Nisha K

Extremely easy buying experience and extremely quick shipping! I was having a contact lens emergency and ordered by around 6pm on a Friday. I received my lenses by 1pm on Saturday. (Ordering in London). Plus, they threw in some gummy candies for me–delightful!

The product did exactly what it said it would and worked. Customer service was extremely quick to help me out when I had a small issue with my download. I think the instructions could be a little clearer on where the product key would appear and what was included in the download, but it wasn't hard to figure out!

Ultimately, Expatfile was great! The process is definitely streamlined for expats, but there were some upgrades I'd recommend to make the UI a bit better. For instance, I believe they should let you select all your sources of income at the start and then walk you through the process for each of them. I almost forgot to enter my dividend income and there was no "Did you forget anything?" prompt. To combat this, I entered all my information in TurboTax and used their flow to validate ExpatFile's flow. I also used more of TurboTax's information on various items to fill in the ExpatFile blanks. I've been self-employed for a while and have read a LOT about expat taxes, including all of Publication 54, but if you haven't, there might be a lot of knowledge gaps for you on ExpatFile. That being said, I ended up filing with ExpatFile because I felt most secure that they'd done the right things with regard to FEIE.

I'll say, first of all, that I absolutely love the April International team. Everyone I've interacted with (shout out specifically to Anne-Marie and Thomas at April International UK) has been extremely helpful, thorough, compassionate, and efficient. Insurance is not an easy thing to figure out when you're an expat in a country where you do not speak the language, but April has been awesome.

The one-star reduction comes mainly from the burdensome claims process which requires me to take a paper form with me to all of my doctor's appointments and then scan in multiple sheets of paper and email them over rather than having some sort of easy app that I can use like other private insurance companies. The German medical system (where I live) operates on extremely quick doctor's visits and doctors and their staff get annoyed at me most of the time I ask them to fill out these forms. It makes me less likely to go to the doctor because I don't want to face yet another German doctor refusing to fill out my form or becoming annoyed at me when I insist I must have the form filled or I will not get my insurance claims covered. It's already a rather intimidating medical system to navigate and it's not made easier by the paper claims process. I do highly recommend April, but I wish they would simplify this process so it isn't so burdensome on doctors who are already rushing to get you out of their office as quickly as possible.

Lensbest has a super easy online interface. I do wish there was more detail available in contact lens settings such as eye curvature, but they're working well so far for me. I was able to access lens types I used to buy in the US and the options to reorder or create a subscription are super simple, too. I'm a fan so far! I've never had to deal with their customer service, though, so I can't comment on that.

I only have one complaint with my buying experience. Everything else was exactly as promised and arrived promptly within the time period that it should've.

My complaint: I ordered a very expensive camera and equipment for it and all of it came delivered together in a box (which is straightforward and appreciated). However, it was not taped very well--in fact, it was a little bit open. I would've appreciated more secure packaging. I live in a big city at a walk-up apartment so my packages are left outdoors, accessible to anyone walking by. More secure packaging would've made me feel safer about my expensive purchase.