Peppernoni

Hi all!

I've recently made the decision to move abroad and I am fantastically excited about it!

I'm a UK citizen, living just outside if Glasgow. I have a few places in mind but I am looking for a place with a large English-Speaking community, for myself and my future family. I thought I'd join this forum while I save and prepare to move, and hopefully get some tips and advice for moving while I'm here!

First decision to make; Where to go?! Haha!

Iona

mikelincs

Many of the EU countries have quite large ex-pat communities, and you can just move there, no ned for visa etc, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand would have no language problems, BUT you do need specific qualifications, and have to apply for visas. It really depends just what you qualifications are, and whether you might be able to get a visa. Please bear in mind that in many of the EU countries unemployment is even worse than the UK, and they don't have the benefit system or free health care if you are not in work. The Wiki pages are full of info, and there is a lot of info on each specific country on their own fora.

Pecora Nera

Hi and welcome, I am from Italy where the sun shines most of the time and the wine / pizza is great.

We are in Piemonte northern Italy but there is very little English community. I have been here 5 years and I can count on one hand the number of English people people I know who are within 1 hour from me. Maybe you need to post the same question on the different boards. I would guess Malta or Spain are your best bet in europe.

dreadsoc

Hi Iona

Welcome to BE
Wow you must be feeling excited - good on you for going for it as so many people think about it and end up wondering 'what if' for the rest of their lives.

My advice to you would be to check out the different country forums on here - and we have loads of them. You will find them all by clicking the 'forum index' tab on the top left corner of this page. Scroll down the countries and just double click the name of the country and you're in that forum.
That way you can chat with expats already living and working in those places and get some idea of the flavour of a place and suss out whether it's the place for you. But be prepared - BE gets addictive, and you may even decide you want to try more than one place .

In the meantime keep saving and I wish you all the very best in your forthcoming travels

Dread - x

wallydug

Goa has a large English speaking community, but this is no reason for any UK citizen to attempt to settle here.

I am a glaswegian, settled here some years ago. It's a shithole, fraught with danger for the unwary.

Take your pick, but PLEASE, not Goa.

All the best, Jimmy.

Wally.

Rosemary

Hello and a big welcome to BE.

Excellent information can be found in the BE Wiki, not forgetting the Living and Moving Abroad forum that will help you, another set of great help is the permanent threads at the TOP of each forum, they are very pertinent to that particular forum and makes sensible reading.

Moderators deal with any problems that arise such as inappropriate posts, spammers etc, you will find their names at the bottom right hand side of each forum's index in bold font.

Please contact me if I can give you any further help.

Rosemary

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
A lot depends on whether you speak any European languages and what your line of work is.
As mentioned, unemployment rates are much higher in Southern Europe than in the UK and if you wanted to move to Continental Europe, for example in order not to be too far from family and friends, you might consider Scandinavia or the Netherlands, where everyone speaks English.
Can you tell us which are the "few places" you have in mind and/or post on the specific forums? For example, there's no point in telling you about living in France if it's not on your list!
Good luck, whatever!

Peppernoni

Thanks everyone! I speak very basic Dutch, German and French but by basic I really do mean minimal! Enough to get me around on holiday but really not enough for permenant residency!

Spain was one of my first choices, but the language barrier is to ably going to be a problem, I had originally settled on Florida, but after looking into it more my qualifications are nowhere near enough to get me a Visa, I have some qualifications in mechanics but no experience to call it a "skill" and at the moment I'm a Quality Monitor in a large UK Insurance call centre. Not really the ideal applicant!

In the end, I have a long time to decide while I save before I make a final choice, I'll keep looking around the forums here- everyone seems lovely!

xx

Kaffy Mintcake

Hi Peppernoni and welcome to the site!

Don't feel too bad about Florida. It's appealing to many but I think it's nicer to vacation there than to live there. That's just my opinion.

Best of luck with your research. Think of it as the beginning of an adventure.

Kaffy