Emily Krueger advises students on how to live abroad

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By Jessica Boccardo

Freshly graduated and eager for adventure, 27-year-old Emily Krueger took off for Ireland September 6 to live abroad in the foreign country for one full year, not quite ready to settle down as others in her age group have begun to do.

Her journey started with a trip to Ireland last Christmas. Having fallen in love with Dublin, Emily knew she had to go back. This time, however, Emily did not want to pass through as a simple tourist as she’d done before.

When deciding on how to financially succeed while abroad, she discovered the working holiday visa.

This visa allows you to live abroad for a year as a tourist, but you can still apply for work. It is obtainable for any college student up until about a year after their graduation date.

All you have to do to receive one is apply online to the visa bureau that corresponds to the nation you seek to visit.

With her holiday visa, Emily plans to work out her living and work situation within her first week.

She’s toying around with job ideas, optimistic to anything from writing professionally with a local company to waitressing.

The most important thing to her was just sticking to her plans and getting on her plane.

She is temporarily staying in a house off of Airbnb until she finds a more permanent residence.

Despite the clear unknown of her future, Emily insists that living abroad is not as difficult as everyone makes it out to be.

“As soon as you start doing your research and get into contact with people, it becomes very easy,” she said.

It turns out that with research students can live abroad in a large variety of nations including Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

As of right now, Emily has arrived and settled into her small neighborhood in Dublin.

Once she finds her bearings, she plans to branch out until she has mapped the land of Ireland and other nations beyond.

Emily encourages anyone interested to contact the U.S. Embassy and communicate with people who have lived abroad previously.

“I think they have paved the way for us,” she said.