This is my experience as well. I have never had a bad experience going into Canada, but many on my way back into the US. US border guards are total assholes.
Lol if thatās your standard, then sure. Pretty much every govt worker of any country you will ever encounter in your life is >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> US border agents.
You canāt just say āgettinā away from the rat raceā and thatās cool without having to get into the whole āAmerica is a shithole and we canāt stomach this crapā?
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It like when they give you the safety speech on a plane. First you have to secure your own oxygen mask before you can help others.
Nothing is stopping you from helping from Canada once your family is safe.
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Takes a lot of courage to do what youāre doing.
It was easy for me because I was young, had no dependents, no job and didnāt set roots in a community. Youāre making a move that you think is best for your family at great sacrifice to yourself, at least in the short run. I tip my cap to you.
Drop a line if you visit Prague.
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Any time one makes a move like this, whether leaving the country or leaving a job, there emerges a āleaving the tribeā mentality by those left behind. I donāt think it is done out of anger or malice, I think itās a residual human thing left over from our paleolithic hunter/gather period. In any case, there will be some āshunningā and itās unavoidable. Stay true to your moral compass, execute your plans, and in time, some of the shunners may come around.
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When the time comes, are you going to give close family and family a chance to say goodbye in person, even if it means driving over and staying in the car with the windows up, or is that going to be too hard on you?
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This might be an appealing option if you donāt mind sweating the occasional hurricane:
There are two different ways to get citizenship in New Zealand by investment, starting with an investment of at least $2 million over a four-year period.
Oh is that all? Sweet.
Anyone want to invest in New Zealand on my behalf? Iāll be your man on the ground in New Zealand to make sure your investments run smoothly.
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The world sucks.
I was clicking through all of the links and the NZ one was a little unclear to me. The article says you can get citizenship, but when you click the link it says you get āresidencyā. And I couldnāt find any good info on the pathway from residency to citizenship. At least not in the 30s I spent on it.
Portugal also seems pretty great. It looks like there is an option where you only need 350K euros (for residency). And itās not like you are losing the money, it sounds like you could just buy a house there for that much and then you can get residency. Once again, based on <1 min of browsing, so I may have missed some of the fine print.
You can get a citizenship grant after 5 years. You need to be physically present in NZ for at least 240 days in each of those 5 years and 1,350 days overall.
You have it right for Portugal, and Spain has a similar program. Weāve been looking into both. They call it the Golden Visa I believe in both countries. It also grants you the right to work anywhere in the EU I believe. (But we are instead leaning toward permanent residency with no right to work, since we are considering just retiring.)
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There are a handful of countries in the Balkans and E. Europe where the required investment is quite low, like 10k or less. I could dig up the article if anyoneās interested.
Spain also has a visa (called non lucrative visa I think) where you can qualify by showing a bank account w/26k+ in it. Iām hoping to take advantage of that and move there in a few years. For now Iām happy in Mexico City, but Iāve always dreamed of being a Euro resident/citizen.
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And I assume that after the 5yrs is one able to liquidate the initial $3M NZD investment and keep the citizenship.
26K? Thatās insane.
Is there a path to citizenship with that option?
I believe Portugal has and Spain had a thing where you can get citizenship if you have any Jewish ancestors that got persecuted out of there and I think I do have one. (I donāt really have any idea why she left)