what's it like out there comparing to America. I want a new life fresh start new faces.
I have family in Europe I don't have a degree or anything yet. I know some programming but I plan to live with an aunt out there. No kids no job 26 years of age
Your standard of living in Europe will vary. Sure, some places offer free healthcare (not exactly free - see taxes), better public transportation, and decent quality food at lower tier supermarkets. That's all great. On the other hand, you'll likely take a huge hit in salary and pay higher taxes. That does make a difference in lifestyle. A personal anecdote: in NYC I paid $2500/month to live alone in a decent apartment in a vibrant area (East Village). That's a lot of money! In Berlin I paid $700/month for an apartment of similar quality, but because salary and taxes are so low, I wasn't able to save nearly as much as I did in NYC paying high rent, a lot of money for quality groceries, etc.
There are other benefits of living in Europe like 30 days of vacation, ample maternal/paternal leave, and some financial security if you lose your job. That said, it's harder to get these jobs. Because of the risk companies need to take when hiring new employees (ie paying for all the benefits above), there's currently a huge workforce of temporary employees. Everyone is aiming for the seemingly elusive "permanent contract."
I say make the move. You'll learn a lot about the world and yourself. You can always move back to the US.
FYI this comes from the perspective of a software engineer turned entrepreneur turned software engineer.
Berlin freelance visa: https://service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/305249/en/
> what's it like out there comparing to America?
Main daily difference is you don't need a car. Find a job and go there. You need to experience it yourself to really know what it's like.
Most of the bullet points for Documents Required in you link actually say "not required for freelance" but then I see:
"Proof of a secure livelihood must also include sufficient health insurance."
Did you have to show a current consulting contract?
Do you have to show that you are currently contracting for a company via invoices?
If so does that consulting contract or invoices have to be from a German company or could it for a company in the US?
Is it possible to contact you off list?
The contract can be for future dates. Does not need to be a project that is currently paying you.
I had one German company and one US company. I think it's safer to have at least one German company.
Sure thing, contact me if you need advice. I haven't been through the process in a couple of years but expats talk about it a lot.
Never having lived in the US, is the savings you are talking about in terms of percentage of your cost? i.e. if the only cost you have is rent and its 2800 vs 700, i would need to save at least 4 times as much to cover the difference.
Using exaggerated figures, if I earn 100k in the US, save 10k a year but I spend 90k, then it's going to take me longer to retire than if I earn 35k in Europe, spend 30k and save 5k. Because in the US, it'll take 9 years to save enough to live off one year, while in Europe it'll take six years to do the same.
Of course you can move to a cheaper country when you retire, but you'll have to rebuild your friendships, adjust to the culture, etc.
Sensible planning is asset-liability matching.
Many do that within the US with cost of living games. Work in SF for 5 years saving 200k a year. Move to Flordia and be set living in 40k a year for life. (Or some variation thereof)
Perhaps Florida is more expensive than you might think because the cost of air-conditioning is expensive. And while lots can go without it, as a non-native, you might find the heat unbearable. I'm using this as an example of why it's difficult to estimate the true costs of living somewhere until you've put down roots there.
Furthermore, when you're on 100k a year and saving $10k, spending $400 on a new phone is a negligible expense. If you're on $30k, and saving $6k it is a bigger proportion of your savings. If you plan on moving, you're going to readjust your standard of living and your creature comforts.
Obviously your strategy can and does work, but counting on a move working out and being able to reduce living costs is a riskier strategy (with a potentially bigger payout), and it comes with its own costs.
It is much easier to obtain the freelancer visa after you've worked for a german company for some time. I know people who have been rejected from the freelancer visa for not having sufficient money in the bank.
You can also just ask friends/family to loan you the money so you can take a screenshot of it to show to the person at the foreigners authority ;)
Edit: Also, if you're really interested in moving to Berlin/Germany, I have a bunch of content about this on my blog (incl. the entire process end-to-end) you might find useful: http://notanomadblog.com/categories/work-abroad/
If you are fine with this then that's a good idea. But it's hard to really settle down knowing you need to leave in 3 months, and can't return again for another 3 months. I recommend getting a residence visa like the freelance visa. You can still consult for a US company after getting the visa.
https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/schengen-fa...
For someone like me who doesn't understand German language, is it possible to go on with the daily life interacting with the locals in English?
