Guide for expatriates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
easyexpat
02 June, 2010 14:22
We are delighted to launch our new city guide
for expatriates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The city of Rio de Janeiro is artistically bordered by magnificent
mountains,
white-sand beaches and spectacular blue ocean, and lush rain forests. Residents
of the city are known as Cariocas. The undisputed cultural
capital and
major international transportation hub of Brazil, the city is a dense,
cosmopolitan
gem.
The area of the city is 1182.3
square
kilometres or 456.5 sq miles. The city is dense, with 
about 6.1
million people in the city and 11-13.5 million in the greater
metropolitan
area.
The city sits within the geological structure called Brazilian
Crystal Basement
where rain forest, Atlantic Ocean, and a mass of city dwellers come
together.
The Tijuca Forest defines much of the landscape as the largest urban
forest
in the world. On Corcovado, one of the area's highest points, there is
the iconic
statue of Christ the Redeemer. Another peak, Sugar
Loaf, is also a landmark and towers over the entrance of the
bay.
The city is the nation's top tourist attraction for both Brazilians and foreigners. The sea, mountains, and events like Carnaval and New Year´s eve still attract visitors, but issues with crime and over-development have taken a toll.
The city retains its attraction for companies. State-owned companies such as Petrobras, Eletrobrás, Caixa Econômica Federal, BNDES, Intelig, Oi and Embratel all have headquarters within Rio. Big multi-national companies such as Coca-Cola, IBM and El Paso also have offices in the city. Many Brazilian entertainment organizations are based in Rio de Janeiro like TV Globo (Globosat, Globo News, SportTv, Telecine, Tv Brazil), NET, Sky and WayBrazil and also some of Brazil's major newspapers: Journal do Brasil, O Globo, O Dia, and Business Rio.
The announcement that Rio would
host the 2016 Olympic Games only confirmed its upwardly mobile status.
You will find the usual articles in our guide to prepare
your
expatriation and manage your life once in there: Overview, Job,
Passport, Visa & Permits, International Removal Companies, Finding
Accommodation, Work, Benefits and Tax, Moving in, Education, Health,
Practical Life (banks, transport, shopping...), Entertainment...
You can also discuss
and share experience in Brazil in our forum.
Guide for expatriates in Seoul, South-Korea
easyexpat
25 May, 2010 22:24
We are proud to launch our new city guide for expatriates in Seoul, South-Korea.
Seoul is the capital of South Korea and is one of the most highly
populated
cities in the world, located in the north-western part of the country
on the
Han River. With the establishment of South Korea (the Republic of
Korea) in
1948 it became the capital, except for a short time during the Korean
War.
The traditional heart of Seoul is the old Joseon
Dynasty
city, which is now the downtown area, where most palaces,
government
offices, corporate headquarters, hotels and traditional markets are
located.
To the north of downtown is Bukhan Mountain, and to the south is the
smaller
Namsan. Across the Han River are the newer and wealthier areas of
Gangnam-gu
and surrounding neighbourhoods. Yeouido is a large island in the
middle of the
Han River and is home to the National
Assembly,
the major broadcasting studios, and a number of large office
buildings, as well
as the world's largest Presbyterian church.
Seoul’s skyline is impressive and notable high-rise buildings
include the
Korea Finance Building, Namsan Tower, the World Trade Centre, the
six-skyscraper
residence Tower Palace, the Star Tower, and I-Park Apartments
A number of world renowned companies such as Daewoo Corporation,
Hyundai, Samsung and Kia Motors have their headquarters in Seoul. The
Gross Regional Domestic Product of Seoul contributes to roughly a
quarter of Korea’s national GDP.
You will find the usual articles in our guides to prepare your
expatriation and manage your life once in there: Overview, Job,
Passport, Visa & Permits, International Removal Companies, Finding
Accommodation, Work, Benefits and Tax, Moving in, Education, Health,
Practical Life (banks, transport, shopping...), Entertainment...
You can also discuss
and share experiences in South-Korea in our forum.
