About Almost Expat
Auckland-based entrepreneur with personal experience of the complexity and information gaps that make international relocation so stressful. Having navigated moves across multiple countries and worked alongside people doing the same, Ryan built Almost Expat to be the resource he wished had existed — honest, free, and genuinely useful rather than commercial and vague.
Why we built this
Moving countries is one of the most significant things a person can do. The information needed to do it well — visa requirements, real housing costs, school systems, credential recognition, healthcare access — is scattered across government websites, expat forums, and expensive consultants.
Almost Expat was built to change that. We write honest, practical toolkits for specific relocation routes — not generic “how to move abroad” content, but detailed guides built for a person moving from Hong Kong to Auckland, or from Nigeria to the UK, or from South Africa to Australia. Routes where the specifics matter enormously.
Everything on Almost Expat is free. No paywalls, no premium tiers, no email required. We believe good information about something as important as relocating your family shouldn’t cost money to access.
What we cover
Each toolkit covers the full journey: visa pathways with honest processing times and costs, housing with real rental figures, school system differences, healthcare (including what you lose and gain), job markets and credential recognition, cost of living comparisons, and community — the practical stuff about finding your people in a new country.
How we keep this accurate
Relocation decisions are too important to rest on vague or out-of-date numbers. So across our toolkits:
- Every key figure is linked to its official source — government immigration sites, tax authorities, and national statistics offices (gov.uk, immigration.govt.nz, the ABS, the ONS, SARS, MPI and others) — never forums or aggregators.
- Each section shows when it was last verified, so you can see at a glance how current it is.
- We flag the fast-moving figures — visa fees, salary thresholds, rents — and tell you to confirm the final number at the official source before you rely on it.
- We correct things when the rules change. When the UK raised its Skilled Worker salary threshold, shortened the Graduate route, and moved from physical residence permits to digital eVisas, we updated the affected guides to match.
We are rolling this sourced-and-dated standard out across all our toolkits, starting with our most-used routes. If you ever spot a figure that looks wrong or out of date, please tell us — reader corrections make the whole resource better.
What we’re not
We are not immigration lawyers, registered migration agents, or financial advisers. Nothing on this site constitutes legal or financial advice. Always verify immigration requirements with official government sources and consult a qualified professional for your specific situation.
Get in touch
Found an error? Want to request a route? Have feedback on a toolkit? We’d love to hear from you: hello@almostexpat.com
Or use our Route Request form to suggest a new toolkit.