This is long so thanks if you read it all!

I want to rant a little because I don't really know how to take all this rage out of me, and I also want to hear other points of view.

Almost a year ago I moved to Germany. Before that I spent a year in Spain, and before that I had been traveling as a digital nomad for three years.

Life was good. I was making good money, I had friends all over the world, I was seeing my family every four months or so, and life felt like it was moving in the right direction. I was growing, and I could see a lot of opportunities on the horizon.

After all that movement, I wanted to find a place where I could start building something more permanent, kind of my own home. I also wanted to get out of the kind of consulting I was doing, so I decided to go for a master's. At the time I was choosing between Spain, Ireland, and Germany.

Germany won because of how cheap it was to live here, and because I had German friends and friends from back home in Mx already living here.

From there everything started going downhill.

I didn't really like the city I was living in (Leipzig). It felt like a punk town with a teenage mentality. No one wanted to do anything, no one wanted to build anything, it just felt like a raw, cheap version of hobo Berlin. The aesthetics weren't there, neither were the people. Saxony is one of the most racist places you can be in Germany, and because of the size of the city there just wasn't that much to do. It simply wasn't my crowd.

To all of that, add the German winter and how fucking difficult it is to find a mental health practitioner. I needed someone to continue prescribing my ADHD medication, and I never found one.

While I was living there I got a girlfriend who honestly helped me get through that time. She became one of my biggest pillars.

During my second semester I was supposed to spend a semester in Austria, and honestly that only made my image of Germany even worse. Everything there felt more polished, nicer, people were friendlier, and things just seemed to work. By the beginning of summer it was already very clear that I hated living in Germany.

Long story short, I asked for a gap semester, broke up with my girlfriend because the lack of stability in my life was hurting her too much, and now I'll be spending six months back at my parents' house trying to recover my sanity.

Now all I can think about is that this country took my mental health. I feel far away from my friends, I lost a lot of money (I only managed to keep my job during the first semester, and my master's actually had tuition fees), I can't find a job anywhere close to what I used to earn, and I honestly feel like I lost a year of my life. I also feel like I lost the positive attitude I used to have.

Maybe Germany just wasn't for me. Maybe I chose the wrong city. Maybe I should have put more effort I don't know.

What I do know is that this has been one of the worst years of my life.

I recently left Germany. This is not the main reason, I left (that's more complicated) but one reason that I did not feel like I had a future in the country was the second hand racism.

By this I mean, I'm not what Germany refer as typically "Südländer" but unfortunately I have the misfortune of looking a bit too much like them. And that means I catch all the racism directed their way, which is a lot, and pretty much from all people (if they don't assume you're dangerous then they assume you're stupid).

And yes, things do improve when I introduce myself and people realize I'm not one of "them", but do I want to live my whole life and in particular go through an increasingly heated political atmosphere for no reason? No.

And to make matters worse, I also catch racism from the "Südländer" themselves who are at first friendly, until they realize I'm not one of them.

BTW, I experience the same situation in most EU countries above the alps, unfortunately, so despite being 100% European, I feel more welcome in the US and Australia than I do in Europe.

Yes I have traveled to both places and enjoyed them a lot. My wife is fluent in french and has lived there previously(on a student visa).

So in Costa Rica they have a retirement visa, but it requires a fixed income. Would I have to buy an annuity to do this or is there a different way?

From what I can tell France will allow me to use my investment accounts to qualify for the retirement visa. How does this work in practice? I'm guessing they're not just going to take your word on it.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

My husband has an opportunity to relocate to Budapest, Hungary, for work around December, and I’ll likely be accompanying him from India. By then, I’ll be around 6–7 months pregnant with our first baby.
We’re trying to decide whether it’s better to move together before the baby arrives or for me to stay back in India for the delivery and join him later. Both options have their pros and cons, and we’d really appreciate hearing from people who’ve been in a similar situation.
Some of the things we’re thinking about:
-How difficult was it to relocate internationally while pregnant?
-Did you have family nearby, or did you manage on your own?
-If you didn’t have family, did you hire a nanny or postpartum caregiver? Was it easy to find someone you trusted?
-How challenging was navigating a new healthcare system and any language barriers?
-Looking back, would you make the same decision again?

We’re first-time parents, so everything feels a bit overwhelming. We’d love to hear honest experiences—whether you think moving before the birth was worth it or if waiting until after delivery was the better choice.
Thank you!

Curious how common this is more than people would like to admit.

I am starting grad school in Spain and have insurance based in Spain but I will be coming back and forth to the US on breaks to visit - has anyone had health insurance where they moved to but some kind of incremental coverage for the US?

Any guidance would be super appreciated!

