Hypothetically, how bad an idea is it for someone to move countries on a whim?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Suppose I decided I want to start all over again. I sell everything I own that can’t fit into a suitcase or two, leave my cats with my mom, give my landlord notice, and buy a one-way plane ticket to New Zealand, never looking back. I have good people skills, speak the language, and have several marketable skills.

I understand “blahblahblah, you should have a job and place to live lined up before you go,” but is this really a bad idea? Has anyone here done anything like this?

Again, this is hypothetical. My ass ain’t going anywhere until I graduate and have some money saved up.

2

I haven’t but I’ve known people who do. It seems to be a tradition around here that when a girl turns 17 or 18, her parents put her on the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard at the beginning of summer and tell her that they’ll pick her up at the end of it. It is up to her to find a place to live and a job and friends. I’ve known a few women who’ve been through that. Not only did they survive it, they say it was the best summer of their lives.

And I’ve met a bunch of young people from Europe (mostly Ireland, Poland, and Czecho) who come to the US the same way. I guess it’s sort of a rite of passage on those countries.

3

If you need to work for a living, and don’t intend to live as a poorly-paid illegal, it’s insane. But I’ve known a bunch of crazy people. They survived.

If you don’t need to work for a living, go for it.

4

without a work permit in your new country your job prospects stoop at day laborer. with one, go for it.

5

Doing it legally or illegally is the question. I know loads of people immigrate illegally but it wouldn’t be for me. Seems pretty risky and I’d hate to live looking over my shoulder the whole time. Try it out with a short-term visa if you can get one and then you might be able to extend. I know two people who went to Australia and then New Zealand that way and both ended up with residency, one with citizenship now and never coming back.

I did the student summer-work visa thing in Cape Cod (I’m Irish). It was brilliant fun and yes, it’s kind of a rite of passage for college students here. I met the guy who’s now my husband there. He was doing the same thing. There are a whole gang of us who’ve remained lifelong friends from that summer.

I you have itchy feet pack your bag (organise your visa) and go. If you like it you can look into staying longer or maybe moving on somewhere else. You’ll probably find that it makes what you want clearer. Some people realise then hat they want to come home, or make a new home abroad - either way, if you really want to do it, go for it and good luck. Travel broadens the mind.

6

Rare is he who can move countries on a whim.

7

You know that New Zealand has a pretty strict point system for determining whether or not you can work there?

Legalities aside, why the hell not?

My husband and I moved from New Zealand to the UK a few years ago and I hadn’t even been to the UK before moving. It’s been an absolute blast. We’re planning on staying in the north of England for a few more years, then spend a few years somewhere in the south of England, then we’re looking at moving to the the US for a few years, if we can get green cards.

I think you have to have the right sort of personality to do this sort of thing. You can’t move to another country and expect it to be the same as yours. You need to respect the culture and values of the country you move to, and be willing to adjust your own (if only externally) to fit. You have to be willing to take on a wider range of jobs, based on what’s available where you are.

8

As far as the Europeans that come here for a summer, I’ve mostly noticed them cleaning hotel rooms, waiting tables, driving cabs, selling t-shirts, and guarding beaches. Maybe that’s just where I have a chance to interact with them, or maybe those are just the kinds of jobs that summer kids can get easily.

9

Yes, I’m assuming the OP is a professional adult looking for a medium to long term move, rather than a teenager/student looking for a place to live just for the summer.

ETA: Doh, missed the bit about him being an undergrad. I should really learn to read.

10

To move to Japan, you have to have a job lined up beforehand (officially.) You could always take a vacation to wherever it is you want to go and hope you can find a job offer within the amount of time you have, but I don’t know how feasible that really is.

11

I would do it. My SO? Never. It’s a significant difference in the way we were raised. He literally lived in one house all of his life until he went to college (and went home to that same house all through it). I can’t even comprehend that. The longest I ever lived in one place was six years.

As a result I tend to be a little more adventurous than him.

12

Our local German TV station Vox has a “Docu-soap” called “Goodbye Deutschland: Die Auswanderer” (Goodbye Germany, the emmigrants; Apparently they don’t have an english version of their homepage), for some time now, where they show families leaving Germany for the wonderful opportunities of foreign countries. Most of them fail, because they are badly prepared: don’t speak the language, haven’t got a job lined up already; find that in whatever country they end up, there are natives looking for work, too (who do speak the language), and if you’re badly qualified in Germany, you’re still badly qualified in foreign parts, too.

So they started a second docu-soap: Die Rückwanderer(The returners) of people who got fed up with foreign countries’ culture or could simply not get a job, didn’t manage the language and once their savings were used up, had to leave.

Generally speaking, even if the language barrier is no problem, as others have said upthread, in modern countries you need a job beforehand to get a work visa (and often there are hurdles to protect the natives’ jobs, some sort of quota), so the only jobs would be illegal ones, which are also badly paid and back-breaking and dirty (picking fruits in California at speed).

In more relaxed countries, like some Pacific island, you probably don’t need a visa or work permit, but then jobs generally are rare and already filled by natives, so you end up distributing beach umbrellas to tourists or selling lemonade or similar.

It’s not impossible, but it’s a very risky business, you need the right personality (friendly, charming, no cultural problems) to overcome hurdles, and a lot of luck.

Then you can find the job of your dreams managing a hotel on a Fiji island or whatever. Or you end up being deported from Australia because you have no job and the Aussies don’t want to pay welfare to foreigners with their own country.