The First Question You Should Be Asking if You Want to Leave the US

I’m not going to bury it and give you six paragraphs of irrelevant musings to keep you on my page.

I’m going to cut straight to the point.

The absolute first question you should be asking if you’re seeking to emigrate from the US — and especially if you want to go soon and probably not come back — is this:

“Where can I qualify for a residency visa or citizenship?”

A lot of people are doing it all wrong, backwards, and as a result, are still sitting in the United States of America.

Now, I will caveat this by saying that there are people — digital nomads — who never apply for residency visas and truly live nomadically, traveling from country to country on visitor or tourist visas. There are a lot of reasons why, in my humble opinion, this is not a great idea — but that’s for another article. If that is your plan, then this piece won’t necessarily apply to you right now.

I will note, though, that a digital nomad moving internationally in this manner is relying entirely on the strength of their passport(s). The US passport is currently one of the strongest in the world; there are numerous countries where one can travel with a US passport without even applying for a visitor or tourist visa at all.

Whether this will hold in the face of the US President continuously alienating other nations and aggressing toward historical allies remains to be seen.

But for now, folks can and do travel the world solely on US passports, never applying for legal residency status in the countries they traverse.

For everyone else — those who truly want to emigrate, integrate, settle into a country — this is the very first question you should be asking.

Not where do I “want” to emigrate, but where am I eligible to emigrate.

Not what climate you prefer. Not which country harbors a city that you’ve always dreamed of living in. Not where you like the food.

Not even whether you agree with the political leanings of the majority or where you will be accepted for your identities — these last two are crucial data points that should absolutely guide your decision. They are nevertheless irrelevant if you don’t qualify for any of the visa programs available in the countries at the top of what you might think is your short list.

The world isn’t actually your oyster (unless you are uber-rich).

In some cases, becoming a legal resident is straightforward.

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