You should have it easy to get by.
Some rules of thumb:
1) The younger, the more likely to be able to speak English.
2) Rural area less likely to speak English (well) compared to big cities and tourist areas.
3) In IT/tech world in Germany you should have far less problems than say farmers.
I'd say those count in general though :) if you go to Amsterdam people are much more likely to speak English than a local, small Dutch town foreigners generally haven't heard about. And, English is very practical in our globalised world. Make no mistake about German though; it is also a practical language in Europe.
This is my list:
- Berlin: cheap (getting expensive quick, but still cheap for a large city), multicultural (many, many people from all around the world, lots of people speak English, those who don't usually understand you), Germans themselves are very open and interesting as a nation. Berlin has a vibrant startup scene, which is nice for getting your first job as a young person with little experience. The downside is that there is not many serious software companies nor industry. Salaries are VERY low compared with the US. German is not required for normal life, but highly recommended. Some companies still prefer people with German.
- London: Has many, many companies and is usually on the bleeding edge technology-wise. Payroll is nice, although prices and rent are high. You won't have to learn a new language and will be able to compete for all the job offers as long as your profile fits in. The downside is the imminent Brexit, which might be good or bad, nobody knows right now.
- Zurich: once you are +30 and look for a more quiet, stable lifestyle, Switzerland is the place to be. Salaries are US-level, health care, security, public transportation and stability are the best in Europe (Norway might be better though, but very close). It's VERY expensive, although if you come from NY or from the Bay Area, rents are more or less in the same ballpark. The language barrier is comparable as in Germany, although Swiss people usually prefer when people speak English rather than standard German with foreign accent. Swiss people might be a bit tough to crack, but are not that bad once you know how to treat them. In the Zurich area there is tons and tons of companies, lots of innovation going on as well. Finance is very strong. Biotech is growing pretty strong.
I have 2 recommendations for you:
a) Go to Berlin, and then start looking around. It's a really cool place to be for 26-year-old.
b) Go to London, you will have a much easier start and there is enough companies for an adventurous career.
As a US citizen you're obligated to file (and possibly pay) taxes no matter where in the world you work and reside, no exceptions. It's the price of having US citizenship and access to the US embassy. In most cases you probably won't end up paying anything when you declare the tax you paid in your resident country, but that gets complicated with that country having a different tax year than the US (April to April vs calendar year). Get a competent expat attorney and pay for it to be done for you. There's also the FBAR which you might need to become acquainted with.
As for the retirement savings, lots of countries have their own types of retirement accounts that can be invested in as part of your paycheck. The caveat here is how to repatriate the funds when you leave before hitting your 60's. I haven't found a great way to roll those over to an IRA back in the states yet.
It looks super complex :(
Oh boy,just realised that we need to report the last three years too. Called streamlined process... Can they do that?
But I think you'll have to print them out and mail them in manually, rather than electronic filing. But I haven't tried myself so I'm not sure.
(Edit: To be clear, the tax software is versioned by tax year. So, "Turbotax 2016" is what I will use this year. So you'd have to buy Turbotax 2015, 2014, and 2013 presumably.)
One thing I've noticed is that if you're willing to live a bit outside of a major city and along a commuter rail line (a commute not extraordinary by U.S. standards but seemingly insane by European), housing costs can be much much lower.
With a few exceptions, the kind of tech work will likely be more prosaic in nature. The kind of big startup scene you might find in SV or other places in the U.S. does exist in Europe, but not at anywhere near the scale or with the kind of capital availability that's present in the U.S. On the upside, the work tends to be very stable.
Long-term, you'll have to think about retirement and either make a decision to stay or return and start saving up. If you come back to the U.S., the system is designed to offer you a reasonable retirement, but only after decades of saving. You may not think that's important at 26, but you'll likely start to feel it at 36. If you stay in Europe, you'll need to figure out the local retirement system and how that work.
If you pull that trigger and stay in Europe, you'll probably want to look at giving up your U.S. citizenship because you'll be obligated to pay taxes the entire time you're in Europe (there's some deductions, but you'll still have to do all the paperwork).
If you move to Europe, build up a pension, and then move back to the U.S., you should be able extract the money from that pension (according to the conditions), regardless of where you reside in there future.
