Ruairi Spillane joins the Expat Focus Podcast to discuss what it takes to immigrate to Canada in 2024. Ruairi moved there from Ireland back in 2008, initially working in finance. He was motivated to start his own business in Canada after seeing so many expat friends struggle to navigate the system, and get access to the essential information they needed to be able to settle and thrive in the country.

Ruari launched the website moving2canada.com, and in the years since, he has collected a swag of titles, including being named Best Immigrant Entrepreneur. Listen to find out what makes Canada attractive to foreigners right now, some current job opportunities, the typical visa application timeline, and some hurdles you can expect to face along the way.

Have you ever visited a city or a country and just known deep down that it's where you were meant to be? This is what Steph Zakas experienced on her first visit from the USA to Iceland, and it's the reason why she's living in the country today.

Steph Zakas is a true slashie - she’s a coach, advisor, consultant, and photographer. In this chat, you’ll find out how she made Iceland her home, what it’s like to live in a country of such extreme contrasts (so much darkness in winter and a sun that never sets in the summer), and how Steph thinks that contributes to such a creative society. You’ll also learn that if you do come to Iceland, you shouldn’t treat the place like Disneyland.

So, you’ve fallen in love with the beautiful country of New Zealand. How can you go about moving there to live and work? What sectors are especially interested in employing foreigners, and what’s the visa application process like?

David Andrews joins the Expat Focus Podcast to talk through your various visa options, application requirements and the costs involved. David’s the founder and director of Visa Visa Immigration Services and Hire Minds Recruitment. He’s also an expat in New Zealand himself, so he knows exactly what it’s like to pack up your life and move to a new country.

We’re all about providing practical tips and advice on this show, and in this episode I’m joined by Jake Barber, Founder and Advisor at SJB Global, who is going to talk through transfer options for expats with UK defined contribution pensions.

Jake is based in Spain, and he’s worked with British expats - in fact anyone with a work history in the UK - for a decade. We’ll dive into how Brexit affected pensions, your options for transferring a UK defined contribution pension so you can access it abroad, and specific rules and transfer fees that you should be aware of.

Now for the usual caveat - Jake is providing only general information in this episode. If you want advice more specific to your situation, you should get in touch with him, or another professional advisor.

Today’s guest, Jess Drucker, has made a career out of helping LGBTQ+ people and their families move abroad. In fact, she’s created the world’s first and only, global relocation resource for this expat community, called Rainbow Relocation.

Jess is a seasoned expat herself, and we chat about some of the additional practical elements that come into play when you’re queer and moving to a new country.

From choosing places that are safe, where marriage and children will be legally recognized, where you’ll be able to thrive in your career, and find your community.

If you’re lucky enough to have a job that you can do from anywhere, you’re now pretty spoilt for choice when it comes to the number of countries offering digital nomad or equivalent visas. UN Tourism reports that almost half of all global destinations now offer visas for at least a year. Spain is in the spotlight in this episode, as I chat to American nutrition strategist Aimee Gallo, who moved with her husband and young son to the Catalonia region.

You’ll find out why Aimee and her family chose Spain, the telework or digital nomad visa application process, timeline to approval, what their remote working life is like, and why, if you follow in Aimee’s footsteps, you should get comfortable in the uncomfortable. Now, one point we didn’t cover in this interview is what the minimum income requirement is for Spain’s digital nomad visa. Tune in until the end to find out.

Did you know that if you move abroad with children, or have them while living in a foreign country and then split from your partner, you may not be able to bring your kids back home? You may also find yourself ‘stuck’ abroad, in a country that you no longer want to be in. It’s a situation that my guest Roz Osbourne has personal experience with, and it’s why she founded the charity, GlobalARRK more than a decade ago.

With Roz we’re going to deep-dive into how expats become stuck parents, why they’re so often mothers, and the risk factors that go along with their situations - for example, 81% report they have suffered domestic abuse.

Keep listening until the end if you’re in an international relationship and have or are considering kids. Roz has some practical advice to share to help prevent an international custody crisis.

Some pretty big life events happened around the time Australian expat Rachael Kowald turned 30. She moved from London to Glasgow for the lower cost of living, returned to school as a mature age student, and then, she decided to buy a house!

Rachael’s studying nursing, she also works as a carer for people with spinal cord injuries and - now she’s a homeowner.

In this interview, we talk about how she got into college and then university as a foreigner, the different streams of nursing study that you can choose between in Scotland, the house-buying process and local living costs.