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The big question here is how Senior Google executive Urs Hölzle managed to get a "remote work visa" from the government of New Zealand. It reminds me of the "sp

The big question here is how Senior Google executive Urs Hölzle managed to get a "remote work visa" from the government of New Zealand. It reminds me of the "special treatment" that Peter Thiel got, where he got New Zealand citizenship after spending only 12 days in New Zealand [1]. It is almost non-existent in the western world to be able to get a remote-work visa (minus Croatia and Czech Republic--both countries are part of the European Union and therefore become "westernized" quickly after accession). Yes, you can technically get _self-employment_, non-remote work visas in many European Union countries. But, the point and intent of such visas is that you contribute to their economy, assimilate, learn the local language, and eventually become a functioning contributing citizen in their society. The hypocrisy of the situation around remote work makes me angry, as I am disabled and I require remote work as an accommodation. I have 2 rare immune-mediated neurological diseases affecting my peripheral nervous system, plus type 1 diabetes (autoimmune and insulin-dependent). I should also point out something else unfair. I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen who works part-time remotely as a contractor for a US-based company in Croatia, while studying for her masters degree in electrical engineering full time. Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States, while essentially getting paid more (compared to the locals and most other European Union citizens) for just having US citizenship and related credentials. I basically live like a queen in Croatia. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/29/new-zealand-gave-peter-thiel-citizenship-after-spending-just-12-days-there https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/29/new-zealand-ga...

