Post: #1

Anyone here successfully emigrate (permanently) from the USA (I'm thinking towards EU but interested in other stories as well…) How hard was it to do? Did you obtain a 2nd passport or special long term visa?

Post: #2

Most get residency. Usually to get citizenship you need to speak the language.
Its hard in most countries. Most guaranteed way is marriage.

Post: #3

(07-31-2013 02:41 PM)jimukr104 Wrote:  Most get residency. Usually to get citizenship you need to speak the language.
Its hard in most countries. Most guaranteed way is marriage.

Did you get Ukrainian citizenship marrying a Ukrainian?

Post: #4

(07-31-2013 06:56 PM)TheBMan Wrote:  

(07-31-2013 02:41 PM)jimukr104 Wrote:  Most get residency. Usually to get citizenship you need to speak the language.
Its hard in most countries. Most guaranteed way is marriage.

Did you get Ukrainian citizenship marrying a Ukrainian?

NO got permanent residency. Citizenship would be wrong. For one would have to learn Ukrainian. I think they should all lose the pride and speak Russian. Ukrainian is useless. 2. They don't allow dual citizenship. Russia does. If shit hits the fan i would go for Israeli passport.
reasons:
1.great tax advantages.
2. free money
3. passport actually is just as good as USA passport if you minus mid east(who want to game chicks there?). In fact you don't need a visa for Russia or Brazil with an Israeli passport.
4. they have no trouble opening bank accounts overseas.
5. I just saw World War Z and they actually had a good way of surviving the zombie invasion. Just made no sense that the helicopters weren't paying attention to the outside wall.
6. over 1 million Russian. FSU immigrants
7. I can claim I am from the country of Van Of Victory and make silly videos as well lol.
8. brag that I get handouts from America!

Post: #5

What are the tax advantages of Israeli citizenship (specifically for a dual American-Israeli)?

Post: #6

I'm living in Brazil on a 2 year work visa after originally coming in on a tourist visa (while getting paid under the table by the company that eventually sponsored my visa).

The work visa process, like every bureaucratic process here, is a cluster fuck. Apparently renewing is not difficult. I've heard that eventually I can apply for permanency, but I haven't yet looked into that yet.

The other ways to relocate here are with an investor visa (a R$ 150,000 (if I'm not mistaken) investment in a local business gives you permanency) or through marriage.

Post: #7

It's usually easier to go for a residence permit (kind of like a green card in the US). You still retain your US passport, but you have permanent living/working rights in the other country.

Start researching your family tree. More than once, I've come across people who discovered they're 1/8th Irish or Spanish or something and can therefore apply for a passport from that EU country. With an EU passport, you can live and work anywhere in the EU.

As for taxes, as a US citizen, your worldwide income is taxable. However, nearly all countries have a tax treaty with the US = prevention of double taxation, and also if you are a true expat (not on US soil for at least 330 days/year), then you also get a foreign income exclusion on your US taxes of like $90k or something.

The bottom-line, tax-wise, is you'll end up paying the higher of the US tax rate or the tax rate where you live, but never double taxes since taxes paid in one place get credited to the other. A good way to reduce your tax burden is take dividends (set up your own company) instead of salary, as that's taxed like capital gains on US taxes = much lower rate (for anyone making decent money).

Overall, I'd say taxes are the least of the issues to worry about.

Post: #8

Ive been abroad for over 3 years just staying on tourist visas. This is easy to do in Latin America with the exception of colombia, equador and brazil which make it hard to stay longer than 6 months a year on tourist visas.

Post: #9

(07-31-2013 09:36 PM)bacon Wrote:  Ive been abroad for over 3 years just staying on tourist visas. This is easy to do in Latin America with the exception of colombia, equador and brazil which make it hard to stay longer than 6 months a year on tourist visas. In my opinion some of the easiest countries in LA are Mexico and Peru which give 180 day tourist visas and the DR justs makes you pay a small fine when you leave depending on your length of stay as a tourist.

Opinions on where are good places to stay in Mexico, maybe a medium size city with colleges but not huge, and no full-on wars happening?

Post: #10

I posted in another thread the murder rates by the state so that should be a good barometer of where to not go (chihuahua, guerreo etc). It really depends on what you want, colonial city, beaches, places with lots of tourists(more english speaking), larger city.

That said if I was a tourist with spanish skills looking for ass I would hit up larger non international cities(so not guadalajara, DF, Cancun) where your foreign exotic looks can take you far. In a country of 100 million there are many such cities with around 1 million or so people. So if I wanted the beach I might go to Mazatlan or Xalapa Veracruz for college town and for colonial city maybe Merida. Just use http://www.weatherbase.com as a good way to look up the rainfall, weather for the month you plan on going to said city.

Post: #11

http://colombiaretirementvisa.com/

You can get a pension visa to live in Colombia with proof of income of less than $1000 per month.
After 5 years you become a permanent resident and never have to worry about getting a visa again.
If you are married you can become a permanent resident in three years.