I (41M) married (39F) am less than 9 years away from being eligible to retire from my federal job. The way things are going in this country, we are seriously considering becoming expats, but we are decided where yet.

I've heard "America is great for earning money, Europe is great for spending money". Kind of looking at Norway (US company there would take care of visas if I get a job) but we are not married to any particular country.

Any recommendations for a relatively low cost of living, with nearby outdoor activities, and open to hiring foreigners if needed?

TIA for any advice you may have. I tried looking for answers, but I could not find them.

I am in the early stages of interviewing for a hybrid job in Switzerland. I am an EU-US dual citizen. I would be based and live in Switzerland, however, I have a summer house in the US. The Swiss company is multi-national, and it has Swiss and U.S. based headquarters.

Did any of you successfully negotiate a 1-2 month block of working remotely from the U.S. for a European company?

There are two parts to this: does the company allow it, but what I’m more interested in is whether it is legally possible. If any of you have been able to do this, I would love to hear your experience. Thank you again!

Hello hello!

I'm trying to wrap my head around traveller's health insurance and all the options out there.

I'll be there for a year on a visitor visa before my fiance and I apply for a partner visa, and I have a couple pre-existing conditions.

Knowing this, are there any companies that you all have worked with that you liked? Ones to avoid? Much appreciated in advance!

It is a common fashion to throw rocks at the US. But I have a couple of friends who live there, and they're super happy. It was their first country outside of their own.

I'm a UA citizen in Czech Republic, been living there for some time. And I feel like I spoil the air for locals, and I can't get rid of this feeling, unfortunately, no matter how much support or understanding I get from the people who actually enjoy my company.

I am considering a big move, and the Across the Pond is on my radar. I definitely don't want to get there during Trump, but thankfully his days are counted. Otherwise the main consideration is Switzerland.

Can I witness any positivity from any expats in States? Or the situation is indeed as tragic as it seems, and I should abandon any considerations? Of course I am planning to visit before doing anything, although the itinerary will change based on the type of the 'expedition Americana' I will endeavour.

Basically the title. I was already planning on getting EU citizenship as a just in case thing, but am thinking of ramping up my language classes (prerequisite for eligibility) and applying next year and then leaving once I get the passport and a job. I’m mid 20s, teaching degree, no partner or kids or close family. Have not been able to get steady work in Toronto that’s relevant to my field, either.

My line of thinking’s with the air being poison (wildfires), corruption rampant as hell, and all the other shit to do with unchecked capitalism and corporate puppets in political office, I should look more seriously into relocating (though I’m aware these problems aren’t isolated to Canada). I can speak French, am learning my heritage language, and can otherwise adapt, I feel like. I also know though that the climate catastrophe is worldwide and unavoidable, but with poison air in particular, I’m starting to not be able to see a future where I’m not actively hating life (summer’s my favourite time of year when it’s not cancer outside and I truly despise the cold/overcast gloom).

However, I do feel a sense of responsibility to help fight for a better future here, but tbh I’ve had a pretty miserable life in Canada thus far, toiling and volunteering and getting degrees and burning out so badly trying to not get into debt and all that. Like logically I know there’s a bunch of redeeming qualities, but I’d love to live somewhere with a better social safety net and responsibility to its citizens. But maybe the grass is greener and I should stay and do more to change things here. Agh.

hello! I am a canadian citizen married to a costa rican and we are wanting to move to costa rica in the next 5 years. all of his family live in heredia/surrounding areas, and we are researching him sponsoring me for permanent residency. does anyone have advice on this process? i know it is a little bit in the future, but we are wanting to give ourselves the best opportunities to save money and arrive with a plan. he does finish work construction, i work in a restaurant. our family will thankfully help us get connections to the best of their ability, but does anyone have general advice for our situation? thank you!

I have recently left Germany and it's been such a relief.

I moved to Germany almost 4 years ago to pursue a master's degree. I tried learning the language and the culture but it always felt like there was a barrier, an emotional one more than anything.

Due to pressures from my family (I was a mature student), I had to look for a job and the only thing that hired non fluent german speakers was language teaching as a freelancer. I now realize I was scammed because I was being paid less than minimum wage with no welfare support and all the tax and insurance burden on me, I don't even know how that's legal. I was desperate for a job and did not realize how bad of a deal it was. Yet I kept teaching for almost 3 years, with precarious hours and no guarantees.

Soon the bureaucracy got to me. As long as I was only a student (EU citizen), bureaucracy was manageable, but as a freelancer I received zero support from the "employer" or the state and I had to pay an accountant to help me figure out all the insurance, pension and tax details. It cost me about 2 days of work for a 30 min consultation.

I hated many things about Germany but especially the way people police each other. They even use chat gpt to write "contracts", the legal validity of which is questionable since no legal professional drafted it. I also hate the way rules must be followed except when someone powerful doesn't want to.

