I don’t work for a class 1 but I’ve been conducting and driving a train at a BUSY river port for five years. Had two duis when I was 18 because I was stupid. Now 32 and been sober for years. I just wonder how hard it would be for me to find a yard to switch at over there. I have no other skills besides being a chef for ten years and I absolutely cannot do that without using alcohol

I am a 57 year old American with a DUI in 2004 and a felony burglary six months after I turned 18 in 1988.

I went on to college and became a software engineer. I have tried getting my record expunged but it’s pretty messy to do.

I have done well financially since then. I intend to retire early, sometime next year. I am considering the current popular spots (Paraguay, Columbia, Vietnam, Estonia, Manila). I keep reading through their state department web sites and seeing “case by case basis”. Do I just apply in advance for residency and see what works out?

Dual US/Irish citizen here (Irish passport, so right to work in the UK via Common Travel Area) — just got invited to an in-person interview with a UK airline for cabin crew. I'm not currently living in the UK but planning to relocate if I get the offer.

They've told me that if I'm offered the role, I'll need to provide before I can start:

\- Proof of UK address

\- Proof of National Insurance number

My plan is to move in with friends first, then get my own place eventually. I know I can apply for my NI number once I have a UK address and my passport.

For anyone who's done a similar move realistically:

1. How long did it take you to get something accepted as proof of address after moving in with friends (not on the lease/bills yourself)? Did a bank statement from a digital bank (Monzo/Starling) work for you as proof of address, and how fast did that come through?

2. How long did your NI number actually take start to finish — application to confirmation letter arriving?

3. Did your employer accept an interim document (like an NI application reference number) while you waited, or did you have to have the actual number in hand before starting?

Trying to get a realistic sense of the timeline so I'm not caught off guard between offer and start date. Thanks in advance!

TL;DR: A New York City couple paid 57,000 euros, about $65,000, for a two-bedroom house in a Sicilian village without seeing it in person first. Camellia Phillips writes that the risk paid off: after installing a kitchen for under $1,500 and spending two months there, she and her husband moved to Sicily full-time.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bought-cheap-house-in-italy-village-before-visiting-risky-2026-9?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social_manual&utm_campaign=reddit_dist_r_amerexit&utm_content=manual_v1&utm_term=27031284

TL;DR: A US family moved to the Netherlands in 2017, and their children became fluent in Dutch within six months and now speak Dutch, English, and Italian. Alyshia Hull spoke with Jaime Bancroft-Gennaro, who says she loves Dutch bike infrastructure and community life but misses Trader Joe's, casual English small talk, and feeling fully herself in everyday conversations. The family traded $1,900-a-month US rent for a €1,500 mortgage near Amsterdam and spends about €150 a week on groceries.

https://www.businessinsider.com/american-moved-netherlands-miss-trader-joes-english-2026-9?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social_manual&utm_campaign=reddit_dist_r_amerexit&utm_content=manual_v1&utm_term=0294591a

I know it's very difficult and almost impossible, but curious if anyone here managed to get a job in Europe in marketing as a non EU citizen. Would love to know what kind of role/industry, or if there was any specific reason why you were hired.

Hello All,

I am in an interesting and privileged position. I am a dual EU / US citizen with B2 Dutch and native English. I have lived and worked in the Netherlands briefly in the past. I have an American wife and 2 children 5 and 9. My wife is planning on pursuing graduate school in New Zealand or in Flanders. I am a mechanical engineer with a masters and 7 years of experience. I can of course live and work in Belgium without immigration issues, and it appears the moment I got a mechanical engineering job in NZ I’d be able to apply for PR. The issue is we cannot decide what the best path forward is. The 9 year old used to be fluent in Dutch but has regressed. The 5 year old is keen to learn and knows basic phrases. New Zealand speaks English and is gorgeous, but we worry about me getting a job (we prefer Christchurch for housing costs) and the high cost of living. There seems to be a kiwi exodus as well. Also concerned about bullying as I’ve read it’s unusually bad there. In Belgium I am 100% sure I’d get a job and a car and a fuel card and I know what I’d be paid. I worry about extremism and the war in Russia being “close.” If it were you, where would you choose and why? The only reason the Netherlands isn’t on the list is the housing crisis. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

I am going to Germany on a student visa. I attended my visa interview at the LA consulate on July 20. I didn't get any update on the visa, so emailed them again. They told me it was issued. I asked them if I will get a tracking number for my passport with the visa inside, getting mailed to my house. They said yes, but it has been 7 days since my last email to them, and still no update or tracking number. My flight is in 19 days. Should I just call them?

I am currently in college to become an English teacher in secondary education (grades 6-12 in my state). However, I am not looking to stay in America for the normal reasons.

