What to expect when moving to Slovenia

What advice would you give to future expats preparing to move to Slovenia?


Don't be smitten by the beauty of the country and the people and do your homework.

Slovenia is corrupt to the core, particularly out of the cities and if you are used to corruption you will adapt but if you are not, get used to it. If you get to know the right people you will prosper.

The tax laws are punative. 41% for the average salary and they will tax and foreign earnings/ pensions if you stay for longer than 6 months per year. As a consequence, the brighter kids want to move abroad.

Next the authorities are a law unto themselves, police and tax, get used to it. You must prove your innocence not them proving your guilt.

The education system is a joke. They must take 14 subjects to 16 then 7 to 18 which means they don't learn much about anything.

Okay, there are the negatives, now the positives.

Beautiful country, lovely weather, warm people, very low crime rates, clean streets. The police won't hassle you unless you drive too fast.

... but the best piece of advice ........ learn the language and when you have you will find other Slavic languages come quickly.

Hope this helps

@meslo I agree with everything but that they're warm people. I've met plenty of expats living in Slovenia and not one thought they were warm people.

I've even met Slovenians who lived in Italy who wanted to go back because of how unfriendly people here were.

@Priscilla As an expat that live in Slovenia for over 10 years you couldn't pay me to move back to Slovenia.

Slovenia is a great country for tourists but a horrible country for expats.

The good:

The nature is beautiful. You have everything from mountain to the sea.

The location is at the centre of many tourist destinations. Sandwitched between Austria, Italy, and Croatia anyone can have a nice holiday here.

The bad:

The people are very unfriendly and xenophobic. Slovenia is a very small country with low immigration and almost no ethnic diversity. The only diversity I've seen is the Bosniaks. Foreigners are frequently discriminated against. I've heard of non-caucasian getting blamed for stealing when they didn't steal anything, being more likely to be stopped by cops. I personally am Caucasian but even just being of a different nationality means you'll get discriminated against a lot. Whenever you get into an argument or have a complaint you will always be in the wrong.

Public services are really bad. Poor roads, bad transportation, inefficient beurocracy, a public healthcare system no one uses unless they absolutely have to.

Extremely small towns. The biggest city here is Ljubljana with 200k people and while it has an abundance of nature it gives of a village fell. For example no supermarkets are open on Sunday in fact nothing is. There are almost no clubs. Most public services don't work on Friday at all. In fact most services don't work past 12pm on Friday. If you don't enjoy living in a village your not going to be happy here.