Do you have to put up with nonsense like credit checks, etc. like if your were doing it the old fashioned way? (Our credit is fine, but locked at all the agencies. And it’s a pain to lift it especially when half the time nobody can tell you what agency they are going to pull from.)
Keep us updated. I can’t see a scenario where Trump is in power and we’re comfortable staying in the US long-term. I would almost certainly “stay and fight” if I was single, but we’ll have two very young children and a responsibility to give them the best life possible. Seems like our best chance to safely “fight” is to pull a lifetime’s worth of tax dollars away from the GOP grifters.
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No, none of that. It’s just like getting a hotel room.
The only thing that annoys me is the site strongly encourages - and some hosts require - a profile picture.
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This is in the USA I think, but still putting here for @JohnnyTruant.
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One of my climbing buddies built (well had built, at least the concrete castings) and lives in a concrete yurt in Vermont. Killer views of the mountains from his property, and he can hit a backcountry ski run about 100 feet from his door. But he has to ski or snowshoe into it in the winter.
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As soon as the situation in Mexico stabilizes I’ll probably start trying to sell my condo and stuff and get back on the road. But it’s no fun there right now. Meaning - tourist stuff is all closed. I think.
I’m really proud of you guys for doing this.
I was single and had citizenship. For me, it was a matter of landing, getting a job, and filling out a bunch of paperwork. For some of you, it’s infinitely more complex and you’re pushing through anyway.
AirBNB’s been a godsend and made living abroad infinitely easier. Probably helps that I’ve seemingly run red hot finding a decent place and amazingly helpful landladies.
Both times the process has been mostly identical:
Once I have a firm date set for moving to a place (in my case it was July 2016 to Lyon, France and May 2018 to Mexico City), I start looking on AirBNB for a temp. place for a duration of 3-6 months. For that length, you’ll probably have to start searching 2+ months in advance, otherwise there might not be enough available places.
On AirBNB, I will pretty much always haggle on price. So if my target budget is $900 or less, I’ll search for anything listed at about $1200 or less and ask for a discount via message. About 20-40% will either agree to the discount or offer a reduced price.
Both times I found a pretty nice place in my target area of the city and both landladies were very kind and communicative with every step of the process. After arriving in my new city and new apartment, I’d check out the apartment for a couple days to make sure it was to my liking. If so, then I’d message my landlady and let them know I was planning on staying long-term in the city and that I’d be glad to continue staying in their place once the AirBNB reservation was up. Both times it was off site, which is even more helpful now that AirBNB’s cut continues to get larger and larger.
In France, I didn’t even have any type of contract, just a verbal agreement with my landlady and I’d send her the rent each month via bank transfer. In my current place in CDMX, my landlady and I just have a basic contract with a few rules that we both signed. It’s pretty unofficial though and probably wouldn’t even hold up in a court or anything. She comes by once a month and I just give her the rent in MX pesos.
I ended up staying about 16 months in France and have been in my current place in CDMX for over 2 years and both times it started w/a 3 month reservation off AirBNB and then just sticking around unofficially.
So AirBNB is pretty nice and super hassle free if you can swing it. I have no clue what the process would even be like to try and rent my own place in France, and in Mexico it sounds like a bit of a headache, often times you’ll need to find someone who already owns property in Mexico to sign on as a guarantor for you.
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Yah, I’d probably pay mid 5 figures for that citizenship, which would be a significant part of my net worth. It’s such a headache trying to stay long-term in most places without citizenship. In France I was even floating the idea of going to university for a mostly useless degree and just playing online poker to keep my visa going. But I nixed that idea once I saw how insane the program was (like 30 hours of physical classes per week + I’d have to study a ridiculous amount being that my French was decent but not great). Luckily Mexico has been a breeze so far, but the dream of getting back to Europe is still in my head and I’m thinking I might try again in a couple years.
A bit north of there, near Plaza Saint-Hubert. When I was there last summer the encroaching hipsterism was noticeable in the area, and that was actually listed as a selling point in the Airbnb listing. I’d expect full blown gentrification soon enough. Mile End and Mile Ex are already there.
Not a neighborhood I think I’d want to be in long-term, but seems nice for a few months. If I do end up looking for a longer term rental it will likely be in another part of the city with fewer chic cafes and more people who don’t look like me selling cheap food you can smell from half a block away.
I mean are you expecting them to wait for the Black people to show up before telling them their place isn’t available anymore? Much easier if they can see them right there on the profile.
That said I’ve had one bad AirBnB experience ever out of like 10-15 stays and I knew going in it was risky (chose a grimy little apartment in San Diego and brought our dog because everything else was way too expensive. It felt dirty and our dog was clearly not comfortable so we left after one night without saying goodbye or writing a review. It was inexpensive enough that we did not mind the sunk cost). The remainder have been between fine and great. On another trip to SD we split the cost of a house with my family. Everything was great including the host but we probably won’t be going back since she had a massive collection of Bill O’Reilly books in one bedroom.
Re: Czech citizenship, I found a Czech immigration lawyer who used to practice here and is now based in Scottsdale. She put me in contact with some lawyers in Czech Republic who are going to see if they can help me, have a phone meeting with them Monday.
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If St. Hubert stayed just like that I could happily live there forever.
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Yeah I was able to rent a bedroom long-term as a transition from the UK to Prague.
Not sure what renting long term is like elsewhere but the place I was at isn’t one I’d want to stay at for any longer than the 3 weeks I did.
Seems like time for a bump. The process of obtaining Czech citizenship seems not bad, just need to gather some paperwork and get it certified. They need to basically reinstate my mother’s citizenship and then I can get a Czech birth certificate, followed by a passport. The tricky part might be getting the paperwork from my mother as stated earlier, she’ll probably push back due to some combination of being naturally contradictory and fear that we’re going to take her grandchild out of the country not to mention her dislike of the homeland (she left when it was Communist and has bad memories there). There are ways around it but hopefully she’ll come around without me having to resort to any dirty tactics.
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Wife has been researching our family tree and I have Latvian roots. Doing some research shows you can get Latvian residency for a $250k EUR real estate purchase, in case it helps anybody.
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For a US citizen who doesn’t have any path to citizenship in another country due to family and isn’t wealthy, what are some of the easiest countries to get into? Not seriously considering this yet, but figured it might be good to know what the quickest ways out are.
This. I was gonna come in and grunch a similar question. Has there been any determination made of easiest/best destinations to flee to?
How do you guys find family history? I assume places like ancestor dot com are a scam?
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There are lots of good options to flee as an expat. It’s easy to be a perpetual tourist, and many countries in Central & South America and SE Asia don’t really care how long you hang around for.
If you’re looking for the security of legal residency, legal work, and a path to citizenship, without spending $$$, you’re probably going to either need a job offer, a family connection, or a local willing to marry you. afaik there aren’t really many places where you can just show up and have official status.
So if you don’t have cash or family connections, your best bet would be to find countries looking for skills you have and start applying for jobs. Many places like New Zealand and Canada have points systems for granting residency. If you’re the right sort of person, they’re actively recruiting. STEM and healthcare workers always seem to be in demand.
If all that fails, there’s the French Foreign Legion (can get citizenship after 3 years’ service), and Svalbard:
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You likely already know any family history that matters. It’s doubtful any ancestry past your grandparents is going to get you in anywhere.