This is what ‘home’ can look like if you win the housing lottery and have a big shipping allowance.
Planning a Successful Move Overseas
““List, list, O, list!”
― William Shakespeare, in Hamlet”
Between the time you wake up the morning after you’ve secured that first overseas teaching job and the first morning in your new home halfway around the world, you’ll be busy.
My goal here is to lay out the deadlines and myriad of tasks ahead. Much of this might not have occurred to you, since you probably haven’t moved across the globe before. I just want to be sure you see the whole picture.
Give yourself way more time than you think you’ll need and avoid procrastination. You’ve got about six months to get yourself to the new job and masses to do. Don’t dawdle.
But take a deep breath and try to relax. Thousands of educators have successfully survived the move overseas and you can too.
Deadlines
Assuming you were hired at a winter fair or through an online interview process, January is gone. You now have several categories of time-sensitive tasks to complete. Do not wait until the last minute; it is far better to be way ahead of schedule than too late.
Confirm These Important Dates:
• Arrival and start date at new school__________________________
• Current school calendar and resignation date ___________________
• Teacher certification expiration date_________________
Passport expiration date ____________________________
• Lead time for work visa __________________________________
• Lead time for personal documentation _______________________
And these are just the tasks with a deadline.
Checklists Of Tasks
Here is a roundup of tasks to accomplish before you leave. I cannot stress enough (again) how important it is to give yourself plenty of time. Murphy’s Law…
Current School
What if there is a worldwide pandemic out of nowhere and your school in China does not open??
Leave your current job in a professional manner, burn no bridges, and clean up after yourself. Your administration had to provide a reference, so they know you were looking, of course.
Tell your administration that you have signed a contract for an overseas school. Wait, of course, until you actually have signed a contract. You are giving the administration a heads up for planning purposes, but wait until your district’s contract renewal deadline before actually quitting.
Wrap up the school year, starting with your usual professional duties: close up your classroom, pack up your teaching materials or give them away, say goodbye to your students and colleagues.
Bon voyage! What an adventure.
4. Throw yourself a big party at school. Everybody needs closure, so work out ways to stay in touch. Or not. Part of the moving process means that some relationships will naturally fade away.
5. Verify your teaching certification renewal date and renew as needed. The last thing you want is to come up 3 credits short when this important piece of paper expires on your December birthday.
Take care of the renewal now since your life is in an uproar anyway. It’s a lot easier to deal with TSPC (Teacher Standards and Practices) when you can just drive down to Salem or take a summer class at PSU or online.
Personal
1. Start saving money; you need to be liquid. More detail can be found in the posts on Money.
2. If you don’t already, start using online banking and go paperless.
3. See an accountant about taxes, retirement strategies and real estate.
4. Either give rental notice or sell/rent out your house.
5. Sell, donate, or store your possessions.
6. Arrange important mail; go paperless, stop delivery, arrange forwarding.
7. Inform bank and credit card companies you’re overseas.
8. Investigate regulations on taking a pet and get paperwork started.
9. Inform family and friends, then throw yourself a big going away party.
New School
1. Renew your passport if the renewal date is less than a year.
A friend who lives and teaches in Japan was stuck here with COVID. Her work visa took months of endless excuses and missed deadlines until finally, the president of her university called the local consulate in Portland and demanded they cough it up. Bingo.
2. Work with the new school on requirements for a work visa. You will need to round up numerous documents and things frequently go wrong here.
3. Make copies and backups of all important documents. Give one copy to family back home and save another in the Cloud.
4. Sign up for GOE (Global Entry) from US Customs and Border Protection. You’ll be flying a lot and this makes entering the US less aggravating.
5. See your doctor for required vaccinations and checkups. If you take prescription medications, arrange for an adequate supply or find out if you can obtain a local equivalent. Arrange access to your medical records.
6. Work with the school to book airline tickets and arrange shipping.
I believe I mentioned numerous times that you shouldn’t dawdle…
School Support
“What’s the relocation package?”
It’s the dead of winter and you just signed a contract to teach in ____________. In August you will arrive, set up housekeeping, and start teaching. Much of the hard work and planning falls on you, of course, but a big part of the process is down to the school.
Best case? The school has a well-coordinated support system in place to help you get settled and ready for that first day in the classroom.
Worst case? The school is unresponsive and disorganized. You are left largely on your own and lucky to be picked up at the airport.
School support is therefore crucial. Let’s lay out the process and what you might expect from the school.
Paperwork and Legalities
1. Work visa – you cannot just arrive at the airport and start work the next day. Your destination country (not the USA) needs to give official permission. The school’s responsibility is to sponsor you.
The teacher needs to then make application, which requires documentation and extra photos. Two caveats: you must obtain a work visa before leaving home. Plus give yourself plenty of time; screw ups and lost paperwork occur.
You might also need to mail your passport to the consulate or embassy, and I’d strongly suggest FedEx or similar so you have tracking.
Pam and Igor of the Joyjobs recruiting agency tell the story of their personal work visa experiences:
for Spain, they had to resubmit twice because of minor typos
for Japan they went through the consulate in Portland OR and the process was hassle-free
for Hong Kong the school handled everything from start to finish and the visa arrived DHL
for Bulgaria they arrived without a work visa but were provided a diplomatic ID, which served the same purpose.
2. Consulate – different countries have different requirements. Besides a work visa, you need to confirm import regulations as well as health and immunization requirements for your future home country. Give yourself plenty of lead time.
3. Plane ticket and shipping arrangements – somebody in the school business office should be in charge and shepherd you through this maze. I’ve heard of teachers being required to pay upfront and get refunded these costs, which is one more reason to hoard cash and be liquid.
