Dear Migrants,
I want you to imagine something. You have spent two years applying for jobs abroad.
Rejections. No responses.
“Unfortunately, we have decided to proceed with another candidate.”
Again.
And again.
And again. 😭
Then one day, the email finally comes.
Congratulations. We would like to offer you the position.
The salary is higher than what you currently earn.
The company will sponsor your visa.
You will finally move abroad.
You call your family.
Everybody is excited.
Your mother has probably already told half the neighbourhood. 😂
You have made it.
Or have you?
Because I think there is one question people do not ask enough when they are looking for jobs abroad.
Not:
“How much does this job pay?”
Not:
“Will they sponsor my visa?”
But:
Because most people are not looking for a foreign job simply because they want a foreign job.
You want what you believe that job will give you.
More money.
More security.
A better career.
A safer future.
The ability to support your parents.
Better opportunities for your children.
Professional growth.
Permanent residence.
Maybe citizenship one day.
Maybe the freedom to finally stop worrying every few years about whether somebody will renew your visa.
The job is not really the goal.
The life the job could help you build is the goal.
And that distinction is becoming increasingly important.
When people send me questions about migration, I notice how much attention goes to the beginning of the journey.
Which companies sponsor visas?
Which country needs workers?
Where can I find jobs?
Which visa is easiest?
How much can I earn?
These are important questions.
But they are only first-step questions.
Migration is not just about getting into another country.
You have to think about what happens one year later.
Three years later.
Five years later.
Because two people can both receive foreign job offers and end up with completely different lives.
One person may enter a country on a skilled-worker visa, build local experience, qualify for permanent residence and eventually have the freedom to change employers without putting their entire immigration status at risk.
Another person may earn a very good salary but remain completely dependent on their employer to stay in the country.
Lose the job.
Lose the visa.
Suddenly the apartment, children’s school, spouse’s situation and the whole life they spent years building become uncertain.
Same achievement:
“I got a job abroad.”
Very different outcomes.
This is why I think we need to stop evaluating foreign jobs only as employment opportunities.
We need to start evaluating them as migration pathways.
One thing I have noticed while going through migration developments every week is that countries are creating very different relationships between work and long-term residence.
In parts of Canada, provincial immigration programmes increasingly reward people who are already working locally, have employers behind them or are filling specific labour-market needs.
Germany has built several routes designed not simply to bring skilled workers into the country, but to allow qualifying workers to eventually move towards more secure residence.
Australia continues to distinguish between temporary work arrangements and skilled pathways that can potentially lead towards permanent residence.
At the same time, there are countries where you can build an excellent career and earn very good money, but your right to remain is much more closely connected to your employment.
Neither system is automatically good or bad.
They simply offer different things.
And that is where your own goal becomes important.
If your priority is:
“I want to work abroad for five years, save aggressively and eventually return home,”
a high-paying temporary route might suit you perfectly.
But if your dream is:
“I want to raise my children there, buy a house, change employers freely and eventually become a permanent resident,”
then the same temporary opportunity may not be enough.
This is why somebody cannot simply tell you:
“Germany is better.”
Or:
“Canada is better.”
Or:
“Dubai is better.”
Better for what?
That is the question.
I understand why people focus on salary.
If you are earning the equivalent of $500 or $800 a month and someone offers you $3,000, $4,000 or $5,000 somewhere else, that number can feel life-changing.
And sometimes it genuinely is.
But please calculate the life, not just the salary.
What is the rent?
What are the taxes?
Can your spouse work?
How expensive is childcare?
What happens if you lose your job?
Can you change employers?
How expensive are visa renewals?
Can your children stay with you?
Does your profession require additional licensing?
How many years before you can apply for permanent residence?
Can you ever apply for permanent residence?
What happens to your visa when the employment contract ends?
Suddenly:
“This job pays more.”
becomes a much more complicated sentence.
A salary tells you what you earn.
It does not automatically tell you what kind of life you can build.
I think social media has made the word “sponsorship” sound magical.
“Visa sponsorship jobs!”
Everybody runs. 😂
But sponsorship simply means an employer may be willing to support the immigration process required for you to work there.
That is excellent.
But you still need to investigate what comes after sponsorship.
Does this visa belong to you, or is your immigration status heavily dependent on that employer?
If you want to change companies, can you?
If you are laid off, how long do you have to find another job?
Can your spouse accompany you?
Can your spouse work?
Does the time you spend on that visa count towards permanent residence?
Is there even a permanent residence pathway from that visa?
These questions are not as exciting as:
“COMPANY HIRING FOREIGNERS!!!”
But these are the questions that determine what your life looks like after the excitement of relocation is over.
I would personally investigate at least these things.
Do not stop at:
“They will sponsor me.”
Ask for the actual visa or residence category.
Then go to the official government website and read about it yourself.
Is it one year?
Two years?
Five years?
Can it be renewed?
How many times?
This is extremely important.
Some immigration systems give workers time to find another employer.
