What the hell?!? What are you doing? Why haven’t you done something about it already?
Yes, I’m talking to you! Dammit, man – pay attention!

Pull your seat a little closer, sit up straight, close your gaping mouth and listen.
Really. Focus. Pay attention…

You’re sitting there, behind your desk, in front of your computer screen. It’s Tuesday today, but that isn’t really important. It could be Monday, it could be Wednesday, it could be any work day of the week.

This week, next week, next month. It’s all the same. Same desk, same PC. Same Tuesday. Same, same, same.

I received a comment today. Some guy asking about getting a Czech driving license on my Czech driving license post.
Then it hit me – I haven’t received a comment in a long while.

No one asking “But what about…?” or “How would I…?”
Well, what about you? Why haven’t You written that question?

Am I writing this for my health? No. Sure, writing this blog gives me a smile.
But more importantly, it should be giving you ideas, motivation, the “ah-ha” moment to start a plan, screaming “By God, I’m going to Do It!”.

It’s okay. I see now you need steps. A Step-by-Step plan. Tell me if I’m right or comment below.

Before I dive into creating some all-encompassing how-to guide…let me ask some beginner questions:
1. Do you have a passport?
May seem simple, but it’s important, so I’ll repeat it. Get a passport. Caution: when you hold it in your hand, you may experience a little tingle. It’s normal.

2. Do you have your shit in order?
I mean, no $30,000 credit card debt, no summons in the mailbox, no parole officer hassling you… If none apply, you’re good to go.

3. Are you generally a happy person?
The answer is likely yes. However, if you feel like slicing your wrists after watching a sad TV commercial, then culture shock may not sit well with you. If you are a generally happy person, then you’re good to go.

Can You Do It? – Yes!
Deciding to just pack it all up and experience life elsewhere ….it’s not a hard decision.
It’s a very easy one. The hard part is in doing it.

They did it.
But it can be done. Most recently, just this past weekend, a couple I know (through this blog) did it. (Damn, I can almost hear the Dora the Explorer end theme song: “We Did It – Hooray!”)

They started with an open “What if” type of e-mail. Then they were busy on the ExpatYourself forum. I’ve been in e-mail contact, answering their questions from time to time. Just a sweet, normal couple from Arizona. Now they live and will be teaching in Prague, Czech Republic.
They did it. And so can You.

I look forward to hearing from you.
-Jeff

p.s. Have you read any of these books? A friend recommended them to me. If you have read them, I’d like to hear what you think.

The Four Hour Work Week

Rework

Switch

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In case you don’t visit often or haven’t before now – I’m moving.
Well, we’re a family of four, so We’re moving.

Today, we’re expats in Prague, Czech Republic, but we will move overseas back to North America. This post is the first of several to show how we’ll do it.

It’s now March 10th.
We have a plan: we’ll leave Prague on May 30th.

The planning after that is a bit of a grey area.
You ask “How gray?” …Charcoal?

Let’s see – 10 March to 30 May. That leaves just under 3 months, or about 11 weeks.
For a family of four, I would say that 3 months is cutting it close, about the minimum to make it “not-so-stressful.” But we’re going for it. I’ll write about what we’re up to, in case some family out there may find it helpful, too.

So, what have we done to get ready?

Last week, we bought flights to Halifax, Canada. We still have our fingers crossed for New York city as well, but it’s still not 100% for certain.

We signed a contract with a property management company. They will handle our apartment we bought here 2 years ago.

We drafted a spreadsheet of To-Do items like closing bank accounts, health insurance, selling stuff, packing/shipping our stuff ….those little things, right?

Obviously much more to do – stay tuned!

Moving abroad is big deal, but it can be done. Sure, I’ve moved abroad a few times already, but I still get nervous before each big move.

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To Wait or Not to Wait - that is our question

Every night, the wife and I read a couple bedtime stories to our young kids. One of my daughter’s favorites is Dr Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

We both recommend it highly. If you don’t have it – get it now..

The story speaks to “you,” a young boy. He learns all about life’s potential greatness as well as its dangers and difficulties.

I read it again recently and one part keeps popping in my head. The story warns the boy about getting lost in life’s “rat race.” Not taking action, but instead just …waiting.

Dr. Seuss’ words about waiting

The Waiting Place…
…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting.

