Should You Move to Ireland?

Insights and reflections from people who've done it: County Kerry edition.

One thing I’ve discovered as more people from the Substack expatary community have kindly taken this survey is how limiting my questions are.

There was an inherent assumption on my part (and I should have known better) that you come from one place and move to another, and that’s that. But of course, that’s just the beginning of the story for many people, including this edition’s respondent, Clarice Dankers of Travel Doorways, who has changed countries multiple times, from Kabul to Portland, Vienna to Ireland.

For Clarice and people like her, each move expands their sense of who they are and where they come from, however, they also have to choose what to leave behind and what to bring forward along a continuum of change. So, while she does a great job of confining her multitudes to the constraints of the questions, Clarice is so much more than what is written here, and you can find out more about her and her journey on her wonderful Substack.

Clarice Dankers, Ireland:

1. Background:

• Country of origin: born & raised in the U.S.

• Country of current residence: currently residing in Ireland

• Length of time living abroad:

- During university (BA & MA): 2 months studying French at McGill University in Montreal; 1 year as a full-fledged student at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany

- 4 months teaching English as a second language in Mexico City

- Peace Corps: 2 1/2 years living and working in Kabul, Afghanistan

- 2014-2019: 5 years working and living in Vienna, Austria

- 2020-Present: 5 years as a retiree in County Kerry, Ireland

2. Motivation: What was the primary reason for your move? (e.g., work, study, retirement, lifestyle):

From 2004 to 2014, I earned my living in Portland, Oregon, as a freelance writer and editor. My most important client during that time was a small INGO in Vienna, Austria, called the World Institute for Nuclear Security (WINS). WINS is an educational organization that focuses on teaching anyone with responsibility for nuclear and other radioactive materials (from power plants to hospitals) how to keep their materials safe from terrorists.

I worked for WINS for five years as a freelance writer/editor. During that time, WINS brought me to Vienna three different times to work on special projects, so I became familiar with the staff (13 people from 10 different countries) and a bit with Vienna during that time.

In 2012, my husband of 37 years (a Dutch citizen whom I had met and married while working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Afghanistan) started to become very ill from COPD and eventually died in January 2014. In June 2014, WINS’ Executive Director asked if I would be willing to move to Vienna and work for them fulltime, and—at the age of 63—I said “Yes!” As a result, my whole life transformed and began to blossom.

Two years after moving to Vienna, I met an Austrian named Gerhard and fell in love. We were married in April 2019. First, separately (before we met) and then together, we came to realize that we both love the west coast of Ireland. On our last holiday there together in October 2018, we found a house we loved and bought it. I officially retired on 1 December 2019, Gerhard retired in March 2020, and we have lived in Ireland ever since.

3. Practicalities: How challenging was the visa and work permit process? What were the biggest hurdles in setting up your life abroad (e.g., housing, healthcare, banking)?

• Visa & Work Permit Process

In the case of Austria, my employer handled the work permit process. To obtain a residence visa, however, I was required to fly to the nearest Austrian embassy to submit the paperwork in person for a residency visa before leaving the U.S. Since I lived in Portland, Oregon, this meant I had to fly to Los Angeles for the day, which I did at the beginning of September 2014. The official there assured me that I would receive the residence visa in Vienna within three months. Since I could stay in Austria for three months as a tourist, I flew there in the third week of September and officially started working on 1 October.

Unfortunately, the residence visa took four months to arrive. I finally got the notification at the end of January and went to the immigration office to pick it up. Just as the man was handing me the visa card, however, he suddenly asked to see my passport again. When he noticed that I had already been living in Austria for four months, he clucked his tongue and shook his head and announced that I would have to leave the Schengen area and fly somewhere else so I could re-enter Austria with a new stamp in my passport!

So at the beginning of February, I flew to New York for two days (when it was freezing cold and packed with snow) and then returned to the immigration office with my new entry stamp. I started to explain what had happened to the woman in the office who handed me my visa, and she shook her head, a bit confused. (She didn’t even want to see my passport with its shiny new stamp!) This made me realize that I had just been unlucky with the first immigration officer. But in any case, everything went well after that.

