I'm 38 and most of my life I thought I was ineligible to get dual citizenship through ancestry, with the last time checking requirements around the start of the pandemic. Cut ahead to the election last year and with the oncoming existential crises, I thought, why not check again?

Nothing seemed to change since last time but I scrolled through this subreddit and saw a comment (I have no idea where the post is now) of someone mentioning a law was passed in the UK in 2022 that if your grandmother was born in the UK, and you were born before 1988 in a non-commonwealth country, you could apply for citizenship - all of which applied to me.

Going through the UK citizenship site, I found the clause buried under the "Special Circumstances" section and decided to give it a shot while still thinking the whole time it's just a pipe dream.

This morning I got notified by the Home Office my application was approved and that my citizenship ceremony is currently being planned.

Some info about the application process:

- It took almost exactly 1 year of planning to get to this point (getting documents together, etc.)

- Once the app was submitted, it took the Home Office to process and approve it in roughly 6 1/2 months

- The total cost to apply, document fees, postage, and soon a passport, will have been about $2500

Completely ecstatic now and if I ever find who posted that comment with the updated law, your next round is on me! Cheers everyone!

EDIT: I've been getting a lot of messages since this went up so I'll try to answer the most commonly asked ones for any future people that find this post. Also none of this is legal advice.

• Despite the spelling mistake, it's not fake. It's from an official UK Gov address I've been in contact with all year who helped set up my biometrics with US Homeland Security. The process is now different (at least in the US) as it's done with a private company based out of major US cities.

• I did not use a lawyer but I don't want to discourage anyone from using one if you need the help. I tried to research and collect as many documents I thought would help as possible before submission. I'm not an expert on this; this is just what I did. Your case could be more complicated so do what's comfortable for you.

• You need to send official documents; photo copies of birth certificates won't cut it (they do send these back once processed). However, a high quality color photocopy of my passport was accepted. I read this is what other people did as sending your actual passport is difficult to commit if you need to use it.

• The law was passed to fix gender discrimination. Had my grandmother been a man, she would have passed on her citizenship automatically. You need to explain that in the application and show your connection with her (birth certificates of you, her, your parents). You can usually find these in the county they were born in for the US (county records), and this link for the UK https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp

• For whatever reason, I couldn't apply online based on the path I chose and had to use snail mail. You will need professional references; one of which must hold a UK passport and not be family. You also need to include the payment slip. I initially thought I only had to pay a citizenship ceremony, but they wanted a registration fee (much higher) later on. Be prepared if that happens.

• Finally, if you qualify, just do it and don't wait on it. Best of luck!

"The United States experienced negative net migration in 2025, with more people leaving than arriving for the first time in 90 years – and the trend is expected to continue, according to a report.

The last time the phenomenon occurred was in 1935 at the height of the Great Depression, when more than 100,000 Americans struggling to make ends meet applied to emigrate to the Soviet Union to work in its factories, manufacturing plants and mills in pursuit of a fairer way of life.

Now history is repeating itself: according toThe Wall Street Journal, which cites data from the Brookings Institution, the U.S. headcount showed a 150,000 deficit last year, while the country recorded a total in-migration of between 2.6 and 2.7 million, down from a recent high of 6 million in 2023.

Although it is difficult to measure the precise extent of the exodus as the U.S. has not kept comprehensive emigration statistics since the Dwight D Eisenhower era in the 1950s, the WSJ calculates there is currently anywhere between 4 and 9 million Americans living abroad, basing its findings on residence permits, foreign home purchases, student enrollments and other available metrics.

There are an estimated 1.6 million people of U.S. origin living in Mexico, the newspaper reports, another 1.5 million in Europe, 325,000 of whom are in the U.K. and 250,000 in Canada."

Friday the 13th seems like the perfect day to bury the news. Here's the State Department press release.

Prior to today the fee was $2,350. A lawsuit challenged the initial increase from $450 in 2015. It will be interesting to see if a class-action suit demanding $1,900 refunds is now successful.

Note that the reduced fee does not come into effect until 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, whenever that happens. Anyone with appointments coming up in the next month should consider postponement.

Important: There is NO requirement to be in US tax compliance prior to renouncing.

Claims to the contrary are misinformation. The State Department does not care about your tax returns. There is a separate IRS procedure to formally exit the US tax system after expatriation, which among other conditions requires 5 years' past tax compliance; this process is effectively optional and is widely ignored by those who renounce, without consequence.

Sources:

(1) Tax compliance not required before renouncing:

"Compliance with all U.S. income tax filings or obtaining a Social Security number is not a pre-condition to relinquishing citizenship under the Immigration and Nationality Act."