roca 5y ago
That's a good question. However, as a NZer, I think it's a pretty good deal for NZ to admit someone like Hölzle even if he only stays here for a year. For sure he will contribute to the economy by spending significant amounts (we have a sales tax he can't evade), and we should be able to collect income tax too. It's also good for our tech industry to have people like him around.
- disabled 5y ago
  More likely than not (from what I have researched online in the past 20 minutes or so) what was done for Urs was likely a form of corruption. It also appears like a form of corruption, on the surface. You do not want these people in your country. Trust me. I am saying this as an American. These are the kind of people who will eviscerate your government from the inside out, just in general. They will also ruin pension programs for the average person. They have contempt for things like government and pensions and they will fight tooth and nail to ruin them. They have a libertarian mindset. These are the kind of people who exploit others, in so many ways that it can be written into multiple books. The short term payoff is not worth it. Trust me.
  - roca 5y ago
    I have no reason to believe Hölzle is particularly corrupt or that he obtained entry in a way that's more corrupt than the banal "paid really diligent people to work the bureaucracy to his advantage". NZ's tolerance for personal bribery of officials is very low.
  - NamTaf 5y ago
    You really need to provide evidence to some of your claims here. People have shown that NZ has investment pathways. It’s entirely possible he used them. If you disagree with those, fine, that’s your call. However, that doesn’t make it corruption, and you shouldn’t frame it as such.
    - disabled 5y ago
      I provided evidence earlier with contextual information via this link, which was a huge document produced by the European Union on golden visas and golden passports: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_STU(2018)627128 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re...
      - roca 5y ago
        FWIW, in the NZ context, AFAIK there are no tax advantages for NZ's investor visa schemes (over whatever all NZers enjoy). And NZ is far from a tax haven.
hobos_delight 5y ago
He may not need a visa, if he is getting citizenship through investment [1]. [1] https://www.newzealand-migration.co.nz/dual-citizenship-services.html https://www.newzealand-migration.co.nz/dual-citizenship-serv...
- disabled 5y ago
  Thank you for the information. Citizenship by investment (aka golden visas) invite corruption. The European Union has been trying to eliminate these sorts of visas for obvious reasons. If you want to see a dedicated scam artist who will scam you out of 6 figures to “help” you get a citizenship by investment, check out Nomad Capitalist YouTube channel. Link to SCAMMER YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/c/nomadcapitalist https://youtube.com/c/nomadcapitalist
  - catmanjan 5y ago
    How does it invite corruption if it's a legitimate government sponsored pathway? I'm sure NZers are happy to get a piece of rich migrants wealth vs. their money staying in offshore havens
    - disabled 5y ago
      The EU did some pretty thorough research on this. Link to page: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_STU(2018)627128 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re... Citizenship by investment (CBI) and residency by investment (RBI) schemes in the EU This study analyses the state of play and issues surrounding citizenship and residency by investment schemes (so-called ‘golden passports’ and ‘golden visas’) in the EU. It looks at the economic social and political impacts of such schemes and examines the risks they carry in respect of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. Link to PDF document: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/627128/EPRS_STU(2018)627128_EN.pdf https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/6271...
    - wheelinsupial 5y ago
      Are you familiar with Vancouver, BC, Canada? There is a perception here that housing prices are constantly propped up and inflated because of rich migrants. Or simply because rich people are parking money in Vancouver real estate. This has been going on since the 1990s. In the short term people who own property and can benefit from the influx of money are happy. Over time it creates huge resentment from those who don’t see an opportunity to be able to afford owning. This resentment is even found among those earlier rich migrants who are now being priced out by migrants with more money. I’m sure there is similar sentiment in San Francisco and other places where tech workers have caused prices to increase. If this is limited in some way, then maybe the locals will be happy to see some additional wealth coming in.
petra 5y ago
//Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States, How does this work, given that European countries speak different languages?
- david-gpu 5y ago
  Most educated Europeans speak at least English. Many speak three languages.
- skydhash 5y ago
  English
- disabled 5y ago
  First and foremost, I speak Croatian pretty well, which is a second language for me. I am working on French at the moment, and that is what I will be focused on for the next 1.5 years. After that, I will go on to learn German. But, a lot of people speak English in the European Union. I also use nifty and unique tools like this, which helps me learn languages in my sleep (I use it for engineering coursework too!): https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep I also wrote a script that creates 10,000 Anki flashcards: with the English (10,000 most commonly used words in English) and the corresponding Foreign word, IPA pronunciation (English and Foreign word), Text-to-Speech audio (for both the English and Foreign word), and a GIF image corresponding to each flashcard. With respect to becoming conversational, this is the best tool: https://ai.glossika.com/ https://ai.glossika.com/ This is a good place to figure out good learning methods: https://forum.language-learners.org/ https://forum.language-learners.org/ I should point out that you never need to go abroad to learn a foreign language. You can just find the cheapest person on italki who is a native speaker of your target language, and have a session with them, where you only speak words in the target language. That is the best way to learn. But, this is the ultimate guide for learning a language. Basically, from there, it is a matter of finding inputs/outputs (materials to learn from) to work with in the foreign language: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/paul-nations-publications/publications/documents/foreign-language_1125.pdf https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources...
digianarchist 5y ago
A handful of countries allow remote work on tourist visas - Canada, UK. The vast majority of countries including the US implicitly or explicitly prohibit any work on tourist visas. It's an open secret in the digital nomading community. Many are not working legally or paying taxes to the host country.
- prpl 5y ago
  I thought there was a lot of gray area in there, depending on the country. If you go to a conference or a meeting in some countries, for example, you are obviously "working" while on that visa, arguably remote, and it's often the case that is done on a "tourist" visa for many countries. I thought this was the case for most EU, and it's the case for some South American countries. Some countries obviously don't allow that - I recall I needed an invitation for China and South Africa, for example for some conferences, although I think they were still tourist visas.
