Living Overseas
- A Trend in Alternative Living

What You will Find on This Page . . .

Living Overseas - What's the fascination?

A few years ago, Money Magazine did a survey and found that nearly one in five Americans was thinking of moving abroad to live overseas - thus becoming an expatriate.

Are the words: "expatriate" and "ex patriot" the same thing?

Some people confuse the word 'expatriate' with the phrase 'ex patriot'. The two sound very much alike when you say them. But notice there is a difference in the spelling, and they have two very different meanings.

An expatriate is someone who lives outside the country of his or her birth. It has nothing to do with patriotism or love of country.

An ex patriot is a former patriot. You don't have to leave the country to consider yourself an ex patriot. It's a frame of mind. It is someone who declares that they no longer love their country.

That means you can live outside your country - and be called an expatriate and still be a very strong patriot.

Do I automatically lose my citizenship if I move overseas?

Some people think that if you live overseas, you have given up your ties to your country.

You can put your mind at rest about that. If you were born in America or Canada, you will always be an American or a Canadian citizen wherever you choose to live, for as long as you wish, unless you renounce your citizenship.

Many people live overseas, including military families, employees of multi-national corporations, students, volunteers, and world travelers.

You only lose your citizenship if you renounce it voluntarily.

Therefore, you can live overseas indefinitely and still remain a citizen of the country you were born in. You do not lose your citizenship.

NOTE: Those who were born in another country and emigrated here, need to check what the immigration rules and regulations say about this. The same rules may not apply to their country of origin.

Alternative Lifestyles

I recently read a very entertaining book called: The Grown-Up's Guide to Running Away from Home: Making a New Life Abroad by Rosanne Knorr.

This book looks at the interest in long-term travel and living overseas that is starting to have an appeal. This trend is being led by the Baby Boom Generation, who are now entering their 50's and 60's.

They are looking for strategic ways to wind down from the hustle and stress of their working life, and position themselves for a pleasant retirement.

Some are taking early retirement at 55 and heading off overseas, for a year or more to explore places, where their money has more value, where the lifestyle is more tranquil, or offers perhaps a more exciting life, depending on the destination.

Others with young families, are pulling up roots and deciding to explore the world together, by working in different countries.

In 2005, the New York Times said that 78 million Americans were poised to be lured overseas, by a more temperate climate and higher standard of living.

From High School Students, University and College Students, to young families, professionals, and mid-life career changers, the new trend is to try living overseas for awhile. And it can be studying, volunteering, working or retiring overseas.

Read Izabela's story. In 2006, as a University graduate, with several years of working in the 'real world' under her belt, she decided to uproot from her native Boston, and move to New Zealand. She's now "incredibly happy" and living a laid-back, stress-free lifestyle in what she calls "paradise". Izabela's is a wonderfully inspiring success story, that goes to show how easy it is to have the life you want "living overseas".

To find out if you'd like to live in New Zealand, check out Living in New Zealand.

Overseas Resources

The links below will take you to pages with more information about living overseas. They will get you started, thinking about whether this might be something that would work for you.