How We Are Able to Live and Work in Iceland

First of all, let me say I love hearing from you guys! Whether it’s an email, social media message, or commenting on a post, it’s SO fun to hear from the readers! One of the most common questions I get is wondering about how we moved to Iceland. So today I’m going to tell you all about how we are able to live and work in Iceland!

Those of you that have been hanging out here for a while know that we first came to Iceland on our honeymoon.

Loved every minute of it. Couldn’t stop thinking about Iceland after we returned. Wondered how we could move there. If you’ve been to Iceland, you are familiar with this timeline.

This post is long and wordy, it doesn’t have a lot of pictures, and it won’t help someone solve a problem. But it is the actual story of what happened leading up to our move to Iceland.

Maybe someday I can write a post about “how to move to Iceland” or all the steps/documents that go into the process. But this post was for ME. For US to look back on someday and relive with tears of happiness. To remember everything that went into it, and how we wouldn’t change a single thing.

This is the story of how we were able to move to Iceland.

September 2014

It was our honeymoon/1 year anniversary trip, our spirits were high, and we had a one-week road trip planned around Iceland’s beautiful Ring Road.

The first half of the trip was a standard Iceland tour – we had driven the Golden Circle and the South coast all the way to the Glacier Lagoon. The weather was cold and rainy the whole time, but we were still amazed at the vast landscape and gorgeous nature. Everywhere we looked there seemed to be something different, every turn was more beautiful than the last. It was the perfect escape from Houston, where we were living at the time. Iceland gave me what my soul was craving – raw astounding beauty.

When we arrived in Húsavík, we couldn’t believe what an adorable little fishing village it was! We decided to open a bottle of wine before heading to dinner. (Side note, this was the first day of sunshine on the trip, making us fall in love with Iceland even more!) So here we are in this adorable apartment, overlooking the mountains and the ocean, watching an incredible sunset.

We start talking about how wonderful our trip has been so far, and how different Iceland is from our life in the States. I say “isn’t it amazing that people LIVE here?! That someone gets to wake up to views like this every day?!”

And that is when the Bobby thought train starts.

He says “we’ve always talked about living abroad, what if we moved to Iceland? Even if it’s just for a year or two…before we buy a house, open a business, and have kids.”

And I, as I’m pouring my second glass of wine, quickly respond “yeah, why not, we could do that!”

The rest of the story is basically a whirlwind sprint to the day we moved.

Our honeymoon ends and we go back to our normal life in Texas. I’m working on writing a business plan to start our own clinic and get us out of Texas ASAP. Meanwhile, the seed was planted in Bobby’s brain about moving abroad. Once that starts, it’s a slippery slope.

Real quick, there are THREE ways you can move to Iceland (if you’re not in the EU):

Go to college
Marry an Icelander
Get sponsored for a work visa by an established company.

Obviously, the first two were out of the question for us!

October 2014

So Bobby starts by emailing every single Chiropractor in Iceland.

All EIGHT of them!

After a few responses of “No we are not busy enough to hire one of you, much less both”, we begin to realize that the plan to move to Iceland was not looking good.

Feeling defeated we decided to drop it.

Until Bobby came home from work one day with THIS news:

“You will never guess what happened. The last guy emailed me back, and he said we are exactly who he is looking for. He has such a busy clinic that they need to expand and they would love to hire both of us! They want us to start as soon as possible!”

What?!

Can we take a minute to stop and realize how much this sounds like a movie?! If ever there were a time where fate came into play, this was it.

The next step became obvious – fly to Iceland to check out the clinic. And considering it was the middle of the winter (read: cold and extremely dark), to make sure we actually still wanted to move to Iceland!

January 2015

We decided that Bobby would go alone.

I sent a huge list of questions that needed to be answered before he returned and/or before I would even consider moving to another country.

I was so nervous. What if it’s not what we expected and we just wasted a bunch of money “checking it out”? OR what if it is exactly what we expected and now we actually have to start going through with all of this and MOVE OUR WHOLE LIFE TO ICELAND?!

I remember I was in Michael’s craft store when Bobby called. I was shopping for craft supplies for the original blog I was going to start – repurposing and crafting (my hobbies at the time). When I got the phone call, I sat down in the fabric aisle and FaceTimed for 30 minutes while he told me every single detail about how it’s perfect for us, how everyone is so nice, how winter is beautiful.

Basically a resounding: yeah, we’re gonna do this.

All stress and anxiety aside (believe me, they were very high on my end!), every single sign seemed to point us to Iceland. And at this point, it would have been absurd to ignore it.

February 2015

Start the long and exhausting paperwork process.
Make multiple trips to FedEx to expedite paperwork each time immigration asks for another damned document.
Bi-weekly Skype sessions with our boss clearing up every question I had remaining in my OCD head.
Recurring meltdowns about our life changing so drastically and not knowing what it would be like on the other side.
Periods of elation as I realize that we might actually get to live in the most beautiful place on earth.
(Notice a theme here?! I was an emotional disaster!)

June 2015

Paperwork started to be accepted.
Realized that this was actually going to go through.
Started selling everything we owned.

July 2015

Losing mind because there is SO much to think about when you’re moving abroad!
Stress.
Waking up at 3am because there’s too much to do.
Call mom crying.

August 2015

Board flight with one-way ticket and couple of suitcases.

Takeaway Points

It’s actually pretty tough to move to Iceland.
This might seem like everything worked out perfectly, but I believe that we were literally in the right place at the right time.
Our job (Chiropractic) is in high demand in Iceland, making us highly eligible for employment. If we were trying to get a work visa to work at the supermarket, for example, this would not have been possible.
If you want something bad enough, keep trying and find a way until it works out!

Present Day

As you can see, I wasn’t always 100% on board with the Iceland move. I’m a planner and I stress about all the things that could go wrong. There were so many unknown things about moving abroad that scared the shit out of me, and made me doubt our life-changing move.

Bobby was the driving factor in this pursuit. I still thank him all the time for giving me courage. We joke now that if Bobby wants to leave Iceland he will be leaving alone! But seriously, I couldn’t imagine our life any different, without Iceland in it.

We fell in love with Iceland from the minute we stepped off the plane. After a week of traveling, we were already planning when we could come back. I felt a deep connection with this country that is hard to put into words. Maybe it’s the perseverance of the viking heritage. Maybe it’s the dedication to sustainable energy. Maybe it’s the purely stunning and untouched nature. Maybe it’s just a perfect combination of it all.

Everything that happened up to this point in my life has lead me here. To me, Iceland was always meant to be.