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Comment by nine_zeros | Hacker News Reader

Since the pandemic I have claimed that a lot of Americans will discover the power of the dollar soon, when they realize that a better QoL is just a passport and a flight away.

The current inflation, rate hikes and the tug of war between buyers and sellers will only expedite this knowledge. The common person in America just cannot win in this casino.

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It's famously easy to uproot one's entire life and permanently move to another country.

It’s not for everyone, but it works for many. I am astounded by how many folks I run into in the states planning to move to Portugal, Spain, Mexico, etc. Definitely more than pre pandemic.

Extremely easy. You just have to navigate a maze of foreign visa requirements, have a large amount of money, no need to work, learn a foreign language, get your partner/dependents to agree, and be separated from all your existing friends/family. Why don't more people do it?

You are somewhat overblowing the situation. Mexican financial solvency requirements are fairly low to get temporary or permanent residency. I applied for and received permanent residency for our entire family with 12 months of statements of a reasonably sized 401k. Portugal’s D7 visa requires $9k/year in passive income for a single person, $18k for a family of four (these numbers are likely lower now with the EUR approaching parity with the USD). These are not crazy numbers to accomplish. They’ll also accept a remote job if your company attests that they supports you doing so. I learned this from casual reading of Facebook groups and a gaggle of Reddit subreddits, confirming ground truth with immigration attorneys.

It is not one click, for sure, but these hurdles are nothing tremendous to overcome for a functioning adult. It is a reasonable path for people who have been priced out of a good life in the US by way of its economic and policy configuration. If the situation isn’t going to improve, you shop for a better jurisdiction to exist in.

> I applied for and received permanent residency for our entire family with 12 months of statements of a reasonably sized 401k.

How common is it for folks to have almost half a million in the bank?!

The amount was far, far lower than that. Requirements below (tied to the MXN minimum wage), although they have gone up a bit since I applied (which, at the time, was on a lark just to learn the process by doing).

Admittedly, if you don’t have pension income, social security income, investment or rental income, or no earning potential, there will be challenges.

https://www.mexperience.com/financial-criteria-for-residency...

Eh, depends on where you decide to go.

Switzerland & New Zealand-- yes, to all that stuff.

But Mexico? You purchase a 6 month visa (which is just a paper receipt and a passport stamp) at the airport, border crossing, or immigration office, for about $40. Stay longer? No problem, just pay a small fine ($30? I forgot the exact price) when you leave.

Learn a foreign language-- Spanish is among the easiest to learn. And there are bountiful opportunities in the US to learn, between classes & native speakers.

partner/dependents-- of course, this depends

friends/family-- yes, but you can visit them, they can visit you. And if you're willing to be outgoing, you can build new friendships they sometimes even become like family (or actual family)

One can see it positively-- as a growth experience. Or one can see it any way they choose.

The level of ease depends on many factors, including how much a person invests in consumer objects-- such as expensive furniture or vehicles. Personally, I've always bought used furniture at goodwill, and cheap used vehicles. And so I'm not super attached to most of my stuff. There is storage available for some things as well.

Unfortunately American passports are not guaranteed immigration vehicles. Even countries with very close economic ties[0] and no language barrier are still a challenge to get labor market access into; and I can totally see that blossoming into full-on NIMBYism-but-for-people if this were to become mainstream.

[0] EU excluded, mostly because the EU was very adamant on tying trade liberalization to immigration liberalization.

> the EU was very adamant on tying trade liberalization to immigration liberalization.

Why was this the case? Do you have more background information on it? I've heard little about this, except the end result of free movement within the EU.

> A better QoL is just a passport and a flight away.

Ummmmmm

And an immigration visa.

Not that I endorse spreading America's housing problems to the world, but many countries in southeast asia and africa will effectively allow you to get away with renewing your visa every 6 months in perpetuity.

I knew one guy whose only legal requirement was to leave the country twice a year, for a day, in order to come back for another 6 months. But he didn't even do this - he went one step lazier and hired someone else to run his papers to the border and back every 6 months.

It's a country-by-country thing, and maybe they've closed some loopholes, but I'd be shocked if a wealthy American can't still get away with this in dozens of poorer nations.

You can get a residence permit in Uruguay just with your birth certificate and your passport. Then you need to prove that you have the means to sustain yourself and that's it, no more requirements for moving here. Also, no taxes on software exports ;)

Whats the land buying situation like and pricing? A lot of countries have weird rules around foreigners buying property.

As far as I know, anyone can buy land/properties here. I think the only restriction is that foreigners are not allowed to buy land up to 30km from the border or something like that. Prices are way cheaper than in the US but probably more expensive than other south american countries.

Uruguay always interest me but I heard it is basically impossible to naturalize as the judge holds evidence of ties to Uruguay to an impossibly high standard. I guess that makes sense since Uruguay is a very open nation with easy permanent residence, closely guarding citizenship allows you to hold priveleges of your citizens dear while grasping the benefits of open borders to goods and labor.

You can never live a full life like this. Without a residency permit you won't open a bank account, won't buy any property, won't by a car for example, renting outside Airbnb is difficult, won't be using any governmental services.

The trick is to go into a country, stay there for the max allowed duration.

Then you fly back to US or visit another country for a month and go back to your base country. You can do this with Visa-on-arrival at most countries with a US passport.

Yeah that and there's tons of countries where it's easy to get a long-term visa or immigration status that doesn't allow you to work. I can also name plenty of countries where as long as you don't work (and even possibly if you do) your chances of getting deported as an illegal immigrant are about zero unless you've done something to really piss off the community. One of the more amusing is Argentina -- you can literally show up on day one, file a case for citizenship, and your court docket serves as 'citizenship' for prevention of deportation.

In the USA, if you don't seek employment and stay out of the 100 mile 'constitution-free' zone and live in a state that doesn't link the criminal justice system to immigration (I think California is an example) I think the chance of getting caught as an illegal immigrant are about zero unless you catch a felony or something.

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