I am a tradesman with a lot of technical skills with some specialized skills in short supply (at least in the US) with a little less than a decade of experience. My partner is a skilled social worker with more than a decade of experience.
We cannot afford a golden visa in any country.
We are at least 3rd generation Americans, and do not have the right to claim citizenship in any other country without going through the immigration and naturalization process there.
Neither of us is very good at picking up a new language (lord how I’ve tried)
Where could we realistically look to go?
Hey there, I’ve been living abroad outside the US(my birth country) for about 15 years. If you guys don’t mind teaching English, you have a guaranteed job on or offline that’ll pay for a comfortable life in most countries. Rent/utilities/wifi/data/groceries can be had for about $500 in most countries, up to $800 for a couple, about $1000-$1400 in the housing-crisis countries.
Depending on your comfort level with traveling, it might be easy to start in Central or South America since it’s close, tickets are cheap and the language won’t throw you as much. As US citizens you have visa free or VOA in 180ish countries, so you can fly there as soon as you get the ticket.
South East Asia is also wonderful, and many people live there traveling from one country to the next every 3-6 months. A few countries have cheap digital nomad visas, but I find it much easier to move at the end of my visa time or do a visa run, where you leave the country briefly and then return, like taking a ferry from Thailand to Myanmar and back. Or visiting Cambodia for a week and then flying back.
You have many, many, options as a traveler, you don’t really have to worry about learning a new language although you’ll get along and probably feel more comfortable in new countries if you learn the basics.
Check out the Travel community, the sidebar FAQs, many of the community posts go into a lot more detail and if you have any questions, reach out to me. I’m still living abroad right now and am happy to answer all your questions.
what languages do you know?
IMO go for UK. Same language and pretty loose immigration requirements.
Lol, I’m from the UK and employ quite a few overseas people. Immigration requirements are categorically not ‘loose’.
A properly qualified social worker might actually have a chance of being on the occupational shortage list but I can’t think of any trades where and employer would be able to prove they need to hire from abroad and be willing to sponsor the employee.
AFAIK UK had largest increase of immigration after Brexit since decades. How come?
https://www.statista.com/statistics/283287/net-migration-figures-of-the-united-kingdom-y-on-y/
There’s several factors:
It’s hard to tell from your link whether people from EU countries that applied for citizenship because Brexit changed their status counts in those figures. That would be a lot of people in 2021, 22 and 23 which iirc was the window to do that.
Similarly a lot of skilled workers from the EU left in that period and were replaced with non-eu workers. The EU leavers might not be counted in net migration.
Students sometimes are counted in migration figures and sometimes not. We have a lot of overseas students and obviously post COVID the figures surged.
A large proportion is healthcare, either in the NHS directly or in care homes for the elderly. Because of our ageing population the health system is expanding beyond the ability to train new care staff.
So… Many factors but definitely not “just letting anyone in”.
So… Many factors but definitely not “just letting anyone in”.
It definitely looks like policy was loosened.
AFAIK UE has draconian requirements on work immigration from outside. Yet the amount of migration to UK not only replaced those who left after Brexit but resulted in big net increase of immigrants.
You are correct in the sense that rules for non EU nationals were relaxed under the last government but you still need to be in the occupational shortlist to get in, find a sponsor etc. You also have to remember that being in the EU meant zero barrier to movement or working so in a sense we have replaced no rules for rules.
The current government has closed a lot of loopholes that made it easy to bring spouse or family members on the same visa and are clamping down on student visas generally (because they are being abused) and student visa overstay (because they kind of turned a blind eye to it if former students found a job that would sponsor a visa eventually, even if it took years).
…I also forgot to mention the circa 150000 Hong Kong born British Citizens who had to flee Hong Kong after the purges in 2022 who have settled here.
Canada
Canadian ‘Express Entry’ program for those with Skilled Trades: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/who-can-apply/federal-skilled-trades.html
As a social worker your wife will find a job so quickly.
Most Americans I know who moved here (Norway) did so after landing a job that they then moved here for. Moving here and then trying to find a job is a great method for going broke in a couple of weeks.
Plus, lining up a job beforehand makes the visa ordeal easy.
To find jobs in Norway, try searching for the word “jobbportal”. At least some of these sites allow you to sort for English language jobs.
Thank you
Can I just marry my 3rd cousin? Ha.
I don’t think you can just randomly marry someone, you have to be actually in love, not just marrying for the sake of immigration benefits, like they actually investigate if your marriage is legitimate.
yeah. hypothetically.
Australia publishes a skilled occupation list. If you have the skills needed, there is a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship.
Unless you’re 45 or older. They don’t want older people
Picking up a new language is much easier if you use the Comprehensible Input method, which is fun and easy. It’s essentially learning language like a child learns. You watch videos that are 100% in the target language. In the beginning, they are super easy, with lots of props, gestures, and other context that helps convey the meaning of the words. As you pick up more and more, you watch more difficult videos. It’s amazing how fast you pick up the new language. In about 3 months I learned enough Spanish to give me around 80%+ comprehension of normal conversation, and better comprehension if the person spoke slowly and clearly. Don’t count out learning a new language, as it is a lot easier than you might think if your only experience is with traditional methods.
Most languages have zero resources for comprehensible input.
Really? No one is making vids in simple norwegian and throwing them up on YT for the ad revenue?
