Expat Life: A Personal Journey

expat /ɛksˈpat/ noun: a person who lives outside their native country.

An expatriate, often shortened to ‘expat’, is simply someone who is living far from home. Sarah Voboril and I became expats in 2016, when we packed up our lives in Colorado, US and moved to Brussels, Belgium. This is something we first dreamed about when we started dating. Several years later, we were fortunate enough for the opportunity to present itself while I was working for Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX). After three years as a Sales Operations Manager with GHX, I was presented with the chance to move to Brussels and work in their European office.  It wasn’t an easy decision to strike out from home, but in hindsight, becoming an expat was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.

Many ask about how we became expats and what it’s like to live abroad, so I wanted to share some of the knowledge that I’ve gained over the last few years. By no means is this meant to be an exhaustive resource on expat life – there are plenty of those resources out there already, several of which I’ve referenced over the course of my experience. Instead, my intent is to provide insight into our personal journey and share my perspective on becoming an expat and the differences you face when living in a foreign country related to the transition, communication, work/life balance, etc.

Brussels: Expat Hub

As part of our story, it is important to understand the overall expat population, especially in Brussels. This has shaped our experience significantly because of the relative ease of being an expat in Brussels compared to other cities. Simply put, we are not alone. Surprising to some, there are over 50 million expats living around the world, with Saudi Arabia hosting the most expats and India having the most of its citizens becoming expats (1). In Europe, particularly since the inception of the European Union, it is common for citizens to live and work in countries beyond their native homeland. For Belgium, this is especially true with 11 million living within its borders and 1.3 million of those being expats (2). That is 12% of the population! Yes, they may come from neighboring countries such as France, Italy and the Netherlands; but also includes those who come from beyond Europe, such as Africa and the Americas.

Brussels is unique in that it attracts expats due to the presence of institutions such as the European Parliament, Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and NATO. For many, this means that Brussels becomes the de facto capital of Europe. This brings plenty of foreigners, either to work directly for these institutions or for the global companies who have headquarters or large offices in the vicinity. 

This concentration of foreigners is helpful for expats like us, who can meet other expats and have access services that cater to expats. It is also relevant when looking at the demographics of my office where we have a mixture of Belgians, French, Italians, Portuguese, Dutch, German, and even one Luxembourger. Many are here because Brussels is an easy place to live for someone who isn’t Belgian. 

This has helped to influence my experience because it provides a myriad of perspectives on not only work, but life in general. Lunch conversations are different when you have such a diverse group of people. Workshops on employee engagement are more appealing when I can learn from other viewpoints and other cultures. Overall, life is more fulfilling when you can be influenced by those who don’t necessarily share your viewpoint – whether it is how to negotiate with a customer or which pizza toppings you prefer (hint: don’t tell an Italian from Naples that you consider pineapple and ham legitimate options for pizza).

The ‘Decision’

The decision to move away from a comfortable life was not an easy one. In Colorado both my wife and I had our families and friends nearby, along with a strong professional network. We were on solid career tracks as we had both recently completed our MBAs and were enjoying the career acceleration that can come with an advanced degree. By all standards, we had good lives, but the draw of an adventure was strong enough to pull us away. We knew that we could always move back to Colorado in case it didn’t work out – the worst-case scenario wasn’t a bad scenario. That being said, we did have to make our decision shortly after the terrorist attacks on the Brussels airport in March 2016. That weighed heavily on us, but we realized that the threat was not isolated to Brussels, Belgium, or even Europe – unfortunately the terrorist threat is a global issue. 

Ultimately, the decision to leave was due to the career opportunity being an expat presented. Not often does the chance come up to gain experience in an international, multi-cultural position. In addition, the role was in line with my career path as I was able to help our European business by improving global operations through several key initiatives. GHX was in a transition phase to globalize a lot of its internal processes and I was in a unique position to lead several of the European projects.

Once the decision to move was made, it was time to get prepared to move to a new country, new city, and new life. Telling our families was the toughest part since both my wife and I come from close-knit families. But they were supportive of our decision as they knew it was a unique opportunity for us to live in Europe. 

Packing up our house, finding tenants, selling our cars, and organizing our finances are all typical moving checklist items. It was the other end of the move that proved to be more challenging. For example, finding a bank to open an account without being a resident in the country. Or finding an apartment with different lease standards. Ironically, the bank needed a local lease agreement – but to get a lease you need to put a deposit into an escrow account in a local bank. Your standard expat “Chicken and Egg” situation. Fortunately, after lots of back and forth we were able to figure it out, find a place to live, get our utilities connected, etc. without too many delays. And the first month we moved to Brussels was a beautiful September where we were able to take advantage of long days, ideal weather, and soak in our new surroundings. And since I had already been involved in our European business while based in Colorado, the ramp up time to be productive at work was relatively quick.

Expat Paperwork

Being an expat involves lots of paperwork. An incredible amount of paperwork. And it isn’t just to become an expat, but also to stay an expat. The honor of having residency and income in two countries means everything is at least doubled. And Belgium doesn’t necessarily make it easy on foreigners to register, pay taxes, or even renew their expat status. There isn’t a TurboTax for expats (hmmm, business idea?). Be ready to get frustrated by the lack of clarity on what documents are needed. Be ready to stand in line. Be ready to get nothing done because of unforeseen circumstances. 

Within all of this ‘red tape’ are learning opportunities which make the experience worth it. These can often be frustrating while going through it, but if you change your perspective you realize that this was a choice and can be a positive event. For example, I had to go the commune (think: town hall) to renew my work permit. After standing in line for almost 2 hours, the fire alarm went off! Everyone had to get out of the building to stand in the rain and wait for the authorities to clear the building. Then somehow, we got back into line in the same place as before without too much fighting:

Could I have been doing something more productive? Yes, of course. But it was an education and experience that you cannot get in an office. I was able to interact and observe people from all over the world trying to get similar paperwork completed. I saw how they react in stressful situations, how willing they are to talk to other strangers in line, how parents handle energetic children. Some linegoers were from Africa. Others were from Asia. But in the end, we shared similarities as we were all foreigners. We are all part of the expat community.

For those who want to know more about my experience as an expat, I will post a more topics in coming weeks so stay tuned! Feel free to comment with topics you would like me to cover.

(1) “New Report Shows Record Number of Expats Worldwide.” Paragon Relocation, 6 Oct. 2016, paragonrelocation.com/new-report-shows-record-number-of-expats-worldwide/.

(2) “Belgium: Foreign Population, by Origin 2018 | Statistic.” Statista, 2019, www.statista.com/statistics/517235/foreign-population-of-belgium-by-origin/.