New classifieds for expatriates
easyexpat
19 May, 2010 22:37
We have fully redesigned our classifieds section and add a few new features.
The classifieds are now first ordered by continent/countries (and possibly cities according to the list available in EasyExpat guides) and in each of them a series of categories is listed:
- Houses For Rent
- Houses For Sale
- House Search
- Flats For Rent
- Flats For Sale
- Flat Search
- House/Flatshare Offer
- House/Flatshare Search
- Home Swap
- Holiday Rentals
- Furnitures
- Au Pair & Babysitter Search
- Au Pair & Babysitter Offer
- Clothing/Accessories
- Baby/Kids stuff
- Books/Games/DVDs
- Electronics (*for this category, only ads submitted by individuals, not companies, are permitted)
- Conversation exchange
- Cars/Motorbikes
- Other (*for this category, only ads submitted by individuals, not companies,
are permitted)
It is possible to add a photo to illustrate the ad (very handy for example for accommodation). Also you will notice that you can now contact the author of the classifieds straight at its bottom, and that will send immediatly an email to the poster and guarantee they can deal with your message.
Of course, as usual in order to add a message, you must be member of the forum and connected.
To register on the forum click here (it's free and immediate).
To login click here.
I remind you that if you want to alter your ad, just delete it
and resubmit a new one. You can easily remove yourself your
ads by logging into the classified ads section and clicking on the
"Delete" link that appears at the bottom of your ad.
There is also now a search tool to find easily the relevant classifieds.
The latest classifieds are also displayed in all other pages of EasyExpat.com, including for the relevant City Guide (example: latest classifieds in London for the London guide).
For your offers and searches for employment, EasyExpat
provides a Job section where to post job offers and CV.
Job offers posted in the classifieds or the forums will be deleted!
Guide for expatriates in Hong Kong
easyexpat
09 April, 2010 23:22
We are delighted to launch our new guide for expatriates in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is situated between the South China Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the Taiwan Straits, and has several deep natural harbours protected by mountains.
With a population of over 7 million people squeezed into an area of 1104.3 km2,
Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, although many of the outlying islands remain uninhabited. It is still in the midst of land reclamation and is already bigger than it has ever been. The two official languages are Cantonese and English and the population is made of 94,9% chinese, 2,1% filipino and 3% others (mainly europeans).
Runned by the United Kingdom, the handover to China happened on the first of July 1997. The handover did not change fundamentally the way Hong Kong is administrated apart from some symbolic changes like the word ‘Royal’ has been dropped for most institutions and the post boxes are now green rather than red.
Hong Kong economy is still driven ad rules by Hong-Kong itself, at least for the next 40 years or so. The island is a free market-enterprise society and will not change for a while. Hong Kong’s rank is third from the Global Financial Centres Index after London and New York and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the 6th in the world.
You will find the usual articles in our guides to prepare your expatriation and manage your life once in there: Overview, Job, Passport, Visa & Permits, International Removal Companies, Finding Accommodation, Work, Benefits and Tax, Moving in, Education, Health, Practical Life (banks, transport, shopping...), Entertainment...
You can also discuss and share experiences on Hong Kong in our forum.
Community: new forums for EasyExpat
easyexpat
24 March, 2010 08:53
We are proud to present the new community on EasyExpat.
Users will be able to see a complete new presentation and enjoy loads of new features.
1- New structure
For each destination in the world we have now a forum.
In some forums, you will also find sub-forums, for immigration issues and discussion on some specific cities (i.e. London, New York City, San Francisco, Hong Kong...etc).
[Click on the images to see them bigger]
In addition you will find the usual general forums:
- Departure: You plan to go abroad or you're leaving? You can put here all your general questions or answers about customs, transfer, move, tax back...
- Moving Back / Repatriation: Global discussions about repatriation related topics and issues, moving back home again.
- Open Bar: General chat. This forum is dedicated for subjects not covered in the forums above. However, please keep it sensible...
- Announcements: Forum open to general announcements and events about expatriation, meetings and seminars organised for the expatriate community. This is a read only forum and each announcement must be sent beforehand to the administrator of the forum before publishing.