  - ta988 5y ago
    You will get questionned heavily by US customs if you travel "too much" to U.S. even for conferences (you better have proofs for these as well). It is accepted for a conference because duration is short. But they get highly suspicious for longer periods.
tunesmith 5y ago
What's the good argument behind preventing remote-work visas? I mean, it sounds like the best of all worlds from a country's perspective - someone from another country is paying this person, but that person lives here, and they spend their money here? That's a net inflow, what's not to like?
- mertd 5y ago
  Think of human labor as a natural resource. If the employer is overseas, you're selling the raw resource. You'd rather make some goods out of the resource and sell that instead.
  - PostOnce 5y ago
    It's not as though most countries have a local Google / Facebook / etc clone, so they can't "make the goods" domestically, there's no "means of production" in-country.
  - twojacobtwo 5y ago
    To me, that just means that an equivalent local worker is worth more than the remote worker, but the remote worker would still be a net inflow regardless, as the parent comment said.
  - austhrow743 5y ago
    You as the country the prospective remote worker could be visiting aren't the owner of the human labor though. The human labor and employer are both overseas and you have the option of getting one to visit you and spend their money in your land. Everything about the scenario exactly mirrors tourism as far as I can see, and countries generally like rich tourists visiting.
- srg0 5y ago
  > argument behind preventing remote-work visas A remote employer may not pay all the local taxes and contributions. In particular, in EU a part of the social security contributions is usually paid by the employer, not employee. The remote worker will benefit from the social security paid by others . A remote employer will not necessarily respect obligations that local employers may have (e.g. the number of maternity leave days). It may give the remote employers an unfair competitive advantage wrt the local economy.
ailun 5y ago
Why do you get paid more than most other EU citizens for having US citizenship? Just because it’s a US company? Did you get the job in the US then move to Croatia? Do they only hire US citizens? How does the local tax situation work out? Sorry for asking so many questions. I’m curious because I’m also an EU/US dual citizen about to start my career in tech.
- disabled 5y ago
  Basically it is because it is a US company. I got the job after I moved to Croatia. In this case, you generally need to be hired on as a contractor. Of course, your employer needs to know that you are a US citizen and you are living abroad, for US government tax reasons. The way it works is that you basically look for contractor jobs that are remote-only, that are based out of the US. You ask them if they are willing to take on you, a US citizen with US-based work credentials, working abroad (in X country in Y time zone), as a contractor. The key is that you need to get a local (abroad, where you reside) payroll company to do the taxes (as an intermediary) between you and the company. Technically you can do the taxes yourself, if you know what you are doing, but usually this is the best way to approach it. It certainly looks better to your employer to do it this way.
  - 55555 5y ago
    I live in Thailand. One of the big tech companies here is agoda. If you have dual citizenship, and you apply for a job there and present your non-Thai passport (HK, SG, USA, etc), your job offer will be for significantly more.
    - emikulic 5y ago
      I like your username given this context.
vondur 5y ago
I’d imagine the NZ government would be happy to attract rich people to move in. Doesn’t Australia have sone pretty steep financial requirements for those who want to emigrate there?
secnono 5y ago
"In all fairness to Mr. Mellon here, it was a really big check." - Back to School
jarv 5y ago
> I should also point out something else unfair. I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen who works part-time remotely as a contractor for a US-based company in Croatia, while studying for her masters degree in electrical engineering full time. Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States, while essentially getting paid more (compared to the locals and most other European Union citizens) for just having US citizenship and related credentials. For another perspective as a US citizen living in Europe, getting work remotely for US company really only works in tech from what I have seen (maybe in other professions, but they are not that common). What you need is the combination of being able to work on contract, and hopefully not have to shift your hours unless you are working part time. For companies that are large, established, and have remote workers you will likely be paid at market rate for where you live. The tax situation can get complicated depending on your income level, and tax rates in most European countries are much higher than the US. Your investment options outside the US are limited, many expats retain their US banks for this reason. You won't have the benefit of a 401k contribution either. The best situation for employment is being able to invoice a company directly and get paid on a contract, not every company is willing to do this. Otherwise, worst case you would be employed by a local PEO which means for tax purposes you are a full time employee and will likely be paying more taxes than you would in the US. I think Croatia might be in the sweet-spot of countries that hasn't a decent quality of life but also low taxes for independent contractors.
- soco 5y ago
  This setup looks to me indeed not sustainable on the long run. I'm not giving recommendations, I'm just thinking that working for a local (or nearer) company and/or giving up US citizenship could be ways to achieve a simpler and cheaper living...
  - disabled 5y ago
    I’m the OP. I am not that sentimental about being American. However, the US discovered the very rare disease that I have in the early 2000s, and ultimately saved my life (and others) around the world. That is the only reason why I do not renounce my citizenship. Because of this, I also have complex healthcare needs. So, the US always is a place to fall back on, as it has a lot of doctors treating obscure conditions.
nicbou 5y ago
For example, the German freelance visa requires a local economic interest, which translates to having clients in Germany. If you can't find German clients, you won't get the visa nor be ableto renew it. They check this thoroughly. Howeber, Malta let's you buy a EU citizenship for 650,000€, and other EU countries have similar schemes for rich people.
- soco 5y ago
  You should hurry to apply because the EU is starting to move towards blocking those schemes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-09/cyprus-and-malta-warned-by-eu-over-passports-for-sale https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-09/cyprus-an...
  - nicbou 5y ago
    Yep, I heard about this already. I have a German residence permit, and I don't have 650k at hand anyway.
jhgb 5y ago
> minus Croatia and Czech Republic--both countries are part of the European Union and therefore become "westernized" quickly after accession Why would Czech Republic, formerly a province of Austria-Hungary, need to become "westernized"? It was "westernized" centuries ago -- at the time of the first Přemyslids, in fact, when the Eastern church, courtesy of Cyril and Methodius, was replaced in Bohemia for political reasons by allegiance to the (Catholic) Regensburg diocese.