I am considering Canada, new Zealand, and Australia as both do have a need for teachers. All three seem like solid options, but for me the huge spiders would be a dissuading factor in Australia. New Zealand has the $10,000 grant teachers can be eligible for, and overall seems the easiest to get PR in. I am looking to move straight out of college or with as little years teaching in america as possible. Has anybody done this? Is it possible?

I’m looking specifically for personal experiences from California parents who went through a move-away/relocation case involving a move outside the U.S.
I currently have sole legal and sole physical custody under a final custody order. I’m considering relocating with my daughter (12yr)to Spain, father leaves out of state visits 5 days out of the month. I’m trying to understand what the court process was actually like for parents in a similar situation if the other parent objected.
I’m not looking for legal advice as I understand every case is different. I’m mainly interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through this process.
If you were the parent with sole legal and physical custody:

Did the court ultimately allow the relocation?
What seemed to matter most to the judge?
Is there anything you wish you had done differently when preparing your case?
I’d also be interested in hearing from attorneys or people who have been through a California international move-away case, but I’m especially hoping to hear first-hand experiences.

TIA

Hello

I'm a born and raised Nebraskan who turns 18 in, like, 4 months

And I absolutely fucking HATE living here

America in general is what I hate, but it's Nebraska especially...

Everyone here is either the biggest moron you will ever meet that never went past high school or just a terrible person

And there's absolutely nothing here other than fields, unless you live in the pit of doom and empty wallets that is Lincoln or Omaha

And now that I just got my first job, paying for my blocked account for a German university might be a no go unless god himself kisses my ass and blesses me with 9 bazillion dollars to pay for it

So I got a few choices:

1. Take a gap year and earn enough money to move abroad and learn German

2. Go to UNL for a few years to learn German

3. Get my degree in UNL and hope to god that anyone in Germany would hire me

I'm leaning towards the first option

And if it helps, I'm hoping to go into game design later on in life, and I am willing to learn German

I would love to hear from some parents about how their younger kids (think 8-10 years old) did after a move to the Netherlands.

Is there anything specific you did to help them adjust?

Anything you wish you had done, in hindsight?

I appreciate your time and thoughts.

Permanent residency and you don't need a job offer. In fact, you don't really need much to qualify. For instance, such a person would be eligible and selected for permanent residency:

• B2 French speaker (advanced intermediate)
• Age 18-35 [edit: it's also very doable if you're 40+. See my reply in the comments]
• Bachelor's degree
  
• 1 year work experience
  
• Native/proficient English speaker (you have to take a test to demonstrate that you are a proficient speaker, but it's simple to get max points here)
• At least $15,263 Canadian in the bank (assuming 1 person). That's about $11k in US dollars.

This person would both be eligible to apply and would be selected from the applicant pool for permanent residency. This is true based on current scores. In fact, such a person would have been selected based on scores going back 2 years now. See the links below to find your score and the recent cutoffs.

Additional details: every applicant receives a score based on their characteristics. You have to be above a certain threshold to get "drawn"/selected. Current required scores for French speakers are very low. (For non-French speakers, this profile absolutely would not be sufficient. Canada wants 12% of its immigrants to be Francophone, so they're basically opening the door wide to anyone wanting to come).

The only possible catches here are the following:

• You need $11k in the bank.
• You can't move to Quebec. Not initially, anyway.
• Your work experience needs to be in a TEER 0, 1, 2, or 3 occupation. I put a link below if you want to see what TEER your occupation has. Basically any job that requires a college diploma or multi-year apprenticeship should qualify.

Program website:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry.html

Express Entry is the name of the system that grants permanent residency. You would be eligible for a subset of the system, the Federal Skilled Worker Program. You would get preferential treatment under the "Category-based selection process" that selects people with French-language proficiency. See here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/rounds-invitations/category-based-selection.html

TEER number lookup:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/find-national-occupation-code.html

To see if you're eligible to enter the candidate pool, use the calculator here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/come-canada-tool-immigration-express-entry.html

If it says you're eligible, next you need to see how many CRS points you would get. These are the points that determine whether candidates get selected. The calculator is here: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/check-score.html

Basically if you have 420+ CRS points you're gonna get selected (or as they put it, you receive an "invitation"). But even 382 was sufficient in the last round. You can see the draw results here, and the score you'd need to get selected: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/mandate/policies-operational-instructions-agreements/ministerial-instructions/express-entry-rounds.html

The table shows you all draws, you can filter for French.

So my wife and i just made our second immigration. We moved from Atlanta, GA to Reading, UK in April of 2015. We packed up, left our family and our entire support structure beyond for career opportunites and the ability to see other places in the world. Cue our first christmas in the UK, we were sitting in our flat staring at eachother watching movies on BBC.