- Travel: Tourism, travel insurance, flights, train tickets, cruise, hotels, guides...: Easy Expat Travel provides a range of services and choice of companies to organise your holidays. You can discuss the different offers, the service, your feedback, give advice here.
- The EasyExpat website: Forum to discuss problems encountered on this site, announce new products, to propose amendments or additions of new studies or tools.
- BlogExpat | expat blogs: Discussions about expat blogs and the Blog Expat website.
All the forums are multi-languages. You can post in any language (although I would advise that you restrict to the most common, in order to get more readers, and possibly to the language of the country or the community you are addressing).
Also, all users should have read the rules to respect on the forums. Especially:
- If your message is related to accommodation
offers or searches, DO NOT USE the forums but instead go to the
small ad section. Same things for jobs: use the job
listing section.
- Please do not post volunteer programs,
in the forums. We have nothing against those offers, but there is a
specific space dedicated in the Job
offers/Voluntary jobs.
- Do not advertise for your
site, your services or your
products, or a friend's website : your topic and your
account would be removed without warning and you could be
banned from accessing the forum in the future. You can submit
your website in the directory if it is related to expatriation (a
link exchange is mandatory). If you wish to advertise on Easy Expat, you
will find our advertising conditions and prices here.
Failing to respect the rules might result into immediate banning / all posts and account deleted without warning.
2- New features
New information: More details are available about users, including their nationality, their country of location (optionally the city where they live) and the languages they speak.
Friends/Foes: You have the possibility to had some users as friends 
(or foes 
) to follow them specifically and allow for specific actions. The list of friends is shown on your profile. Posts made by foes will be hidden.
Wall: you have now a wall in your profile were the community can leave short notes. Of course you have the possibility to allow everyone to view/comment or to restrict to the list of your friends only (or to disable the feature completely).
Status: You can use the status tool and describe in a few words what you are doing to the Community. It will be displayed below your name in your posts.
Avatar/Profile picture: You can add an image to your profile (see your User Control Panel). You can either enter the URL of the location containing the avatar image you wish to link to, upload your own picture (max size 150x150) or choose one of the picture in our galleries.
Bookmark: In addition to EasyExpat's bookmark tool 
where you can bookmark any page of the website (and access it in MyExpat), you can also specifically store forum topics in your profile using the bookmark tool 
(icon at the bottom of the forum/topic/page).
Report abuse: On each post you will see an icon to report an abuse 
. It will display a form to report the selected post to the forum moderators and
board administrators. Reporting should generally be used only if the
post breaks forum rules. Moderators will also be able to warn user who will be temporarily banned after several warnings.
Manage subscription: In addition to automatically being notified by email when a reply is posted in a topic you wrote in, you are now able to subscribe to a forum 
to receive notifications when new topics/posts are made (icon at the bottom of the forum/topic/page). You can manage your subscriptions in your User Control Panel.
Drafts: When you create a new topic you will be able to save it as a draft before to post it. You can then decide to post/amend/delete the message in your User Control Panel.
Mail or print topics: You have the possibility to email or print topics 
with a simple click on the icons at the top of the topics.
We hope you will enjoy the discussions on EasyExpat and will have great pleasure to participate to our vibrant community of expatriates 
Exploit in Ad Servers on EasyExpat Allows For Malware [FIXED]
easyexpat
23 March, 2010 07:40
If you have got a warning in the past 24 hours about malware being on easyexpat.com we apologize as our ad server was attacked through an exploit in our OpenX software.
We have been in contact with Google about the situation and they have confirmed with us that it has been resolved and the site is back to normal.
The situation is now cleared with Google certification:
What is the current listing status for http://www.easyexpat.com?
This site is not currently listed as suspicious.
Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 time(s) over the past 90 days.
We completely checked and re-installed the file structure in order to protect our readers from getting any malware. We have also upgraded some third-party applications and protected sensitive areas.
The situation was described by this website.