Others create much more immediate pressure.
Know this before you relocate.
Not after HR tells you the company is restructuring.
You may love the job today.
You may hate it two years from now.
Your manager may change.
The salary may stop being competitive.
A better company may approach you.
How much freedom will your immigration status give you?
And please go further than:
“Dependants are allowed.”
Can your spouse work?
Can your children attend school?
What healthcare access will they have?
How much will their visas cost?
A migration pathway that works beautifully for a single 25-year-old may look very different for somebody with a spouse and three children.
If permanent settlement is part of your goal, investigate this from day one.
Do not wait until you have already spent four years in the country before discovering that the visa you were using does not count the way you assumed.
Find out:
How many years?
What salary?
What language level?
What tax or social-insurance history?
What other requirements?
This one is easy to forget because we become so focused on leaving.
Look at the actual job.
Will you learn?
Will you gain internationally recognised experience?
Will the company name strengthen your CV?
Will you develop skills that another employer will value?
What happens to your career if you return home five years later?
A foreign job should ideally make you more valuable, not merely more foreign.
Take the salary.
Subtract tax.
Subtract rent.
Subtract transport.
Subtract healthcare.
Subtract childcare.
Subtract visa costs.
Subtract remittances.
Subtract the occasional emergency because life will still be life abroad. 😂
What remains?
That number may matter much more than the headline salary.
This may be the most important question.
Imagine that everything goes according to plan.
You get the job.
You relocate.
You work hard.
Five years pass.
Where are you?
Still renewing a temporary visa?
Permanent resident?
Citizen?
Able to bring your parents?
Able to change employers?
Running your own business?
Returning home with savings?
Moving to another country with stronger experience?
There is no universally correct answer.
But there should be an answer.
Otherwise you may spend years moving without actually moving towards anything.
I think this is where migration planning often goes backwards.
We begin with the country.
“I want Canada.”
“I want Australia.”
“I want Germany.”
“I want Dubai.”
Then we try to force our lives into whatever route gets us there.
I think we should reverse it.
Start with the life.
Maybe you want:
Financial security.
A long-term home.
A highly international career.
A safe place to raise children.
Five years of aggressive saving.
A passport that gives you greater mobility.
Professional recognition.
The ability to eventually start a business.
Then ask:
Which migration pathway can realistically help me build that life?
That is a much smarter question.
Before accepting a foreign job offer, research:
The exact visa/residence permit you will receive
How long that status lasts
Renewal requirements
Whether you can change employers
What happens if you lose the job
Whether your spouse can work
Your children’s rights, if applicable
Whether your qualification needs further recognition or licensing
Your realistic take-home pay
Cost of housing and everyday life
Whether the visa can lead to permanent residence
How many years permanent residence normally takes
Whether your years on this particular visa count
Whether there are language requirements
What the pathway to citizenship looks like, if citizenship matters to you
What your career could look like after three to five years
And please do not rely entirely on TikTok, X, Facebook groups, WhatsApp or somebody’s cousin who migrated in 2019.
Use those places to discover questions.
Then use official sources to find the answers.
Because immigration rules change.
Your friend’s experience is not automatically your pathway.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a foreign job.
There is nothing wrong with wanting the bigger salary.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to finally say:
“I made it abroad.”
But try not to become so focused on getting the opportunity that you forget to ask where the opportunity is taking you.
The job is the vehicle.
Your goal is the destination.
For one person, that destination may be permanent residence.
For another, financial independence.
For another, international experience before returning home.
For another, a better future for their children.
Know yours.
Because the best foreign job is not necessarily the one with the biggest salary.
It is the one that moves you closer to the life you actually wanted when you started dreaming about migration in the first place.
Thank you for being here.
Until next week, keep making smarter migration decisions.
— Sylvie
At the end of this month, we’re meeting again for our FREE Migration Intelligence Live.
📅 Friday, August 28
🕚 11:00 PM Tokyo time
📍 Live here on Substack🔗 https://open.substack.com/live-stream/313020?utm_source=live-stream-scheduled-upsell
Click it and turn on your notifications/reminder so Substack lets you know when we’re about to go live.
This is our opportunity to go beyond the newsletter and talk about your migration plans in real time.
I’m already preparing what we’ll cover, so if there is something you are struggling with, send me your question now.
What country are you considering?
What part of the migration process is confusing you?
What decision are you trying to make?
What would you like me to explain during the Live?
If you receive this newsletter by email, reply directly to this email with your question. If you’re reading on Substack, leave your question in the comments.
I’ll use the questions you send me now to help shape the session, so please don’t wait until the day of the Live. If there is something you particularly want me to research and address, send it early so I can include it while I’m preparing.
If studying abroad is part of your migration plan, over the next 6 weeks I will be doing a detailed breakdown of three fully funded scholaships on Youtube:
1. Chevening Scholarship
Knight Henessey Scholarship
Commonwealth Scholarship
Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@DrSylvieWatikum
See you on Youtube!!
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