r/AmerExit

I’m looking for people who have moved from California to Belgium and are open to sharing their experiences. 

For context; I am a dual citizen of Belgium and the USA. Same goes for my toddler son. My wife is a US citizen. I grew up in Belgium and moved to the US as an adult. I’m bilingual Dutch-English, so is my son, and my wife has been taking dutch classes for two years. I love living in California but now that we have a young child, sometimes we wonder out loud if moving to Belgium would be a better choice.

Mostly because of the reduced costs of childcare, healthcare, education, and housing (we could live very cheaply there because of a family property). I feel like this would significantly reduce our stress levels and get off the hamster wheel just a little bit. I also have very fond memories of my childhood there and feel like it was more relaxed than what kids experience in the Bay Area. 

What makes us doubt however are the intangibles. Belgians can be… narrow-minded, predictable. A little closed off at first. Ambition and drive are not as rewarded and the cultural contract is one of fitting in vs standing out. I also wonder how easy it would be for my wife to feel good there and make friends. 

If anyone has made a similar move, I’d love to hear what your experience has been like. Are you miserable? Or loving it? 

I apologize if this is the wrong subreddit, please redirect me if so.

I'm a 43 y/o retired US Veteran with a good pension. I met a Dutchie backpacking New Zealand, fell in love, and have decided to go check out her world and see how I like it.

I'd like to stay six months straight (which obviously doesn't work with the 90/180 rule).

From what I see my options are;

DAFT (I do not want to start up and run a business but if I can 'fake' it to get that time, I'll throw the 4500 euro into a dutch bank account no problem, I'd just need guidance on how to do it and info on any taxes I'd pay).

Student Visa (I would love to pay for and take lessons in learning the language, culture, history and such but it says I have to go full-time? I'm good with a single class once or twice a week but do not want to be a full-time student)

Residence permit for partner (has anyone done this? could it work? we have shared expenses from our adventures, we'll be living together, already have a place set up)

I've read some stuff about how I can extend my stay if I apply to one of these options while I'm there and the visa is in 'process.' So like I could wait three months and then apply to one of these and get some extra time but that seems dodgy.

Is really my best option just doing the DAFT thing?

Please and thank you for your time. I do love this lady and am willing to do what I have to to see this through (aside from marriage! not just yet.. but the potential is there.. she's simply a wonderful human).

Some background about me:

I'm a US citizen.

I have been self employed for over a decade (consulting). I have an LLC, and my business is entirely online.

My wife and I are in our early 40's and we have a 5 year old.

My wife and I have traveled extensively throughout Europe. She speaks English and Tagalog. I can speak some Spanish.

Edit: Thanks to everyone who has responded. I added some additional info below.

I operate a marketing agency. I have 20 years experience in marketing and related tech, and I started my own company over 10 years ago.

I have completed some college, but I do not have a degree. My wife has a Masters.

No criminal record. I'm too far removed for Italian or Irish descent citizenship. My wife is from the Phillipines, but she's been a US citizen since 2005.

I'm more interested in what makes the most sense logistically. Culturally I could make it work in many European countries. I'm partial to Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Italy.

I guess this is a follow up to my previous question about pay cuts. I'll be finished graduate school in 2027 and I will definitely need to get some full-time experience and save up money before I can actually move abroad. With my current financial and career ​situation, I concede that I might not be able to leave the US until 2031 at the earliest. My question is how many years did you spend ​saving up money to afford your move abroad?

Hello,

I’m hoping to move to Spain from the US with the non-lucrative visa. I have around $55,000 saved up, but I don’t have passive income. I do have additional money in my Roth IRA that can be taken out tax-free I’m hoping they would consider as part of my funds available.

I’m in the process of getting all my documents in order and wondering if I’m wasting my time applying since I don’t have passive income.

Additional information:
I was born in Dominican Republic, so I only need two years of legal residency in Spain before I can apply to live there as a resident. My hope is to go there on this visa and eventually have Spanish citizenship. Therefore, I’m not considering any other countries and I don’t have to worry about living off my savings for more than three years max.

Hi r/AmerExit, we’re StartAbroad.

We founded StartAbroad after spending years living and working internationally ourselves. We’re two Americans who have each lived in six countries and we originally moved abroad for career opportunities.

Our most recent move was to Costa Rica, where we moved as digital nomads instead of for a location-specific job. During that experience, we realized how difficult and fragmented the support is for people trying to move abroad on their own. Whether you’re a retiree, remote worker, family, or digital nomad, a lot of the process feels confusing until you are already in the middle of it.

We wanted to build the kind of relocation support we were used to receiving as employees relocating internationally, but for regular people making the move themselves.

