expats - Profile (original) (raw)
ex.pa.tri.ate v.
1 : to withdraw (oneself) from residence in or allegiance to one's native country
2 : BANISH, EXILE
intransitive senses : to leave one's native country to live elsewhere; also : to renounce allegiance to one's native country.
"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more."
Welcome! We're all foreigners, here. This is a community for Livejournal members who have emigrated from their country of origin, whether recently or long ago. Some of us have emigrated permanently, while for others it's temporary. For some, happiness is yet another brand-new country to explore, and they're happy living anywhere from Andorra to Zimbabwe! Wherever you fall in that spectrum, you're welcome here.
expats is a place to share your joys and sorrows as you adapt to your new land, and deal with the difficulties of leaving your home country behind. Venting is both allowed and expected, but we hope you'll share the good times as well! Hopefully we can all learn from one another and share in the good and bad times. Please respect the opinions and experiences of others and be courteous in your comments.
All nationalities are welcome in expats, but:
### You must be an expat to post in here!
(Naturally, anyone can leave comments!)
While we'd be glad to hear that you've got your permanent residency at last, or commiserate that your forms keep being rejected, the community is more about adjusting to, dealing with, and enjoying expat life than immigration (for more help with immigration issues, try immigration or immigrate). This is also NOT your first port of call regarding specific forms or immigration procedures for your new country OR if you are an American, tax questions. Do your homework first! Please try to find specific resources for the country you have moved to rather than posting such questions here in our general forum. Please consult professionals when doing your taxes.
Again, this is not a community for people who only intend to become expats. This place is for people who have already made the leap.
Staying somewhat on-topic is greatly appreciated. Religion, politics, quiz results, and my-country-is-better-than-yours are strongly discouraged. This is a moderated community, and flames, etc., may be deleted without warning.
Also, please do NOT post in this community only to advertise other communities. All such advertisements will be deleted. Thank you!
Need help with community posting? Ask 
dyfferent or 
califia, your moderators (& all-around sweethearts). Please do not ask us for immigration advice, as neither of us is an immigration lawyer or official. Thank you!
abroad, africa, agoraphobia, air force, air travel, alien, aliens, ancestry, army, asia, assimilation, asylum, australia, bilingual, borders, boundaries, bunac, care packages, careers, cargo, chat, citizenship, cold, costumes, countries, crafts, cuisine, culture, culture shock, cultures, customs, cv, dancing, depression, dual citizenship, education, efl, emigrate, emigration, employment, ethnic groups, europe, exile, expat, expatriate, expatriates, expats, fahrenheit, family, family tree, fitting in, foreign, foreign language, freezing, friends, frigid, fruits, fun, geneology, green card, handicrafts, heritage, history, homeland, homesick, homesickness, hot, humidity, humor, humour, illegal immigrants, immigrate, immigration, imperialism, international, intolerance, junk food, languages, ldr, loneliness, long distance, loss, love, making friends, marines, melting pot, metric system, middle east, migration, military, minorities, missionary, moving, multicultural, music, nationality, naturalisation, naturalization, navy, nomad, nomadic, north america, online relationships, online romance, oppression, overseas, pacific rim, packages, packing, parcels, passport, patriot, patriotism, peace corps, political unrest, politics, posting, prejudice, racism, refugee, refugees, relationships, resume, retirement, rights, romance, running away, shopping, south america, souvenirs, stereotypes, student, teaching, tefl, terrorism, tesol, third culture, third-culture kids, time zones, tolerance, tourism, travel, university, vegetables, visa, voyage, war, working abroad, world hunger, xenophobia