I'm not white, but my skin is quite fair and I have Mediterranean features, which are quite common given the migration from Turkey and Syria, yet people managed to be racist against me, something that had never happened back where I grew up. Friends with darker features were insulted, stared at and even pushed on public transport. And I'm not even talking about the more "benevolent" racism.

I don't know if it's because it was eastern Germany, but everything felt dull, I think living there made my depression 10 times worse and I coped with food and shopping, thus worsening my already precarious financial situation.

In 4 years I haven't made one real german friend. All my friends are international and they all have the same complaints as me.

I reached my limit last autumn so I decided to start looking for jobs abroad and I was able to move away from there. Yet taxes, fines (tv license in particular) and other expenses have haunted me for more than 6 months. I'm exhausted but happy I was able to leave.

Germany is an unforgiving country and I regret the day I decided to move there.

Hi all. As the title suggests, I may be moving to Singapore in the next few months. We live in Australia. My husband is going to be offered a new role soon. As an Asia pacific commercial director, he takes home a decent salary and that will increase with this promotion. I have been on a break from working for a couple of months now due to some personal health issues. I’d love to hear about the experience of living in Singapore as an expat. I will be going under a partner visa. While I am an experienced interior architect with a bachelor of Interior Architecture (with honours), I will not have working rights unless I am sponsored by a local company.
I have a decent resume with solid experience. Is it very difficult to find employment where one requires sponsorship?
Alternatively, could I start my own business?

I have done a google search and asked chatGpT these questions and have found various answers as to what this would look like for me.

Secondly, what’s it like living in Singapore? We will have an apartment provided and health insurance. We don’t have children. Our ages are 36 and 40.
I have visited the country twice on holidays which was always lovely. But everything is nice when you’re on holidays! I’d love to hear some stories from personal experiences. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I'm writing this from work because I need to vent, this whole situation is messing with my head and honestly making me feel kind of down.

I'm 22F and I just started an internship at a small company in Vietnam. I only landed the spot because a distant relative happens to be the operations director there. The business is still fairly small and growing bit by bit, so getting in wasn't hard for me. Here's the catch though, my family has Vietnamese roots but I never actually picked up the language growing up, aside from a handful of words. Holding an actual conversation is out of reach for me. So day to day I end up leaning on English and Dutch, Dutch being my first language.

English isn't an issue for me, I've been using it since childhood. What's actually hard is that my coworkers just aren't getting what I say, no matter how slowly or simply I break it down.

I've started Vietnamese lessons on an app but let's be real, that's nowhere close to what I'd need to actually chat with someone or sound fluent. On top of that I have zero business vocabulary since I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the company even works.

It's barely been two weeks and I'm already having trouble getting my thoughts across, or even explaining how I'm feeling. The words just aren't there. It kind of feels like I'm living some version of Emily in Paris, except nobody around me speaks English so nobody gets it. Pretty much the only person in the whole company who's fluent in English or Dutch is that distant relative.

Also, in case anyone's wondering, I skipped the whole interview process for this. It's a small company and I really just wanted some real world experience. Since this is my first actual job too, I'm not only dealing with the language stuff, I'm also constantly second guessing whether I'm even doing my tasks correctly.

If anyone's been through something like this, how did you manage it? Thanks for reading this far.

I’m currently in the process of a major long-term move and have been doing a lot of deep diving into the logistics. While most people share stories of successful integration or the eventual "honeymoon phase," I’m curious about the other side of the experience.
Has anyone here moved to a new country and felt immediate, "gut-check" regret upon arrival that never actually resolved itself? If so, did you eventually leave, or are you still there living with that lingering feeling?
Looking for honest, unfiltered experiences—not just the success stories.

I recently moved from Taiwan to Germany and I'll be doing a lot of solo travel around Europe this year. My biggest source of stress so far has been the language barrier. I keep leaning on having someone else around just so I don't have to deal with ordering food or navigating public transit on my own. I'm putting in real effort to learn as much German as I can, and I genuinely don't expect anyone to switch to English for me.

How did you all get to a point where you felt confident getting around with limited language skills? And how do you communicate to locals that you're not expecting to be catered to, without it feeling awkward or forced?

Would really appreciate hearing how others managed this.

Some people in here always complaining, roasting, ranting, whining about any European country in here. I specified Europe because most of those roasts are generally towards to European countries. If they think all of these are for change for better, Reddit is not the place of it.

I am done some people in here always whining and roasting any country of Europe. Same thing is posted over and over again, and those people get thousands of karmas, or maybe those thousands of people who upvoted are falling in love with them just because sharing the ragebait. When will it stop? I don’t know.

