Since the summer of 2023, I have tracked many of the media stories about Americans who moved abroad. The stories, mostly appearing in tabloid Business Insider are all much the same: America is an awful country so this individual/couple/family moved to country X where life is wonderful.
And of course, you too would find a better life by moving abroad!
Most of these stories leave out critical details. I’ve summarized 150 stories in the Part 1 and Part 2 series, in the right column.
The reality is that it is very difficult for most Americans to move to another country.
I reviewed 150+”I moved abroad” stories from the past year and found that:
- About 2/3ds of the “This American moved abroad” stories involve people who married a foreigner, had prior dual-citizenship, had a right of descent ancestry immigration privilege. About 90% of the Americans who married a foreigner were attractive young American women with pretty privilege.
- About 17% have an “unknown” visa situation,
- and the few remaining ones are on work/education/investment visas,
- and 10 of those who “moved abroad” did not really move abroad and are actually on 90-day tourist visas.
More than half were either prior dual citizens or married a citizen of the other country; and most of the latter were attractive women who moved abroad, found romance and married. Indeed, the largest category for obtaining a residency visa was via marriage, and 90% of those were attractive young women who moved abroad, fell in love, and married their way into foreign residency. This may be biased towards women because most of the stories are written by women (almost all of the stories are written by women, and usually documenting their own experience). I believe there are two examples of American males moving abroad and then marrying a foreigner.
As you can see, the blue segment is the largest and includes those with dual citizenship, right of descent and residency/citizenship via marriage. Marriage is slightly more than pre-existing dual citizenship.
Work, education, etc visas (orange) are the 2nd largest group and green the third largest (tourist visas – contrary to the news story, these people have not moved full time). Finally, magenta is the group whose visa status is unknown.
For those on work/education visas, you generally need to be highly skilled in specific in-demand areas, or you are young and studying abroad at a foreign university. These are a tiny minority of the roughly 150 such stories in the media.
Most who moved abroad were already dual citizens, married a foreigner, or have a right of descent ancestry.
If you can’t do that, you chances of moving abroad are quite small.
They run these nonsense stories every week – here’s more that popped up today: ‘Older Expat Circles’: Why Some Boomers Are Leaving the US and Retiring Overseas and ‘You can live like a king’ by retiring in Europe, says CFP—but make these 3 moves first – only about 1% of Americans will retire overseas. In spite of the media nonsense.
Occupation – 60 of 150 work as writers
In 60 of the 150 stories I reviewed, one or both subjects in the stories were writers. That’s because writers have no need to be in an office. Because they do not do real in-person work – such as health care, fixing cars, manufacturing goods, providing retail services, construction – literally doing the bulk of essential work that makes our civilized lives possible, most people can’t frivolously choose to move abroad.
All or nearly all of the stories are written by women, typically writing about their own life and experiences.
Most of these writers are “coddled affluent professionals” – the “laptop class” – who do not do essential work. Yet for their supposed insights into life, they can’t see this – and write endless stories about themselves! About how America is awful, and everything is better in foreign lands – you too should marry someone in another country (that’s the way the largest segment of those who moved abroad obtained residency visas – the 2nd largest group was they already had pre-existing dual citizenship – and those two groups are the majority of everyone who moved abroad.)
This is why the daily stream of “we moved abroad” stories are nonsense at best, and idiocy for the most part, peddling a nonsensical fantasy that almost no one in real life can achieve.
How To Move Abroad and Get a Residency Visa
If you want to move abroad, you have the following options, based on the data:
- #1: Be an educated, attractive young woman – move abroad, fall in love, and marry to obtain a visa. Of the 150+ stories reviewed, this was the #1 most common way to obtain a visa. Less than 10% of those who obtained a visa via marriage were male.
- #2: Have prior dual citizenship due to your parents or family history
- #3: Have a right of descent ancestry privilege
- #4: Less commonly, be young and possess the right “in demand” work skills and obtain a work visa
- #5: Make a large investment in the local economy and obtain an investment visa. In a few countries, there is a similar option for a retirement visa, but which is also usually based on passive income.
- #6: Temporary options including “digital nomad” visas, and special visas in some countries (DAFT treaty in the Netherlands, entrepreneurial visas in Germany and France).
Moving abroad, for most, involves a degree of privileges that many may not have – such as being young, attractive, female, having existing dual citizenship or right of descent ancestry, or the wealth to buy your way in.
Sorry if that assessment is discouraging – but the reality is, very few Americans move abroad and probably less than 1% will retire abroad.
NOTE
The sample of 150 stories, of course, is not necessarily a random sample – it simply counts the subjects of fluff news stories about Americans who have moved abroad.