Make progress and keep focus by dividing your emigration into smaller manageable phases. Your emigration becomes a series of simple steps rather than a distant dream.
Many people are discouraged by the time it takes to emigrate. We live in an age where we want things quicker, or right now! Change is so rapid it is hard to think of what’s going to be happening in 3 or 5 years time. Emigration goals set in the distant future, however important they are, are difficult to keep in every day focus. Life has a way of intruding, because so much demanding our immediate attention.
Splitting emigration into smaller phase prepares you for challenges before they happen, rather than reacting to each issue as it comes up. It is easier to create a coping strategy from a comfortable familiar environment without additional pressures once you have moved.
Three Phases of Emigration
These three phases are common to the majority of cases, and have specific beginning and end point that are easy to measure. The following time line illustrates the complete process split into three phases, from your initial ideas to feeling completely settled and no longer a stranger in your new country.
1. Conception Phase
From your first thoughts of emigrating, until you receive your visas and set a departure date. Timescale typically beginning 3 – 5 years before departure until 12 – 6 months before departure. During the conception phase you will decide if emigration is the best option for you, research, investigate visa options, and compile your application.
You may decide emigration is not the best option for you or discover an insurmountable reason you cannot progress. There are very few challenges that cannot be overcome; it just requires some alternative thinking, or changing your perspective.
What you can expect
Now is the ideal time to answer the big question of what you want from life. I can’t stress enough how vital it is to be clear about what is important to you, and what you value in life. After all if you don’t know, it’s a big gamble moving to another country hoping it will give you what you don’t know you want.
It is easy to get so focused on the emigration itself that you neglect the long term, getting there is just a step towards your life goals, not the main focus. On the subject of emigration an expat once said to me, “it’s like saying that birth is the hardest part of living”. Life goes on after emigration and you’ve got to live with it. You will collect and decipher information creating the underpinning knowledge to support a successful emigration. Take the idea and turn it into a real future you can see happening.
Questions that need answering: Is it worth it? What location will best suit your needs? What application route will get you there quickest? What do you need to change in your life now to get where you want to be? What new skills, experience, or knowledge do you need?
2. Transition Phase
Begins when you have your visas and ends when you get on the plane to land in your new country. You are preparing yourselves, physically, (possessions, and home etc), and emotionally (family and friends etc), to move your complete life to a new country. Many things you can’t do until this point, so once you become certain and committed to going it all starts happening. Leaving work, selling homes, arranging removals etc. It’s very busy and a good job all the decisions and investigative work was completed during the previous phase so you can focus on the move its self.
What you can expect
The pace of life increases rapidly; many things need coordinating, house sale, de-cluttering, removals, leaving jobs, flights, car sale, temporary accommodation (here and there), money transfers, banking, schools and preparing for goodbyes. All that is familiar will be shifting; if you are not used to being outside your comfort zone you will feel it now. Having no keys was something I remember, normally I have a small bunch of keys that are always in my pocket, I always check they are there before leaving the house. Before our departure to Canada, I had none, no house keys, no car keys, no work keys it was like I had no possessions, no security! It felt very strange.
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From landing at the airport, to being settled and no longer feel like a stranger in your new country. Timescales typically up to 2 years after landing, although can vary enormously. During the integration phase you establish your new life, home, job, credit ratings and support networks. With the short term issues dealt with you can focus on the long term goals of creating the lifestyle you dream about. During the ‘honey moon period’ many fresh expats feel they have already reached the integrated point only to feel unsettled months later. Give it lots of time; after all you are here to enjoy it.
What you can expect
It can feel a little surreal, and hard to believe that you are actually here at last. A whole range of emotions are likely and frequently changing from one extreme to the other. The average time it takes new expats to transform from newcomer to seasoned expatriate varies enormously; this phase may be very easy and you feel at home quickly or it could take years to feel that way. This is the point when you have to keep that focus and determination strong. There are as many, if not more tasks and things to consider once you arrive, and you will be experiencing them from a very different position. All the things you took for granted and just ‘knew’ how to do before you are learning from scratch. Whilst this is the final stage, you really are only about half way through your emigration at this point. The best is yet to come, keep reviewing and working on your long term goals.
©Louise Green