In the case of Ireland, the fact that I was married to someone from the EU made the paperwork fairly easy (although we did have to fill out a lot of forms). My card officially states, “Residence Card of a Family Member of a Union Citizen.”

The major problem was that the Covid lockdown went into effect right when we were submitting the paperwork, so it took a year before I actually received the card. Due to the circumstances, however, there was no chance that the Irish immigration officials would have forced me to leave the country in the interim.

• Housing, Healthcare, Banking

Austria: Because I had a work permit, I had no problems setting up a checking and savings account in Vienna. My healthcare was also completely covered. (In my opinion, Austria has the most wonderful healthcare system in the world. I plan to write about this in an upcoming Substack.) To begin with, I had a few very weird and unusual challenges with housing—I think the Universe was trying to test my determination to change my life—but everything eventually worked out and went smoothly after that.

Ireland: We bought a house we absolutely love that is just minutes away from the beach, so that worked out really well. It was also just as easy for me to set up a bank account as it would have been in the U.S.

Healthcare was a little challenging because all foreigners who apply for residency are supposed to have their own private health insurance. But both Gerhard and I are fully covered by the e-card in Europe, and money to pay for this is automatically deducted from our pensions in Austria each month.

Ireland is supposed to have a reciprocal health agreement with Austria in this regard; unfortunately, the Irish medical system doesn’t know this! So we had to fill out more paperwork and send it to a special office that did understand the agreement. As a result, we eventually received a health card from the Health Service Executive (HSE), which is generally given to Irish people who cannot afford private insurance. This means that almost all of our health expenses are completely covered, and we only pay 1 euro a month for each medical prescription!

4. Cultural Adaptation: What were the most significant cultural adjustments you had to make? How did you handle language barriers and cultural misunderstandings?

Austria: My bachelor’s degree was in German and French, and I spent a year in a German university when I was young. By the time I moved to Vienna, I hadn’t spoken German in 40 years, but I did remember the basics and had no problem communicating in restaurants and shops.

I don’t think I had any major cultural adjustments to make because I had already lived in Europe before and travelled to Vienna several times as well. I had also been married to a Dutch citizen for 37 years and had spent time with his family in Holland.

The most challenging issue actually occurred after I met Gerhard. All Austrians learn standard German (Hoch Deutsch) in school, but they have their own dialect, depending on where in Austria they are from. This means that when Gerhard is speaking with his family and friends, I only understand about half of what they are saying. And there is no school I can go to that would teach me his dialect.

Gerhard thinks it is harder to speak Hoch Deutsch than English, so we always use English with each other. (His English is excellent.) When we visit Austria now, his friends and family try their best to use Hoch Deutsch with me so I can understand them, but they soon forget (which is completely understandable), so then I sink back into smiling, nodding, and sitting there in the dark!

5. Quality of Life: How would you rate your overall quality of life compared to the US? Are you satisfied with the cost of living, healthcare, and education systems in your host country?

Life in Austria was a complete revelation to me. I made more money there than I ever had in my life, was able to afford a beautiful apartment, had five weeks of paid vacation (plus 13 public holidays), and was able to travel to many places in Europe on holiday. In addition, my healthcare was completely covered—including a major surgery and 5-day hospital stay that I experienced in 2017. When I got sick with a cold or flu, I could stay home as long as I needed to until I was well again. (If it was longer than three days, I just needed to get a letter from my doctor verifying that I was ill.) This meant that I never went to work sick, with the chance of infecting others. It also meant that my vacation days were sacrosanct.

There is no such thing as a general “paid time off” in Austria as there is in the U.S. So there was never a chance that I would get sick and lose all of my vacation days for the year! (Which unfortunately has happened to my daughter in the U.S.)

The costs for rental housing were lower than in Portland, Oregon, where I lived before moving to Austria. I think food costs were about the same, although the selection of fresh fruits and vegetables was not as abundant as I was used to in Portland. I didn’t need a car thanks to Austria’s fantastic transportation system, and the annual cost of a public transit ticket was extremely reasonable. The cost of food in restaurants was lower than in similar restaurants in Portland, and one never tips more than 10% for excellent service. In addition, Austria has some of the best wine in the world (people just don’t know this), and it is much cheaper than in the U.S.