> taxes
You are obliged to report all of your foreign earnings to the IRS as well as all of your foreign bank account status each year. You are taxed on your income both in the local country and in the US :-/, but the US amount is only on income above a certain threshold. Maybe someone can correct me but I think the current amount is somewhere around $90k USD. Like my parent poster said, there are deductions, so find a good tax adviser that is familiar with both local and US tax laws.
You also want to take extensions so that you can qualify as a nonresident, or you will pay the ACA penalty for not having health insurance.
So you only pay taxes in Germany. But I'm not sure.
YMMV, IMHO etc, but living too close to the middle of cities is the biggest mistake I see people from who move to the UK make. Yes, you get a shorter commute and a great social life, but the crazy cost (esp. in London) doesn't justify it - and these people often end up moving further out.
It's totally different country by country. I never been to the US, but I imagine it's much more homogeneous than the EU. For example you can go to Berlin, Barcelona, Milano, Stockholm or Budapest and you can have radically different experiences. It differs radically financially, demographically and attitude wise.
I'd suggest to start with a Euro-trip and visit as many countries as you can and then make a "final" choice where to settle.
I'd argue they are mostly the same. IMO, The US is pretty similar in structure to the EU where the US as a whole is comprised of many states, each with their own laws. Yes there are federal laws but for the most part, each state can do whatever they want.
Each state / region has vastly different cultures and standards of living.
The culture in the US varies some from region to region (midwest vs northwest vs south etc), but it's absolutely false to say that the differences are "vast", especially on the state-to-state level. Standards of living vary much more between urban/rural even within states than they do across states generally.
Leaving aside the fact that EU states speak completely different languages, the cultural differences there are much, much more pronounced. Everyone in the US speaks the same language, watches the same TV shows, follows the same sports, shops at the same chain stores, etc, etc.
Your comparison of the political structures is also quite off, though not very relevant to the question of cultural homogeneity.
There was an interesting discussion of this and related topics here just the other day: 'Duck Dynasty' vs. 'Modern Family': 50 Maps of the U.S. Cultural Divide (nytimes.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13264083
I moved in the last year from a mid-sized city in the northeast to a sightly smaller mid-sized city in the south, and everyone keeps asking me excitedly about the culture shock. People eat more okra here and it's hard for me to understand the speech of the few people I've met from more rural areas of the state. That's it. The culture here is "mid-sized US city," just like where I came from. It's almost disappointing.
This sidesteps the question of cultural differences state to state / country to country, or even between urban/rural regions.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_U.S._states... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...
Bulgaria: 6,843 USD per capita; Mississippi: 24,062 USD per capita
Bulgaria is a member of the EU. If you look outside the EU (but still in Europe) you find countries that are poorer than Iraq and Vietnam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...
Hugely recommended, if only for comparison purposes. From my own experience, English speaking countries are a must. If that's not an option, cities like Barcelona or Berlin should cover your bases for at least a year, but you won't survive for long without speaking Spanish or German. There are more things than work in life, and you'll soon get tired of only dealing with expats or your own nationals.
Please do not fool yourself too early into thinking 'yeah, I'll just learn the thing', unless you have a knack for languages, or you already speak one or two foreign tongues. YMMV though, it is certainly doable if you apply.
Scandinavian countries, Ireland or The Netherlands are your best bet these days, and there is a relatively big IT sector in all of them.
Salaries are not what you expect coming from the US, your $200k rated job is no more than 80k€, but you will certainly require much less. Saving is possible and encouraged.
Edit: grammar
All or some of them? e.g. I've read on HN that there is a lot of software work in Sweden, but how about Norway, Finland and Denmark?
[1] As an example, this is for November. http://www.nordictechlist.com/content/reports/The%20November...
That said there are startups here, and there are some niches that are thriving (e.g. gaming).
But if you're in Germany I recommend immersion -- try hard to make friends who don't speak English or at least won't automatically switch into English all the time. That and the Volkshochschule.
Out of country yeah, I think Goethe Institute is the way to go if it's available where you are. Just based on reputation, but it's also a path into the German university system if you're interested in that.
But learning a language will let you fit in much more easily, and will make people more willing to help you.
(Recently moved from Scotland to Finland. Great country. Horrible language!)
