer flight to the UK than the East. Rest of country has more sunshine, but colder/ snowier in winter, but personally I love the 4 distinct seasons and mainly blue skies, so I consider it a more reasonable climate than the gloomy greyness of the UK. (If you dont know, Toronto is at the same latitude as the south of france). Ontario while not Oceanic, does have the great lakes. Flights can be had for reasonable cost through charter companies like flyzoom.com

As an investor / business person getting residency should be relatively straightforward if you have the means and or experience, if not most graduates qualify as "skilled workers", but maintaining residency status would depend on spending sufficient days in the country in a 5 year period. Check out http://www.cic.gc.ca/ for details. Entry requirements are spelled out fairly clearly.

Fullfills all other requirements and then some.

Worth looking into anyway. Good Luck.

Iain

mickj

Hello there,

It seems all that you are asking for, is right in your backyard, and by that i mean Europe. Switzerland might be a good choice, considering its a bit of a tax haven.

Its just had 3 of its cities voted as places with the best quality of life, and damn right too. If you've ever been there, you will see why. They speak english as well as 2 other languages, you can pop back to the UK in no time, nice properties there to be snapped up, and plenty of jobs there for the kids as you said.

The good thing about it, you don't need a visa to go there, and there are no red tape malarky that you have to go through with other english speaking countries that are miles away.

The decision is yours !!!

iaink

You might want to read this if considering Switzerland, just found it in a totally unrelated post and thought of this one. Not having been there I cant really comment, but I thought it was interesting to compare. Could just be one region though. I guess at the end of the day there are negative posts to be found about just about everywhere.

"we lived in Switzerland and it was blooming hard work getting on with the locals though. And this was NOT because we weren't trying to speak the language but more because they have a language all of their own. Y'see I started to learn high German before we got there and found out later that the Swiss DESPISE the Germans and refuse to speak their language even though it's the official language in parts around Bern. The written language MUST be in high German but locals speak in Bern Deutsch which is undecipherable even to Germans, and there's no books to learn the language as it's unofficial. I managed to learn about 3 words of Bern Deutsch after 2 years! We did get by with high German but many people advised us that they would rather speak to you in English than to speak high German so it was well confusing - you couldn't even buy German wine in the region even though Germany was just over the border. Getting work there is also hard as they prefer people who are fluent in French, Italian, German AND English and the Swiss are very clever at speaking all those languages - darn it!! Still, beautiful country. "

pasted from http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...62#post1304362

Iain

mickj

Everyone's experience is different, for all we know, you and your family speak those three languages perfectly, or enough to get by. The poster of that link did say she tried to learn deutsche before leaving the UK.

As someone that speaks a bit of deutsche, i found no problem whatsoever when i was there, and in Austria. As the imigration people will say, "everyone's case is different".


Good Luck

kathyd

Hi Noel ,

Your question is very much like what we have in our heads also .
We came to live in N.Ireland some 4 years ago from S.Africa .
I am from N.Ireland and my husband is South African .
I lived there for 22 years . it was hard to settle back here and even now we go through stages of wanting to go overseas again .
Thing is I am 50 now and my kids are still quite young ...9 and 10 and we are unsure of what is the right move .
My husband is a freelance TV cameraman and I now teach in a local college .
We wonder if we should just look at getting a second home in say Spain .
Both of us do quite well here although we really do get fed up in Winter .
I sometimes wonder if it is not a better idea to work here and then with the good college Holidays .min three months a year..go to our other home in a better climate .

Does anyone do this?
spent alot of time in another warmer country but still work in the Uk?

kathy

JAJ

This thread is well over a year old so you may not get any reply.


Jeremy

kathyd

Ok Jeremy ...Guess I should have checked the date!

thanks

kathy

JAJ

And the fact that the member concerned only has one post to his name.
An amazing number of people do that - join, post a question, and then they're never heard of again.


Jeremy

kathyd

Well .next time I shall check before I post .

Have not been long on the board but enjoying it

Kathy

robousy

Personally I would open up a hostel on an Island in thailand - maybe ko pha gnan. (sp?)

Most people speak great english in thailand and most of the people who use the hostels will be westerners.

Weather is nice - imagine raising your family on a lush tropical island.
Plam trees - blue sky - blue/green sea and everyone you meet is on a travel high.

Numpty

Are you sure it's travel that they are high on?

I fully agree with you, though. The Thais are brilliant people, and the country is absolutely fantastic.