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Let's hope that your mother has many prosperous and enjoyable years ahead of her.
You can read up on details about immigration options and requirements for the countries you refer to as 'civilized' on their immigration site, often the US based embassy gives some information and links it to the official site. Generally proof of regular income, financial padding and medical insurance are some of the requirements. Exclusions range from work permits to property ownership.
You will be the foreigner, the guest, the one with the funny accent. There is a lot of immigration, second/third/fourth generation of immigrants and asylum seeking in Europe.
No, you are generally not entitled to any benefits.
Sexual and political orientation is in most countries not part of immigration and not a qualifying factor. The US changed one of them fairly recently.
Why are most countries in the EU so hard to get into? It depends on the country. Here are three policy "reasons" that pretty much cover the present situation around the EU:
1. High domestic unemployment
2. Nationalism and fear of "strangers" is on the rise.
3. Heavy burden that immigration places on social programs.
4. Fairness: Immigrants from the US are treated the same way as immigrants from the poorest third world countries...in the name of fairness. It's equally hard for both groups to immigrate. There is no discrimination.
Sure, a country, like Denmark, could make allowances for rich people and demand that they be self-sufficient. But, the government over the years has made it increasingly difficult for anyone and everyone to immigrate, due 2 through 4.
Belize is much nicer place for a retiree than Denmark, believe me.
It is very difficult to move to just about any first-world country, the US included.
Canada and Australia are easy enough.
OP, go to France. Apply to university there, this will get you a foot in the country. Tuition is the same for local or international students. From Paris you can travel to any country in the EU. Good luck.
Immigrating to the USA is also extremely difficult, if one does it legally.
You should look up retirement visa requirements for the countries you are interested in.
You can immigrate anywhere easily, if you're rich, and willing to invest into a local business/economy/create jobs. If you're poor then yeah, you need to have a rare skill the destination country wants or provide some cheap labor they need. You could also marry a local person in that country but it's still going to take a lot of paperwork.
Then after immigration you still have to live there for several years before officially becoming a legalized resident. But yeah, retirement visa is your best bet to live as an ex-pat, immigration won't won't be the easy way.
I’m 54 years old now, single, gay and left-leaning. I fear for the future of quality of life of remaining a US citizen. The only things that hold me back from making a move are work and caring for my aging mother who is 75. If my mother were to pass away in the future and I could retire, how difficult would it be to live in a civilized country like Spain, Portugal, France, Holland or England? One of my friends lived in Spain for years, but had to travel to France every few months to renew his visa. If that’s the only way, I’d be open to it. My country many, many immigrants. Do other countries make it so easy for us Americans to emigrate to theirs?
Legal immigration to most western European countries is not that much more difficult (on average) than those seeking to come to United States.
Rules and procedures vary but basically in order to legally arrive and settle for long duration you need a special type of visa. That is simply arriving on a tourist visa and over staying isn't going to cut it; neither will finding a local European to marry and attempting to gain citizenship that way.
If you have plenty of money and can show will not become a charge upon the public purse, there likely are faster/easier options. Otherwise immigrating to Europe same as coming here; you'll need to have either an employer willing to sponsor (good luck with that), or a family member (spouse or whatever else qualifies), and again good luck with that as well.
For someone late middle age to young senior citizen there would be high scrutiny of just what you intend to live upon.
In much of western Europe employers hire by contract. That is unlike USA there isn't exactly an "at will" employment situation. Thus many employers are very leery of hiring at all because they cannot easily get rid of employees. With youth and young adult unemployment rates rather high throughout much of western Europe companies would face strong opposition hiring "immigrant" labor. This does various of course by sector. UK, Germany and other places for example are in desperate need of nurses and even doctors. Those holding such credentials might have an easier time emigrating.
Your only other option would be to find work for a company here in USA that has foreign offices, then see if they could arrange an internal transfer. Again not easily done, but does happen.
OP, go to France. Apply to university there, this will get you a foot in the country. Tuition is the same for local or international students. From Paris you can travel to any country in the EU. Good luck.
OP, go to France. Apply to university there, this will get you a foot in the country. Tuition is the same for local or international students. From Paris you can travel to any country in the EU. Good luck.
Not sure why you might think Australia is easy. We have a points based immigration system which is heavily skewed to young people with needed skills.
We are also in the middle of a debate about the desired level of immigration and the outcome is likely to be a significant reduction in the numbers accepted.
You get no type of preference because you come from another English speaking country. In any case, Australia is not particularly left thinking; the government is centre right and the opposition is centre left and in some ways we are rule ridden and conservative. I realise that OP did not suggest Australia but some of the responses mention it.
The key question to consider when thinking about immigrating to country X, Hopelesscause, is what have you to offer that country? Typically, you will be expected to have sought-after skills or a huge pile of money. What country X wants to know is: will you be an economic asset or a liabilty? It's primarily on that basis that they will accept or deny you residence. They won't care wether you are a citizen of the US, Outer Mongolia or anywhere else. It's you as an individual that will make the grade or not. Good luck.
The OP has mentioned the possibility of going as a retiree after his mother passes away. There are countries that have Retiree as a special category of immigrant. But, of course, requirements vary from one country to another.
I would trade my South African citizenship for your USA one in an instant if it were possible. In fact maybe Im onto something here???? Citizenship trading......
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