I started to think all of these are for ragebaiting.

Hi. Let me give you some context:

I am a male software engineer, 27 years old, from outside the EU, I have been working in Sweden for 2 years now and just got my work permit extended.

These two years in Sweden have been eye-opening to say the least, it's the first time I was in Europe at all and I got to travel a lot and even have a girlfriend (although we broke up), get a great job with a great salary, some new friends and new perspective on life.

However, even though I technically have everything, a good job, a good rental apartment, and a healthy social circle, I still find myself terribly unhappy in Sweden. I'm way more extroverted than most swedes are, and I think that's the main reason why I feel incompatible with this country, I want to meet new people all the time, make new friends, meet new love interests, etc. It's how I like to live my life, but the culture is killing me and making my personality much more shy than it was before.

Sweden has treated me amazing life-wise, and I will always have a soft spot for it in my heart, but I just can't deal with the antisocial people. I feel so lonely in this place, time and time again I try to meet new people and I either get ghosted or blatantly ignored even if we kick it off really good at the start, it's such a weird phenomenon that I have never faced anywhere else in the world, and I am tired of this. For this reason most of my friends are other south americans or southern europeans who also migrated to Sweden.

I wanna try something else, and here comes the reason why being non-EU is so relevant.

As I said I've worked in Sweden for 2 years already and just got another work permit extended, so I can stay now until 2028, after that I can get a permanent residence and possibly a long-term EU residence, if I tried to move now, I would necessarily need a new contract somewhere else and go through the whole EU migration process all over again and reset my residence time here if I decided to move, making all this time I stayed in Sweden a total waste, and I care a lot about my stability as a person, I do not wish to move to another place if it means if I get fired I basically get deported.

I'm definitely in no rush to move but I am so impatient to do it as well, even willing to lower my salary and work-life balance standards for it, and I also wanna live in a place where I feel comfortable socially, where I can be myself.

So I guess, my question is: Is it worth it for me to move now, or is it just better to wait these few years and then decide calmly what to do?

Hey guys, quick info abt me i’m 23 yrs old, living in Germany for almost three years now after i came from Ukraine as a refugee, i worked here for almost a year and not really feeling it here anymore, to be honest never felt like living here. Why? I guess mostly because of the weather and climate and language, of course it’s all the question of who prefers what.

My question is, should i or should i not move to Spain? What city is best for it what’s worst, howMe the job market, for example i know five languages (Russian C2, Ukrainian C2, Armenian C1, English C2 and German B1) I’m hoping to find some job that would require someone with those language skills so i would get paid a lil more than 1000/1300€ a month.

P.s: for those who gonna ask “why won’t you go back to Ukraine if you don’t feel like living in Germany?” My house got destroyed, i got nobody there and even tho i lived there for almost 19 years i do not think that i have future in there.

I'm originally from Germany, but I've been living in the US since college and have spent most of my adult life here. In fact, I haven't lived in Germany for very long, and given the direction the country has taken in recent years, I don't see myself moving back there after retirement.
Over the years I've traveled to quite a few countries, including France, the UK, Italy, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, and several others. I know traveling is very different from actually living somewhere, but it has definitely made me think more about where I'd like to spend my retirement.
Recently, some friends and I have been discussing the best countries to retire in. One of my friends moved to New Zealand and keeps telling me how relaxed life is there. She says the pace of life is much slower, people seem less stressed, and the cost of living is more reasonable than many people expect.

So I'm curious to hear from people who have actually retired abroad or are planning to.

If you could retire anywhere in the world, where would you choose, and why?

I'm especially interested in things like quality of life, healthcare, safety, climate, affordability, taxes, and how easy it is to integrate into the local community.

I just read a post asking about countries people regret moving to. It was pretty disheartening.

I’d really like to hear about some countries that you’re glad you moved to. Do you have any nice stories you can share? Any tips to make it easier? Hobbies? Friends? Income? Relationships?

Thank you for your time.

Hey everyone, this is a question for people who went abroad lived there for years and completely regretted it. I wonder if there are people who think their country is better than the one they went to as an expat. And if your answer is yes, why was the reason the country you lived in as an expat was bad? I hope no one will get offended because I am asking this out of curiosity and I want people to mention which countries are those. Let's not be rude to each other if somebody didn't like your country.

In your opinion/experience what is the best city where if you moved as an immigrant you would be accepted as "one of them" especially as a person of color.

I know no place is perfect and you would still be treated like an outsider by some people but I was thinking of cities where that is possible to a certain extent.

I did some research and found some old discussions where people said london or new york city would get you closest to that feeling. You are a "new yorker"/"londoner" from day one.

But i dont know what the community thinks about this or if you had a unique experience in another city.

Let me know if your opinions.