AussieFan8
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2019
We are seriously considering and researching Portugal. They seem to be very friendly to expat retirees. Our daughter wants to live in the UK, preferably Ireland.
Have no desire to ever move out of the USA.
Love my home and love road tripping through this beautiful country!
I understand that the OP was about becoming a citizen of another country, but conversations in a thread do not always continue exactly with what was stated in the first post. Someone posts something loosely related and then others may join in on the tangent. For example, post 4 of the thread was...In the original question it was about becoming a citizen of another country. A snowbird may have dual citizenship at times but I'm not certain how frequent that is. Snow birds aren't moving to another country, it's a temporary residency. You don't talk about moving from Maine down to FL, you talk about spending the winters in FL. You don't talk about moving from Canada to FL you talk about spending the winters there. It's a temporary spot not at all like a permanent idea of actually moving.
While it wasn't explicitly stated there are two things: dual citizenship and giving up your own home citizenship. For dual citizenship recognition of that depends on country to country and your original citizenship matters very much there. As for the U.S. you still pay taxes if you're a U.S. citizen so to avoid that you would have to renounce the U.S. part.
I think leebee was honest in her thinking about her age and status in regards to desirability of her in particular compared to someone else in the viability of another country wanting her. I think it may mean looking at specific countries. It's probably not something many people consider when wistful thinking about moving to another country and living there.
In the EU moving from country to country is like moving state to state in the U.S. so it may seem easier and it's not surprising how BadPinkTink responded because in her first post (before Leebee's) she mentioned how freely one could move around, hop on a plane and just get a job in a different country. That's similar to how the states work (excluding talk of financials with the cost of plane ticket, lodging, etc). While BadPinkTink may be aware of how things work in the EU that isn't indicative of how the process works for one who lives outside of the EU and I think that may be where the scuffle occurred. Wishful positive thinking doesn't absolve the practical realities out there when moving from country to country.
so a lot of what followed were things that didn't necessarily involve citizenship. The gist I got was "while becoming a citizen and permanently moving to another country might be difficult or impossible for certain people/places, here are some other options that would still give you the experience of living abroad without the challenge of changing citizenship". Some examples include becoming a digital nomad, being a snowbird somewhere, volunteering abroad long term, returning to your home country every 6 months (or whatever the visa requirements may be), etc.Also you don't have to become a citizen to move to another country. You can get work visa's or permanent residency visa's and still retain your citizenship of your home country.
I didn't really understand it either. You may not meet the requirements to permanently relocate and become a citizen of a certain country (some have income requirements for immigration), but there are ways to live abroad in retirement if that's what you want to do. You may just need to be flexible on location, whether you can purchase property, how long you can stay at one time, etc.Sure you could! I know a older couple - she has RA & on disability, he's retired and they made the move from the US to Ireland. They had very little income, but a great desire to "get back there" as they had visited several times. She only spoke English, he had a little bit of French.
Forgive me for asking, but what do you mean by the bolded (by me) above? "So we don't really qualify to leave this country". I'm genuinely intrigued by this, what qualifications do you need to meet to leave? I might have missed something - you are in the US, right? Or Canada?
Of course, except that conversation was about snow birds there. Snow birds are not the same thing as moving to another country..which was what the thread was started as. The PP was making a connection to snow birds like Canadian citizens that go to FL to escape winter as if it's the same thing as moving to another country. It is not not only in visa stuff but citizen stuff and other such requirements. Hence why SirDuff commented on that. So sure conversations evolve however Leebee's post which the PP quoted was only about what the thread was about. In other words snow birds wasn't a tangent but a direct comparison that others did not feel was the same thing.conversations in a thread do not always continue exactly with what was stated in the first post.
And what posters are responding to is the "try to figure out how to make it happen". Not every country out there wants every single person. Some people want to relocate to another country but are unfortunately denied for one reason or another. I have no idea if that would ever happen to leebee but I understand her underlying thought regardless of whether people can come out of the woodwork and find all the countries out there that one assumes because they know so and so would work out for another person.I believe she meant that you should decide what you want and then work to try to figure out how to make it happen rather than just assuming that you can't.
Realistically, Canada. I could live further south than I do now, and easily go back and forth to the States to visit family. In a perfect world, I'd be part of the Paris ex-pat community.
Unfortunately, I'm 66, only speak English, married, and not wealthy, so we don't really qualify to leave this country. Nobody wants old people who are going to retire soon instead of add to their culture and economy.
I can't speak for her because I'm not her but I can see how not being multi-lingual/bi-lingual as well as not having the means to realistically afford to move or be able to support one's self abroad for without earning income to do so would make it difficult to feel like you are the type of person who would be attractive to another country.For me, it was specifically the above bolded phrase. Don't Qualify to Leave this Country....it just had me puzzled is all. I'm not familiar with either the US or Canada (and Leebee, if you are from any other country please correct me) requiring someone to qualify to leave is all. Requiring someone to qualify to enter/stay on work visa/become a citizen - yes, that I am familiar with.
Perhaps it was just a turn of phrase, not specifically needing to qualify to leave a particular country.
Again, I'm curious as I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that LeeBee was either US or Canada based and that is the only thing I'm basing my confusion on. I know all kinds of different countries have different entering and leaving restrictions.
Well, yes. That all makes perfect sense and would be something to think about if one was considering moving to another country. But that is not what I was speaking of. I was speaking very specifically about the phrase 'qualify to leave this Country' - that is all. Leave, not enter.I can't speak for her because I'm not her but I can see how not being multi-lingual/bi-lingual as well as not having the means to realistically afford to move or be able to support one's self abroad for without earning income to do so would make it difficult to feel like you are the type of person who would be attractive to another country.
okayWell, yes. That all makes perfect sense and would be something to think about if one was considering moving to another country. But that is not what I was speaking of. I was speaking very specifically about the phrase 'qualify to leave this Country' - that is all. Leave, not enter.
But, neither of us will know unless she cares to clarify her comment so I suppose we ought to just move on-