A group registered in Russia and constantly moving around Scandavavia on a daily basis using the domain newtickepicker.com has hacked into many of the OpenX Ad servers including ours to insert a plug in. It then places itself into a one pixel unit on a graphic position for an advertisement. The plugin is called “mergedDeliveryFunctions.php.”
UPDATE 05 April 2010:
We have now migrated to another solution for running ad campaigns: Google Ad Manager / AKA DFP Small Business
Happy New Year 2010
easyexpat
01 January, 2010 00:01
We all wish you a very happy year 2010!
Same time each year, the end of 2009 is a period to think about what has been achieved and what will be done in 2010.
2009 was a good year on EasyExpat's network but the growth was
slower than predicted. Beside the expansion of our guides covering
several new cities, we have implemented a complete new design to our
expat websites.
For 2010 we have already several very exiting projects:
- new forums: a global makeover of the forum to create a community for each destination;
- new functionalities for the classifieds, with a better presentation and subscription;
- more guides: Beijing, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul... etc;
- many others including more proper translations, blog articles...etc.
And don't forget to have a look at our newest city-guide: Auckland
Our solutions:
Once again, happy new year 2010 with Easy Expat!
Fiduciary & Offshore Factoring with Expert Expat
easyexpat
28 September, 2009 16:44
Fiduciary Factoring is the most effective Tax Planning Solution for optimisation of your income in a tax-free offshore environment.
The main purpose of Fiduciary Factoring - also known as Offshore Factoring - is to expatriate all or part of your income and assets into offshore funds.
Fiduciary Factoring offers attractive advantages as part of your Tax Planning strategy providing benefits that you may have thought inaccessible.
Forget about so-called government tax exemption programmes in real estate and other areas, and consider all of the opportunities allowed by alternative Tax Planning schemes and efficient legal arrangements.
The set up of these kinds of arrangements is quick and absolutely affordable. As a result, you will benefit from retention of 90% of all of your expatriate income and funds, completely tax-free.
With the service provided by ExpertExpat, Financial Planning managers will take care of your offshore wealth and will offer you the best choice of investment programmes.
On the website you will find explanation of the process, case-study and FAQ.
All operations can be done online with the highest confidentiality, with the website offering a unique area for members to make online operations and follow their settlements, as well as discussing privately with financial planning experts through our private online email system.
Expert Expat in Paris - salon des Micro-entreprises : 6-8 octobre 2009 [Palais des Congrès - Porte maillot]
Our experts will be in Paris at the beginning of October to take part in the exhibition dedicated to entrepreneurs and small-companies. They will be located Stand A22.
If you are in Paris you will be able to get explanation on our unique tax optimisation and our experts will answer directly all your questions. They will have specific offers for the time of the exhibition.
Expert Expat - a new design for offshore services
easyexpat
23 September, 2009 16:00
After the redesign of EasyExpat and our Travel services, an other of our websites has been under major reshape:
Expert Expat is a platform providing 3 major services:
Offshore Factoring
Offshore Factoring, or Fiduciary Factoring is an easy and quick Tax Planning solution to achieve offshore wealth without any taxation. You will receive 90% of your expatriate income & funds tax-free.
Read more here.
International Banking: Opening an offshore bank account
Expert Expat is offering its long experience in international bank services, with a lot of advantages such as easiness of use and low cost. It is also a strategic choice for your patrimony and your taxation plans.
Read more here.
Health Insurance
We act as an independent international medical, health and travel insurance broker. In partnership with companies specialised in expatriate insurance, we offer you the best deals on the market.
Read more here.
Here is a screenshot comparison on the redesign work (before/after):
Easy Expat in Portuguese / EasyExpat em Português
easyexpat
10 September, 2009 11:32
After Russian, Polish and Dutch, we are expanding the number of languages on EasyExpat. We are proud to announce that all our articles and
sections are available in Portuguese,
beside the existing English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish and
Dutch languages. All sections including classifieds, jobs and tools are also
available in Portuguese (with the exception of the forums, still in the 5
different languages which are available for posting).
