Sunday, November 25, 2007
New edition out!
The third edition of the DIY Expat Guide is out, with a significant number of updates on laws that have changed over the past couple of months. We'll be putting out another update at the end of December with details on how various European countries are implementing the EU's Permanent Residency Directive. In practical terms, this is the legislation which allows permit holders to move around most of the European Union with a minimum of paperwork and hassle.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
I thought summer was supposed to be hot
Where has July gone? It's been so rainy and cold that it seems like later in the year.
Bad weather or no, there are more immigration reforms in the works. Belgium has added some beneficial regulations, Sweden is talking about some reforms and even France is fleshing out regulations passed last year. I'll be putting together a separate publication that should go up quite soon with some of the legal changes that we've noticed or that are slated to come up in the near future.
I've spent most of the month straightening out some of the writing wrinkles in the DIYExpat Guide and a couple of the other publications which we have. Those changes go up this weekend.
... and don't forget that subscribers can download these new editions for free! (It's one of the benefits of the subscription model that we use.)
We quietly changed a number of the country pages, adding more info...
Monday, July 02, 2007
Major Update
We've been busy at work on the website and behind the scenes, and a major update is in the works.
If you haven't read about the HP zd8000 laptop, it's a great machine, but some have said that it runs hot.... so hot that some of its innerds actually melt. Currently I have a dead one, and it seems to have suffered exactly this fate.
Readers have been telling us that there's nothing out there like this, but that some passages need clarifying or an additional bit of explaining. Why mention this on the weblog? Because it's one of the reasons why we chose for a business model that allows our readers to download later versions too.
If you haven't read about the HP zd8000 laptop, it's a great machine, but some have said that it runs hot.... so hot that some of its innerds actually melt. Currently I have a dead one, and it seems to have suffered exactly this fate.
Readers have been telling us that there's nothing out there like this, but that some passages need clarifying or an additional bit of explaining. Why mention this on the weblog? Because it's one of the reasons why we chose for a business model that allows our readers to download later versions too.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Sarko v Bat Boy
Putting the final touches on the commercial side of DIY Expat this weekend, I managed to unwittingly take everything offline for 36 hours with a badly configured access file. Ah fun fun.
Speaking of fun, Nicholas Sarkozy has won the presidential elections in France. Sarkozy pushed through immigration reforms which favor talented non-EU citizens, and one of his electoral promises is to lower taxes.
Definitely keep an eye on the electoral coverage there if you're thinking of movig to Europe.
The French paper Canard Echaine (cartoon above) makes him (the new French president) look a bit like Bat Boy of Weekly World News fame.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
14 million Americans want to move abroad?!
According to a new survey, there's as many Americans as who want to move abroad as there are in the entire Czech and Slovak Republics (give or take a few Bobs and Svatopluks). Wow! Hope that they all have something to do when they get here.
Looking at the numbers from the survey, it seems like Europe is a top destination. The survey authors say that the numbers are high, but that the respondents are people who say that "they're planning to" (i.e. where's the airport) to "maybe not, but I may buy property." Together, that's a pretty high number. Reasons ranged by age group, with political reasoning and wanting new challenges rating tops for reasons to leave for a few years. (It's also interesting to look at reasoning by age on page 10.)
Taken at face value, it looks like not only that everyone wants to come to the US, but many from the US might like to try the opposite direction.
Europe estimates that it needs hundreds of thousands of people over the next few decades just to keep the population stable. Bringing a few Americans back to Europe probably wouldn't cause too much of an uproar, although we'd definitely have to work on our accents, specially of Romance languages.
The absolute most hilarious thing I ever saw in a restaurant in Paris was some years ago when I was studying undergrad. A guy from Texas was trying to impress his girlfriend who'd come over for Spring Break. He was doing his best, but just couldn't make that switch from English to French. For example, whenever he wanted a waiter, he would snap his fingers and shout "GARKON!" at regular intervals. A new waiter would appear each time... and I didn't know why until I saw the others about to double-over laughing. The Texan's French was so entertainingly bad that they were sending colleagues over just to listen. Other gems included "Champseleeseez", "Versails", "joornow" and "dooo cervezas du plus" (with an upturned V sign made with two fingers to the waiter).
The waiters were well-mannered though, and completmented to the girlfriend on how good "ze monsieur's French ees, oh yes, you must stay wit' eem, ozerwise".... (fingersnap)..." a Frenchwoaman will nevair let'im leave." They did get a nice tip in the end, I saw, so everyone was 'appy.
The British are moving to France and Spain en masse, and most of them can't speak the local languages worth much either. So a few extra American types won't hurt, I duely reckon. Besides, if Americans come to work in Europe, maybe some of the folks back home will start to wonder why they're settling for two weeks of vacation when Bob over in Germany has five, a Mercedes and makes more money (well, at least while the Euro is strong).
Looking at the numbers from the survey, it seems like Europe is a top destination. The survey authors say that the numbers are high, but that the respondents are people who say that "they're planning to" (i.e. where's the airport) to "maybe not, but I may buy property." Together, that's a pretty high number. Reasons ranged by age group, with political reasoning and wanting new challenges rating tops for reasons to leave for a few years. (It's also interesting to look at reasoning by age on page 10.)
Taken at face value, it looks like not only that everyone wants to come to the US, but many from the US might like to try the opposite direction.
Europe estimates that it needs hundreds of thousands of people over the next few decades just to keep the population stable. Bringing a few Americans back to Europe probably wouldn't cause too much of an uproar, although we'd definitely have to work on our accents, specially of Romance languages.
The absolute most hilarious thing I ever saw in a restaurant in Paris was some years ago when I was studying undergrad. A guy from Texas was trying to impress his girlfriend who'd come over for Spring Break. He was doing his best, but just couldn't make that switch from English to French. For example, whenever he wanted a waiter, he would snap his fingers and shout "GARKON!" at regular intervals. A new waiter would appear each time... and I didn't know why until I saw the others about to double-over laughing. The Texan's French was so entertainingly bad that they were sending colleagues over just to listen. Other gems included "Champseleeseez", "Versails", "joornow" and "dooo cervezas du plus" (with an upturned V sign made with two fingers to the waiter).
The waiters were well-mannered though, and completmented to the girlfriend on how good "ze monsieur's French ees, oh yes, you must stay wit' eem, ozerwise".... (fingersnap)..." a Frenchwoaman will nevair let'im leave." They did get a nice tip in the end, I saw, so everyone was 'appy.
The British are moving to France and Spain en masse, and most of them can't speak the local languages worth much either. So a few extra American types won't hurt, I duely reckon. Besides, if Americans come to work in Europe, maybe some of the folks back home will start to wonder why they're settling for two weeks of vacation when Bob over in Germany has five, a Mercedes and makes more money (well, at least while the Euro is strong).
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