roca 5y ago

That's a good question. However, as a NZer, I think it's a pretty good deal for NZ to admit someone like Hölzle even if he only stays here for a year. For sure he will contribute to the economy by spending significant amounts (we have a sales tax he can't evade), and we should be able to collect income tax too. It's also good for our tech industry to have people like him around.

disabled 5y ago
More likely than not (from what I have researched online in the past 20 minutes or so) what was done for Urs was likely a form of corruption. It also appears like a form of corruption, on the surface. You do not want these people in your country. Trust me. I am saying this as an American. These are the kind of people who will eviscerate your government from the inside out, just in general. They will also ruin pension programs for the average person. They have contempt for things like government and pensions and they will fight tooth and nail to ruin them. They have a libertarian mindset. These are the kind of people who exploit others, in so many ways that it can be written into multiple books. The short term payoff is not worth it. Trust me.
- roca 5y ago
  I have no reason to believe Hölzle is particularly corrupt or that he obtained entry in a way that's more corrupt than the banal "paid really diligent people to work the bureaucracy to his advantage". NZ's tolerance for personal bribery of officials is very low.
- NamTaf 5y ago
  You really need to provide evidence to some of your claims here. People have shown that NZ has investment pathways. It’s entirely possible he used them. If you disagree with those, fine, that’s your call. However, that doesn’t make it corruption, and you shouldn’t frame it as such.
  - disabled 5y ago
    I provided evidence earlier with contextual information via this link, which was a huge document produced by the European Union on golden visas and golden passports: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_STU(2018)627128 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re...
    - roca 5y ago
      FWIW, in the NZ context, AFAIK there are no tax advantages for NZ's investor visa schemes (over whatever all NZers enjoy). And NZ is far from a tax haven.

hobos_delight 5y ago

He may not need a visa, if he is getting citizenship through investment [1]. [1] https://www.newzealand-migration.co.nz/dual-citizenship-services.html https://www.newzealand-migration.co.nz/dual-citizenship-serv...

disabled 5y ago
Thank you for the information. Citizenship by investment (aka golden visas) invite corruption. The European Union has been trying to eliminate these sorts of visas for obvious reasons. If you want to see a dedicated scam artist who will scam you out of 6 figures to “help” you get a citizenship by investment, check out Nomad Capitalist YouTube channel. Link to SCAMMER YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/c/nomadcapitalist https://youtube.com/c/nomadcapitalist
- catmanjan 5y ago
  How does it invite corruption if it's a legitimate government sponsored pathway? I'm sure NZers are happy to get a piece of rich migrants wealth vs. their money staying in offshore havens
  - disabled 5y ago
    The EU did some pretty thorough research on this. Link to page: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_STU(2018)627128 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re... Citizenship by investment (CBI) and residency by investment (RBI) schemes in the EU This study analyses the state of play and issues surrounding citizenship and residency by investment schemes (so-called ‘golden passports’ and ‘golden visas’) in the EU. It looks at the economic social and political impacts of such schemes and examines the risks they carry in respect of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. Link to PDF document: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/627128/EPRS_STU(2018)627128_EN.pdf https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/6271...
  - wheelinsupial 5y ago
    Are you familiar with Vancouver, BC, Canada? There is a perception here that housing prices are constantly propped up and inflated because of rich migrants. Or simply because rich people are parking money in Vancouver real estate. This has been going on since the 1990s. In the short term people who own property and can benefit from the influx of money are happy. Over time it creates huge resentment from those who don’t see an opportunity to be able to afford owning. This resentment is even found among those earlier rich migrants who are now being priced out by migrants with more money. I’m sure there is similar sentiment in San Francisco and other places where tech workers have caused prices to increase. If this is limited in some way, then maybe the locals will be happy to see some additional wealth coming in.