Any visa you obtain that is good for a year or more will entitle you to a cedula extranjeria which you allow you to sign contracts
and do business in Colombia.....not really supposed to work unless you have a work visa but it doesn't seem to stop anybody from finding work if they want it.

Nobody here seems to care that my cedula is expired at the moment....that includes notaries, police and utility companies.

Post: #12

(07-31-2013 10:52 PM)WEDO Wrote:  http://colombiaretirementvisa.com/

You can get a pension visa to live in Colombia with proof of income of less than $1000 per month.
After 5 years you become a permanent resident and never have to worry about getting a visa again.
If you are married you can become a permanent resident in three years.

Any visa you obtain that is good for a year or more will entitle you to a cedula extranjeria which you allow you to sign contracts
and do business in Colombia.....not really supposed to work unless you have a work visa but it doesn't seem to stop anybody from finding work if they want it.

Nobody here seems to care that my cedula is expired at the moment....that includes notaries, police and utility companies.

so for that would I just need to show a 3 month(?) history of 1000 dollars coming into a bank account? I dont have a pension for guaranteed money but I could easily transfer that ammount from another bank acct to a bank acct that I show them consistently every month, would that work? Do you normally go through any agency or show up at a govt office to get this done WEDO?

Also do you know what the penalty/fine is if you overstay a tourist visa in Colombia? Thanks

Post: #13

(08-01-2013 12:09 AM)bacon Wrote:  

(07-31-2013 10:52 PM)WEDO Wrote:  http://colombiaretirementvisa.com/

You can get a pension visa to live in Colombia with proof of income of less than $1000 per month.
After 5 years you become a permanent resident and never have to worry about getting a visa again.
If you are married you can become a permanent resident in three years.


Nobody here seems to care that my cedula is expired at the moment....that includes notaries, police and utility companies.

so for that would I just need to show a 3 month(?) history of 1000 dollars coming into a bank account? I dont have a pension for guaranteed money but I could easily transfer that ammount from another bank acct ...

This is a great possibility, thanks for info. This site however:

http://colombiaretirementvisa.com

seems to imply they like to see gubmint money coming in.

Also it's indexed to their minimum wage. Something like 3x their minimum wage.

Here's a possible conversion for 2012 wages:

http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/conv...COP&To=USD

about 897 dollars.

This leads to another point I've realized since traveling with a small independent income.

If you're living on fixed income, it's a lot cheaper to STAY places a long time.

Each move somewhere typically eats about 3-5 months living expenses (maybe not within Europe, but anything trans-oceanic), I'm not sure where it goes, but security deposits, airfares, more expensive food as you get acclimated and find deals.

Also, visa runs, border runs, all tire you out and costs money.

Post: #14

(08-01-2013 12:09 AM)bacon Wrote:  

(07-31-2013 10:52 PM)WEDO Wrote:  http://colombiaretirementvisa.com/

You can get a pension visa to live in Colombia with proof of income of less than $1000 per month.
After 5 years you become a permanent resident and never have to worry about getting a visa again.
If you are married you can become a permanent resident in three years.

Any visa you obtain that is good for a year or more will entitle you to a cedula extranjeria which you allow you to sign contracts
and do business in Colombia.....not really supposed to work unless you have a work visa but it doesn't seem to stop anybody from finding work if they want it.

Nobody here seems to care that my cedula is expired at the moment....that includes notaries, police and utility companies.

so for that would I just need to show a 3 month(?) history of 1000 dollars coming into a bank account? I dont have a pension for guaranteed money but I could easily transfer that ammount from another bank acct to a bank acct that I show them consistently every month, would that work? Do you normally go through any agency or show up at a govt office to get this done WEDO?

Also do you know what the penalty/fine is if you overstay a tourist visa in Colombia? Thanks

http://docurapid.com/

Got my first business visa for Colombia using this visa service....It is run by Colombians and they have the inside track on any type of visa you might ever consider getting.

I never overstayed a visa but I hear the monetary penalty is minor....but I have also heard that they will sometimes not allow you to return for up to a year and that would just kill me so I have never really considered overstaying as an option.

Post: #15

(07-31-2013 09:09 PM)paninaro Wrote:  Start researching your family tree. More than once, I've come across people who discovered they're 1/8th Irish or Spanish or something and can therefore apply for a passport from that EU country. With an EU passport, you can live and work anywhere in the EU.

That would be an ideal situation for me if possible.

One of my parents was born in Germany but I've discovered this fact is irrelevant/useless for me since they didn't have citizenship.

However, after doing some more research, it does look like Germany is somewhat more friendly to Americans in the granting of residence permits if you're self-employed. And as a US citizen apparently you can apply for one after arrival, which a lot of countries don't let you do.

That Columbia pensioner's visa does look like a great option if you were already retired.