moving to a new country

[AussieFan8]

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.

 

[Planogirl]

Netherlands right this second if I could

Otherwise
Norway
Sweden
Belgium
Canada

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

For me, it's northern Spain since I have family there. It's really beautiful. I'm not sure I'd want to make it permanent, so I'm glad I can go back and forth.

Porrua



Gijon

 

[Pooh2]

Have no desire to ever move out of the USA.
Love my home and love road tripping through this beautiful country!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Have no desire to ever move out of the USA.
Love my home and love road tripping through this beautiful country!

Yeah, wasn't really a question about if you want to leave or not. But if you absolutely were forced to choose a new country. Where would you go?

I agree this is a fantastic place to go road tripping, I love all the national parks out west.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I would say Canada... I have been before (several years ago), and I thought it was great.

 

[pigletto]

Probably England or Ireland. Beautiful countries. My heritage is English and Irish as far back as I can go on both sides. My mother is a dual citizen and was born on the Isle of Man. My sister and I are taking her back there for the first time in 60 years next week and we are so excited.

 

[VFL]

I would become an ex pat and move to Costa Rica.

 

[ChrisFL]

I want to move to Japan badly but I would have to be independently wealthy.

 

[tzolkin]

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.

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...

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.

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.

Wishful positive thinking doesn't absolve the practical realities, but assuming that it's simply impossible to do something without researching or trying to come up with a plan that might work for you is certainly not going to get you anywhere. I don't think BadPinkTink meant, "if you just think happy thoughts you'll get whatever you want". 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.

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?

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.

 

[GoofyCdn]

I moved from the U.S. to Canada 20 years ago, but just got my citizenship last year. The country I'd love to move to if I could would be Costa Rica. Many expats moving there because of the cost.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Canada
Ireland
New Zealand
One of the islands, probably Bermuda

 

[BadPinkTink]

exactly @tzolkin

People have this old fashioned idea that if you move to a different country, its permanent and you have to become a citizen, nope thats not how it is.

My sister moved from Ireland to New Zealand, got a permanent residency visa and stayed for 4 years. She came back and now lives in England with her husband.

One of my friends has lived in California and Vegas for almost 20 years. She is on a work visa, sponsored by her European employer which gets renewed every 5 years.

So many others are like you said digital nomads, working remotely and living in different countries.

There are so many options, theres no hard and fast rule that says you must sell your house, and that you must become a citizen in the new country and that you cant leave your new country or that you cant come home.

People just need to think outside the box a bit more and be more open minded.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

conversations in a thread do not always continue exactly with what was stated in the first post.

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.

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.

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 don't think leebee or anyone else is sitting here researching to death what countries they can and cannot realistically move to, I think it was just a generalized thought process that got the thread going, I took the comment to be general enough.

Now as far as part of leebee's post about wealth that reminded me when Iceland reopened for tourism during uglier parts of the pandemic with the intention of attracting longer term visits (up to 6 months). Their requirements were you needed to make around $88K per year (if discussing wealth) but the other part was "To be granted permission for an extended stay, the person in question must demonstrate an employment relationship with a foreign company (or verify self-employment in the country where they have a permanent residence) and meet the income and health insurance requirements." I know I'm making my own tangent here but suffice to say Iceland was hoping visitors would add to their economy (which is heavily tourist based) with their spending habits and not take away local jobs.

If you want to hop on a plane and work in Iceland well that's going to take getting a contract from an employer in Iceland first if you're not from a country part of EEA/EFTA. If that doesn't happen if you're a "Qualified professionals and athletes are more likely to receive Iceland work permits." (from a website I'm reading). Now that website does say if there's a temporary shortage in workers it's easier. On a coincidental note for EU residents a lot easier because well Iceland is part of the Schengen area

All that really to say of course you have to research and this is the DIS after all, we're all very used to that mentality but all the research in the world and pull on your bootstraps isn't necessarily going to mean you get into the country you want or rather any country out there. Sometimes it's going to be a no you aren't a good fit. I think that was more or less the vibe of the subsequent responses as a rebuttal.

 

[easyas123]

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.

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.

 

[Minnesota!]

I would choose Norway, Germany, Sweden in a heartbeat, at any time, if asked.
Canada would be a quick and easy one - just drive north a bit, no airplane needed.
I would consider Ireland, Scotland, etc., too

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

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.

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.

 

[easyas123]

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.

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.

But, neither of us will know unless she cares to clarify her comment so I suppose we ought to just move on-

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

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.

But, neither of us will know unless she cares to clarify her comment so I suppose we ought to just move on-

okay

 

[easyas123]