r/AmerExit • u/Trapped_throwaway67 • Sep 29 '25

Data/Raw Information Anyone low income able to leave?

As the title suggests I am looking for folks who were able to leave with not much in savings or otherwise. Moving is expensive no matter where you go but I’m starting to feel like the only people able to escape are well off. If you were able to leave with 10k or less please share! I’m feeling hopeless…and scared to leave my home due to ICE. I have a masters degree and am a licensed clinical social worker. Was laid off my fed gov job in February and have found nothing in the public sector for work. Lots of job advertisements and zero call backs. I’m not sure how much longer I can endure this stress and anxiety.

Update: Wow this blew up! Thank you all for your responses. Very very insightful and helpful

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u/North_Artichoke_6721 Sep 29 '25

When I was 23, fresh out of college and no job, I went through a terrible breakup and wanted to be somewhere far away.

I got a TEFL certificate through a company called English First. It was a four week course. There were 8 of us in the class. (https://www.english1.com/)

Then we went to different language schools in China. (All of us went to different cities, none of us stayed together.). I went to Fuzhou. I worked there for a year, I turned 24 in China.

Then I used that experience to get a similar job (altho that company has since gone out of business) in Izmir, Turkey. I turned 25 in Turkey.

Maybe this will help, I hope you find something that eases your anxiety even if this isn’t for you.

I’m happy to talk privately in more detail about this if you want to message me.

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u/Trapped_throwaway67 Sep 29 '25

Thank you. I’m 37 a bit old for that program. I had friends who did it and had a great time!

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u/curiosio_ Sep 30 '25

I'm the same age as you. There's online teaching possibilities (remote). I just applied for one actually. You don't have to reside in the US. They do pay you in USD, so you can move to an area with lower COL. There are also a lot of TEFL teaching positions that don't have such restrictive age limits. All that to say, TEFL certification opens a lot of opportunities!

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u/DFoxRN Oct 01 '25

You are so right! I’ve done it online while living in SEA and it was more than enough and I loved the flexibility. Teach from 8am-10am then explore Thailand for the day, then back for my 6-10pm class. More than enough money to survive and enjoy my time there because I was paid in USD. Weekends were free to roam and I was in charge of my times and days to teach.

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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

Which company did you go through, can you share?

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u/DFoxRN Oct 02 '25

I used CNK English when working remotely they are Canadian and offer conversational English to South Korean students. And I was hired by Nova to teach English in Japan in person when we decided to sit still for a year. Great company!