Yeah, I’ve gotten that before - though I didn’t stay anywhere near that long.
You’re on a tourist visa right? No worries about working online though? Would it be that hard to get other kinds of work?
If you didn’t want to do the perpetual tourist thing (which some people do for decades) then you’d probably start with a temporary residence visa. The requirements vary depending on the consulate and who you ask, but if you can show a bank statement with $2.5k+ a month coming in for 12+ months or a balance of like 20k+ then you should be able to qualify.
Yep, right now I’m on my 5th tourist visa in under 3 years. They don’t care about online work.
It’s pretty tough to earn a decent salary in Mexico unless you already have an in with a big multi-national company.
In Mexico if you earn over $800/month then that’d put you in like the top 8%.
My girlfriend went to nursing school at a great university here for 5 years and was earning about $550/month in her 2nd year working at a hospital. Luckily she’s not worked as a nurse for a year and I’m helping her become an online Spanish teacher b/c she’ll have much better earnings potential as well as flexibility to work and live/travel abroad like me.
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Not sure I can (or should) add much. I’ve been an ‘ilegal’ here for most of my 10+ years in S.America. Governments in this part of the world just don’t care ime. Uruguay in particular has suffered from brain drain historically, so they’re just grateful anyone comes down here to stay at all.
It’s funny 'cos I’m fairly involved in the community locally, first name terms with the mayor etc. Whenever I’ve needed to provide a cedula number (local ID) I’ve just told them I don’t have one but do have a UK passport. “You should probably start your residency” is the typical reply from any gubmint official.
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I should add, not here alone. My partner is native to S.America. When we moved here (from Argentina) we did all her residency paperwork. My son was born here so is a citizen.
I couldn’t be arsed to do mine because I was grinding/sportsbetting at the time and it was a giant ballache to get documents sent from UK etc. I probably will complete my residency sooner rather than later, mainly cos I’ll probably need a bank loan in the not too distant future
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The thing I’ve always wondered about people in your position is, what happens when you’re too old to work, or you need long term medical care? Can you afford to stay where you are? Do you have to go back to the place you have citizenship? The whole perpetual tourist visa game thing just doesn’t seem viable to me beyond middle age unless you’re very wealthy.
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You’re right. I was fortunate enough to make decent money and buy a farm/nice house here with savings. Selling that and buying an RV is basically my retirement plan. My mrs is paying in to a state pension scheme, but it’ll basically be a miserable income if/when the time comes.
Socialized medicine here would (and has) take care of me in an emergency. ‘Private’ insurance runs at around 70 bucks a month last I checked.
I’m early 40’s now and was heavily influenced by the loss of my father (in his 50s). ‘Fuck worying about retirement etc’ is basically my attitude. Irresponsible I know, but life’s too short imo.
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That’s an attitude I respect and have generally lived by.with few regrets. But in recent years I’ve become much more aware of the statistical likelihood that I am going to live into my early 80’s. I look at family members who have already reached that age, with all of the issues they face, and going through that in a place where you’re not a citizen or wealthy seems kind of terrifying to me.
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It doesn’t sound that bad with the socialized medicine and $70/month insurance if that’s any good. You could retire from the US and I don’t see why you wouldn’t still get social security at 65. Sounds like it would go pretty far in Uruguay - probably far enough to make up for not getting medicare.
And if you end up somewhere like France? My daughter got some medical care in France and it was cheaper for her as a non-citizen there than it would have been here for her under our insurance, which isn’t some cheap emergency only plan.
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There’s quite a few here doing just that. Mostly deplorables so I keep my distance.
Private health care is excellent imo. Public is still very good (shabby looking buildings sometimes admittedly). We pay a lot of tax here.
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I can see why it’d seem terrifying for some. I guess when the time comes I hope I’m still mentally/physically able to consume vast amounts of opium/psychedelics etc before I rot to death alone in my own urine/feces. 
Sorry, don’t really have a satisfying/serious answer for you. I’m hoping friends/family will be around to make sure the last few days/months/years are dignified, but I’m not losing any sleep over it (ignorance is bliss!)
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Like, this is gonna be pretty boastful, but if it’s a matter of security in having an old age that isn’t horrible, I’ll take having two wonderful daughters over counting on whatever the United States Government is going to do for me.
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Right on brother.
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Can happily go in to greater detail re: healthcare here if anyone is interested. Have quite a bit of experience helping a couple of expats when they got sick (one terminally with the Big C).
‘Helping’: I was paid for my time as a translator.
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This is probably just trivia, but if you’re a legal resident of France for at least three months you now (since 2016) get the state insurance. I don’t know the level of coverage if you’re a freeloader (i.e. not paying in), but as far as I understand it the lowest coverage is still very decent.
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Dude I have no idea how I missed this, amazing. I’m going to be grinding microstakes in Spain. Sheeeeeeeeyt.
Citizenship in Euro countries usually means taking some exams to show you know something about the country you’re moving to, and language tests. The conditions and degree of difficulty vary from country to country but it would be foolish not to research these things properly beforehand.
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So, I watched the video you posted and looked into this a bit more, and there’s one real issue: At least according to the consulate in Los Angeles, you are not allowed to do any lucrative work. You can’t teach English to Chinese students and get paid by a foreign company. You can’t do squat. It’s of course not entirely clear whether this applies to poker, but I’m almost certain it does.
And the tax scheme in Spain is not easy to navigate.
So, like, sure I can prove that I have enough for the visa, but I would have to do something to earn money or soon I wouldn’t have enough to continue the visa anymore. I wonder, if I show them an amount in my bank account, are they going to ask how exactly there’s more money in said account two years later? I think if you had a steady pension or trust or annuity or something this is doable, but if you actually need to earn money while in Spain it seems dicey.
This seems like a real pitfall. I wonder if a poker player could get a freelance visa, or even a working visa if I could find a low-hour job teaching like one English class just for the visa.
This assumes I will actually be able to make any money at all playing online poker which is not at all guaranteed but is likely.
lol israel @ #3.
Interested in a country with a dangerous megalomaniac leader who would rather see the country burn down than vacate his seat?
Interested in a political climate where anyone who criticizes the government is called an anarchist-terrorist that is paid by Soros?
Months of protests that only ends in more police brutality towards civilians?
Shady elections where your votes don’t actually matter because coalition are formed against the will of the people?
Oh, and did you miss treating 20% of the population like criminals and systemically make it nearly impossible for them to break out of their current condition?
Well come on down.
All the things you love about the US plus absolutely no personal space, complete disregard for common manners and endless attempts to screw you over.
Join now and for an unlimited time you can get coronavirus EVERYWHERE at no extra charge.
We do have good food tho.
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That can be a really shitty burden to dump on your kids if you end up with some sort of long term debilitating condition.
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Americans, and probably lots of others in the world these days, have shitty ideas about family. Of course I don’t want to be a burden to my children. But, like I just got off living in my mother’s apartment almost full time for four months taking care of her. Not that big a deal.
If I’m a hopeless terminal case, then hopefully I do what I can to go out quickly.