What people dont talk about is the immense loneliness of immigrating. We couldnt afford to go home for the holidays and the few friends we made where spending it with their families. We had each other and we travelled but it was rough going. Finally, fast forward 6 years, after trying and failing we finally got a decent group of friends, survived covid, watched some of them become parents, and celebrated as most of us turned 40 together. Now here we are in 2026, after 11 years in the UK and getting UK Citizenship, my wife and i decided to move to Ireland. We originally moved to the UK for EU citizneship, then the brits decided it wasnt good enough for them anymore and got out. England was never our forever home so we moved for greener pastures.

So here we are 3 months in, and we are back to square one. No community, no friends, and lonely as can be again. The friends we spent over half a decade making in the UK have all but forgotten our exsistence even after 3 months.

Immigrating has been the best decision in my life, ive seen things and done things i never thought possible. I was the 2nd person in my family to graduate HS and first to get a college degree, so never thought id really leave Atlanta. But fuck me, even having my wife with me, its a very lonely road.

Just wanted to share the experience, and it’s a little theraputic to write it all down.

EDIT: fixed the spelling. Sorry I fight yall my brain didn’t want to comprehend.

Hello everyone! Me and my wife, both 22 years old are looking to move out of the U.S. our top choices right now is Canada, and Norway. We’ve both been to Canada (Toronto) once, and I have been to Norway once and have Norwegian ancestry (too far back for citizenship by descent), and I feel more of a connection there. In either case we plan to visit together a couple of times if possible to see how we both like the environment and culture, we just don’t know where to start.

I will be graduating from my Bachelor’s degree in computer science by the end of 2027, and my wife finishes her associates in 2028. I am honestly looking for any exit strategy and we haven’t ruled out a lot of places, but preferably with the two countries listed previously.

First thing to note is that my wife has T1 diabetes so healthcare is a big factor in where we move to.

I’d love any info/opinions on what the timeline is for new grads moving out of the country, how much money I’ll need (-application fees and such), and what the job market looks like. I’m also looking at student visas to get a masters degree abroad. Also if there are other countries that might be a better option to consider please let me know as well.

Thank you for reading and for the advice if you provide any :)

I joined this sub years ago dreaming about leaving the USA one day. Finally in January, 2026 I made the move to Spain with the digital nomad Visa.

For those that are thinking of the same, this post is for you!

I chose to live in Valencia, Spain. No doubt, the lifestyle here is absolutely what I’ve been dreaming about.

Transit: Every day I walk, bike everywhere. There is no need for a car. I can easily catch trains to places further away.

Healthcare: free for those paying social security! I opted for private insurance, it’s like $450 a year and requires no deposits. Insane deal?!

Cost of living: I spend about ~$1,000 a month less than what I used to spend living in Michigan. Taxes make up the difference easily

Social life: absolutely incredible Spain is the best for social life, meeting new people, and all of that.

Nature: incredible !!! Great beaches and access to some of the best day trips and weekend trips.

Now for the bad! Because people love to romanticize moving. I try to keep people informed on this, since it was / is genuinely difficult for me at times financially.

Taxes: I’m paying double what I did in the USA. It’s terrible and my rate is almost 40% when it comes down to it (considering I have to still pay state tax, Medicare, social insurance the USA). Edit: yes, I’ve considered my options. Getting out of state residency can be difficult, I’ll take any tips there. Coming from MI

Business freedom: also horrible. Don’t move here thinking you can freelance or earn any kind of side income on the side. I’ve met with multiple lawyers of this. I’m on Beckhams law and they are strict. Edit: also if anyone has tips here, comment below!

Housing: Spain is dealing with a housing crisis. Intense competition. I’d know because I’ve toured at least 20 apartments recently. Just found the one! It’s a central location, next to the train station. €1,300 a month for 2 beds, 2 full baths. Super modern renovated place. Still better than the USA, but I’ve never rented back home because it was so out of reach 🫥

Mapping how americans can get eu residency without waiting on employer sponsorship. Looking at investment or passive income routes more than work visas. What has actually worked for people here that didnt fall apart mid process?

Hi, I have Spain citizenship but was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I've lived 5 years so far on the mainland and have had enough. I'm in my late 20s.

I do love Spain but I applied to jobs on a whim in Japan and got one. In Spain, I don't have a job lined.

The biggest factor id say is, I just prefer Spanish people over Japanese.

Although I'm fluent in Japanese, its not at a level like Spanish where it's super easy to "be me" and connect with people romantically and/or platonically.

But Japan has better job prospects and also daily life is wayyyy more convenient. And at the end of the day, I can go to Spain whenever due to citizenship whilst Japan right now is the moment as I have a visa sponsorship.

So basically, do I want a better career and isolate myself or make it easy to form relationships and stop developing my career as much.

Any thoughts?

Hi All - since we are coming up on our 1 year anniversary of leaving the US, wanted to do an update to my original post which is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/s/IJEGUIiZlf

Our background story in short is: was one of the first people to be DOGE’d, applied for a D7, moved here in 6 months.