How big is potential audience?
All non-norwegian speakers
No, it’s rather non Norwegian speakers who plan to migrate into Norway. It’s not that many
Well then it looks like you need to start convincing people to move to Norway
Children’s television programming geared towards young children (e.g., Bluey, Peppa Pig, etc.) can fill this gap, and are widely used as comprehensible input content by adult language learners.
Not sure I agree. I think it’s likely too much for an adult as a sole source even if it’s good for children since they get so much more input. I’ve tried and I needed a lot lot lot less and slower input. Sometimes 20-30% speed. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept and I wish there were more high quality resources for this. But I think most adults need to start more basic than basic TV.
No one has mentioned it but lots of countries you can get Visas with the puchase of land usually needs to be worth more than 200k but if you can get a loan or have the cash it’s an option
I think Mexico is one. I wonder what other countries.
You could always start by teaching English in another country. I recall that it pays quite well and is in demand in many countries. The requirements are also very low.
As for learning another language. You get better at it when you’re around it constantly.
This is probably the best option for the social worker partner since social work is largely about knowing the laws and culture which you won’t know as an immigrant
If you can get an employer to sponsor you, Europe is nice. In the Nordics if you stick to a capital city, you should have no problem using english for almost anything, and for everything else, there are translation apps.
A social worker would probably have to learn the local language anywhere they go, it’s a less transferable profession imo.
You’d make it more or less anywhere. At least here in Sweden, English has been a core subject since 1952/1953. That’s over 70 years of mandatory English education.
Some people struggle a little because they never used it, but as a foreigner, usually you end up struggling to speak anything but English. Lots of immigrants complain that they can’t learn Swedish because the moment someone clocks that they’re not a native speaker, they switch to English.
lol That would definitely make it hard to learn.
Not technically an American but lived in America for a long time, also not eligible to claim citizenship anywhere. I hope I’d be somewhat qualified to speak on this
There really aren’t that many countries which are a step up for an American IMO. Probably a good number of the EU/EEA countries, places like Canada/Australia/NZ, and mayyybe places like Singapore and a few more… Fewer if you have a strict limit on English, in that case maybe only places like UK & the Nordic countries; maybe also the Netherlands, but I’ve heard mixed information about language requirements there. This is a pretty short list, so I think you could probably have a passing knowledge of all of their basic immigration processes without spending that much time on it. But yeah you are right, for any expat/immigrant wannabe it usually goes like this:
Winning the “life lottery” (ancestry, asylum, or a literal lottery like the US) -> “Buying” your way in via Golden visa -> Love knows no borders so marriage -> Workers visa, aka getting sponsored to work
The first three obviously don’t apply to you or me TBH, so work sponsorship it is: either international transfer via a large international company (does that happen often for trades people?), or finding a job in your target country. I think others have mentioned this, but since you will likely be immigrating via work, secure a job first. Don’t even think about anything else without a solid job offer. I didn’t follow this advice myself and literally got screwed; I spent several hours learning German everyday during a really busy time of my life, wrecked my mental health along the way due to stress, and never ended up finding a job in Germany in the end… Don’t be like past me
tradesman with a lot of technical skills with some specialized skills in short supply
Probably your biggest asset. Some countries like Canada and Australia/NZ publish their skill shortages, so if your skills are on them you’d be in very good luck. There are subreddits and discussion groups on these topics so I’d look into them
Note that in Australia, allegedly the real job shortage can be quite different from the published list. This doesn’t hurt your chances of moving there per-se, but can make your life difficult after moving in, especially if you don’t have a large amount of savings
Also, I’m not sure exactly what trades you are in (for the sake of privacy I prefer not to ask), but different countries may have different regulations. It is possible that you may not be allowed to work in the EU without local certifications for example. I don’t think it is an impasse per-se, but I’d definitely investigate this beforehand
But anyways, if you are interested why not try and apply for a few jobs first? You never know :D
Neither of us is very good at picking up a new language (lord how I’ve tried)
To be honest… that doesn’t sound very good. Comes without saying that most places expect workers to speak fluently or at least B1 in their native language (which is also required for immigration purposes for most countries), and the English-friendly places (such as Ireland) can have extremely high demand, which can cause other societal complications
I am taking what you said at face value, since I have seen first-hand how much my boss (German) struggled with learning French and had to settle for learning Dutch instead lol. Nevertheless, for most people it isn’t that hard to at least get a passing conversation skill level in a target language in a few years especially with full immersion & government/employer-sponsored language classes, so I wouldn’t completely rule it out just yet! If you’re able to deal with other languages, there are lots of EU countries that have plenty of opportunities; maybe even some more developed parts of Africa would do as well
I didn’t follow this advice myself and literally got screwed
literally got screwed
Casting couches, am I right ?
You need to keep working on language. It takes a lot of time to learn your first non-native language and then gets easier. As with anything, language-learning is a skill that can be learned.
That or limit yourself to english-language countries. I can’t stand people who move somewhere, never learn the language, etc. Japan has a ton and the government is finally adding language requirements to some statuses (though some of the worst offenders are English teachers who will not have any such restriction)
I mean the first step is just getting a job offer in any country you go to. Then you just go through the immigration process. Expected to have about 30k on hand to help with the immigration process. There are also a lot of Expat services that help walk you through the process. Just have to search expat and the location you want.
