What are tips for moving to another country?

In the past decade I’ve worked / lived / studied in mainland China, Poland, London, Philadelphia and Paris.. each at least a year, and as much as four. (Now I’m back home in Hong Kong)

In general it takes me a week to get my bearings, a month to feel settled, and about three months before I start thinking of that place as home.

Thanks to my EU passport, my Chinese “return to the motherland” passport, and my student F1 visa (for the US), paperwork was never an issue. Of course, this will all vary depending on which country you go to, why you are going, and the passport you hold.

The first time I was seriously away from home I was in a small rural village in China. Even though I am from Hong Kong, am Chinese, they spoken a different dialect (Cantonese versus Mandarin, plus the village I was in spoke in the minority Yao dialect).
My inability in the beginning to express things was a huge blow to my confidence. This of course got better over the course of time, but I really learnt the importance of learning the language of the place. It will make such a difference to the quality of your experience. (so before I headed out to Poland or France I was cramming like mad)

The second is, of course, if you have friends there already, or support systems that you have / build, depending on the nature of work there.

Obviously, I love travelling; and I have to say, living somewhere for an extended period of time is really different from a week long or even a month long visit. You come to experience the community and develop an affection for the place in a way that a tourist never will.

A good source is the book Getting Out

Some things that are so basic people don’t usually notice until they get to the new country are things like different climate/weather (for clothing), different electricity, food and general eating habits, etc.

The answer to your question totally depends on what countries you’re moving from and to. Because you didn’t specify, that tells me you’re likely in the United States. I recently moved from the States to New Zealand without major obstacles, but then I work in IT and NZ has a skills shortage in that area. If you were trying to move from a developing nation to somewhere like the States or Great Britain, you could have real trouble depending on your skills, education, etc.