Expat Experiences: Netherlands - Stuart

Who are you?

My name is Stuart. I'm an Englishman in his early 30s with a well documented reputation for accident proneness and bizarre situation finding. I moved to Holland to start working as a designer in the computer games industry. Originally this was only supposed to be a stay of sixth months but the tempting lure of "lekkere bitterballen" and good beer has turned it into a much longer stay.

My favorite colour is army green, my lucky number is seven and when I grow up I want to be a Ghostbuster.

Where, when and why did you move abroad?

I moved to Holland in the summer of 2001 but it was not really planned. It was kind of an accident but a happy accident none the less. A short while after I had finished college I tried to find a job in the computer games design industry so I could use my education as an excuse to play computer games all day.

I was not having much luck in my search until I found a job advert in a computer game magazine. It was the strangeness of the cryptic job advertisement that caught my eye. It had no address, no phone number and hardly any other important detail printed upon the page. All it really had was a dot com email address to which I applied.

I waited for a reply while wondering if the strange cryptic nature of it all could lead to a situation where I wake up in a bath of ice in a basement somewhere having fallen victim to a gang of black market human organ dealers using a games company as a front for their diabolical scheme.

A few days later I received an email which included three surprises. Surprise number one was that in no part of the email did they enquire about the condition of my internal organs. Surprise number two was that they were offering me an interview and surprise number three (which was the biggest) was that they were offering to pay for my flights to the interview location... in the city of Amsterdam... in Holland!

Since there had been no address in the advertisement or any indication of its location upon the globe I simply assumed the job was in Britain (since it was in a British gaming magazine). Not wanting to turn down a free day trip to another country I went for the interview, not really knowing what to do if I was offered the job... which I was.

All these years later I am still living and working in Holland. Plus I still have both my kidneys which is a bonus...

Read more at http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-netherlands-experiences-stuart

Expat Experiences: Netherlands - Tiffany Jansen

Who are you?

My name is Tiffany Jansen. Originally from the United States of America, I now live in Utrecht, the Netherlands, with my husband and our dog.

Where, when and why did you move abroad?

I moved to Utrecht early December 2008 after marrying my Dutch husband. We were tired of the long-distance relationship and wanted to live together. He had the better job and an apartment, the economy is better here than in the US, and if you think immigrating to the Netherlands is a nightmare, you don't want to mess with trying to get into the US! I had also had quite a lot of experience abroad and jumped at the chance to live in another country.

What challenges did you face during the move?

To be honest, we were more concerned with the wedding than we were with the actual move. Shipping things wasn't necessary as the apartment was already furnished, albeit a year on we're still traveling to the US with an empty suitcase to move the rest of my things. We also had to worry about getting the dog over, which we found surprisingly simple. The wait for my residence permit took much longer than it should have and there was much unnecessary stress in getting our marriage certified in the Netherlands, but all in all it was a pretty seamless transition...

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Expat Experiences: Netherlands - Anne Galloway

My name is Anne Galloway and I’d like to share a small part of my story of becoming an expat for the first time in the hope that it can help and inspire other expat spouses. I am married with two children who were 10 and 7 when we had to move. I gave up a job I really enjoyed and took my kids away from their friends and all because of my husband’s work.

My husband moved to Holland in April 2006 and the children and I followed in the summer. The day after we arrived was the start of 2 weeks of thunder storms and non-stop rain – you might think that I’d be used to it coming from Scotland but honestly we don’t have that much rain!

We didn’t have too much trouble finding a house. My husband looked at a few and then I took the best piece of advice I was given which was to find a house within cycling distance of the school so this really limited our choice as there was not much available to rent in Bergen at that time. I didn’t see the house prior to moving in, apart from photos on the internet, but luckily I knew that I could trust my husband on that one! I have to say that the rental process was nothing like it is in the UK where there are very strict rules for renting out property. The letting agent wasn’t at all helpful and we were basically handed the keys and left to get on with it – the letting agent wasn’t interested in any questions/problems that we had with the property once we had the keys and with the owner living the other side of the world it caused a few problems especially when the heating or the cooker didn’t work and the water tank leaked!

We later approached the owner with an offer and now own the house that we were renting...

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Expat Experiences: Netherlands - Arwa Lokhandwala

Who are you?

My name is Arwa Lokhandwala and I am an Indian expat living in The Netherlands with my husband.

Where, when and why did you move abroad?

We relocated to The Netherlands from India because of my husband's work. It has been a little more than a year now.

What challenges did you face during the move?

The initial paperwork was mostly hassle free but took some time. We arrived in Rotterdam in Dec, 2008 which is one of the coldest months of the year so the weather tested us too. The language and the culture in The Netherlands is entirely different from that of ours. But it also presented a great opportunity to learn about different things.

Can you tell us something about your property?

We liked the idea of renting an apartment rather than buying. Once that was decided, we contacted a couple of Makelaars (Dutch for "estate agents") for the property and after seeing a number of flats, zeroed in on one of them. Finding a property in the beginning takes time and effort since you have to be very careful regarding the area, rent etc. It always helps to check things out with different Makelaars before finalising the deal. The rental contract should be translated into English (or the language that you understand) and only after reading all the fine prints should you sign it...

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Expat Experiences: Netherlands - Anna Gilhespy

My name is Anna Gilhespy, I am 29 and I run my own business (www.thehouseofmouse.co.uk) making handmade ornaments which I sell mostly online.

Where, when and why did you move abroad?

I moved to Hoofddorp (just outside Amsterdam) with my husband in 2003 when he was offered a good job over here. There was little work where we were living in the UK and opportunity was too good for us to pass up.

What challenges did you face during the move?

Our move to Holland was extremely smooth, mostly thanks to my husbands company arranging a relocation agent for us. She helped us find a house to rent and took us through all the paperwork we needed to fill out. The hardest part for me was that I still had one year left to complete before receiving my Fine Art Degree; it was a struggle to find a university that would accept me at such short notice. Fortunately I managed to get my UK university headmaster to pull some strings with a Dutch university that they had links to and secured a place. I did not enjoy the transition between universities; the differences in education approach were more extreme than I had anticipated. They were also not explained to me well, which led to several stressful misunderstandings. My husband slid into Dutch culture with much more ease than I did...

Read more at http://www.expatfocus.com/expatriate-netherlands-holland-experiences-anna-gilhespy