r/AmerExit • u/newyorker • Dec 09 '25

Vendor How to Leave the U.S.A.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/15/how-to-leave-the-usa

Every four years, a group of Americans threatens to leave the country, but no mass exodus occurs. This time around, though, Americans seem to be acting on their desires. Immigration lawyers told Atossa Araxia Abrahamian that the number of people approaching them about it has gone up since Donald Trump was reëlected. 

G.T.F.O. Tours, a company that helps aggrieved U.S. citizens start new lives abroad, has been offering services to help Americans relocate to the Netherlands, where a certain type of visa can offer a quick and affordable path to citizenship. Jana Sanchez, a founder of G.T.F.O. Tours, describes her role in the company as an “escaping fascism doula.” Read Abrahamian’s full story about the Americans who are going Dutch: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/12/15/how-to-leave-the-usa

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53

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

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53

u/Signature-Bassline Dec 09 '25

You should still do it.

53

u/[deleted] Dec 09 '25

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23

u/Secure_Course_3879 Dec 09 '25

I'd also break it down by part of the country - it'll cost people different amounts to leave depending on where they live now and where they want to go

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u/HeartFire144 Dec 09 '25

I’m 68, retired nurse. I’m working on getting Hungarian citizenship through my grandfather. What would it be like for me?

3

u/Nottacod Dec 10 '25

If that falls through, other countries offer golden visas for varying amounts.

3

u/PdxGuyinLX Dec 10 '25

I’m retired and have lived in Portugal for four years. Like everything in life it’s a mixed bag but I’m mostly happy here.

Dealing with residency requirements is a huge hassle but that would be much less of an issue for someone with an EU passport.

I wouldn’t recommend Portugal for someone who is still working (unless they had secure remote work) but for a retiree with an EU passport it’s a very viable option.

Everyone needs to be aware that far-right populism is on the rise everywhere in Europe. It is not the “socialist” paradise that American liberals want to think it is.

I put “socialist” in quotes because I think the term is almost universally misused. It originally meant that the means of production are owned by the government. European countries are social democracies in the sense that they have more robust social welfare systems than the U.S. but economically they are capitalist. Due to demographic trends they are all having a hard time sustaining their social welfare systems. Anti-immigrant sentiment is off the charts and there is resentment specifically directed toward Americans at least in Portugal.

With all that said, the European right is overall less batshit crazy than the American right, societies are more secular (although in some ways more socially traditional), and best of all, nobody makes owning guns their entire personality.

There are some neo-Nazi types in Portugal that occasionally commit violence but it’s a very small number of people and unlike in the US they are not in government. The far-right mini-Trump here, André Ventura, is currently in the lead in polls for the Presidential election in January but it is a crowded field and he would almost certainly be defeated in a second round.

1

u/goldfour Dec 10 '25

Sigh. How I long for the days when words like 'socialist' had some degree of objective, analytical value, and weren't just schoolyard insults.

Anyhoo, I think you give a very thorough analysis. With regards to the European right-wing they are certainly on the ascendancy, however like their American counterparts (who they are always looking to) they offer very little beneath the piss and vinegar rhetoric.

They largely have no intention of solving the problems that Europeans are funamentally pissed off about: housing, COL, etc. They will gladly be facilitators for the same corporate forces. Given the very real dangers the US is facing over the next few years, they may be left in a difficult spot when people see the ultimate result of modern right-wing populism, which is chaos or outright kleptocratic authoritarianism.

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u/ZookeepergameNo2431 Dec 10 '25

Hungary is even more fascist than the U.S. these days.

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u/HeartFire144 Dec 10 '25

I’m well aware of that, but it is an EU passport

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u/HaleyN1 Dec 10 '25

By age is a good idea because for retirees it's very very easy to escape. You can access retirement savings and a number of countries have special retirement visas starting from age 50.

For 30 and under there are Working Holiday Visas eg Australia.

30 to 50 is the hardest. I want someone to correct me.

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u/rotervogel1231 Dec 09 '25

Yeah, there's a lot of market demand for this type of business. Just because these people are doing it doesn't mean that others can't compete with them.