Austrian Blue Card

St. Wolfgang, Austria
Photo by Richard Taylor

If I had to do my move to Europe all over again, I'd seriously consider Austria. I've been there several times, it's a lovely country, the people are very friendly, and despite the occasional gay neo-Nazis running around, it's awesome. Now, thanks to the Austrian Blue Card, you can go there, too.

Official European Blue Card Information

Photo by openDemocracy

Sigh. So I promised that regular postings would continue this week, but I didn't expect our child minder to become gravely ill, nor our car to break down, leading this week to be unexpectedly complex. C'est la vie.

While I'm doing my consulting gig and keeping up this blog, I also research the European Blue Card. Meanwhile, my wife is also working on our company and to better assist clients with recruiting opportunities, she turned to the EU's official Web site and read their information about Blue Cards. It turns out that they have a country-by-country breakdown of Blue Card laws, but it's woefully inadequate. My wife was rather frustrated by this, so she contacted them and this is part of their response:

International Recruiting

La Grosse Cloche in Bordeaux
Photo by Joancharmant

Regular expat postings should continue next week. Today is the last day on my current contract and my new contract (and the company I'm building with my wife) starts next month. If your company is looking to expand their candidate search to include the world market, drop me a line. International recruiting is only one area of interest for our company, but it's the one you're most likely curious about if you read Overseas Exile.

France: Kiss or Shake Hands?

Skyline of La Défense business district in Paris
Photo by Rosss

Today's guest post is from Géraldine Lepere, the creator of Comme une Française, a web site aimed primarily at expat women who are new in France, but nonetheless is chock full of interesting tips. Today, she writes about whether or not you should kiss or shake hands in the office.

Who's Hiring H1B Visa Workers in the USA?

Still a dream for many people.
Image courtesy Biersaufer

My sincerest apologies for not posting last week. Between wrapping up my current contract, starting a new company, a (very mild) flu, having guests, and time off from work for an OFII meeting, I was a bit swamped last week.

I haven't written anything previously about the US H1B visa program, though I know I have a decent non-US readership. Part of this is because I don't find that visa route as interesting, but the politics of it are fascinating.

A list of high-demand international jobs

This job is global
Photo by Vaya

If you search for the "STEM" on this Web site, you'll find I've referenced it several times before. It's an acronym which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine. While there are plenty of opportunities for unskilled or younger would-be expats, for people who already have an established career, are considering a university degree, or have a family, teaching English in Thailand, while exciting, might not pay as much (note: South Korea sometimes pays TEFL teachers reasonably well). So what jobs are in demand abroad?

UK/US family on verge of being split apart?

Justice
Public domain image

Thanks to a lovely combination of US and UK law, this family is about to be split apart. Their son will be forced to live with one parent or another, in either the US or the UK.

If anyone with knowledge of immigration laws or who has the ear of a politician has any ideas about what they can do to help them, please do so! Spouses shouldn't be torn apart, not their children taken away, just because the governments have the cash register open.

The Cyprus Banking Disaster

The Cypriot banking industry
Photo by Jonathan Boeke

By now you may have heard of the infamous Cyprus "haircut", a tiny little euphemism which obscures the fact that there's a serious issue with the European economy and rather than fix the underlying problem — a common currency without a common economic policy — Europe thought it would be a good idea to fix Cyprus' economic woes by partially paying for the national debt by confiscating part of the money that people had kept in Cypriot banks. Northern Cyprus, a state recognized only by Turkey, was once upset that Cyprus joined the EU, but now they may be having the last laugh.

That's a gross oversimplification, but it tells you in a nutshell what is scaring the hell out of a lot of people in Europe, including me. You see, as I'm going freelance in a few weeks, my wife and I have been looking at other countries to see if we could find a better cost of living. In fact, Cyprus was one of the countries we looked at before the government-sanctioned bank robbery occurred.