Sometimes you might feel that the country you are currently working in is not the best possible for you. Taxes are too high, salary is too low, climate does not suit you, jobs are scarce or you simply want some adventure. Then it is time to change scenery. Luckily it is reasonably easy within information technology industry.

Because we all value things differently, I cannot give exact list of advices. You should think your own initiatives and reasons. But at least I can provide some ideas to check before making the decision.

If you are planning to work for a company abroad, you should know what kind of professions are available and which skills are on high demand. This can be achieved in numerous ways. Job searching services are excellent source. There are multinational sites like monster.com but every country has also their own local job sites. You can also subscribe to a daily or weekly listing of new jobs well before so you can see situation in long term. There are also national or regional user groups and forums which might provide some clues. And if you ask nicely, you might get valuable hints or contacts. Of course you can simply google for name of the city and some suitable phrase, for example "Lappeenranta java solution provider".

Next thing is to find out how much you can earn and how much you have to give back to government. The usual rule is that if you move to another country permanently (over half a year) you have to pay taxes to that country. Tax rates can vary a lot, so checking them will prevent disappointments and trouble. However, many countries have tax agreements between each other and you should ask your local tax office about that and then double check that answer from another source. This is necessary because international cases are not the most common thing for local tax office staff.

Another income related issue is living costs. The Economist has its Big Mac index and there are also other sources to compare living costs. To find out first hand experiences you should check expatriate discussion forums. For the accommodation local property sites are pretty good source, both for costs and for available selection.

Depending on your nationality and desired country, relocation related paper work can be very simple or a process lasting months. Between older EU countries relocation is quite simple as in most cases no work permit is required. But if you are for example programmer from some Asian country moving to EU or USA you better reserve time and prepare for complicated process. In my case (from Finland to Hungary, 2005) took almost 1,5 months to get the necessary permits. And this was with help from relocation company. But laws and rules have changed and in 2007 this process is much easier.

After you have collected hard facts you should study country and maybe visit it. How is the culture, climate, history etc? Is the city too busy and polluted or way too boring? Are there some tensions between ethnic groups or areas of country? Can you do your favorite sports and hobbies there? Are there others with the same nationality? Visit local news sites, embassy's site, tourism office etc.

And finally very important point. The language. Even though you have fluent English and everybody at the work place can speak it more or less, you should study at least basics of local language if you are going to stay more than couple months. This will open plenty of new opportunities for you. You can go to local gym, you might receive better service and you are not that dependent on others help. This is the point where I have failed in case of my time in Hungary. I have taken lessons and read books but I did not manage to gain good enough spoken Hungarian.

Advices above are quite common for everyone and not just for information technology. But usually the situation is more complicated as you might have a partner or spouse, you might have to find daycare for your kids or you are an entrepreneur moving your business with you. In any case, you need to prepare in advance.