Today, we help hundreds of Americans every year move to Portugal, Spain, Costa Rica, and Panama, the countries we specialize in.

We help people with visas, housing, banking, shipping, buying cars, pet relocation, timelines, costs, and navigating the bureaucracy that tends to trip people up.

Most of our team has personally lived abroad, and we’ve guided 800+ clients through the process with a 100% visa approval rate for qualifying applicants.

Ask us anything about moving out of the US and in our target countries: visas, timelines, costs, mistakes to avoid, housing, taxes, pets, or banking. We're set to start answering questions at 18:00 Central Time!

Site link

https://preview.redd.it/d9z2m6x2f62h1.jpg?width=360&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7bd6ec46e9c1af581abda1cb213fa8fea0bdbfde

EDIT: Thanks r/AmerExit this was fun! Feel free to leave comments below and we will pop in periodically to answer if you missed us this time.

I am fortunate enough to work in a field that is considered skilled work by many countries and I’m eligible for many skilled work sponsorship visas in different countries . But when I apply to roles outside the US, I often hear back that they don’t sponsor visas. I’ve also seen many job postings that state that only citizens and permanent residents are eligible to apply.

Funny enough, only some Canadian employers seem to be most open to sponsoring Americans, although still far from the majority. I guess since many Canadians come down to the USA for work and know TN visas, they are more open to it, I guess.

I’m wondering why so many employers don’t sponsor if I have a profession that is eligible for a sponsored visa and is considered a skill in shortage.

Does anyone else have this problem when trying to move abroad? And are there ways that I can mitigate around this somehow?

Hi All - I hope I am doing this right. I wanted to introduce myself. Dominick here. I'm an American expat living in Dublin with my husband Jason, our two kids, and a dog who has fully committed to Irish life. I am happy to answer any questions about our relocation experience. What started as a dinner-table conversation with my lawyer husband about what the fall of democracy actually looks like about eight years ago, finally became a one-way flight. We were running to something and not from. This helped our outlook immensely. I'm happy to chat with anyone about this huge decision.

Us being two gay dads with mixed-race kids, definitely was part of the calculus when we decided to go. Not the only part, but a real one. I am a writer (among other things), and what I've come to believe after sitting with this move and writing about it is that most people who leave aren't just changing their address. They're answering a quieter question about what kind of life they are living and hope to live, and what kind of place, or freedom, will allow them to flourish. Most people don't think about what kind of freedom their country offers. Americans broadly want the freedom to build, earn, and become. What a lot of Americans discover (I think) when we land somewhere else is that what we were always reaching for was freedom from: from the particular dread of being one bad month away from something catastrophic, the terror of healthcare, of getting older without sufficient resources, from a political climate that started feeling less like a backdrop and more like a threat. That distinction took me a while to put into words but once I did, the move made complete sense.

Life here is full in a way I didn't expect. Weekend trips around Ireland, two kids who are equally at home at a GAA match and a theatre production, a city that actually functions for people. I write on the side, mostly about identity and belonging and what it means to build a life that fits. I also run a relocation company, so full disclosure, when practical questions come up in this community I'll usually have something useful to say. Oh, and I love to talk and can droll on and on and on.... Happy to answer questions about Ireland or the process of relocating here.

Glad to be here. Thanks, moderators.

EDIT AND RESPONSE:

I want to address something directly, then get back to actually helping people in this thread.

I'm a real person. I live in Dublin with my husband Jason, our two kids, and our dog. We came on a Critical Skills Work Permit, set up a business here, navigated the Irish school system, found a GP, and found a rental that allowed our dog. None of those things were impossible. All required preparation, which included good advice. That's the point.

One person in this thread has had a hard experience in Ireland and is projecting that onto everyone else's possibilities. That's understandable. It's also not a useful data point for Americans seeking an exit. Perspective with regard to how one encounters the world has perhaps a greater impact on experience and outcomes as anything else. Life is hard sometimes; nothing worth having is easy. We all know that.

I run GlobalWealth360. My co-founder and husband Jason is a trusts and estates attorney. Our work exists specifically for the parts of relocation that nobody talks about until it's too late: cross-border tax exposure, estate planning across jurisdictions, what your financial picture actually looks like after you leave. That's the practice we built because we needed it ourselves and couldn't find it anywhere else.

People who approach this move with proper preparation tend to land well. People who don't, sometimes don't. That's true of any major life change, not just this one.

If you have real questions about moving to Ireland, visa options, financial planning, or what the process actually looks like from start to finish, please ask. I will check in and chime in on discussions with helpful, "free" advice, url's and info when I can. Hopefully I can avoid trolls.

