Job Discussion Forums

[mocc]

Hi All,

I will be taking my CELTA in a few months and will then pursue teaching in Asia. My question is geared towards teachers who have been doing TEFL long term and how they handle some of the more complicated aspects of being an expatriate.

How does one deal with not having a permanent address in their home country? It seems like it would be very difficult to maintain any existing bank accounts or retirement accounts since most US banks require a US mailing address. Worst yet, many US banks will cancel your account outright if they find out that you live overseas due to all of the federal regulation.

Along those same lines, it seems like many countries require one to go back to their home country to apply for a work visa. Once again, it seems like this would be near impossible to do if you have been teaching overseas for years and you don't have a permanent US address to list on your visa application.

I know many people either use a family member's address or they currently own property themselves. What about those of you who don't have those options? How do you get around these obstacles?

[HLJHLJ]

I don't know how you would get round the problems of not having access to an address in your home country. However, for visa purposes you can usually apply from your country of residence, it doesn't have to be your country of citizenship. If you move from one job to another it shouldn't be a problem, you just apply in the country you are currently working in.

[MotherF]

You can actually hire a service to give you an address, forward you mail, and such if you don't have a trusted family member to do so.

[sicklyman]

you're a US citizen and I am not, so I won't go into specifics about your nationality. But here's some advice from someone who's been wandering the globe teaching EFL since 1998 and who has worked overseas in 5 countries in that time.

Keep good records of dates and places you move around. Some employers (esp. good ones later in your career) will want very specific details.

Get letters of recommendation from employers you leave BEFORE you leave their employment.

Get all possible contact details for previous employers and periodically check that email addresses still work for those you value.

Carry your educational certificates/transcripts with you and guard them with your life.

Keep a backed up set of high quality scans of all important documents (visas, passport, certificates, letters of recommendation) in case the worst happens or to apply by distance for jobs.

Be prepared to lose touch with many, many people back home or at least to find you have less and less in common with them as the years go by. This won't always happen, but even what you might consider strong friendships will fade and die naturally. You'll make a ton more friends overseas anyway.

As soon as you hit the new country, get into a routine that incudes local people as fast as possible. Your students are often good sources for this.

Make as much effort as you can to learn the language of where you are.

Plan to continue your EFL education (DELTA, Master's, etc) somehow. This gives you something professional to aim at.

If you have a family, prioritise the education of your children. Often, living overseas teaching EFL can clash with educating your children as you would wish.

No matter how young you are when you start out, give some thought to putting something aside for the future (hard times, employment breaks, retirement).

Whenever you return to your home country for a break, plan in time where you are doing something for yourself that does NOT involve spending time with family and friends there.

Just some things I wish someone had told me a decade and a half ago....

[Xie Lin]

[contented]

[mocc]

This is all great information and has put some worries at ease. Thanks!

[sicklyman]

[Xie Lin]

Contented feels the need to maintain connections and relationships with people "back home," as many do. Others, such as myself, do not. There is no right or wrong way about this--it's simply an individual choice. There is also a fairly recent thread devoted to the topic, a fairly long one as I recall. It seems that it is not uncommon among those who do not maintain close ties with those back home to come to regret it in later years.

.

[Teacher in Rome]

I'm with Sicklyman here! I've spent more of my working life abroad than in my home country. Although both of these countries are in Europe, I tend not to go back very often, and maintain friendships and relationships only with those people that I like and get on with and can always find common ground with - regardless of our different lifestyles. Of course, this isn't a huge quantity of people, but it's the quality that counts...

But regarding the practicalities...

- you can get your passport renewed from your country of residence (not as quick probably, but doable anyway)

- you should be able to maintain a bank account in your home country. Otherwise, look into online / offshore accounts. Credit history might be more tricky.

- if you're a US citizen you should be filing annual tax returns (even if you don't need to pay tax). Plenty of posts on this subject in these forums. This if nothing else gives you a financial record in your home country.

- you might lose your voting rights. (Less probable I think if you're US.) If you're a UK citizen and fall off the electoral roll (as I have), bye-bye voting in the General Election. Yes, I know that I don't live there any more and shouldn't therefore care, but it still aggrieves me.

- if you pay into your host country's medical insurance system you should be covered for emergencies if nothing else. Healthcare in my area of Italy is second to none (lucky me) and being resident, I don't have to worry about extra (expensive) insurance premiums.

[spiral78]

I've also pared down my contacts in my home country over the years to only the really essential ones, and I rarely spend more than a few days in the US in any given year. My family is very small, though, and I'm not obliged to keep up with siblings/offspring/cousins/etc.

I'd personally HATE to feel 'tethered' to my home country - it would be more like a ball and chain in my case.

I have close family now abroad through marriage, and many more friends and contacts here than back in the US anyway, so strong social and support systems outside of the US for me.

As Xie Lin writes, this is very individual, and quite dependent on how things evolve with relationships over the years.

On logistics, for the US, TIR is correct about filing taxes every year. You've also got to report any foreign bank account with more than 10,000 USD (equivalent) in it at any time during the year - though perhaps not so many of us have to hassle with this, given TEFL salaries in most countries .

I've lost the right to vote in state elections, through not maintaining a US address for over 15 years, but still vote in national elections, via the state where I lived last.

I haven't bothered with any US bank or other accounts for years.

I've never had to return to the US for a visa application. As others note, it's normally ok to apply from one's legal country of residence.

Sicklyman's list is spot-on. I also wish I'd kept better records! A few years back, I had to provide a list of all the addresses I've lived at in my entire life . Lost count at 38....(I was applying for residency in a third country).

[santi84]

I don't plan on ever "going back" so I just decided to get create new connections here.

[Shroob]

I don't think I'll ever return to the U.K. (my home country) to work, save perhaps summer pre-sessional courses, however one thing that does worry me is aging parents.

They've said that they don't mind at all if I'm abroad, we can Skype and email each other. But there may come a day when this may not be enough.

[MozartFloyd]

I lived in many states before leaving the US and coming abroad. Friendships came and went there as I moved from one state to another. It's a natural process of life and change is always a good thing.

I used to love living in the US; especially southern California. But something happened when I came abroad. Even after 5 months I remember having the distinct feeling that life and the people I knew back home were no longer familiar. The US had become alien to me.

It's true that you can't ever go home. And my question is: why would you want to? Life is a journey and it only goes forward. The past no longer exists.

[johntpartee]

I'm a US citizen and I don't have an address there. I don't have an address anywhere except where I'm at any given time. I have three Chinese bank accounts. They don't require updates of address or phone number and whenever I go anywhere else I don't have to notify them that I'm going to be outside of China. Just a quick check on the internet to see if UnionPay will be accepted wherever I'm going and I'm good to go. An extra added bonus is that the yuan has been steadily increasing in value so......