Need information, will be much appreciated.

Hello people's,
I'm Kenny from the United kingdom,I'm planning on moveing to latvia to be with my wife intended.I'm planning on getting married and we have 2 lovely boys aged 5 years and 17 months old,we have decided to make our life's in latvia permanently,has any body from the United kingdom left uk to move to latvia and can they tell me there story,I'm sure to be with my wife to be and young children it's the right choice for me.thank you.

Hello kib31152,

Welcome to Expat.com  :par:

I moved your post from our Latvia forum, to grant your search with a better visibility which would boost the interactivity on this thread i created from your post.

Regards,
Gavind.

Kenny

I moved from the UK to Latvia in 2009 with family, no regrets about doing it, but a few warnings, finding a job here is tough, especially if you cannot speak Latvian. Do not expect people to speak English, learning a few words in Latvian helps but even after 5 years, I still find it difficult to gather every word in a conversation.

The government system here is not like the UK, you are expected to support yourself and the state support system is minimal support for the shortest possible time. Car insurance is cheap but cars are expensive. Housing is cheaper than the UK but heating is expensive during the winter. Summer is warm but short, winters cold and long. Healthcare is cheap and great, find a great doctor and stick with them.

I could go on but the best way is to try it, but actually jump in rather than just half-heartedly stick a toe in the water, you will find your feet quickly and Latvians may seem a little cold at first but they are friendly once you make the place your home as well. 

Latvians learned how to do bureaucracy from the best, Germans then Soviets, so expect lots of trips to notaries and stamping of papers to take to another window to take another piece of paper back to the first. E-commerce doesn't exist but you can find nearly everything you want in a shop, Amazon will deliver but it takes a while. Ikea is next door in Lithuania.

Brain dump finished, hope that helps.