The challenges cluster into familiar groups, and knowing them in advance takes away some of their sting. Legal and administrative friction comes first: visa renewals, permits tied to one employer, and paperwork for everything from bank accounts to housing. Then professional hurdles, such as qualifications not being recognized, local experience trumping foreign, and a subtle promotion ceiling in some workplaces. Language issues run through all of it, since workplace humour, indirectness, and jargon take years to master.
The personal side is quieter but heavier: isolation, missing family events, and the exhaustion of operating in an unfamiliar system all day.
What helps is boring but proven. Learn the language past survival level, build both local and expat networks before you need them, keep documents and finances meticulously organized, know your labour rights, and protect time for rest and contact with home. And give it time; almost everyone reports year two feels dramatically easier than year one.