petra 5y ago

//Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States, How does this work, given that European countries speak different languages?

david-gpu 5y ago
Most educated Europeans speak at least English. Many speak three languages.
skydhash 5y ago
English
disabled 5y ago
First and foremost, I speak Croatian pretty well, which is a second language for me. I am working on French at the moment, and that is what I will be focused on for the next 1.5 years. After that, I will go on to learn German. But, a lot of people speak English in the European Union. I also use nifty and unique tools like this, which helps me learn languages in my sleep (I use it for engineering coursework too!): https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep I also wrote a script that creates 10,000 Anki flashcards: with the English (10,000 most commonly used words in English) and the corresponding Foreign word, IPA pronunciation (English and Foreign word), Text-to-Speech audio (for both the English and Foreign word), and a GIF image corresponding to each flashcard. With respect to becoming conversational, this is the best tool: https://ai.glossika.com/ https://ai.glossika.com/ This is a good place to figure out good learning methods: https://forum.language-learners.org/ https://forum.language-learners.org/ I should point out that you never need to go abroad to learn a foreign language. You can just find the cheapest person on italki who is a native speaker of your target language, and have a session with them, where you only speak words in the target language. That is the best way to learn. But, this is the ultimate guide for learning a language. Basically, from there, it is a matter of finding inputs/outputs (materials to learn from) to work with in the foreign language: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources/paul-nations-publications/publications/documents/foreign-language_1125.pdf https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources...

digianarchist 5y ago

A handful of countries allow remote work on tourist visas - Canada, UK. The vast majority of countries including the US implicitly or explicitly prohibit any work on tourist visas. It's an open secret in the digital nomading community. Many are not working legally or paying taxes to the host country.

prpl 5y ago
I thought there was a lot of gray area in there, depending on the country. If you go to a conference or a meeting in some countries, for example, you are obviously "working" while on that visa, arguably remote, and it's often the case that is done on a "tourist" visa for many countries. I thought this was the case for most EU, and it's the case for some South American countries. Some countries obviously don't allow that - I recall I needed an invitation for China and South Africa, for example for some conferences, although I think they were still tourist visas.
- ta988 5y ago
  You will get questionned heavily by US customs if you travel "too much" to U.S. even for conferences (you better have proofs for these as well). It is accepted for a conference because duration is short. But they get highly suspicious for longer periods.

tunesmith 5y ago

What's the good argument behind preventing remote-work visas? I mean, it sounds like the best of all worlds from a country's perspective - someone from another country is paying this person, but that person lives here, and they spend their money here? That's a net inflow, what's not to like?

mertd 5y ago
Think of human labor as a natural resource. If the employer is overseas, you're selling the raw resource. You'd rather make some goods out of the resource and sell that instead.
- PostOnce 5y ago
  It's not as though most countries have a local Google / Facebook / etc clone, so they can't "make the goods" domestically, there's no "means of production" in-country.
- twojacobtwo 5y ago
  To me, that just means that an equivalent local worker is worth more than the remote worker, but the remote worker would still be a net inflow regardless, as the parent comment said.
- austhrow743 5y ago
  You as the country the prospective remote worker could be visiting aren't the owner of the human labor though. The human labor and employer are both overseas and you have the option of getting one to visit you and spend their money in your land. Everything about the scenario exactly mirrors tourism as far as I can see, and countries generally like rich tourists visiting.
srg0 5y ago
> argument behind preventing remote-work visas A remote employer may not pay all the local taxes and contributions. In particular, in EU a part of the social security contributions is usually paid by the employer, not employee. The remote worker will benefit from the social security paid by others . A remote employer will not necessarily respect obligations that local employers may have (e.g. the number of maternity leave days). It may give the remote employers an unfair competitive advantage wrt the local economy.