Is that a good rule of thumb then? $200k is fairly top end in the US. Obviously there are people at the big SV companies that make more but 200K is pretty close to top end for senior people. So you are saying that that 80K Euros is the general top end for EU tech companies? Given that there is more or less dollar to Euro parity now that is substantially less.
On the other hand you will work a lot of hours for that 200K in the US. Is that also true of the EU for similar? I think that proper work life balance should always be considered in addition to actual compensation.
Not everyone wants to move to/stay in the US, the world has a lot of beauty.
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I for one am very happy to live in Europe. But Europe is a very diverse continent so it's an extremely broad question. I've lived in a few places within Europe, traveled through others. But there is still so much hidden for me. If I were to move outside I would probably go to Asia.
DAFUQ ? I am a French research in computer science, now working for a company producing and streaming contents on the web.
I can assure you that my carrer opportunities — as sysadmin, researcher, or developper — are pretty good in France and in Europe :)
Re: sysadmin and developer roles - my post was mostly about diversity and breadth of available roles. These sysadmin and developer roles are generic enough that one will be fine in them in Europe. A sufficiently specialized researcher, on the other hand, usually has only a handful of places in the entire world that are interested in hiring him within his specialty - a lot of which are in the US.
I see this in a friend of mine. He's a young PhD Machine Learning Researcher with top credentials (Ivy League, top publications, won awards in his field). He wants to live in Europe due to family concerns, but he really can't find a position that would allow him use his talent, and is semi-wasting his time in random bad Data Science jobs for now - while he's getting numerous awesome offers from the US (like leading a research unit at Google or faculty positions in Ivy League schools).
My experience has been the opposite in terms of difficulty. In most EU countries the market of software engineers who can also speak the native country's language is really small so its way easier to stand out from the crowd. In the US, you have to compete in a 350 million+ population pool plus global candidates who have studied English their whole lives. In any given EU country the candidate pool is a fraction the size and of those the one's who can communicate fluently in the native language is a fraction of that fraction.
For example, in the UK, there's little real tech companies and most developer roles are confined to non-tech support roles in other economy sectors (finance, retail etc.).
That might or might not be a bad thing. It means you're more likely to be working for a real company, with a real business model, rather than some freak kept above by advertising and VC misallocation.
San Francisco: 170
New York: 96
London: 90
Boston: 38
Berlin: 34
That is debatable and depends largely on a definition. My viewpoint is that a large portion of the companies in the current VC-inspired "tech" world are merely applying tech and not really developing it. For every company like Datastax there's a dozen of companies which are just applying tech solutions (packaged and sold by other companies) to a specific business/consumer problem.
Or, to put it in other terms, if the job offer does not say "Msc/PhD in X preferred" (where X is the job, like distributed systems, deep learning etc.), then it's likely not quite a "real tech" job.
There are top-shelf jobs for your friend in Europe. E.g. Google's got large offices in London and Zurich and a quick search shows some possible fits for a PhD in ML. I know from friends that Amazon has a large office in Berlin focused on machine learning research and applications. Microsoft appears to be hiring ML scientists in München.
In contrast, working in Europe or Canada is easier because getting a work or resident visa is smoother, but the salary cut is way too much.
This isn't really that important at all. I don't really recognise this as a specific asset in any way.
> The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world
That's an extremely biased and, in my opinion, incorrect view. Even if you just take the big tech capitals in Europe - London, Berlin, Paris etc - you have hugh tech opportunities in each. The opportunities in London alone rival those in New York. Sure there's not really a specific place similar to Silicon Valley - but that's really the only thing missing.
You see approx ~20% reduction in market rate salary for a given full-stack position in London vs NYC. However there are factors that the simple NET salary comparison doesn't take into account. Do these factors negate the difference? No, not entirely - but they do reduce that percentage down quite significantly. The major one, which will be of no surprise, is healthcare.
The addition of free healthcare for your family is unlikely to be equal in value directly to the entire 20% salary difference. However, often the fact is it might be worth it anyway just to not have to deal with that, often stressful and extremely difficult to budget for, expense.
These aren't the only QoL differences between the two cities, others are often rather personal/bespoke to the candidate.