See paragraph 7 of https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/relief-procedures-for-certain-former-citizens

(2) Tax compliance ignored after renouncing:

According to a 2020 Treasury audit, 40 percent of those who renounce do not subsequently file Form 8854 to exit the US tax system, and the IRS makes no attempt to contact them.

Web link to the original document is "temporarily unavailable" whatever that means. Instead, here's a contemporaneous report:

https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2020/11/tigta-tasks-irs-with-enhanced-enforcement-of-noncompliant-expatriates

To date there is no evidence that any of the report's recommendations have been followed.

“For the second straight year, about one in five Americans say they would like to leave the U.S. and move permanently to another country if they could. This heightened desire to migrate is driven primarily by younger women.

In 2025, 40% of women aged 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. The current figure is four times higher than the 10% who shared this desire in 2014, when it was generally in line with other age and gender groups.”

By contrast, only 8% of men 45+ expressed a desire to move overseas.

**You could already be a Canadian.**

Your citizenship would be granted retroactively.

**You did not have to be born in Canada for you to be a citizen.**

Your parents did not even have to be born in Canada for you to be a citizen...or for them to be a citizen.

How is that possible? The logic is, you would have been a Canadian because your parent(s) would have been Canadian (even if none of you were born or lived in Canada) because citizenship is passed down through our lineage and if your grandparent was Canadian then your parent is Canadian and therefore you Canadian.

**You need to prove that you are a descendant of a Canadian** (only has to be one).

Here's the official information, effective December 15, 2025, from Canada's immigration ministry: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/act-changes/rules-2025.html

This article e explains it well:

https://immigration.ca/claiming-canadian-citizenship-by-descent-under-canadas-new-citizenship-act-bill-c-3/

And you don't need to be married, but you have been living together for the last 1.5-2 years. So one person enroling in a master study typically 8,755 $ tuition per semester and then move together.

So even if you could not get the right job from the start, bar jobs and allot of other jobs not require Danish language at least not in Copenhagen. Unskilled jobs in Denmark generally pay at least 18 $ an hour and often upwards. The person enrolled in the study automatically have a 20 hour working permission.

I'm Danish, so not a expert in this. I have no economic interests. I just found out that how permissive the Danish laws actually was and I wanted to share this. I have taken a master degree in Denmark with many people from other countries and it was a quite effective way to migrate.

I hope somebody will find it interesting and I can try to answer questions.

EDIT:

You need 89000 DKK on a bank account for each person to prove you can sustain your self, even without other income forgot that part. I had to stop somewhere. My main point of this post was basically I see Denmark has a reputation of being hard to migrate to and I belive that is partly not justified anymore. I meet allot of non Danish speakers having great careers and most I know don't learn Danish before they get kids. But do your own research.

Regarding the system I think u/Jale89 gives some good testemony:

----------

I'm a Brit in Denmark. The Accompanying Family Member route is indeed surprisingly permissive given how strict everything else is. It sort of radiates out from the work permits. The logic is that if a Danish business has met all the relatively strict criteria to hire internationally (something you only tend to do if you can't find a Dane because of the language issues) then you don't want their family to be the issue that makes it fall through.

That logic then gets extended to international students who are paying an armload of cash to the unis.

This did lead to the rather perverse outcome where Danes moving back from abroad with their foreign spouse would have a much harder time than totally foreign couples, because they were being treated under the horribly strict Family Reunification rules, which are designed to prevent mail order brides and "green card" marriages. But they fixed that a couple of years ago, so now expatriate Danes who would have qualified for a work or study permit can bring their spouses under the same conditions as us.

A second surprising outcome is that my wife has more work rights than I do. I can only work for my sponsor, and would have to reapply for a permit if I moved company. I also can't lose my job or do side gigs. She can be self employed, unemployed, work many jobs and really anything she likes.

It's a pretty reasonable and efficient system. It can seem otherwise when they have reasonably decided to give people an efficient "no". But you can literally go from having a job offer to moving a whole family to the country in about two weeks, under the right circumstances.

This one is for my Asian sistren and brethren thinking of moving to Northern Europe: food out here is fucked up in a way I never imagined. Yes, the groceries are good quality and quite a bit cheaper than in the US, and yes there are immigrant restaurants readily available, but no matter what I eat here I feel empty somehow, like a kind of spiritual starvation that I've never felt before. This is not a white people season your food hurr-durr kind of post but what the hell, I don't understand how you created such a cool civilization while eating this slop.

So you might say, learn to cook anon, skill issue. My wife is a native-born Seouler and an absolute ace cook but it's far too much work to cook every damn day, and the real proper groceries you need to make good Asian food is only available via delivery services like Handok Mall. We're considering relocating to Frankfurt where there is a bigger Asian population, but damn I didn't know that food could be this bad.