Portuguese is a Romance language derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago. It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th centuries as Portugal established a colonial and commercial empire (1415–1999) which spanned from Brazil in the Americas to Goa and other parts of India, Macau in China and Timor (north of Australia).
Today it is one of the world's major languages, ranked 6th according to number of native speakers (between 191 and 230 million). It is the language of about half of South America, essentially with Brazil. It is also a major lingua franca in Portugal's former colonial possessions in Africa (official language in nine countries) also being co-official with Cantonese Chinese in the Chinese special administrative region of Macau, Tetum in East Timor and Spanish and French in Equatorial Guinea.
Source: Wikipedia
Easy Expat in Polish / EasyExpat w języku polskim
easyexpat
01 September, 2009 09:22
After Russian and Dutch last month, we have achieved yet the implementation of a new language on EasyExpat. We are pleased to announce that all our articles and sections are available in Polish,
beside the existing English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian
and Dutch languages. All sections including classifieds, jobs and tools are also
available in Polish (with the exception of the forums, still in the 5
different languages which are available for posting).
Polish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions.
The language is spoken by about 56 millions people. Ethnic Poles constitute significant minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Easy Expat in Dutch / EasyExpat in het Nederlands
easyexpat
20 August, 2009 16:26
After Russian
last month, we are proud to announce a new language
on EasyExpat. All our articles and
sections are available in Dutch,
beside the existing English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian
and Dutch languages. All sections including classifieds, jobs and tools are also
available in Dutch (with the exception of the forums, still in the 5
different languages which are available for posting).
Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
Most native speakers live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, with smaller groups of speakers in parts of France, Germany and several former Dutch colonies. It is also the parent language of several creole languages as well as of Afrikaans, one of the official languages of South Africa and the most widely understood in Namibia.
Source: Wikipedia
Easy Expat in Russian / EasyExpat на русском языке
easyexpat
03 August, 2009 15:30
We have achieved the implementation of a new language on EasyExpat. We are now pleased to announce that all our articles and sections are available in Russian, beside the existing English, German, French, Italian and Spanish languages. All sections including classifieds, jobs and tools are also available in Russian (with the exception of the forums, still in the 5 different languages which are available for posting).
Russian language is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia/Slavic languages spoken by about 278 million people (a primary language for about 164 million and a secondary language for 114 million).
The Russian language is primarily spoken in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the USSR.
In Latvia, more than one-third of the population is Russian-speaking (see Russians in Latvia). Similarly, in Estonia, 68% of the population can speak Russian. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian remains a co-official language with Kazakh and Kyrgyz respectively. In Lithuania, 60% of the population speak Russian as a mother or secondary language. Also, more than half of the population of the Baltic states speak Russian.
A number of Russian speakers have remained in Finland, there are 33,400 Russian speakers, amounting to 0.6% of the population (the Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1918 ).
Russian is also spoken in Israel by at least 750,000 ethnic Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (1999 census).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language
EasyExpat Travel: services for travellers
easyexpat
23 July, 2009 12:31
We are proud to announce the full redesign of our travel service:
http://travel.easyexpat.com/
This website aims to provide services for those on the move, to help them finding the good vacation package within the multiple services offered by the EasyExpat portal.
We have grouped a selection of big players on holiday package, flights, car hire, travel insurance and our offer of hotels around the world. Information and services are provided both in French and English.
Our main sections are:
EasyExpat Travel v1: 2007-2009
EasyExpat Travel v2: 2009-
Nostalgia
easyexpat
02 July, 2009 17:06
As we have just changed the design of EasyExpat, you will find bellow some print screen of the previous versions (you can also comment on the forum)
2001 - EasyExpat was called EasyAbroad: static website
2002 - Just before to become EasyExpat: dynamic... hmm trying to be serious in grey
2002-2007 - Except the colours, with the expansion of city guides, most of the changes are internal with new services, new sections...
2007-2009 - as screens got larger, the design enlarged its columns. The map has changed to show who is connected in the world; and always more services.
2009- ta ta !