Clearly to Dr. Seuss, waiting is not a good thing. (& I agree)

Enter Franz Kafka. As a writer, he’s one of the all-time greats. As a boy born in Prague in a German Jewish family, Kafka struggled with identity. A minority of a minority. He didn’t accept it well. It was tough times for Franz and his writing shows it. His dark writing style was usually about “senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.” (sources)

What’s Kafka say about waiting?

Kafka’s words about Waiting

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

In a Nutshell…
There you have it.
Seuss says: waiting = bad
Kafka says: waiting = good

Why do I mention this? Because it mirrors a tough decision for us these days. I said in a past post, we know our future lies between two cities: New York City, USA and Halifax, Canada.
In one city, we have a chance of a grand opportunity. An exciting chance in an exciting city. But it’s not for certain. Instead we must wait. Out of our control, we wait. Kafka says it’s all fine, …”it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
In the other city, we also have uncertainty but the choice is completely in our control. We take that choice and wake up believing whatever we want to believe.

What are your thoughts?

Anyway, this is what’s weighing heavily on our minds today and the past few weeks.

Thanks for reading,
-Jeff

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In a prior post, I mentioned how most countries do not require a visa just to visit. But some do. Some examples include Bolivia, India, Russia (& most of the former Soviet Republics), Cambodia, Vietnam. This post will set your expectations about getting a tourist visa for those countries.

Yes, every country has its own visa application form. The form could be available online or you must visit the nearest embassy. Nothing is standard across all forms. And you’d better fill it out as it’s expected.

What Does The Visa Application Ask?
Just “name, rank & serial number” would be nice, but don’t count on it.

Generalizing here, but as a minimum, you will provide:
Name, nationality, birthday, passport number, address (both yours and where you’ll stay) and contact information like phone number/fax/e-mail (both yours and where you’ll stay), why and for how long you expect to stay

You may also be asked your marital status, your occupation and employment history. Some countries even ask you to write a short, personal essay explaining why you want to see their country!

After finishing the form, it is also common to provide:
Bank statement or proof of financial support, a copy of HIV vaccinations, confirmation or invitation from a local hotel or friend (both cases sometimes called your “sponsor” and copies of your hotel confirmation & return flight.
Tack on 1 or 2 passport photos and you’re all set!

Why so personal? They want to ensure you not only intend to visit, but you intend to leave, too.

Click for bigger picture

Paying for Permission to Visit
Well, of course we have to pay. And of course, payments are always “non-refundable and subject to change without notice.” {shrug}
Now, you may be thinking about the poor desk clerk who has to handle all this. You’re paying for his time, right? No, actually in modern countries, visa processing is outsourced. Those 3rd party services are the most expensive portion of your fees.

On top of that, expect to pay for consular fees and postage to send it back to you, typically performed by some private courier like FedEx or DHL.
How much you ask? Could be anything from $15 (Australia) to $130+ (Bolivia, Chile, Brazil). Typical is $30-$50. Is it fair? Well, unlike the price, that answer is negotiable.

Recall that visas and their respective fees are typically reciprocity for the same requirement placed on their citizens. Visas are commonly required because it’s tit-for-tat for them. That helps explain why a country has different visa fees for different visitors.

Take the USA for example. Their site clearly has the attitude “Well, they do to us, so we do it to them” (“however, when a foreign government imposes such fees on U.S. citizens for certain types of visas, the United States will impose a “reciprocal” fee to nationals of that country…“)

What Does It Matter Why I Am Going?
If you’re entering a foreign country and you need permission to enter that foreign country, then it’s reasonable to expect them to be curious why you are entering that foreign country. Yes?

If you are visiting their zoo and miniature toy museum, then you’re a tourist. Prepare for the easiest visa process.
If you are going to sell or for negotiations, then you are on a business trip. Expect questions such as “Are you bringing any goods? Will they stay?”
If anything else, e.g. work, study, adoption, immigration, then you can expect much more paperwork.

Mark your answers wisely.

Click for bigger picture

How Long Does it Take?!?
Time to approve a tourist visas differs. (no surprise, right?)
First, the fastest… to visit Australia, we Americans do need a visa. And Americans need just 30 seconds.
Wow, the necessary tourist visa takes 30 seconds to approve! That is, if you use their Electronic Travel Authority (ETA). For Americans who typically demand fast gratification, that’s a welcome visa process!