Hey everyone

I'm not sure if this fits in the sub, but it should fall under discussing "the immigrant life" cf. the sub description. My American fiancé (getting married this summer) is moving to Norway to be with me and so I would really like to hear from anyone who has moved for love, how your partner was able to support you emotionally through such a huge transition.

What did you need during that time? What were you prepared for needing, and what came as a surprise? Was there anything you feel like you did not receive from your partner? How are you doing now and what was the emotional journey like?

Some context:

We are settling down in my (fairly small) hometown. We are both prepared that he will probably go through a depressive episode at some point, because it's just such a huge change. He has a good relationship with his family, so he's sad about that, but not a huge social network otherwise. In my hometown we have my family and some of my friends that he's already met. Everyone is very eager to welcome him. He is also signing up for language classes in the fall. We're still kind of open to the next steps, whether he wants to find a job or go back to school.

I love this man so much and all I want for him is to feel good and be happy. I know things will be hard and that I can't take away the pain and sorrow of being away from people and places he loves, but if I can do something that makes him feel 1 % better, then I would like to.

Hello,As an American, I am trying to decide which European country to retire in. I cannot choose between France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. I am leaning toward Spain. I do not speak any of their native languages and need to learn. I would appreciate any advice or recommendations.

I'm Simon Mander, an Australian Registered Migration Agent with 23 years' experience.

After last week's Federal Budget and the migration changes of the past few years, I think Australia is reshaping skilled migration around long-term national shortages rather than more broad skilled occupations (think marketing/hr/program project admin even accounting).

I don’t think there has been such a sharp policy shift since a major overhaul in 2012.

Over the last few years Australia has tightened student visas, increased English requirements, reduced graduate visa age limits. The government has increased salary thresholds for employer-sponsored migration and invested heavily into migration processing and skills recognition reform.

At the same time, the country is dealing with an ageing population, housing and infrastructure pressure. There are also regional healthcare shortages, NDIS workforce demand and persistent shortages outside Sydney and Melbourne.

The professions I see benefiting are the ones tied to long-term economic necessity. Healthcare and allied health, engineering, construction, teaching, infrastructure and skilled trades.

I pay close attention to processing times because they often tell you where pressure exists before policy officially catches up.

One of my recent occupational therapist clients had her permanent Subclass 190 visa granted in around two and a half months. That is considerably faster than I am currently seeing for many non-health occupations on the same visa.

Australia appears focused on migrants tied to long-term workforce shortages rather than generic degree holders.

The next version of Australian skilled migration is really built around one question:

"Can this person help solve a long-term national problem?"

Happy to answer general questions around skilled migration pathways, healthcare and allied health occupations, trades and engineering, regional migration pathways, de facto partners and current processing trends.

 

General Information only. Simon Mander. MARN 0318058

Simonmander.com

 

I want to start by saying thank you in advance for reading and taking the time to reply/share your own experiences and thoughts. Also apologies for any formatting issues — I typed this out on mobile.

My husband (29M) and I (30M) have recently returned from a three week trip to several European countries and we are asking ourselves, seriously, “should we move out of the US?”

Below is a little bit of information about our thought process. I wanted to ask if other people have been in a similar position and ultimately made the decision to leave the US. If so, what was your experience and how did you arrive to that conclusion?

Background:
Prior to our trip, we always had the idea of moving outside of the US, but we never really went beyond the fun “fantasy” stage of moving. When we discussed it, the motivations for this idea were escaping the political situation in the US and moving somewhere that more aligns with our progressive/liberal values on a national level.

We returned from our trip to Europe and we are asking ourselves, seriously, “should we move out of the US?” We were primarily enchanted with the (seemingly) more enjoyable pace of life, the human-scale design of the cities, and the social consciousness people and governments had (ex: many places wore “welfare state” as a badge of honor vs. the how the US thinks of that as fault).

During our trip, we didn’t do very many touristy things — instead, we tried to live life in the cities we visited: we walked around many different neighborhoods, took public transit, shopped at grocery stores, and ate/drank in smaller restaurants/cafes/bars, etc. and we absolutely loved it. Life seemed simpler and more enjoyable than in the US.

After talking, we are considering options like the Netherlands (smaller cities like Utrecht or Leiden) and Sweden (Stockholm). My husband is self-employed, does remote work, and would be able to retain his US clients. Given that, we feel like (with the time and effort) we could qualify him for the DAFT visa in the Netherlands or the self-employed visa in Sweden. Both would allow me join him with a reunification visa. I work in healthcare management in the US, so I am aware I would need to learn Dutch/Swedish to find comparable roles, find an English-speaking healthcare role (rare, it seems), or take a non-Healthcare English-speaking role.

