Job Search After Relocating Abroad: A First-Months Plan for Tech
A job search after relocating abroad starts with more open questions than a search at home: what your permit allows, whether to look locally or remotely, how to describe where you are on a CV, and who you even know in a new city. Many people in tech, including a lot of Russian speakers who have moved in recent years, are working through exactly this. Here is a practical plan for the first months, in an order that saves time.
Step 1: find out what you're allowed to do
Before you apply anywhere, get clear answers to a few questions. We won't state rules here, because they depend on your citizenship, your permit type and the country, and they change. Check them with the official immigration authority of your new country, and with a local lawyer or accountant if your case isn't simple.
Questions to answer:
- Does my current residence status allow me to work at all? For any employer, or only the one that sponsored it?
- Can I work for a local company, a foreign company remotely, or both?
- If I work as a contractor or freelancer, do I need a local registration, and what does it involve?
- Would changing jobs affect my permit, and are there deadlines I need to know about?
- When might I become tax resident here, and what would that change? This is a question for an accountant.
Write the answers down with the source and date. They decide which postings are realistic, and you'll be asked about them on forms and in screening calls.
Step 2: decide between local, remote, or both
After a move there are usually three tracks, and many people run two at once.
| Track | Good when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Remote for a foreign company | You already work this way, or your role is in demand remotely | Many "remote" roles hire only in certain countries |
| Local job in your new country | Your permit allows it and there's a tech scene in your city | Language requirements, local salary levels, a smaller market |
| Remote for a company that hires in your country | You want the stability of a local contract | Fewer openings; read each posting carefully |
For remote roles, the location field matters more than anything else. Our guide to remote tech jobs from Serbia, Armenia, Georgia and Cyprus explains how to read it and what to ask about employee, EOR and contractor setups. If you're considering a further move, for example to Germany, see tech jobs in Germany without German, and for anything involving a new visa, how to spot visa sponsorship in postings.
Step 3: fix your CV location line
Recruiters look at location early, often before reading your experience. An old city on your CV or LinkedIn can quietly sink applications.
- State where you live now: "Belgrade, Serbia" rather than your previous city.
- Add how you want to work: "Belgrade, Serbia · open to remote (Europe/EMEA) or hybrid in Belgrade".
- Mention work authorisation only if you're sure. A line like "Residence permit, no sponsorship needed" helps a lot, but only if it's accurate for that country and kind of job. If you're not certain, leave it out and answer the form question honestly.
- Update LinkedIn's location field too, since recruiter searches often filter by it.
- Keep employer names and dates as they are. You don't need to explain the move on your CV. If someone asks, a calm, short answer is enough: "I relocated to Belgrade last year and I'm settled here."
Step 4: find local communities
A new city means a network that starts close to zero. A few places tend to help:
- Tech meetups and conferences. Many cities have regular events for developers, product people and designers, and meetup sponsors are often local employers worth adding to your list.
- Telegram and other chats for people who relocated. They're useful for practical questions: banks, registration, which companies hire locally. Quality varies, so treat job tips as leads to verify on the company's own site, not as facts. Companies that keep coming up belong on your target company list.
- Coworking spaces. Useful for routine, and for meeting people who work in tech nearby.
- Former colleagues who moved too. Someone who arrived a year earlier often knows which companies hire people with your background.
Aim for one or two real conversations a week rather than joining every channel.
Step 5: work on your English, and maybe the local language
For remote roles and most international teams, English is the working language, and screening calls test it quickly. Practise the short answers you'll give most: who you are, why you're looking, where you live and how you'd work. Our guide to applying in English as a second language covers CV phrasing and calls.
The local language matters more for local jobs, especially customer-facing ones, and for everyday life. Even basic phrases help at offices and meetups. Whether it's worth serious study depends on how long you plan to stay and which track you choose.
A rough plan for the first three months
| When | Focus |
|---|---|
| Weeks 1–2 | Permit and work questions answered; CV and LinkedIn location updated |
| Weeks 3–4 | Decide on tracks; build a list of companies that can hire where you live |
| Month 2 | Apply steadily; go to one or two local events; talk to people who moved earlier |
| Month 3 | Look at what's working; adjust titles, tracks or locations |
Moving is tiring on its own, and adding a job search to it is a lot. It's fine if the first weeks go mostly to paperwork and settling in. A slower start with the right questions answered is better than fast applications to roles that can't hire you.
Hot Jobs can watch both tracks at once: pick Remote · Europe & EMEA or Remote · Anywhere, and add up to 10 cities, such as your new one, for local and hybrid roles. It checks the career pages of 390+ tech companies every 30 minutes, plus two remote boards, and sends matches to Telegram with the location line visible. It doesn't filter by visa or permit, so read each posting. €3, paid once. Connect the bot