The Big Move: Preparation
You’ve figured out where to go. Now what? Let’s talk about how to prepare for the Big Move.
Whether you’re traveling for love, work, or for personal reasons, you cannot just buy your plane tickets, pack the essentials, and go. Don’t do that. Immigration isn’t magic. A lot of people do this and wish they’d prepared more beforehand. For some, they end up back in their country of origin as a result. This is somewhat less important if you’re moving for work and your employer’s handling the paperwork. Even so, I’d recommend familiarizing yourself with the country’s culture and immigration law. No matter the reason for your move, I’ll help you prepare for your Big Move.
The first thing you want to do to prepare for your trip is to familiarize yourself with the country’s immigration law. Don’t learn the law while you’re there. Your tourist visa doesn’t let you stay for that long. For that matter you should know exactly how long your tourist visa lasts and if it’s renewable. Then you need to ask: What types of visas do they offer? This is the most important question. It tells you if you need to study there or work there to get a visa. That’s an essential piece of data to know before moving. Information on Argentina’s visas can be found in this post.
If it’s not very clear to you what type of visa you should get, think about what you’d be willing to do. For example, if you weren’t intending on studying, but a student visa is easy to get, you might want to consider studying something you’re interested in. You also should have an idea of how long these visas last and how to renew them. Often, you will need to renew these visas some number of times before being able to obtain permanent residence.
How do you get permanent residence and can you lose it? Many countries require a certain number of years of temporary residence. This can make a big difference in your planning. The longer the amount of time needed, the more detailed your plan needs to be and the more contingency plans you need. Also, you need to see if you can lose permanent residence. Sometimes if you leave the country for too long, you can lose your right to permanent residence.
What’s the process to get citizenship? Do you need years of permanent residence in order to apply for citizenship? How long does the process take? What are the differences between citizenship and permanent residence? Is it renouncable? Citizenship often isn’t necessary and comes with both some rights and responsibilities. Some citizenships aren’t renouncable. Argentina is one of those. So take that decision to apply very seriously. Also, check if your home country and your target country allow dual citizenship. This can be the make or break factor in a decision.
Another related question: How much time out of country are you allowed on that visa? During your citizenship application? This is more important if you’re a traveling type or someone who intends to visit home-country family a lot.
Have a firm plan A and plans B, C, and D. Especially if the country has strict requirements and/or needs long residence times.
Once you’re familiar with the immigration law, you’re going to want to figure out the documents you need next. Read on to find some tips on that!
Apostilled Criminal Antecedents
Your destination country will want to know if you’ve been naughty or nice in your home country.
Other important documents
Bring that folder or file of your most important documents with you.
The boring part of immigration preparation: the paperwork.
This one depends on the country you’re going to and the visa you’re going to get. For paperwork specific to Argentina read this post. Now I’m going to talk about what documents you will most likely need to prepare for any country. Bring these documents with you. It’s more annoying to get these documents abroad. In the next section, I’ll cover what to pack.
Passport
By far, the most important document needed.
Apostilled Vital Documents
These include: Birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees, diplomas, etc.
What do I bring, pack, ship and buy there?
In order to prepare intelligently for your trip you need to determine what to pack, ship, or buy. First of all, what’s expensive in the target country? For Argentina, it’s electronics. People will tell you it’s clothes, but in my experience that’s not really the case. You may not get US sale prices on clothes and textiles, but I find clothes and textiles to be somewhere between sale price and normal starting price in the US. However, do ensure you have a base wardrobe.
You want to bring the expensive and necessary stuff in your suitcase if possible. If not, you might want to ship it if the cost of shipping is less than the price in the target country. Only bring stuff that is genuinely irreplaceable in your mind. Ask yourself, “Can I live without this?” and if so, “Will I miss this?” Convert your books to e-books if possible. Buy your small work accessories (pencils, pens, notebooks, etc) there.
And don’t forget to pack your documents! Good luck in your journey to prepare for your Big Move. Stay tuned for more immigration tips!
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