One of the major questions we receive, second only to questions about immigration, is information about jobs and earning opportunities.  Although there are employment opportunities here, most will require that you speak Spanish. So if you do plan to look for a job here, we suggest you plan ahead and start now to learn Spanish. It really isn’t difficult, at least the way we learned. Easier when you get here because you have to use it a lot but if you start now you’ll be way ahead when you arrive.

Unless you have an independent income or savings, we suggest you plan ahead in any case. We’ve known many expats who stayed for a while and then returned to their home country because they knoew how to find employment or create income easier there. One thing you might consider is the possibility that you might be able to continue your current employment online from another location. In fact you might want to keep that possibility in mind. Here are examples of expats that we know who did exactly that.

(1) An engineer with a history working for a U.S. company decided to move to the Southern Cone with his family. They bought a home in Chile and he and his wife started a real estate brokerage. However, his former employer contacted him about returning to work–via computer. The catch was he would have to return to the U.S. once a month for meetings. He agreed and his wife continued with real estate

(2) A stock broker in Uruguay tells us his clients don’t even know he is out of the country. He continues his brokerage business using Magic Jack from Uruguay and spends part of the year in Thailand. You could do the same with Skype or similar setups.

(3) A woman in Uruguay who works for a real estate company in the U.S., also on line.  The internet has made things so much easier. At one time we had to go to the courthouse and ask for the maps and records. Now it’s all accessible online.

(4) A couple in Chile who dispatch cross country trucks for a company in the U.S., all done online from their apartment in the south of Chile. This is another situation where the man already worked for the company and when they decided to move to Chile the employer wanted him to stay on–via Internet.

Of course we have many successful entrepreneurs here. One thing about having the Internet available, we believe the Internet is the Wild West of business and there are many ways to make use of it. We have a couple in Uruguay who publish children’s books. At least some  of the books are instructions for children in how to draw. The husband is an artist. They tell us they worked at it for 12 years before coming to Uruguay. They had the business well established before they came. An online business can usually go wherever you decide to go.

Our own preference is self-employment where you make your own job. In that case also, Spanish is pretty important. Following i s the course that your editor used to pass the interview for Argentina citizenship. You can check it out for free via the link below

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Learn Spanish the easy way. Learn it as a child learns, from hearing it and speaking it. This is the course that got your editor through the language test with the judge–to Argentina citizenship. The test was just being able to answer his questions. Try some sample lessons   It’s FREE!

Until next time . . .

Arlean