Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My wife and I may be looking for a new country in the near future and Luxembourg kind of came up.
I've never been there before, but it kind of looks like heaven to me. A few hings:
1. Yes, I'm aware that I can't just move there and that I'll need a visa. I have a skill that might allow me to move there more easily, though.
2. Yes, I'm fully aware how shockingly expensive it is there.
3. I'm told that it's not a great place for nightlife. That's fine. We're in pur 40s and we have a small child so it won't be an issue for me us.
A few questions:
1. How would it be to raise a child there?
2. I realize there are many language spoken there. Which one would be the most important to learn? From my research it's French, but would German or Luxembourgish be more handy?
3. I realize public transit there is free and fairly extensive. However, would it be necessary to get car?
4. How is the Healthcare there?
5. Tell me anything else that might positively influence our decision to move there.
6. Tell me what I don't want to know about living there.
I think you are putting the cart before the horse.
You are at the age where employment is essential, as well as the big topic of family and children. Luxembourg is pretty heavy into the financial business, so if your skills are in that area, that might help. However, you would be at a disadvantage in getting a job without being a fluent speaker of at least one of the 3 main languages of Lux.
Based on your comments, it doesn't sound like you have visited there. How can you think about making a move to a country you have not visited? You should visit for a month or two and decide if it is really your cup of tea.
I think you are putting the cart before the horse.
You are at the age where employment is essential, as well as the big topic of family and children. Luxembourg is pretty heavy into the financial business, so if your skills are in that area, that might help. However, you would be at a disadvantage in getting a job without being a fluent speaker of at least one of the 3 main languages of Lux.
Based on your comments, it doesn't sound like you have visited there. How can you think about making a move to a country you have not visited? You should visit for a month or two and decide if it is really your cup of tea.
Great post!
Citizens are trilingual, speaking French and German in addition to the Germanic national language of Luxembourgish.
Quote:
The Luxembourg education system is mainly based on German and French. German is the language of instruction at primary school and for the first years of secondary school, while French is used to teach most subjects in the upper years of secondary school
Is your child fluent in German or French? Are you willing to pay for private English speaking schools?
How will your family integrate into the community?
The city of Luxembourg is a provincial city comparable to a Metz in France or a Trier in Germany and aside from that it's just villages and little towns, so there's no big metropolis. That alone tells me that a car is pretty essential typically.
French is likely the most helpful language to have. I do business with a Luxemburgish company and even though the staff is very multi-national, it appears that French is their default language of communication internally.
If you speak French, it will help very much as the official government documents/banking/legal language is in French.
It’s a very wealthy country with great universal healthcare and low crime. Half of the population is foreigners so while the official languages are French, German and Luxembourgish many people speak English. There are international schools for kids but I’m sure they are private. The income is high, but so is the cost of living. I looked at the housing for fun, many of them are in the €1 million to 2 million range.
Visit the country before you commit in moving there permanently. It’s a beautiful country and a high quality of life, and people generally are very nice. Yes there’s nightlife due to the young population and international crowd but it still feels like a subdue French town (compared to Paris.) with less big city vibrancy.
OP, how are you planning on moving there? Assuming you're a U.S. citizen, you can't just up and move to the Schengen area without a permanent resident's visa. You can only stay there for 90 days in a 180 day period.
Also, echoing the sentiment of other posters, moving somewhere without even having visited first sounds extremely poorly thought-through.
OP, how are you planning on moving there? Assuming you're a U.S. citizen, you can't just up and move to the Schengen area without a permanent resident's visa. You can only stay there for 90 days in a 180 day period.
Also, echoing the sentiment of other posters, moving somewhere without even having visited first sounds extremely poorly thought-through.
I would assume OP probably would get a work visa through the employment. Luxembourg is actually one of the E.U countries with the (relatively) easy visa application through employment. No sponsorship from the employers, permanent residence status after consecutive five years.
(Portugal and Netherland are another two countries with fairly easy long term visa policy.-hence a massive amount of American expats in those two countries.)
I would assume OP probably would get a work visa through the employment.
I've long learned not to assume anything on any kind of web forum. Plenty of completely clueless people out there and the simple fact that OP is considering moving there (or anywhere) sight unseen makes it that much more likely (s)he has no idea about visa reqs.
Quote:
Luxembourg is actually one of the E.U countries with the (relatively) easy visa application through employment. No sponsorship from the employers, permanent residence status after consecutive five years.
(Portugal and Netherland are another two countries with fairly easy long term visa policy.-hence a massive amount of American expats in those two countries.)
That's assuming you can find employment. As someone who has tried, with various degrees of intensity, for the past 15 years, I can confidently say it's not an easy task.
I've long learned not to assume anything on any kind of web forum. Plenty of completely clueless people out there and the simple fact that OP is considering moving there (or anywhere) sight unseen makes it that much more likely (s)he has no idea about visa reqs.That's assuming you can find employment. As someone who has tried, with various degrees of intensity, for the past 15 years, I can confidently say it's not an easy task.
It depends on your fields/skills.
You’re 100% right it’s NOT an easy task. Staying in the comfort zone and with a country/culture one is familiar with is definitely much much easier (and cheaper!).
On the other hand I do know many people, not in Luxembourg, but in Amsterdam, Lisbon and Barcelona. Americans born and raised. Their fields are more in computer science and high tech software though.
My friend who’s been living in Amsterdam for years and now is of E.U citizen, told me Amsterdam has been very welcoming to new foreign employees (with the right skills of course.) as many companies moved their headquarters to Amsterdam since Brexit. I know someone working in Zoom Netherland without needing to speak Dutch. (But you need to pass the language exam if you’re applying the citizenship.)
Since Covid many countries are more open with the “digital normad” remote workers. My friend’s daughter who’s in her early ‘20s, a computer scientist, has been working remotely by living through many countries including Greece, Netherland, England and Italy. We are in the process of moving to Paris (I used to live there) as my husband (who’s in high tech.) works remotely. It’s a long, dragging and very expensive process, but Covid did make it somewhat easier thanks to the remote work culture.
I agree with you on principle that people tend to jump through hoops without grit, research and taking stocks of what their life can afford as well as pros & cons of moving to a foreign country. Just want to offer a bit of my personal experiences since I do know many expats who (fortunately) made it to the other side. It can be done, but takes A LOT of work and $.
On the other hand I do know many people, not in Luxembourg, but in Amsterdam, Lisbon and Barcelona. Americans born and raised. Their fields are more in computer science and high tech software though.
Yeah, those are eminently transferable. I'm thinking more business, marketing, sales - those types of roles are easily filled with intra-EU candidates.
Quote:
Since Covid many countries are more open with the “digital normad” remote workers. My friend’s daughter who’s in her early ‘20s, a computer scientist, has been working remotely by living through many countries including Greece, Netherland, England and Italy. We are in the process of moving to Paris (I used to live there) as my husband (who’s in high tech.) works remotely. It’s a long, dragging and very expensive process, but Covid did make it somewhat easier thanks to the remote work culture.
Digital nomads and entrepreneurs are having a fairly easy time in certain places in Europe right now. A friend of mine got an entrepreneur's visa in Spain with minimal effort (relatively speaking, of course).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