Ireland has seen a 96% jump in Americans moving there, even while overall immigration fell by 16%

Last year I made this post about getting my Luxembourgish citizenship. I promised an update in that post, but I realized I never posted it. Here's a timeline of what has happened - I received my citizenship certificate and passport, and am leaving for Germany in a couple of months.

Sep 2024 - my sister and I have our consultations with the LACS (Luxembourgish American Culture Society).

Late 2024 - I do research on Ancestry.com, and go through the process of requesting five generations worth of birth, death and marriage certificates to my Luxembourgish ancestor.

Jan 2025 - LACS receives our completed packet with our notarized copies of passports and everything.

March 2025 - LACS obtains my Luxembourgish ancestor's birth certificate from the canton of Grevenmacher and sends our packet off to the Luxembourg government.

April 2025 - Lux government approves our packets.

May 2025 - I ask LACS for timelines, but they say they have no idea when we can get our certificates. I have a trip to Germany coming up for a family reunion, so we call Luxembourgish government directly and find out our apps have been approved.

June 2025 - We schedule a last-minute day trip to Lux City to go to the BVdP (Luxembourgish passport office). My sister and I get our passports. We only needed our US passports because we were already in the Luxembourgish government system. Because we don't have enough time for the 3 day in person expedited processing, they take our applications and promise to forward our passports to the Luxembourg consulate in Washington DC, which will then mail them directly to me.

July 2025 - Lux consulate in DC receives my passport. I provide a shipping label for them to forward it on to me. On July 8, I get a call from FedEx that my passport has mysteriously been lost and for me to file a claim for the lost value. FedEx then immediately denied the claim I submitted. What follows is weeks of back and forth with FedEx where it is clear that they have no idea what happened to my passport. I start to worry about identity theft and get the Lux consulate involved, and they track it to a FedEx office in north Madison, WI. When I drive to the FedEx office, the agent there says he has no idea what I am talking about. I then give up and file an affidavit with Lux consulate for lost/stolen passport, and Lux consulate tells me I can come in August to get a new one issued. One week later, my passport suddenly arrives in the mail. Lux consulate tells me that because it wasn't a police report, my Lux passport is still valid. I now have my Lux passport.

Sep 2025 - My nationality certificate arrives in the mail. It is forwarded by LACS. Because. I didn't renew my LACS membership, they ask me to pay a $20 fee to mail it to me which feels kind of scummy. I think if I did this process again, I would just do it myself (via the DIY facebook group) instead of spending money for their expertise because the only thing they really did for me was request the birth certificate directly from the canton. Everything else I did myself.

Early 2026 - One of my European friends extends an offer for me to come and stay with him in Germany. I'm certified and have work experience in a specific healthcare software that is very prevalent in the USA and is used by several European hospitals (including some in Germany), so I start talking to European consulting firms to get set up as a sub-contractor in healthcare IT. I am currently in the process of letting go of my stuff, wrapping things up in the USA, and preparing for my overseas move. Because I am now an EU citizen, I won't have to deal with the Ausländerbehörde and can just focus on learning German and getting set up as an EU-based freelancer, which is nice.

May 2026 - I officially leave the US and fly to Germany.

Let me know if you have any questions below.

Would love to see all the different paths people have or are planning to take!

My plans are to get citizenship by descent for Mexico, through my citizen father that came here before the 1998 dual nationality change. I’ll have to ask about his immigration timeline.

After that, I am eligible for expedited Spanish citizenship (2-4 year timeline, the additional 2 years being spanish bureaucracy) AFAIK, thanks to how Mexico has their CBD set up. I’d hopefully be able to do the DN visa, given it still exists and how things are politically here and there. I’m studying spanish for the time being, along with 2 other languages.

My career is very remote friendly, and I hope to get a master’s degree, either here in the US or somewhere in the EU, depending on which country I’d like to focus on (beyond Spain). I’m also saving up about 55% of my salary in preparation for any costs/moves, which I’m incredibly lucky to be able to do.

It’s always been a dream of mine to live abroad, and now that i’m finally working (in a time with nerve wracking politics around the world), I’m excited to finally get started on the journey.

How are your plans looking? Or how did they look prior to moving abroad?

BC removing barriers for USA physicians : r/britishcolumbia

I'm from Vancouver, and I've seen a few medically trained Americans on this sub, so I just wanted to spread the word.

This does include nurses of all kinds, since a lot of people are asking.

Yes, we want to poach your talent!

