Hello,
A few years ago I met somebody who recently been on a holiday to La Réunion. As a former backpacker (who traveled the world for over 2 years), I really wanted to see photo's and video's.
After I spent several hours watching all their holiday pictures and video's, I couldn't stop thinking about that place.
As I said, I've spent more then 2 years travelling the world. I've been to New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, China, Japan, Chili, Brazil and several more countries. But none have left me with so many dreams as La Réunion.
For that reason I've decided to look into the process of moving there. What kind of visa do I need? Where do I go for requesting that visa/permit? What are the demands? Where do I start? When do I start.... etc.
I am hoping the more experienced forum-visitors of Expat-Blog can help to point me in the right direction.
A little bit about me:
I'm Dutch. Born and mostly raised. Until my 22th I've never been anywhere but The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. So when I was 23 I started to take holidays to destinations much deeper into Europe. I discovered that I have a huge love for other cultures, habits, environments, nature, traditions etc.
When I was 25 I bought several thousands worth of professional backpacking gear and took a plane to Singapore. From that day on, I spent 2 years and 3,5 month travelling the world.
It was the best and most happy time in my life.
Unfortunately, everything has to come to an end. And eventually I ended up in The Netherlands again.
I went to a lower technical school (not really sure how this is called in English) to become electrician, but I didn't really like it. So I started to emerge myself in the world of websites, graphic design and much more. Never took a class, just taught my own.
After my return I started working as a party manager (which I still do) and I've been doing professional car detailing (Google it ) for a few years now.
My motivation to look into moving to La Réunion:
I love travelling, love new cultures and meeting new people. I'm a real people-person . None other country has captured my imagination and attention as much as La Réunion does. It took me a while to ask myself if I really wanna go down this road, but I do.
I've already made arrangements to start learning French (I'm really bad at it right now, but I'm a quick learner). And I've been reading a bit about the island.
With the help of this forum I hope I can find more information about everything I need to know to move to La Réunion.
My first plan of action:
I'm saving money to come to La Réunion myself and spent several weeks (perhaps months if possible) to travel around the island, meet people, do stuff and try to get a taste of what life is like in this beautiful place.
If I'm still convinced I wanna follow my heart and dream and put every bit of effort into making La Réunion my new home.
p.s. If this go as planned, I hope I can live the rest of my life on this island, not just a few years orso.
Thank you for reading my post, and I'm looking forward to reading some replies.