How to Move Abroad: Your Guide to Start Living Abroad

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Podcast by Mistelle Godlewski - Move Abroad Expert

How to Move Abroad: Your Guide to Start Living Abroad

Welcome to How to Move Abroad (because Google is not a plan) — the podcast for Americans who are done “considering it” and ready to actually make the move happen. I’m Mistelle. I’ve moved abroad three times, I don’t have a magic second passport, and I’m not here to sell you a fantasy life on a cobblestone street. We’re talking the stuff that actually decides whether you can move: visas, budgets, timelines, jobs, kids, healthcare, paperwork, and the emotional chaos that shows up the second you try to do this with a partner (or a bank account that’s already tired). If you’ve been doom-googling, panic-saving Reels, and ending every research session with “well… that was horrifying,” you’re in the right place. Because moving abroad isn’t a vibe. It’s a project. And I’m here to help you build a plan that works in your real life.
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Latest episodes

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20 July 2026

Stop Trusting Google. Here's What It's Getting Wrong About Your Move Abroad

You've been googling moving abroad for weeks. Maybe months. And the information you've found is — some of it useful, some of it outdated, and some of it confidently, specifically wrong in ways that are sending your planning in the wrong direction.

This week I'm going through the biggest things Google gets wrong about moving abroad. The money number that doesn't apply to you. The digital nomad visa obsession. The Schengen confusion. The backwards order of operations. The you stop paying US taxes when you leave myth that could actually get you in legal trouble.

Google is a starting point. This episode is the correction.

Instagram: @iammistelle

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19:32

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15 July 2026

True Crime, Cold Coffee, and Why Nobody Talks About the Middle

I've restarted this episode three times. I've made coffee I didn't drink. I've listened to approximately four true crime podcasts this week and I know more about cases in rural Ohio than I do about my own content plan.

And I'm guessing you have a version of this too. Not about a podcast. About the move. The research you've been doing. The applications you've been sending. The thing you've been working toward that hasn't quite shown up back yet.

This week I'm talking about the in-between. The hardest part that nobody names. The place where you've committed in your heart but the rest of your life hasn't caught up yet. Where the motivation has quietly left the building and you're going through the motions on a good day and not even that on a bad one.

I don't have a tidy solution today. I'm still in it. But I've got something brewing that I think is going to help. Stay tuned.

Also: send me your true crime podcast recommendations immediately. I'm almost out of episodes and it's urgent

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11:41

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06 July 2026

I Miss Being Good at Things: The Competence Grief of Moving Abroad

I am, in English, reasonably funny. Quick. Articulate. I can read a room.

In German, even after years, I am a flattened version of myself. I can express the basic version of an idea. I cannot do nuance. The jokes don't translate. And in social situations I go quiet — not because I have less to say, but because the gap between what I want to say and what I'm capable of saying is genuinely embarrassing.

This week I'm talking about something I call competence grief ... the real, disorienting loss that comes from being good at things and then suddenly being a beginner again as an adult. The language piece, the cultural piece, the identity piece. Why it's harder than the visa paperwork in some ways. And why it's temporary, even when it doesn't feel like it.

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20:37

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29 June 2026

Stop Hitting Apply on LinkedIn. Here's What Actually Gets You a Job Abroad

You've optimized your LinkedIn profile. You have the right keywords, the right headline, the right summary. You're applying to listings that match your experience. You're posting content to stay visible.

And nothing is happening.

This week I'm telling you why. LinkedIn is not a job hunting platform — it's social media for people who are at work. And the difference between those two things matters enormously when you're trying to get a job in another country as a foreign applicant hitting apply from six thousand miles away.

What LinkedIn is actually good for. What it's specifically bad at. And what actually gets you a job abroad — which is almost never the apply button.

Free networking resource

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15:23

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22 June 2026

The Privilege Conversation Nobody in the Move Abroad Space Is Having

Moving abroad is a privilege. I'm going to say that clearly and then spend the whole episode explaining what I mean by it — because I don't mean what you might think I mean.

I moved to Switzerland with less than $2,000 in the bank. I also had a relocation package, a transferable job, a university education, and a US passport. Both of those things were true at the same time. And I think that's actually the more honest version of this conversation than either extreme — not only rich people can move abroad, and also not everyone can move abroad if they just want it badly enough.

This week I'm talking about who actually has access to this option and who doesn't, why the person who chooses to relocate across an ocean and the person who flees conflict are not having the same experience, and what being aware of your privilege actually means for how you show up when you get there.

This is the uncomfortable one. I think you're ready for it.

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14:58

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15 June 2026

You've Been Googling the Wrong Words for Moving Abroad. Here's What They Actually Mean

You've been using visa, permit, and residency like they mean the same thing. They don't. And it's sending your research in the wrong direction.

This week I'm walking through the vocabulary of moving abroad — not in a glossary kind of way, just in a these words matter and here's why kind of way. Visa vs. permit. Temporary vs. permanent residency. Citizenship vs. naturalization. Schengen vs. EU. Domicile. Leave to remain. All of it.

Because the more fluent you get in this language the clearer your planning becomes. And right now a lot of you are googling the wrong thing and wondering why nothing makes sense.

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