Hold-ups:
We are going to take some time (few weeks to months) to see if we still have this itch and make a decision on what to do. But, in the meantime, we have a few thoughts about why we maybe shouldn’t move. As a disclaimer, I am not asking anyone to necessarily answer any of the below questions, they are just a collection of our thoughts on why we maybe shouldn’t move.
• We already live a very “European” lifestyle for being in the US. Specifically, we live in a walkable neighborhood and bike/walk/take public transit more than we drive (we are a one-car household). We have easy access to grocery stores, restaurants/cafes/bars, and essential services without needing to drive. So would putting forth the effort to move to Europe actually yield an improvement on the quality of life?
• We are very fortunate to be homeowners and absolutely love our house. Is selling our dream home and moving worth it?
• We, again, are very fortunate and appreciative to live in a liberal city, in a liberal state, and are not currently experiencing any personal hardships that may motivate us to move for financial or social reasons. If we are doing alright, why should we move?

Again, thank you for reading/answering! Happy to answer any clarifying questions, if needed.

EDIT TO ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS/PROVIDE COMMENTARY:

Thank you to everyone who has answered thus far! I see a lot of comments/commentary I do not necessarily disagree with, so I appreciate the honesty. Some people are specifically calling out that we do have a desirable lifestyle in the US, so reasons for moving are not strong enough or may not satisfy what we want.

To answer a question I saw a few times:
• We currently live in Oregon.
• We have considered renting our house out and at least temporarily moving. The only issue is I don’t think we could get a tenant to pay rent that would meet our mortgage payment. I tried to find comparable rentals and they seem to be lower than our mortgage payment. So it would require taking a loss to rent the house out. But I suppose that is not necessarily a dealbreaker, it’s just a reality we would have to accept.

I do want to clarify that this is very early in the thought process, so I understand the “you’re putting the cart before the horse” type of commentary. We would want to consult with some professionals before fully pulling a trigger.

I do see a lot of people commenting about how we had a “nice vacation” and didn’t experience real life in these locations. I certainly understand that that is true — we didn’t work, go to medical appointments, interact with the government, etc. But I would assume that’s true for most people who immigrate out of the US, no? Very few people have the privilege to visit a country for extended periods of time (maybe even multiple times) to get a real flavor for “real life.” So while I don’t disagree with the sentiment of these statements, I really wonder if many people are able to do this before deciding to move?

SECOND UPDATE:
Again, thank you for many of you taking the time to read and reply. Especially to the folks who offered clear and constructive feedback.

I want to apologize for causing any kind of offense by suggesting that there is no daily hardship for the people that live in these countries. We have definitely approached this with a limited perspective and this post was a means to get some more information — and we have.

I will continue to to follow along with any comments made, but we will definitely be taking time to see how we feel in the coming months and do more research (than what we already have done) about people’s experiences living in NL/SE and people who immigrate there.

Thank you again!

We are leaving the USA and we are PR, not citizens. I've done a lot of research here and online to minimize asking basic questions, but wanted to ask Reddit just in case.

BANK: I'm interested in keeping a US bank checking account active to (1) continue to pay my medical bills, (2) keep a Costco account active (there is no Costco where we will go) and (3) receive gifts of money from my parents. Looking into HSBC US Premier as a solution and can't use SDFCU because we are not citizens.

BROKERAGE: We will use IBKR.

CREDIT CARDS: ??

We will not have a US address, which triggers KYC issues. We do NOT want to put a friend's address on file for privacy and just in general, boundaries, issues. And we have no family here. I've done a lot of research on services that provide a "real address" but it looks like most of them are flagged as CMRA these days, including Escapees RV etc. There's no real way around it that will scale well into the future -- I don't want to deal with frozen accounts halfway across the world.

Any thoughts about how to solve the banking issue?

Anyone have experience with credit cards? Specifically Chase and AMEX -- do they want US addresses on file as KYC compliance issues?

My wife is on Spain’s Digital Nomad Visa, and we’re now applying for me and our son as dependents.

For our son, the process was pretty straightforward.
For me, not so much.

UGE asked for additional proof of funds. On paper, it sounded simple: notarized bank statements, savings, investments, etc.

Then we found out Bank of America won’t notarize the statements unless you’re physically in the US. A Spanish notary can’t really solve it either unless there’s a bank representative involved. So suddenly this “small” document request became the thing that could slow down the whole family application.

We eventually found a possible solution through someone who had seen a similar case before, but it made me realize how many parts of this process you only discover when you’re already in it.

For people who moved to Spain from the US, what was your version of this?

The moment where you realized: “Oh, this is not as straightforward as it looked from outside.”