3 ms·

Is/was your friend an American citizen? I've been fascinated by emigrating to Europe for a long time and am always looking for stories about how people pull it

Is/was your friend an American citizen? I've been fascinated by emigrating to Europe for a long time and am always looking for stories about how people pull it off.

schmichael 10y ago
Originally English/Dutch, so that simplified moving.
RandomBookmarks 10y ago
This is rather easy for the typical HN crowd. For example, to get a working visa for Germany (Blue card) you "only" need to find a job that pays more than 50000 Euro/year. In a nutshell, that is all. http://www.bamf.de/EN/Infothek/FragenAntworten/BlaueKarteEU/blaue-karte-eu-node.html http://www.bamf.de/EN/Infothek/FragenAntworten/BlaueKarteEU/...
- rev_bird 10y ago
  Had no idea about this, thank you for passing it along. This part is particularly interesting: > Holders of an EU Blue Card can enter another Member State without a visa after 18 months and apply for the EU Blue Card of that Member State within a period of one month. And it looks like Americans (at least for now...) can go to Germany before they're even approved: > Exceptions apply to nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the United States of America. They can enter Germany on a visa-free basis and can apply to the competent immigration authority in Germany for their future place of residence for an EU Blue Card within three months of entering Germany.
brightsize 10y ago
Same here. This might be one route to consider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT
- rev_bird 10y ago
  Thanks for this. I'm sure it's not quite as scary as it sounds, but the only thing I can think of that's more challenging than "start a business" is "start a business in a new country where you don't know the language." The "friendship treaty" seems like a great idea, but right now I'm not a very good friend.
  - cr1895 10y ago
    I have friends who've moved to the NL via DAFT. You'd probably do well to hire an accountant who can deal with the tax authorities (who are the only branch of gov't that will not speak English to you), but the business doesn't necessarily need to cater only to Dutch speakers. And while it's nice to learn the language and all, the NL has among the highest English competency in Europe. It's rather difficult to learn Dutch because English is so useful and prevalent.
cr1895 10y ago
I'll link you to a comment I made a few days ago about moving to the NL: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=13522661 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=13522661
- rev_bird 10y ago
  Thank you; missed this the first time around. Suddenly really interested in learning Dutch...

Is/was your friend an American citizen? I've been fascinated by emigrating to Europe for a long time and am always looking for stories about how people pull it off.

schmichael 10y ago

Originally English/Dutch, so that simplified moving.

RandomBookmarks 10y ago

This is rather easy for the typical HN crowd. For example, to get a working visa for Germany (Blue card) you "only" need to find a job that pays more than 50000 Euro/year. In a nutshell, that is all. http://www.bamf.de/EN/Infothek/FragenAntworten/BlaueKarteEU/blaue-karte-eu-node.html http://www.bamf.de/EN/Infothek/FragenAntworten/BlaueKarteEU/...

rev_bird 10y ago
Had no idea about this, thank you for passing it along. This part is particularly interesting: > Holders of an EU Blue Card can enter another Member State without a visa after 18 months and apply for the EU Blue Card of that Member State within a period of one month. And it looks like Americans (at least for now...) can go to Germany before they're even approved: > Exceptions apply to nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand and the United States of America. They can enter Germany on a visa-free basis and can apply to the competent immigration authority in Germany for their future place of residence for an EU Blue Card within three months of entering Germany.

brightsize 10y ago

Same here. This might be one route to consider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT

rev_bird 10y ago
Thanks for this. I'm sure it's not quite as scary as it sounds, but the only thing I can think of that's more challenging than "start a business" is "start a business in a new country where you don't know the language." The "friendship treaty" seems like a great idea, but right now I'm not a very good friend.
- cr1895 10y ago
  I have friends who've moved to the NL via DAFT. You'd probably do well to hire an accountant who can deal with the tax authorities (who are the only branch of gov't that will not speak English to you), but the business doesn't necessarily need to cater only to Dutch speakers. And while it's nice to learn the language and all, the NL has among the highest English competency in Europe. It's rather difficult to learn Dutch because English is so useful and prevalent.

cr1895 10y ago

I'll link you to a comment I made a few days ago about moving to the NL: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=13522661 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=13522661

rev_bird 10y ago
Thank you; missed this the first time around. Suddenly really interested in learning Dutch...