Ireland: We bought a beautiful home for a very reasonable price when compared to the U.S. We were lucky, though, that our timing was perfect. Ireland doesn’t have nearly enough affordable houses for its population, which is a huge political issue here. This is especially true in cities like Dublin, but it is also true in sparsely populated areas on the west coast where we live.

Because of where we live, a car is absolutely required, and the price of petrol is higher than in Austria. (The prices in the U.S. have always been much lower than in Europe.) In regard to health care, we have a small clinic just 15 minutes away from us with two wonderful female doctors, a nurse and a physical therapist. They are really friendly and easy to get into, which is lovely. If we need to see a specialist, however, it can take months—sometimes even a year—to get an appointment. This is why we return to Austria for major health issues or surgery.

6. Professional Experience: How has living abroad impacted your career? Were you able to find employment easily?

My career blossomed when I moved to Austria, and I accomplished more than I ever had before. WINS produced numerous best practice guides and training seminars and eventually developed the WINS Academy, an online education and certification program to increase professionalism. The information for the publications came from subject matter experts who could not write! So I completely rewrote, edited and designed all of the written materials, including nine 200-page textbooks. I also wrote one textbook on communication on my own that I am very proud of, as well as all of the content for our website.

7. Advice for Future Expats: What are the top three things you wish you knew before moving abroad? What advice would you give to someone considering a similar move?

1. It is important to realize that the bureaucratic part of seeking permanent residency in another country will be truly challenging—even if your company arranges a work visa or you are married to a native of the country. Do as much as you can to prepare by carefully studying the technical information about what is required and gathering together all of the necessary documents. It might be a good idea to hire a professional who can walk you through all of this and accompany you to the immigration office. (This is absolutely necessary if you do not speak the language. Never assume that the people you will be dealing with will speak English.)

2. Even if you end up living in an English speaking enclave in your new country and can get by without learning the language, I strongly recommend that you make the effort to do so. Otherwise, you are just a long-term tourist, not a resident. Being able to speak the language of your new country is a crucial key that will open the door to true understanding of the culture, as well as to friendship and acceptance.

3. Expect that some things are going to be different from the way they are at home. And that you will not always know what the differences are until you smack into them! Many of these differences are fairly minor, but they will affect your day-to-day living.

For example in Austria, almost all shops—including grocery stores—are closed on Sundays, and many shops are only open half of the day on Saturdays. So you definitely need to plan ahead for the weekend.

In addition, most Austrian grocery stores expect you to weigh fresh produce yourself, print a label, and affix it to the plastic sack in which you place the produce. You are also expected to bag your groceries yourself at the end. The employees at the check-out stand only process what you buy and take your money.

Another example is that waiters in a restaurant will hand you a menu but will often not come to the table to take your order until you close the menu, indicating that you have made a decision. At the end of the meal, they will not hand you the bill until you specifically ask them for it. (Trying to push you out the door so more customers can take your place would be considered to be extremely rude.)

In Ireland, one cultural difference that has been especially challenging for both Gerhard and me is the reluctance of Irish people to say “no” to you. We have noticed this especially in regard to people like plumbers and electricians and other craftspeople whom we have tried to hire to perform jobs on our house. Instead of simply saying “No, I don’t have time now,” they say something like “I’ll call you next week,” or “I’ll get back to you soon on that,” and you never hear from them again.

8. Overall Experience: Looking back, would you say moving abroad was a positive experience? Why or why not?

Moving abroad has been a life-transforming experience for me for all of the reasons discussed above.

9. Additional Comments: Please feel free to share any other insights or experiences you have.

I just want to emphasize that there will be cultural differences in day-to-day living that will require flexibility, patience, a learning curve and the ability to adapt. It is important to face these differences cheerfully, with a willingness to learn new things and gratitude for how they are helping you grow and enriching your life in the process.

Clarice in her front yard, Ireland.

True Confessions (About My Move to Austria)

---

If you live or have lived abroad and would like to take the survey, please feel free to DM me.

---

Want to hear more from the amazing community of sexy, smart, and cool expats here on Substack? Well, you’re in luck! I’ve got a Subcast (not a podcast, no pods involved) for that.

Please click the thumbs-up so that others who might enjoy this can find it.