Left March last year, have been doing way better now ✌️
this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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Where did you go?
We moved to Spain on a student visa and are getting our permanent residency soon :3
I thought spain made you wait 10 years for residency. Or ate you of latin descent?
No, normally you get permanent residency after 5 years, however they’ve been allowing people to get residencies far faster than before since it helps the economy.
Also, no we’re not of any Latino descent, but we do think that would give you some sort of instant residency, but that’s dependent on your country of origin, not of lineage (USA isn’t included.)
Honestly, if anyone is really wanting to move here, you can get a student visa with a uni or college if you already know Spanish or move for a job or move on a digital nomad visa. All will let you legally be here and while the immigration stuff is complicated; it’s pretty worth it.
Idk if we mentioned before but we moved on a student visa to a language school and if you have the money that’s the best way in.
In what ways are you doing better? Of course can make some good guesses, but want to hear more specifically
So United States we had to struggle to make bare necessities especially since we have severe allergies and had to buy more pricey foods. So while rent was high, can’t drive so we rode a bike on roads and couldn’t get insurance. We saved every cent we could for savings towards moving and medicine.
Now instead of eating only two small meals a day to make by we’re eating a healthy amount and while our specialized food is still pricey it’s way more affordable (holy shit 1 week of groceries is 20€?!) rent is reasonably affordable (our first place was 400/m all utilities inc, now in a new place with our partner for 150/ all utilities inc) we can easily take public transit, walk and bike anywhere we want to. There’s social services to help with almost everything we need help with. And we can do it while living off art commissions :>
So we’re living better while being able to support ourselves with our dream job.
We’re really lucky and work hard for what we care about and are in a place that rewards that so guess that is the TLDR lol
very cool, congrats
I got out last time Trump won and finally secured permanent residency. Worth every sacrifice I made.
Where did you go?
Without getting into too much detail because I want to stay relatively anonymous/unidentifiable as much as possible, I chose to go to Asia rather than Europe.
I know that's basically useless, but it's as detailed as I'm willing to get.
That's absolutely fine. Just wondering where people have departed for in general, not trying to pry. Hope you like it.
SE Asia ? because how in hell did you get rsdency unless you where born there initially, or descended from someone born there ?
How are you dealing with the us government taxing you for the next 10 years?
I am thinking media llegally can't call it "brain drain".
I'd love to leave, but I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I barely have the money to pay for rent let alone save up to move.
Would you qualify as a refugee in Mexico or Canada? Looks like an easy enough border to cross.
I'm thinking of hiring some American illegals to clean up my lawn, they have those cute traditional outfits of khaki shorts and New Balances. Exotic!
They are also used to low minimum wages and no worker protections. Don't even need to provide them with healthcare!
I could definitely look into the refugee status, but crossing illegally with no money, no friends or family abroad, and no plan, sounds like a bad idea.
Few years ago I was stood in line behind a Ukrainian. Had nothing other than clothes and 20 quid.
If the conditions are really that bad, you can find a way out without much money.
I don't know about Mexico but Canada won't recognize refugee claims from people in the US due to safe harbour rules. It's still considered a safe country so you can't be a refugee from there.
Hopefully it’s just a few more months. I started last November. Just need those damn recruiters to do their jobs hahaha ;)
Adios, America.
Only the smartest and brightest too!
The EU.
Nah, I left too.
If I'm among the smartest and brightest, we are so cooked.
I'm pretty sure the Americans that aren't too jingoistic to migrate qualify as the smartest and brightest, lol.
I wish I could afford to leave 😣
Sorry, brother. 😞
If you're young still and unattached, unironically, you could join the French Foreign Legion and be useless enough you end up in the kitchen/office, riding that initial 5 year contract out. Having said that, I don't think Europe's future is too bright either, lol, so 5 years for another decade of stability might not be a good trade. Idk what I would do if I were an American with a soul in the middle of the decaying empire, but I know I'd feel alone and desperate.
Well I'm not that young. Currently doing my PhD in electrical engineering so I'm kinda stuck here unless I can get sent somewhere else for a semester, which doesn't seem like it's in the works. Basically, I'm just gonna get my degree and do a post-doc in a less evil country that's actually interested in renewables.
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Introspection and humour, top tier!
You'll fit right in.
Where did you go?
Edit: didn't you leave for Britain? My memory isn't what it used to be ...
I've just been bouncing around SEA the last year and a half, 6 months in Japan, 6 months China, a month in Korea, 5 months in Vietnam, a month in Kazakhstan. Eventually I'll settle somewhere, but it's complicated. I still earn USD working remotely.
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They paid as much for that seminar as I did for my 3 year residency permit in Albania.
Have friends moving abroad on student visas they didn't really want but are doing as an excuse to get out. My partner won't entertain the ideas of leaving, as our entire family is here and most are too old to consider leaving. I imagine it's going to be too late before long.
While I understand, and would probably join them if I could, it also occurs to me that the people the world needs in this country, to enact change, are the ones who are leaving.
I can only imagine wherever they move to, the people there might feel the same way about them.
You can still vote by mail if you don't renounce citizenship 🤷♂️
And I always will, god help me. Renouncing citizenship from the US is like loudly breaking up with a privileged abuser, liable to draw their ire and excite further persecution. No, I just emigrated to a country with a dual taxation treaty and quietly stopped paying them taxes. It is the worst vengeance I can safely enact on the villain.
Which country? Asking for a friend, of course.
UK. Being a dual citizen by birth is a bit like having one foot in the grave, and another foot in the toilet. Still, beats dropping my kid off at a school with active shooter drills.
My family was only American for one generation. Even if I were the second coming of John Adams, the country would have no claim on me. America raised me to believe in free republic, in cosmopolitanism and rationality, humanity, self determination, and in the inherent legitimacy of the will of the people.
It never stopped being an empire built on slavery, slavery is enshrined into law. It only briefly stopped persecuting a top-down class war, and Smedley Butler's resistance has been all for naught. Every good value that American culture inculcated in me has been a hypocritical sham.
So we left. I never did fit in in the US, so I might as well live out my days as a misfit elsewhere. I'm like a local cryptid now, the man from a place that never existed.
You want to throw yourself into the gears of history to save a decaying empire, maybe you feel like you have no other choice? I understand that too, and even though the prospect sickens me to no end I cannot think less of anyone who chooses it. Try not to think less of me, either.
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