ailun 5y ago

Why do you get paid more than most other EU citizens for having US citizenship? Just because it’s a US company? Did you get the job in the US then move to Croatia? Do they only hire US citizens? How does the local tax situation work out? Sorry for asking so many questions. I’m curious because I’m also an EU/US dual citizen about to start my career in tech.

disabled 5y ago
Basically it is because it is a US company. I got the job after I moved to Croatia. In this case, you generally need to be hired on as a contractor. Of course, your employer needs to know that you are a US citizen and you are living abroad, for US government tax reasons. The way it works is that you basically look for contractor jobs that are remote-only, that are based out of the US. You ask them if they are willing to take on you, a US citizen with US-based work credentials, working abroad (in X country in Y time zone), as a contractor. The key is that you need to get a local (abroad, where you reside) payroll company to do the taxes (as an intermediary) between you and the company. Technically you can do the taxes yourself, if you know what you are doing, but usually this is the best way to approach it. It certainly looks better to your employer to do it this way.
- 55555 5y ago
  I live in Thailand. One of the big tech companies here is agoda. If you have dual citizenship, and you apply for a job there and present your non-Thai passport (HK, SG, USA, etc), your job offer will be for significantly more.
  - emikulic 5y ago
    I like your username given this context.

vondur 5y ago

I’d imagine the NZ government would be happy to attract rich people to move in. Doesn’t Australia have sone pretty steep financial requirements for those who want to emigrate there?

secnono 5y ago

"In all fairness to Mr. Mellon here, it was a really big check." - Back to School

jarv 5y ago

> I should also point out something else unfair. I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen who works part-time remotely as a contractor for a US-based company in Croatia, while studying for her masters degree in electrical engineering full time. Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States, while essentially getting paid more (compared to the locals and most other European Union citizens) for just having US citizenship and related credentials. For another perspective as a US citizen living in Europe, getting work remotely for US company really only works in tech from what I have seen (maybe in other professions, but they are not that common). What you need is the combination of being able to work on contract, and hopefully not have to shift your hours unless you are working part time. For companies that are large, established, and have remote workers you will likely be paid at market rate for where you live. The tax situation can get complicated depending on your income level, and tax rates in most European countries are much higher than the US. Your investment options outside the US are limited, many expats retain their US banks for this reason. You won't have the benefit of a 401k contribution either. The best situation for employment is being able to invoice a company directly and get paid on a contract, not every company is willing to do this. Otherwise, worst case you would be employed by a local PEO which means for tax purposes you are a full time employee and will likely be paying more taxes than you would in the US. I think Croatia might be in the sweet-spot of countries that hasn't a decent quality of life but also low taxes for independent contractors.

soco 5y ago
This setup looks to me indeed not sustainable on the long run. I'm not giving recommendations, I'm just thinking that working for a local (or nearer) company and/or giving up US citizenship could be ways to achieve a simpler and cheaper living...
- disabled 5y ago
  I’m the OP. I am not that sentimental about being American. However, the US discovered the very rare disease that I have in the early 2000s, and ultimately saved my life (and others) around the world. That is the only reason why I do not renounce my citizenship. Because of this, I also have complex healthcare needs. So, the US always is a place to fall back on, as it has a lot of doctors treating obscure conditions.

nicbou 5y ago

For example, the German freelance visa requires a local economic interest, which translates to having clients in Germany. If you can't find German clients, you won't get the visa nor be ableto renew it. They check this thoroughly. Howeber, Malta let's you buy a EU citizenship for 650,000€, and other EU countries have similar schemes for rich people.

soco 5y ago
You should hurry to apply because the EU is starting to move towards blocking those schemes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-09/cyprus-and-malta-warned-by-eu-over-passports-for-sale https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-09/cyprus-an...
- nicbou 5y ago
  Yep, I heard about this already. I have a German residence permit, and I don't have 650k at hand anyway.

jhgb 5y ago

> minus Croatia and Czech Republic--both countries are part of the European Union and therefore become "westernized" quickly after accession Why would Czech Republic, formerly a province of Austria-Hungary, need to become "westernized"? It was "westernized" centuries ago -- at the time of the first Přemyslids, in fact, when the Eastern church, courtesy of Cyril and Methodius, was replaced in Bohemia for political reasons by allegiance to the (Catholic) Regensburg diocese.