Living and studying abroad has its obvious benefits, but sometimes the difficulties involved are forgotten, and for good reasons.  The mountain of obstacles that you have to overcome are a little daunting.  This isn’t intended to distract anyone from doing so, just to inform those planning a similar route.  If you will, you should think of it like a healthy relationship; it has many more ups than it does downs.  So, here is a crash course on what it takes to survive as an overseas researcher.

First and foremost is identifying a valuable project.  Depending on the hosting country, this might take an entire year or two just to setup.  Once you have found your new project, you need to make sure that you have a support team in your original country that is willing to step up to the plate for you.  This is in the form of a committee or professional association.  Sometimes they are willing to provide funding, but most of the time not.  This is the next step. Money.  Weather your project is in the middle of the Amazon or in a bustling foreign city, you are going to need a good amount of cash.  Each step in the process of receiving and analyzing your project data will cost money.  But more often than not, the costs that surround the data are what can really break the bank account.  Visas for entering most countries can run several hundred dollars, and most are good for a specified number of days before you have to hop across a border just to return to your work 24hrs later.  The cost of flights are no walk in the park to pay for. This is an automatic $2000/yr. for a single person, round trip with baggage.  Lastly is living expenses.  This all depends on how long you stay, and where you are staying.  Bigger cities usually equal more expensive, and vis-a-versa for smaller cities or villages.  I would estimate this to cost between $5-50 a day or $150-1500 a month.

To break this down a little more clearly, you could simply estimate your yearly budget needs at $10,000.  This is for one person, staying for 3-5 months and not paying for any analyses or instrumentation. If you include analyses or instrumentation, your costs could soar to $50,000 a year.  Here are a few items to consider before undertaking a new project:

Visa Requirements– Are you allowed to be in the country? You must have a passport to leave the U.S. and apply for any visas.  Will the host country/institute sign off on a work visa?

Project Feasibility– Does the host government even allow it? What paperwork is involved to do your project? Costs to foreign government to study?

Project Support in Home Country– Is a school or professional organization willing to support your research? They will need to sign an MOU.

Project Support in Foreign Country– Who are your contacts and will they help you with this project? You need a safety net and more MOU signatures.

Funding– Apply early and often for grants, donations, scholarships, etc.  I don’t like saying it, but money makes all aspects of research much easier.

Here are two links that are very helpful… Visa Requirements (www.travisa.com) & Funding (www.grants.gov)

The rewards for putting a foreign project together, working abroad and reaping the benefits of making lasting relationships is worth more than you could ever spend in a lifetime.  The effort that you put in is rewarded back to you several times over.  Studying abroad opens up a world of opportunities for yourself and those around you. Take each of these steps, one at a time and everything will come together.  We would love to hear your ideas and questions, so please feel free to leave a comment.