- raton
- Jul 28, 2003
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by FactsAreUseless
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I'm going to put this in here because it's coming up pretty frequently right now:
HOW DO I MOVE TO ANOTHER COUNTRY AND WORK / LIVE THERE?
Sheep-Goats posted:There are generally two ways to move to a new country permanently.*
The first is to get married to a citizen (or sometimes a naturalized resident) of that country. After you get married you then go through a paperwork process typically taking between three to six months and costing about 1500 bucks and receive a permanent residence visa of one sort or another. This visa also allows you to work legally in most countries (in some you need a separate work permit, usually it can be applied for concurrently with your visa, sometimes you have to get the visa then apply for the permit). In most countries your visa stays good as long as you're still married and becomes irrevocable (barring felonies or other misconduct on your part) after about five years even if you get divorced (or sometimes if you get divorced because of abuse or sudden death or something like that).
The second is to receive an offer of employment from a business in that country. Often times employers need to demonstrate that they have to hire you instead of a citizen for one reason or another. There are frequently also generalized restrictions about importing only "skilled" labor (this usually shakes out to mean people with college degrees). In many countries, including the US, there are also queues for work visas that are organized by country, so if you happen to be in the India line because you're from India you might have to wait years before a visa becomes available to you thanks to the bazillion people ahead of you in the line, whereas someone from Guyana might have a shorter wait. Many western European countries have a points system where you get points for things like speaking the native language, having lived in that country before, being rich, etc etc and if you get enough points (on either a sliding-per-year or arbitrarily fixed scale) you get your visa and if you don't you don't. Note that generally if you receive the offer of work while in country you have to leave the country to change your visa from whatever it was to a work visa, and then re-enter on your work visa and start work. The rapidity at which you get a visa and can immigrate also tends to depend massively on what job you're skilled at and what jobs need workers in the country of destination -- nursing and engineering for example are generally in demand while menial labor is not.
The process is fairly complicated and protracted no matter where you go and without a genuine desire to move to Country X for a specific reason people from first world countries rarely find it worthwhile to move to another first world country permanently simply because they do better to stay at home even through rough spots. One other tricky issue is bringing a spouse or kids -- sometimes the valuable person has to go overseas and establish themselves, sometimes even become a citizen, before they can start bringing relatives in -- sometimes they come with you as a package deal. Anyway, if you're serious about doing it you should usually talk to an immigration lawyer before you go (preferably one who lives in the country you want to move to) as there are frequently legal snags you can run into that can gyp you out of your visa if you go about things clumsily.
Disclaimer: It may be somewhat easier for you to move to Your Desired Country than I'm making out here. It may be somewhat tougher. Specific info can obviously be rather important for this situation. It is at this point that I waive the universal Goon White Flag of Go Talk to a (Immigration) Lawyer and/or suggest Googling for "Desired Country Immigration Forums" to pick something else up. (And who knows, maybe someone who has done this will stop by and help you out if you post a thread.)
*There are two other common ways in, but both of these basically amount to "being rich." First is an investment visa, where you start a local business, usually employ six or more local people or invest a million or so dollars, and get a visa because of it. Second is a retirement visa typically only offered by places like Thailand where the local cost of living is quite low -- to get one of those you have to be over a certain age and have a certain amount of money in a local bank account, typically around 250k bucks sometimes with and sometimes without additional evidence of a retirement income.
**[Edit: One other bonus way is to finagle yourself a foreign passport at which point you could operate in that country (or in any EU country if the passport is from an EU member state) exactly as though you were a born and raised citizen of that country. See the post below this one for an example -- typically you do this by having a British dad or two German grandpas or you were actually born in Newcastle but grew up in the US or something like that.]
***[Edit 2: In countries with points-based systems like Canada you can sometimes get a work visa even without a job offer so long as you can rack up enough points on the application. You get points for having experience in an in-demand job field (nursing, engineering and energy sector work are usually the big three) for having studied in Canada before, for speaking English (or French) pretty well, for being educated, etc, so it's possible that a schlub with a BA from Kansas would have an easier time getting in to Canada than a really eager professor from Malaysia. The US does not have a points-based system.]
The above applies mostly for first world to first world moves. Teaching English overseas is a different situation, and things are usually easier to do with that than as describe above, but then that can't really be considered permanently moving overseas as you'll usually get kicked out pretty much the minute you don't have a job.
Here's a thread about moving from Australia to the USA via marriage to a citizen. Here's a good immigration forum for moving to the US in general.
Here's a thread about moving to the UK, guvnah.
Here's a thread about moving from the USA to Australia. Also this is supposed to be the Oz megathread.
Here's a thread about moving from Australia to Canada.
Here's a mess of a thread about moving to New Zealand.
BTW I really wish everyone who wants to do this the best of luck, sorry if my post is mostly a downer for you, but if it's something you really want it can be done. Rumor has it you can get a husband in Queens these days for about 10,000 bucks  (ps: don't do that it makes it harder for legitimate couples to get their visas processed).
[This post made December 8th, 2009. If the links are dead either buy archives or start a new thread.]
raton fucked around with this message at 21:54 on Apr 16, 2010
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Dec 8, 2009 02:23
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- raton
- Jul 28, 2003
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by FactsAreUseless
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John Adams posted:
Also, if you meet the criteria, you can get Italian citizenship through their ancestry laws. Information is here: http://www.italiandualcitizenship.com/
When I save up some more money, I am going to be doing this since I qualify through my great-grandfather.
Many people in the US also end up getting British or German citizenship through their legal loopholes as well. Possibly other countries, but those are, I think, the big three for that route.
Note that this kind of passport chicanery is generally considered the easiest way for a US citizen to get decent English teaching work in western Europe. That or working under the table or going through a government run cultural exchange type program (Spain has one).
raton fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Dec 9, 2009
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Dec 9, 2009 04:16
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Dec 8, 2009 02:23