Unfortunately, the vast majority of countries take far longer.

I made pictures of my tourist visas to India and Russia. India took about 2 weeks and Russia took 1 week.
Keep in mind, here in Prague, I live only a 5 minute walk away from the Russian embassy, so I knew of the morning lines. I was prepared for waiting a couple hours per visit. I was prepared for the the paperwork that reminded me of the Soviet Union. But after all was filed properly, I got it after 1 week.

A sharp contrast from my buddy, Bill, who after 3 weeks, still didn’t get his visa & passport mailed to him. I felt bad, but I left for Moscow without him.

My tribute video to Bill.

How to shorten the time?
Call into the embassy and check the visa’s approval status. These people are human. They surf the web, too. They forget things. Call after 3 or 4 days to check its status. Call again if its been 2 weeks.
If you don’t live near the embassy, factor in the time for the courier to deliver your passport back.
And, as my friend Bill above can testify to, do not depend on their “expedited service!”

Anything else?
Speaking of time, be sure your passport is good for long enough after the visa should expire.
I’ll use Chile as the example again. Your passport must be good for minimum 90 days after expected departure, else no visa granted.
Most countries have a US embassy which offers “expedited passport services” if you get in a jam while visiting. But think about that … do you really want to surrender your passport and fate to government processing while you’re traveling?
Also – be sure to have two blank pages left in your passport. A very standard request, but often overlooked if a tourist travels enough.
I can’t stress enough to do your own homework for a specific country. Prime example is Russia. They have special demands on sponsorship and things like migration cards that make even a well-seasoned traveler cringe.

I want to repeat two big points I said in the beginning:

• This post talks about the short-term visa. Another post to come for extended stay or long-term visa (like to work or stay over 90 days).
• It’s very important to do your own homework.

As Americans, you can feel (somewhat) secure that your own Department of State has the latest info. Check this site to get the latest on your specific destination.

Sure hope this was helpful to somebody. Let me know

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Hi all,

I haven’t fallen off the map. Not yet anyway.
I know I am woefully behind on posts. It kills me, really it does.

Tomorrow I am jumping back in with both feet. I will deliver the next article in the “Visa Process” series.

There’s some big news coming from me soon. This Friday, I’ll be posting an update to this post.

-Jeff

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Rather than dive into filling out forms, let’s be sure we’re all starting on the same page.
Read the below Q&A. Once you know & understand them, you’re ahead of most.

What’s a Visa?

Not the credit card. Here, we’re talking about permission to visit a country. Consider it like your personal “green light” to go.

When I traveled around Europe, I got lots of stamps in my passport – are they visas?

No. A passport stamp just acknowledges you’re “in” or “out.” You get those when crossing a border. A visa is something you must apply for ahead of time.

How do I tell if I need a visa?

Two things determine if you need a visa: your citizenship and where you’re going.
If you intend to stay a while, that might affect things, too, but more on that later.
US citizens can check on this page to see if your destination country wants you to get a visa first.

If I’m American, do I need a visa to visit ABC country?

For most countries, no. US citizens need visas for only about 20% of the world’s countries. Bottom line reason why you need a visa is reciprocity. It’s a tit-for-tat thing. If the US requires a visa for that country’s citizens, then often that country will enforce the same on Americans. What breaks the “visa mini-cold-war” is a strong desire between countries to be friends. Example: To visit Mongolia, Americans don’t need a visa, but citizens from all European and most Asian countries do. Interesting, huh?
Combine those two facts and you’ll see Americans travel very freely. In fact, only folks from Denmark and Germany travel more freely than Americans:
(see graph)

Does it matter why I’m going to that country?

Yes, sort of. When filling out the visa application, it matters whether you’re a tourist or someone visiting on business. However, in general, the requirements -and more importantly- the wait for your visa to get approved is the same.
A business person visiting a country is very different from someone needing a work visa.

Do I pay for it? How much?

Yes, visas cost. My rough experience and sample research says this: you’re going to pay between $20 and $100 for the permission to fly to that country.
Sure, it’s not much when compared to the flight or accommodations, but paying for permission to come over (plus the added paperwork) isn’t exactly welcoming either.