The point being comparing net salary between two completely different countries is often not even close to the full picture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT
The treaty makes it easier for US Entrepreneurs to open businesses in The Netherlands. It lowers the amount of needed investment capital from €27,000 to €4,500, frees US Entrepreneurs from the points-based test, and removes the benefit to Dutch national interests requirement. The residency permit is good for two years, after which it can be extended.
You will have a much lower standard of living by most monetary measures. Taxes are higher than in the US and regulations/beurocracy is more extensive. Everything is "smaller" from cars, houses, and land to meals. Energy costs - especially transportation costs - are much higher almost everywhere, which forces you to try to keep your energy consumption low compared to how you would live in the US. There is virtually one sport everywhere and its soccer, so facilities/clubs/organizations for any other sport are far behind US standards. For instance, you will not be able to find anything resembling a YMCA where you can workout with weights, play basketball and racketball and go swimming all for some monthly membership. People all live much closer together, so you won't be able to find a place thats even a little "off the grid" this can be good or bad just depends on what you prefer.
On the more positive side, you will have "free" healthcare, but the quality will vary drastically from country to country. In Poland its disastrous for instance whereas in Germany its pretty nice and will cover just about all your health costs and the quality is high as well. France is closer to the Germany side of things but I'd say the overall quality is a bit lower. Also you will rarely if ever work more than 40 hours a week and you'll also get 30 paid vacation days a year from most employers. In Germany, sick days don't count against your vacation days so it all compounds to a pretty big chunk of leisure time. Additionally, there's all kinds of various social welfare programs that will take care of you should you become unemployed or disabled etc. these are extensive and well-funded in Germany and France much less so in Poland.
I'm an expat and have lived/worked in Germany for the past 9 years, basically my entire 20s and working life except for freelance web work I did while getting my undergrad in the US.
Do your homework? Learn a language besides English (maybe?)
At least rejoice, European visa processes are usually straightforward (if you have a diploma) and it usually involves much less BS and waits than the corresponding H1-B process
There is huge demand for developers here at the moment. You're guaranteed a job in Dublin, but rent can be a mini nightmare there. It starts at around 800 euro for single room bedsits, you could pay 1200-1500 per month for a house in the suburbs with an hour commute. You may find work in other parts of the country but most companies are in or around the capital.
Food here is good, standards of living are high, crime low, services (health etc) competitively good. Irish people like to complain about it here but we have it good
If you're looking at a job on the continent make sure you know the local language fluently (not English). It is said that its ok to know English alone but it really isn't.
You'll come to the reason that most Europeans in the tech space opt for the US - the compensation factor in Europe is relatively poor.
I second learning the local language. That is one of the most important requirements to truly integrate.
If you're aiming at your own startup, Europe is downright awful you control the working hours, holidays and social security. Entrepreneurship is terrible because the culture doesn't adapt well to it. Raising cash is like selling a fridge to eskimos. There is a culture of hitting yourself at failure and extremely conservative risk. Your own parents wont support you in a startup.
For a job in tech: In Silicon valley all those things you mentioned are quite easy to come by? Social security, holidays, working hours and even better + a wage which is why the draw is the other way from here.
I say this from my experience learning Norwegian in Norway which was much less painful and more successful than learning French at school in England even though I had many more hours of formal French instruction.
* If seeking a job, you will have a hard time being hired without much more experience.
* You cannot "just move" to any European country without getting a job there, unless you have a bunch of money in the bank or proven income (usually a minimum of 50k a year), and only some countries allow you to come for "non-lucrative" purposes. Easiest is Spain.
* Getting a freelancer visa is generally difficult unless, again, you can prove a track record. It's much easier to start as a normal employee and apply to be a freelancer after a few years in the system.
* My #1 suggestion to anyone looking to move to Europe for work: Come here on vacation, apply for jobs in person, land a contract, move here. Getting a job in person is so much easier. In Germany you need to make at least 38k to qualify for the skilled worker visa. You can make as little as ~36k if your job is in a STEM field. You will not get hired without solid experience if you're applying from America, I can tell you that with near certainty.
I have a hand full of articles on my blog you may find useful. However, they are mostly geared towards people who are highly skilled. IMO you need to focus on honing your skillset before you try to move abroad, because any European country is only going to take you if you're an asset to the system or rich enough, basically.
http://notanomadblog.com/categories/work-abroad/
I'm a developer from the US living in Berlin. I've been in Germany for about 3.5 years now. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to answer them!
