Relationships and love can come from any angle. Often, it comes when you least expect it.
While it can seem that taking the time to pursue love using online dating or match apps is the most beneficial route forward, often, the best relationships are those that seem to come organically, those we weren’t planning in effect.
For this reason, it’s important to keep your options open. In fact, some people keep their options so open that meeting someone abroad and then starting an overseas relationship is something they consider worthwhile. That’s not so weird to think of, the internet has connected us all and means that people can become lifelong friends thanks to chance meetings online or using the internet as a means to upkeep interpersonal relationships.
Yet it’s also true that overseas relationships do require worth and attention to get right. In this post, we’ll discuss why that is, and how to make the best of yours. While you may see each other less often to begin with, if you work at it, you have every chance of success:
Communication
When in an overseas relationship with someone, we need to make sure that we communicate with them properly. Social media instant messaging can allow for this to happen, as can frequent calls and text messages.
But more than just speaking to one another all the time, make sure that you speak honestly and openly, and allow for your messages to have quality rather than quantity. Save your proper conversations for when you can hear one another over the phone, or video chat, and perhaps save the deep conversations for those times you can visit one another in person. But remember - communication can keep you connected even if you’re not in proximity.
Trust
Trust is very important when in an overseas relationship, as of course, staying truthful with one another and making sure that we treat the relationship as seriously as we would if living together can be important. This also means discussing when you have cold feet or you think issues in the relationship need to be talked through. When you can achieve trust in this way, you’re much more likely to deal with the distance and not let your worried mind wonder about worst-case scenarios, reinforcing these impressions as a negative feedback loop.
Future Planning
Ultimately, an overseas relationship cannot stay this way forever. Relationships need proximity to work, that’s just truth as old as time. For this reason, planning a future together means planning how one day, long-distance may not necessarily be the only way you can interact. Planning for a Fiancé Visa, or figuring out what it would take to move abroad, and the full-time residency process expects of you in different countries can help you plan with more diligence and on a more realistic timescale. That in itself can be tremendously helpful going forward.
With this advice, we hope you can plan for the realities of an overseas relationship more readily.