How long does it take to get a visa?

Stay tuned for the next part: Visa Process – Timelines

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This is a Big Topic: the visa process.

By the way, when expats talk about visas, we ain’t talking credit cards!

Whenever I hear the question How do I get a visa?, I cringe. I cringe because I know it’s the most common question to ask and the most difficult one to answer.

Some people may stop at “Well, it just depends on the country.” Instead I will write a series of posts, hopefully answering some of the first and tougher questions about the visa process.

Any questions on your mind? Ask them in the comments here or in the forum.

I got my ears open. Stay tuned…

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I’m not just adventurous in real life (yeah, right), I’m adventurous in website administration.

My dream of helping people live overseas suddenly found a glass ceiling – enough time to answer e-mails.
So, one idea I came up with is to create a forum where people could ask questions (and I still answer them), but future people could see the same questions (& answers!).

A central place for questions. Easy access to (everyone’s) answers. It’s a win-win idea.

I present the world’s newest Expat’s Questions and Answers forum: www.expatyourself.com/forum

You may think it’s light on the questions so far…you’re right. You need to ask them first.

Please post your questions there and I will be very diligent about answering them.

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Hi all – it’s January 2010. Unbelievable. I feel like it should still be March or April 2009. Anyway – Happy New Year!!

Time to Set the Year’s Goals
Right around now is when I set some goals for myself for the new year. I’m a big believer in the power of setting goals. (Of course, I may not follow through with them all, but I still believe in making them! hahaha )

For example, my 2009 goals were:

Get more exercise (~2x a week self, group or at a club)
Start this blog/website (up running and weekly contribution)
Visit at least 3 countries.

[Notice, for me, I need numbers or details to say whether I meet it or not]

End result?
Exercise: In April, got a mountain bike and rode often in summer. Also doing taichi (“taiji” in Czech) weekly.
Website: I started this website in August; really committing since October.
As for countries, in 2009, I got to 4 new countries. In fact, we spent Christmas in Rome, which made Italy my 30th country visited or lived in.

So, what are my new goals for 2010? After much thinking (5 minutes), here they are:

MY OFFICIAL 2010 GOALS

Of course, setting these goals is easy, right? Meeting them takes much more than 5 minutes.

I have a plan of attack:
Find a job:

Determine where to live (our short list includes New York City, USA or Halifax, Canada)
Revise my CV (or résumé for the US & Canada)
Distribute to recruiters & headhunters
Interview and… Score! For the Win!

Drive to the East:

Get a booster seat for our 4 year old (now too big for larger car seat)
Pick week for vacation
Rent a car, drive and… Score! For the Win!

Hear from Someone Inspired

Continue to contribute to this blog
Publish to friends and hope word gets out
Hear from someone …but how? This depends on You – Let me know!

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If you’re thinking about starting over completely new, you may wonder how long it will take. Fair question – and here’s my answer: 3 months. Three months is all it takes to drastically change your life, self and all that’s around you. And that’s assuming you have a house, job, perhaps even family as we did. Even as “settled” as we were, it was just 3 months from wondering about getting work overseas to all moved and working overseas.

Our Timeline
23 April 2006 Initial inquiry about a couple jobs
03 April 2006 Telephone interview w/manager
02 May 2006 Face-to-face interview in Prague
05 May 2006 Offer tendered and accepted, to start 3 July 2006
26 May 2006 Wife’s last day of work
31 May 2006 House on market; luckily sold soon from real estate boom
21 June 2006 House sale ‘closed’
5-11 June 2006 Jeff & friend go apartment shopping in Prague
30 June 2006 Jeff leaves for Prague
3 July 2006 Jeff starts first day at work

We moved to Prague, Czech Republic in July 2006. On July 3rd, 2006, I started my first day at work at a new job. Only 3 months before, I was thinking “Our life needs help – I wonder if I should look for something new.” Wow, it didn’t take long and we got what we asked for.

I’m thinking of documenting this whole timeline in a detailed, step-by-step process. But I’m can’t get really into it, unless I know someone out there could use it. If you are interested in such a detailed write-up, please sign-up with your e-mail address to the right. Convince me; then I’m on it.

Thanks, -Jeff

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