As a last statement: I love living in Europe and may never move back to the US.
If you're a senior dev you may be able to just bypass the "move first" step and get a job remotely with a relocation package. I had experience in my chosen industry but was still considered fairly junior, so moving to the country and applying from there ended up being more productive than looking for a company that would deal with relocating a junior from the other side of the world.
Most EU countries also have restrictions on the employee visas they grant - such as the position having to be advertised within the country (or maybe within the EU) first with some exceptions for very specialist roles, etc. In addition (speaking only for Sweden here) even afterwards it's not as easy as going to the Migration board and going "Well here's my offer, give me a visa!" - the Migration board checks with the relevant union to vet the offer and make sure conditions of employment are suitable. In addition to that queues can be very long, so having the assistance of a larger company that frequently liaises with both the migration board and the unions when applying for a visa can help fast track the entire process.
I've lived in Europe my whole life, but I have a lot of friends and relatives in the US. I've also lived in 3 different European countries, and of course I know people from just about all the Western European nations.
There's a lot got you to think about. This is only a small part, off the top of my head:
- If you're American, you pay tax worldwide. Most countries have higher tax than the US, so you just pay their tax. Switzerland is different. I lived there, it's a pain as an American to even get a bank account. And you'll have to file a return. A friend of mine is half American and is an accountant. It's annoying for him as well.
- Languages. Which do you speak? Most Northern European countries have significant numbers of companies where they speak English. That's not to say you can't learn the language, English is a Germanic language, so not a million miles off German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, etc. Yet you're not going to understand it getting off the plane.
- Social. Are you coming by yourself or are you married? Got kids? It's hard to find documentation for this, but the way one socialises depends a lot on which country you're in, whether you're in the countryside or the city, and whether you have kids or are single. Anecdotally I'd also say some of the Germanic nations have hard-to-penetrate social circles. It's not that they don't like you, they already have their friends and haven't needed to make new ones since college.
- Culture shock. I guess you actually want that. But remember you can drop a guy from New York in LA and they will not have a problem at all. Take a guy from Edinburgh to Rome, and they are now a tourist. The plus side is it takes a two hour flight to see something completely different, with different looking people, weather, history, and so on.
- Visa. This is going to depend a lot of the specific country.
Anyway I'm sure you'll have questions.
Keep in mind that major non-EU countries (US/CA/AU/etc) don't need visa for tourist stuff. You'd get a stamp at airport for x months and that's it.
It may also matter how much money you make, whether you're married to someone who is taking benefits, and so on. Even for the countries I've lived in, it's been a mess to find out.
And when you do find out, sometimes you find there's some loophole. For instance, if you try to bring a non-EU spouse to Denmark, it's hard if you have low income. However, Sweden is right across the water from Denmark, and there's a bridge connecting them. And the Swedes have a different national law. Also there's EU law, which is another way to get in.
Oh, and the UK voted to leave the EU, so there will be even more legal spaghetti.
Try to narrow down what countries you're interested in, and find someone who can help you.
AFAIK if you have a grandparent who is an Irish citizen and was born there, you can get an Irish citizenship. That is automatically an EU citizenship, and if you have that you can live and work anywhere in the EU without needing any sort of permit.
But even if you have this Irish grandparent, you can't just move into a EU country and live there BEFORE getting an official document saying you are now an Irish citizen.
Europe is a continent with many countries speaking different languages, with different cultures.
You should be more specific where you want to go.
1. Compensation is generally lower than in the US. That's worth keeping in mind depending on your age & long terms plans, if you have those already. Don't let it turn you off from the idea, because living elsewhere can be wonderful, but it's worth being clear that this probably isn't the optimal choice for your bank balance/savings. But it doesn't sound like that's your priority, so that's fine.
2. If the primary reason for the move is a lifestyle change, I agree with others that the best way to do that is figure out where you want to live & then look for jobs there (or freelance/work remotely if that suits you). From my personal experience & seeing friends go through it with various countries, it's usually fairly straightforward & a company that wants to hire you should be able to help out with the process.
I'll second Berlin as a really good choice for location: culturally very vibrant & has a rapidly growing tech & art scene. I know several people who have moved there in the last few years.
I'll also say I personally loved living in London, and already being fluent in the language has its perks, but that may not be as much of a change as you want.