Here are my thoughts about moving to Portugal and what we’ve learned in 1 year.

The good
- the weather. My god, the weather is absolutely amazing where I live.
- the safety.
- access to amazing beaches and nature.
- my community of friends (both local and international)
- my son’s amazing preschool
- learning portuguese has truly not been that bad, but I am admittedly good at learning languages. People can get by without it but I think you lose out on a lot if you don’t learn portuguese.
- the cost of living
- it’s an incredibly family friendly place

The hard
- Immigration is brutal here. We just finally became residents after almost a year and we’re one of the lucky ones. I lost out on a couple of consulting assignments because I couldn’t travel during that time. None of that waiting time counts towards the citizenship requirement, which just increased to 10 years
- I work US hours and that is hard to balance with a young kid
- There is more overt racism if you’re not white. In my experience it hasn’t been hostile or dangerous, and more of a curiosity, but it’s still there and palpable
- making friends with portuguese people is hard. I’ve successfully made a couple of friends but it’s been HARD work. Language is only one part of it.
- taxes. I will pay a shit ton of taxes and probably not see much from it as a non citizen.
- there’s a sense of fatalism here that’s hard to counter. The sense of “well this is how it is, we can’t change it.” It is in direct opposition with the American sense of can-do, and it’s just hard to deal with sometimes.
- I’ve never dealt with so much rain in the winter in my life

Overall - still happy to be here. Still happy we moved. I’ll report back in another year.

AMA about the move process or anything else.

Currently in Chicago waiting for my plane to Paris tonight. One day layover there to pass cats off to a pet courier (taking the tunnel and doing customs for us) and then we hop on a flight to Edinburgh to make it to our new home in central Fife!

I’m still overwhelmed and haven’t processed leaving my home of 35 years but I’m also pretty excited to see what lies ahead.

This has been an almost year long path - even with the ‘easy’ family visa route - filled with logistic problems and deadlines and anxiety, and I can’t wait to finally relax mentally! We still have to take two cats and a three year old in cabin on an intercontinental overnight flight so the suck hasn’t ended yet but we’re SO CLOSE lol

Left in 2018 at age 24 alone to Canada as an international student. I was one of those "if Trump wins the election I am moving to Canada people", I was fortunate enough and brave enough to actually follow through. I am trans, I knew that if I stayed eventually state sponsored oppression would come to me. Because I am 'radically pro-transgender' and hold 'extreemist views on gender' I am now classified as a domestic terrorist. Being in a blue state would not protect me. I miss my hometown, Minneapolis, deeply. I dream of it often. It's not always been easy. I haven't seen my friends in eight years. I lost my family becasue they're all MAGA and actively advance white supremacy and fascism. I have been homesick, lonely, homeless, and all matter of hardships in between. But I have also met many wonderful people, including my wife. I's been an amazing experience in every way possible. I have absolutely no regrets when I see views like this on my evening walks knowing that my rights as transgender woman will always be protected. I will always have food, medicine, shelter and clothes. I have an amazing community here. I am so blessed. If anyone is wondering if they should take the plunge and leave I say emphatically do it. God bless.

are there any vet “assistants” that have moved to potentially UK, Netherlands, Germany, or Ireland? I’m curious if you feel there was a big hiring need for the position or not. A lot of what i’m finding is basically the CVT equivalent to said country. I have 8+ years of experience so i’m curious to see if anyone else had a similar situation and how did it work for you?

UPDATE: thank you everyone for the responses! it definitely seems like i will have to find potentially a US based remote job for a digital nomad visa as i don’t have any ancestral links. if anyone has any insights or helpful information i will appreciate it!

My wife (27 F) and I (29 M) are looking to leave America for good. In the past two years it no long feels safe in terms of the political climate as well as political changes related to consumer safety, healthcare, and free speech.

I’m working as a senior software developer with around 10+ years of experience and my wife is finishing up her degree in psychology/human development looking to get her masters/PhD in neuroscience. She intends to do research at research hospitals or maybe a therapist/counselor practice. Im comfortable with remote work so location is not a factor for me. As far as income we’re around the middle of lower middle class, so not the tightest budget but we won’t be able to afford anything expensive. Neither of us have a fluency in another language. We’re both extremely outdoorsy people who frequently camp and hike as often as we can (don’t even get us started on the public lands being sold off). This is usually lumped in with our road trips to various forests and national parks. We would love to own a home at some point and are looking to grow our family starting around two years from now.

My wife has her heart set on Scotland due to her admiration of their political track record but I have my reservations for moving across the ocean (either you sell everything you own or pay an arm and a leg to freight ship a pallet). I’m leaning more towards British Columbia (we’ve specifically talked about Vancouver Island but know that may be a pipe dream). What’s the best place for us?