How To Prepare For A Move Overseas

Let’s say you’ve always dreamed of living in a foreign country. How do you prepare to take the plunge? That’s the question I recently put to Alexandra Talty, a Forbes staffer in her 20s who quit her day job in December and moved to Beirut. Starting last week, she’ll be sending me electronic postcards from Beirut that I will feature in the space. Her advice below is helpful, whether you are just starting out, or have decided to spend time abroad during retirement.

Postcard From Beirut: Five Essentials of Moving Abroad

By Alexandra Talty

Growing up I was always interested in the Middle East. For most of my life, the United States has been at war with or occupying a country somewhere in the Middle East. While Americans are flooded with information about troops or death tolls, it always felt weird to me that I didn’t know about the people, their history or their way of life. While I now understand that it is a huge, complex place and, for example, that Iraq is vastly different than Egypt, it was this initial lack of knowledge that made me curious to learn more.

I majored in Middle Eastern Studies in college and decided that once I saved enough, I would move to the region after graduation. Two years of budgeting later, I finalized my plans and chose Lebanon because of the job opportunities in journalism; the fact that I wanted to learn colloquial Levantine Arabic; and let’s face it, the location on the Mediterranean. Six months after that, I was flying to Beirut.

Here are the five essential steps I took to prepare.

1. Register with your embassy. When I told my extended family that I was moving to Beirut, many of them sent me e-mails about the State Department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program or STEP. Through STEP the State Department is able to communicate important information in case of an emergency.   Although it might seem overly precautionary, I would recommend signing up for this program if you are moving abroad since you will be living somewhere unfamiliar without the same network of friends and family that you are accustomed to. Many countries have similar programs so if you are not American, check your State Department equivalent.

Register before you go; it took some time for my forms to be processed. Once you are registered, you can add specific countries with the dates that you plan to stay there. If you don’t have a local telephone number yet, you should wait until you arrive to add specific countries, since the telephone is the main way for the State Department to contact you in case of an emergency.

The State Department website is also a good source for safety information. It explains what kinds of crimes are committed, areas to avoid and whether certain types of people are being targeted. While it is important to heed the advice, take it in stride as the State Department often paints a bleaker portrait of a country than it deserves.

Another safety tip is to follow multiple embassies on Twitter. While it may take awhile for news reports in your native language to surface, Twitter can give you fast, reliable information in case of an emergency. If you register your phone number with Twitter, there is the added benefit of receiving Twitter updates through text messaging, even if you don’t have internet access.

2. Dress the part. Before moving to Beirut, I was given lots of advice on clothing. Some people said I should only bring high heels and stylish dresses, as Lebanese women are always dressed to the nines. Others advised buying a whole new wardrobe of baggy, unflattering clothes, since I was moving to the Middle East. It left me feeling overwhelmed.

Ultimately, I decided to Facebook a Lebanese American friend who has been living in Lebanon for the past two years. She gave me a simple rule to follow: Don’t wear clothes that look too American. That meant no short skirts, tight tops, tank tops or low cut shirts. I figured if I couldn’t wear it to the office, I shouldn’t pack it.

So far, her advice has been spot on and I would recommend reaching out to a trusted source who is currently living in your destination country. For any country you are visiting, the “don’t dress too American” guideline is a good rule of thumb. The United States tends to have a much more relaxed dress code and what Americans might think of as appropriate (sweatpants) can often be seen as being under dressed.

With all of this advice, it is important to remember that most items are going to be available in your country of choice so don’t sweat the small stuff. We live in a globalized world.

3. Visit the doctor. It is important to get all your necessary vaccinations once your plans are finalized. Some immunizations take awhile to kick in and you want to be 100% covered when you hit the ground. Although I was lucky to escape the doctor’s office with only a few shots, be sure to check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for all mandatory vaccines.

Even if your destination does not require any new vaccines, ask your doctor to fill out an International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis booklet. This is an international record of all your immunizations and can come in handy when applying for a visa. Some countries will not let you visit without one. It can also come in handy in case of an epidemic — for example, if there’s a cholera outbreak and you can show you’ve been immunized against it.

4. Research visa requirements. Visa requirements vary widely from country to country but a quick Google search will usually point you in the right direction. Although you can apply for a visa before traveling to Lebanon, if you are American the easiest (and cheapest) thing to do is get a one-month tourist visa at the airport. If you want to stay longer than one month, you can visit the General Security office in Beirut and apply for a one-month extension.

5. Learn the language. One thing that has made my transition easier is that I took a semester of Modern Standard Arabic before I arrived. Although this is not what is spoken colloquially in Lebanon, I was able to read signs, and say “hello,” “goodbye,” and “thank you.” It made my first few days much more manageable and I would highly recommend taking some language classes before moving abroad.

In every Arabic speaking country, there are two types of Arabic  – Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial or spoken Arabic. Modern Standard is the formal spoken and written language. It is used in newspapers, formal speeches, religious texts, books and lectures at university. Colloquial is what you speak at home, with friends and at work. Inside each of the four main spoken dialects (Levantine, Egyptian, Gulf and Maghreb), there are also regional differences.

While most Arabic speakers understand Modern Standard, to be technically fluent in Arabic you need to be able to speak both Modern Standard and at least one spoken dialect. For traveling purposes, it might be better to learn the colloquial dialect; it would be strange to speak Modern Standard Arabic to a shopkeeper or friend.

Now I am studying colloquial Arabic (Levantine) at the Saifi Institute, where they teach spoken Arabic in addition to Modern Standard.  Due to the school system in Lebanon, most Lebanese can speak English and French fluently, but it is more polite if you attempt Arabic. Even a simple “MarHaba” (Hello) will suffice.

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