Good luck!
The one big difference is that at the end of the month you would have nothing left to save. And if you plan to move out at a later point you would have neither money nor a useful professional network.
You would not be eligible for most of the good things we hear about socialist states - social housing, paid education.
If you are young and healthy you may not have much to get out of the free healthcare.
Be ready to pay incredibly high rents for private company housing or be homeless constantly, I have moved 9 times in 3.5 years and now I pay more than half my pay in rent+transport to live in a city 100 KMs away (unlimited by expensive).
Language and Credentials: Can be a short term and long term barrier, be ready to start from square one at least on your first job.
Pay: Usually unionised, software engineers earn about average salaries just like everyone else, even though they have diminishing career prospects. I was shocked to learn that CS was the least attractive majors, now I understand why.
Scale and opportunity: There is no critical mass at least in small countries like Denmark so I believe the best opportunities are still the ones in the US, especially if you want to specialise.
I am sure you have heard plenty of the positives of life in Europe and assume it must be the reason for your question.
The process has been interesting. The main thing which took time was getting my Birth certificate legalized under The Hague convention a.k.a apostilled. After that it's documentation work which my company lawyer handled. Once I got here it's taken time to get used to the differences but thoroughly enjoy it.
Highly recommend it, if you can. The best route has been this - inter company transfer.
You need to decide what your work life balance is to be. If you want to do more soaking up the culture, consider the above option, if you want to do more work and learning then decide what area you want to work in and then look for companies that might present those opportunities. You'll have a mix of costs where ever you go in the world and within a country. I could say lots of jobs in and around Cambridge, and whilst the city is expensive to buy, many students manage the costs of renting shared accomodation, but move outside the city heading anywhere but south towards London and costs can fall.
I guess its a case of setting your standards accordingly. You dont say where your Aunt lives either which might also limit your options.
Here in the UK you can get on the job training as an apprentice, but I dont know if its restricted to just UK Citizens or people from overseas as well.
Perhaps a bit more detail in your Ask HN might help you get more detailed useful info.
http://www.expatinfodesk.com/expat-guide/nationality-specifi...
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/fore...
In the real world, unless you are a "top notch" executive or programmer, etc. it is not-so-easy to reach that amount with European wages.
I found that in the end it turned out to be more or less the same.
What's left is culture shock, which is actually very good for you, broadening your horizon.
In Europe everything seems smaller though, that's a real difference. Also architecture has more history.
One important advice though, which is true for every country: learn the language!!
For the countries you have relatives in, you'll have to check their immigration policies. Generally only close relatives are eligible for family immigration, but there might be exceptions. You might check schooling in those countries as well.
Good luck!
Cars, especially nice ones, are much more expensive (in absolute numbers, not only as percentage of income) to buy and own. Petrol is several times the US price.
Rents are higher in most cities (at least compared to income). Maybe only SV is worse compared to Europe.
All tech gadgets are more expensive, roughly at +20% in absolute terms, because of VAT
And yeah, on top of that you get "free" healthcare, which is usually of very questionable quality.
Edit: corrected "low" to "questionable".
Usually it's highly bureaucratic - you have to "climb a ladder" of doctors. First your GP, then a specialist, then, maybe a hospital. You wait a lot (sometimes weeks and months, because you are not "emergency"). And sometimes you encounter outright incompetence and have to go to a private doctor/hospital to have your problems properly attended to.
That summarizes my experiences with the healthcare systems of 4 different EU countries.
The use of "questionable" in that way is a bit idiomatic, I think, as a polite way to say something is bad.
Not to say that there aren't also significant problems with US healthcare.
1. All prices in europe include tax, unlike in the US where it's customary to not include tax in the price and pay it at checkout. Stuff tends to be more expensive not just because of VAT but also because of shipping prices and extra consumer protections such as mandatory 2 year warranties.
2. Just like in the US, rent varies wildly. In Athens you can pay 100€/month for a studio. In London, you'll find that same studio for 10-15 times that depending where you look. "Compared to income" IME it's about equal if not better - please cite your sources.
3. Healthcare is unquestionably of excellent quality across the board. I've lived in France, the UK, Greece, Sweden, there's no exceptions.
