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Comment by hestipod | Hacker News Reader

I've been trying to move back abroad since I returned to the USA. It's not as easy as people think in the best of times to immigrate, let alone when you are in such bad shape all around. No place takes broken and relatively broke people. Believe me I'd have been gone years ago if I could have managed it. I've thought about extreme ideas like asylum but my research shows it's never granted to people from such countries as mine and for such reasons. The system is taxed enough with war refugees and people even worse off. I'd happily trade passports with anyone who thinks this is the place to be. There is just not a clear path to a sustainable life anywhere now.

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In my travels getting a long term residency visa requires a medical exam. I’m not sure how people think immigration in other countries work but it’s not as simple as showing up at the airport.

If you're moving because you're probably going to die if you don't, does it really matter whether or not you're doing so legally or not?

It's really easy to remain in EU forever as an illegal immigrant, in some places your immigration status will have no effect on your access to free healthcare.

I've met many illegal aliens in the EU. It's not an easy life. Yes, you could move to one of the EU countries, clandestine. You would give up up a lot to do so. Access to work would be "on the black." Access to housing would be restricted to sublets with multiple roommates, who are also in the same illegal immigrants. A good friend of mine, without papers, was living 10+ people in a 2 bedroom flat. Everything he owned had to fit in a dufflebag. Not everyone from developed countries is willing to make that sacrifice for the potential access to better healthcare. If you came from a poor country, though, it's a big step up.

> Access to housing would be restricted to sublets with multiple roommates, who are also in the same illegal immigrants.

Nobody has ever checked my immigration status while renting in the EU, nobody has ever cared about the fact that I work for an US company owned by me that pays my salary to my US account.

Sure, maybe you'll have a bad time renting in France. Don't go live in France unless you want to have a hard time while renting.

> A good friend of mine, without papers, was living 10+ people in a 2 bedroom flat

A good friend of mine, is here illegally and lives in a nice central 2 bedroom flat in Barcelona all by himself. He had zero trouble finding an apartment, the landlords just don't give a shit.

Many illegal immigrants are completely broke, but that's by no means a requirement.

Because as someone said below it's not going to fix things just by being in another place I like better. Being illegal is a hard life with constant risk and lack of access to many things. It's not "really easy" at all and I don't know why anyone would think that. I need MORE stability than I have...not less. I said I am going to move because I refuse to die in this miserable country after what it's done to me. The only power I have left is to choose where it ends. It's not like I think moving will solve things in itself. I am in bad shape all around and am sick of suffering and the common response being to teach myself how to swim and get a job as a swim instructor as I am drowning. The clear lesson is society here thinks if you cannot produce consistently or enough for their ledger then you don't deserve to live. That's that.

> Being illegal is a hard life with constant risk and lack of access to many things

It's a hard life in the US, often with access to even less things than illegal immigrants have here. Not sure what this "constant risk" is, unless you engage in violent crime you'll find it very difficult to get yourself deported.

By far the biggest thing you lose is the ability to fly around easily, but it remains (and will remain) easy to sneak out after overstaying your visa waiver.

> It's not "really easy" at all and I don't know why anyone would think that

Because I know multiple illegal immigrants who vastly improved their lives by moving. A good friend of mine spent 4 years going in and out of KS state prisons, after a while he decided that he needed a change of scenery and hopped on a plane to Spain.

There's little chance he could get a visa without lying, but that hasn't really affected his life. He makes a living freelancing online, gets paid to his US account and pays the IRS. Here he enjoys access to excellent healthcare without risking bankruptcy.

Have you looked into working remotely and then moving somewhere like Argentina? They are very open to immigration and you can apply for citizenship after two years.

I have. In fact the once in a lifetime offer I got from a member here, the only real help in all these years, was to work remotely and live in Europe. My only real friends are there and my previous doctors there were wonderful so that is the goal. But a (as usual) complicated health issue made doing that job and that time impossible for me and I hate every day that it might have been the last hope. My health keeps blocking things. I don't even know what I could do to earn at this point that I would be sure of being able to sustain. I cannot depend on my body for consistency unless that consistency is pain and weakness at varying levels and that's incompatible with your ability to live being linked with your ability to use said body consistently to work in trade for cash. Every time I invest in an idea with energy and money something else happens to crush it. I'd need years of physical, financial, and mental stability to even begin to recover some life and simply cannot start entirely over with no help like one can when they are young and healthy. I have no bootstraps in any sense of the word to pull on.

I may be able to offer you a similar solution (remote job so you can live in Europe) as I have a UK company and my whole team is remote. You write beautifully and thoughtfully, which is what I need. Please shoot me an email to dbulic at my username dot eu - let's see if we can work together.

If you are a software engineer just came to brazil and you will live as a king here. There more than 400,000 jobs opening related to computer science.

And I’m sure you will have access to universal health system and private ones.

I am not a sw engineer and cannot work consistently or enough to earn like a normal person. That's the entire problem. My health was ruined and my finances decimated. Since without social aid your health is required to work and buy a life that puts me in an unsurvivable situation.

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