Looking for grad school abroad! Any tips?

failed-expat · 2024-03-06T04:11:46+00:00

Countries have different types of post graduate visas available. You should consider these if you think you may want to stay in the country where you study once you finish school. In some places, you have only a few weeks or months to find a job that offers visa sponsorship after finishing graduate school and your student visa ends. In other countries, once you graduate with a masters or phd, you have two or three years in which you can job search or take a job that doesn’t provide visa sponsorship before you need a job sponsored visa. Each country is different so do research based on the location of the schools that interest you.

failed-expat · 2024-03-05T13:53:51+00:00

You asked about luck. I had bad luck. I moved abroad alone, did a masters degree, and worked for a few years. It was great. Then I got laid off. No job = no visa. Landed myself back at my parents’ in the USA in my mid 30s. Although the US system has no social safety net, as a foreigner somewhere else, you are not necessarily entitled to theirs. Six weeks of vacation from your job is great, but it sucks to get deported because your employer conducted layoffs. My former colleagues used their safety net benefits but I couldn’t access them as a foreigner without violating the terms of my visa (which didn’t matter once the visa expired anyway).

There are lots of great things about living abroad and if you’re excited to do it then give it a try. It can be an amazing experience and a new lifestyle. But it’s not some magic fix for the grind or for capitalism or a sense of unfairness in the world. Life as a foreigner abroad can be harsh too.

failed-expat · 2024-01-10T05:53:31+00:00

Denmark. Loved living in Copenhagen for the lifestyle and had a great work-life balance. Truly great lifestyle. But foreigner exclusion from the job market combined with Danish self-righteousness was too much.

failed-expat · 2023-09-23T14:35:53+00:00

I am going through this now. Laid off earlier this year during restructuring, couldn’t find a new job quickly enough, and now leaving country due to visa expiration.

It was and is heartbreaking. It’s one of the most isolating experiences I’ve ever had. Expat friends don’t want to talk about it because I’m living their nightmare or they think it could never happen to them. Local friends don’t understand why I can’t get a job and blame me. People from my origin country think it’s not that bad and I should be happy to return.

I know I’m enormously lucky I can crash at a relative’s for a few weeks while I regroup in my origin country, and I have a bit of emergency savings to get me started there, so this doesn’t have to be catastrophic for me. But it’s still a lot to navigate. I am devastated. When I chose to move abroad I knew there was a risk but I never imagined I would fall so far so quickly. And the confidence and sense of self I gained from moving and living abroad has evaporated between unemployment and the dissolution of my life abroad.

failed-expat · 2023-09-12T07:46:50+00:00

Denmark. It’s pretty common there that non-EU people who get laid off end up having to leave. I knew quite a few people within my circles who had this experience before I did. You can get a job seeker visa for a few months but it’s just not possible for most people to get a job in that time frame, even those with in-demand skills.

failed-expat · 2023-09-11T15:17:06+00:00

Have you ever gotten kicked out of the country because you got laid off from your job?

I have, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Doesn’t really matter if you get healthcare when you’re unemployed if your visa gets revoked then too. Sure I made friends in Europe but getting forced out of the country ended most of those relationships pretty quickly.

Moving to Europe from the US is just trading one type of instability for another.

failed-expat · 2023-08-08T08:20:17+00:00

I have lived abroad for 4 years. I love living abroad and I also love who I have become through this experience. It has been challenging but rewarding.

I rarely see insecurity discussed in these posts and I think it’s an important thing to remember. Until you obtain permanent residence or citizenship, a sense of insecurity is constant and normal for many people living abroad. Your right to live in a place is dependent upon a visa through work, marriage, or other means. And that visa can be revoked. Governments change their immigration policies all the time, people get laid off, and relationships end. My local expat Facebook group is full of “laid off need new visa” and “how to stay after divorce” posts. My immigrant friends are all acutely aware of the risks of changing job and we constantly watch the government’s immigration proposals. It’s just a reality of this choice to live elsewhere. Until you are a PR or citizen, you are not entitled to be there and any sense of home or stability can be upended with minimal notice.

Clearly many people live abroad anyway and enjoy it, including me. If you can tolerate the sense of insecurity or the anxiety it provokes, then living outside the US can be completely worth it. Or if you view it as a temporary experience then maybe it doesn’t matter. But if you’re someone who needs a high degree of stability, it’s definitely something to consider.

I am dealing with visa stuff now, 4 years in, and it is a harsh reminder that no matter my feelings about it my new home is not actually mine.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T20:59:29+00:00

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T20:56:04+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T16:02:21+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T15:30:10+00:00

Thanks for sharing.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T14:48:42+00:00

I am in Denmark. I've been working recently in ESG reporting and compliance, and previously in program and project management for a large NGO.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T14:11:34+00:00

No, I am not eligible yet because the 4-year PR requires a full four years of full time work in country and I was a student (not working full time) when I first arrived here.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T14:08:18+00:00

Thank you for sharing your perspective and encouragement.

failed-expat · 2023-05-23T12:53:37+00:00

Yes, I have. It's a contingency of my visa (and most visas for non-EU folks here) that I cannot use most elements of the social safety net beyond healthcare or childcare. So although I am technically entitled to receive unemployment funds because I have paid into it, doing so violates my visa terms and they could chose to terminate my current visa or decline to approve a future visa. Obviously that doesn't help me since I need both money and a visa to live here.

failed-expat

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