4. Petrol prices are kinda irrelevant when you don't need a car. European cities are far, far more tightly packed than the west coast. In all capitals you can get all your stuff done by foot, metro or cycling.
What you're somehow forgetting however while complaining about earnings is that as a US citizen, you need to watch out for double taxation when moving to a different country. So I don't know, your post here is actually super counterproductive.
I never said that healthcare was "bad", only that it has its problems.
Please note that I didn't say that Europe is worse, just that you'll be worse financially, which I didn't see you disproving.
You said healthcare is of "questionable quality". Everything has its problems but as far as I'm concerned, healthcare in europe is top notch. You certainly don't hear about "healthcare horror stories" in europe, unlike in the US...
I'm not sure what "worse off financially" even means. It depends. For a long time I was working from home for an international company and earning far more a month than I'd need in a year. Like you said, there are equivalents in the US.
I have news for you: for nearly the entire rest of the world, it's not. Leave your bubble for the new year, will ya?
Six figures is barely enough to keep up with living costs in some parts of SF, whereas in Greece it's 1-2 orders of magnitude lower depending on which part you live in.
Living standards (GDP pr person) are lower in Europe. And developer wages are certainly a lot lower.
If you're single with no dependents and you're healthy (and don't get an expensive sickness), then I would mostly agree US is better financially.
If, on the other hand, you have kids, and/or some sort of health condition, it becomes pretty much a wash, or in favor of (some) European countries.
Those higher European taxes pay for things that you pay out of pocket in the US. If you're not using those type of services, then you're financially better off in the US.
Given that a salary of $101k in Europe is unlikely, and that taxes are almost always higher in Europe than the US, you do not need to worry about paying income tax to the US.
You do, however, need to file a tax return.
I don't support these policies, but I wanted to clarify things for people who could get scared away by your comment. It really isn't that bad.
When U.S. Citizens Living Abroad Owe U.S. Tax: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/when-us-citizens-livi...
Still, it is of course painful. As someone in the reverse situation (foreigner in the US), I had to pay income tax to Norway for the first three years after moving, with US taxes paid being deducted from what I owed. On the other hand, I did not need to pay the Norwegian equivalent of social security; income tax only.
(Of course, the Norwegian tax system is also 100% digital, with very simple forms that are already filled out for you based on what your employer etc. have already reported to the authorities; the US stuff was just a small additional form. So in reality the painful part was and is the US tax return, which is ridiculously antiquated and complicated and involve lots of paperwork, especially when you have foreign bank accounts.)
If you want recommendations for communicative, knowledgeable, & ethical recruiters in London or Dublin, I'd be happy to connect you. My email is in my profile.
Yes, Europe has architecture where the U.S. has decorated sheds. But the social fault lines in Europe aren't that different from the social fault lines in the states.
From day one the pundits have been concerned that effects related to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_trinity
would blow up the euro -- i.e. Germany and Italy might have reasons to have different monetary policies. Many economists think the situation is truely intractable (they'd like it if the "Impossible Trinity" was a solid concept) but it certainly is intractable if you don't face the social fault lines head on.
Then if you specify country where they live may be you will get more specific answers.
I know HTML, CSS, JS, C++, C#, PHP and Hack - and I often can't find work because the bar of competence for many programming jobs still requires knowledge of frameworks, libraries and processes that I don't have experience with, and because the freelance market is global. It can be difficult to tick all the boxes and stand out in a crowd of millions.
Forget Italy. Italy is probably nice to live in, but it's at risk of becoming the next Greece right now. Big problems in the banking sector, 1st country for refugees to enter through along with Greece.
2. Find a remote job in US. Even a junior position with a low salary would allow you to live decently in most European places (maybe except downtown London, etc.).
3. Pick a random European city you might like, get an airbnb and just go there for a while.
4. If you like it, stay. If you don't, pick another city. If you can't make the decision in 3 months, move to a cheap place in Asia and go back when you can. Flights are cheap. Places to stay are cheap. Just lower the bar. You don't have to live in the middle of Paris or London this whole time.
5. Travel a lot and profit. Unless of course your prefer to go through a routine of choosing a single place, finding a job in there, networking, making lots of new friends, etc. There's your tradeoff, but hey, you are 26.
[edit: paragraphs]
Meanwhile, the best and brightest Europeans come to America.
Con: Sucks if you want a stable live and a family.