4. Contact person – The everyday management of all international schools of my experience is run by an extraordinary person in the office; they are typically overqualified and underpaid per Western standards.
This person (usually a woman) is bilingual, competent, plugged into the culture, and endlessly helpful. The school would not run without them. Go out of your way to be nice and appreciative.
Mentor
He made us feel we could survive this huge city. And we did, eventually, learn our way around.
In Russia Patrick taught our big group how to use the Metro, took us shopping for groceries and bird-dogged water deliveries, amongst a hundred other tasks. He also helped the newbies bond as a group; we couldn’t have settled in without him. Thank you, Patrick.
Besides this school-assigned helper, ask for permission to contact teachers, both current and departing, particularly the person you are replacing. Two important questions to ask them:
1. What items are difficult to obtain, both household and curriculum items?
2. How do I hook up with the departing teacher garage sale? As staff depart, often they are happy to sell/give away household goods they won’t be shipping to their next school. Why take winter coats and boots if you are moving to Thailand or electrical appliances whose plugs don’t fit?
Also spend time on various expat blogs about living in your country. Here is a sample, so just Google your country + expat + blog.
Shipping Overseas
Shipping allowances can range from a few hundred pounds (you’ll be weighing t-shirts at the end) or you’re allotted enough weight to ship a mini-van. Verify this amount in advance; weight adds up amazingly fast.
Once you know the number of pounds in your shipping allowance, decide what to bring with you. But clarify the following issues with the school as early as possible, since so much depends on the answers.
Four Questions To Ask About Shipping Overseas:
1. What is my weight allowance?
2. Who pays and is payment upfront or refunded? You can always pay out of your own pocket, of course, but it is shockingly expensive.
3. What are the country’s import regulations and prohibited items?
4. If my housing will be furnished, how furnished? What exactly is included?
NOW Can I Decide What To Bring? Yes
Read over this listing from Amanda Isberg’s wonderful blog Teaching Wanderlust to get an idea how to be thinking of this decision. Amanda notes, for instance, that she had not seen any shampoo or conditioner that year in any store (Venezuela.) This kind of detail is priceless and can only come from current teacher contacts. The best advice? Just ask your contacts already at the school.
1. More detail on housing later, but the school should have listed what items are supplied in school housing and which you don’t need to bring.
Can be a bonanza and a win-win.
2. You’ve hooked up with the teacher garage sale and some items will be waiting for you, including perhaps electrical appliances.
3. Your school contacts have advised you about clothing, specifically what is appropriate for the classroom? And what about the weather and how easily is clothing available in Western sizes?
In Thailand we were instructed to wear closed-toe shoes. Sorry, but it was so hot and steamy that I had a permanent foot rash, so the administration had to abandon that rule, at least for me. Clothing sizes were also way too small for big Westerners, so it was “wear what you brought” or find a tailor, fortunately cheap and widely available.
4. You know from the contacts you’ve developed at the school what teaching and classroom supplies are available or easy to obtain. Resource availability ranges from Russia with its vast and well-stocked supply room to Thailand where the copier ran constantly illegally copying textbooks.
Think about scanning/digitizing /storing resources in the Cloud. More on this issue later.
5. Must-haves. If you require a medication, this is when you either bring a year’s worth or establish that you can actually get a substitute or prescription locally.
6. Personal items like photos will make your house a home; you’re going to need comfort at some point, trust me.
7. Availability - Amazon does ship to countries worldwide, so check out this link. Beware of import duties and extra shipping costs, however, as well as corruption.
8. Electronics – more detail on this later, but establish your new country’s electrical system and see if the teacher garage sale has any local appliances or converters for sale.
Shipping Hints
1. Give yourself plenty of time in advance. A good shipping company has done this many times and will guide you. Follow their labeling and packing instructions to the letter and double check import regulations of your destination country.
2. Your shipment will arrive much later than you do, perhaps six weeks. So bring what you need to survive until then on the plane with you.
3. The next post reminds you not to waste allowance on shipping junk.
“It helps to be OCD.”
Keeping Track of All The Details of Moving
This aspect of the big move overseas is simple, but not easy. Dealing with all the deadlines and paperwork doesn’t require a lot of mental bandwidth, just organizational skills and attention to detail.
1. Give yourself plenty of time. I believe you’ve heard this before?
2. Devise an organizational scheme you are comfortable with and stick to it.
3. Make multiple backups and keep paper copies. You can’t be too careful.
4. Carry the most crucial documents with you on the plane.
5. Follow instructions; I’ve had paperwork returned because my name did not precisely match my passport. Follow instructions exactly.
The world has hundreds of countries and most of them have international schools. Each country/school has somewhat different paperwork requirements, but below are the general categories and likely items in each. These are just checklists, and much of this will be discussed in more depth in later posts.
Can you retrieve the paperwork you need? Did you miss any important document??
Legal Documents
1. Criminal background check.
2. Passport with no less than a one year expiry date. Bring extra passport photos.
3. Work visa.
Personal Documents
1. Power of attorney and will.
2. Mail arrangements.
3. Real estate documents.
Financial Documents
1. Online banking and bill pay.
2. Credit card overseas setup.
3. Insurance binders.
Family and Children (may require originals, not copies)
1. School records.
2. Marriage or divorce certificates.
3. Adoption decree.
4. Birth certificates.
Professional Documents (may require originals)
1. Teacher certification.
2. Transcripts.
3. College degrees.
Medical Documents
1. Health record access.
2. Checkup and proof of good health.
3. Immunization records.
4. Prescription medications.
Your school will/should help you through this process, but the ultimate responsibility is yours, of course.
The next post takes you from your current home to your new home, so let’s get started.
The moving process is a long and winding road, but it does have an end. And don’t worry. It won’t be THIS complicated.