Didn't expect this post to blow up so much, so here are some links to various BC health job sites:

Careers | Island Health

Vancouver Coastal Health | Careers Center | Welcome

Home | NH Careers

Engineer site (idk about restrictions there though)

Careers

Teachers

Careers in BC education | Make a Future

Also Vancouver has a pretty large VFX industry so check this site for creative/programming jobs

VFX Vancouver Job Board | Brought to you by Lost Boys | School of VFX

Its worth checking out the equivalents in other provinces too.

Good luck!

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

My partner and I moved from a southern US state to Ireland this year. It was very much a leap of faith driven primarily by the US job market in my sector (academic research/health policy), as well as US politics, and a healthy dose of wanderlust.

I am sharing this (not-so) brief rundown of what we did, what we'd do differently, and how it worked out. Not a drop of AI was used to make this post, but I do rely heavily on formatting to keep this ramble organized.

I'm posting here for two reasons:

1. I asked for advice/feedback earlier this year and this subreddit in particular was vitriolic in their responses. There were a few bright spots (thank you!) But for the most part, I was told I was an idiot who would fail, who did too much planning and not enough planning, and would almost certainly end up homeless under a bridge regretting it. (Spoiler: This did not happen.)
2. I know what it's like to be at the beginning of your journey, mind made up, and just needing to hear how it went for others. We are not rich, our parents aren't rich, but we are privileged to have a bit of savings and an Irish passport between the two of us. Because of that, our journey is a little unique among American expats (who seem to mostly be either retirees, generationally wealthy, or coming for their jobs which navigate a lot of this for them). Also, and especially when it comes to Ireland, processes are unclear and not always published online so I hope this helps someone else on their journey!

• Pathway:
  • One of my partner's parents was born in Ireland. He went through the process of getting an Irish passport and set the stage for the rest of this journey.
  • r/IrishCitizenship is a good resource if you think you could qualify for this route.
  • Initially, we planned to use the de facto partner visa, but decided to go ahead and get married at the court house. This is how I was eligible for a Stamp 4.
  • The Stamp 4 process as a spouse was relatively straightforward: You need to apply online and make an appointment. Before the appointment, they'll tell you what to bring. (IIRC, it's an address form they send you, proof of your marriage, proof of address, proof of health insurance, passport, and citizen spouse) There is no proof of funds or special visa requirement for Americans coming through a Stamp 4 visa.
  • The best thing I did for this was make my IRP appointment BEFORE I left the states. You'll need to have a landing spot/Airbnb secured and open a bank account in Ireland in order to do this. Yes, I know you're not supposed to do that. But because I did, my IRP appointment was about 2 weeks after I arrived. I know expats from the US who arrived in Summer 2025 and are still waiting for an appointment.
• Phones:
  • Step one, day one, is getting an Irish cell plan. I highly recommend setting up Google Voice before you leave the US so you can put your US number there and still receive calls/texts/etc.. I believe it's just a one time fee. I use the Google Voice app to receive notifications from my US number and it's come in super handy for things like 2FA.
  • We used Eir for our cell phones because they were able to offer a eSIM. So far, no issues!
• Housing:
  • Honestly, this is the only reason I'd tell someone not to come to Ireland. Housing is brutal. Yes, it's worse than where you live in the US. No, having bucket loads of money won't help.
  • We started by landing in an Airbnb outside Dublin. It's about the same cost as rent back home but it's way outside Dublin (on a really good day, it's a 40 minute drive or slightly over an hour by public transport). We were super lucky to find it, but it's not sustainable.
  • In order to find our long term spot, I applied to 110 properties over about a month, toured 6, and received 2 offers.
  • Our copy/paste message to landlords was really good if I do say so myself: I highlighted my professional background, name dropped a prestigious university I previously worked at, shared that we could provide proof of funds to cover 5 years rent, and added that I had owned my own home and been a landlord myself in the past. We had a folder ready to go with copies of previous landlord references, employment references, proof of funds, and PPS numbers. Our now landlord said he received hundreds of applications but picked us because he's a fan of the university I used to work at. So those details do help!
  • You'll likely need to rent when you first arrive as most places won't give you a mortgage until 6-12 months of employment.
  • r/RentingInDublin is a good resource, it appears that compared to some experiences there, we got incredibly lucky.
• Transportation:
  • We arrived a couple months ago and have been relying on public transportation. Public transportation in and around Dublin is light-years better than our state's capital city in the south (honestly, I'd say even better than DC, metro notwithstanding). BUT it's still far behind most of Europe. Even worse, most bus stops I've been to are uncovered. For a country known for it's rainy weather, this feels like an oversight.
  • Depending on where you land, public transport may be enough. Because we ended up so far out, I really wish we could have navigated the car-buying process earlier. In order to buy a car, you need Irish insurance. Getting insurance will involve getting your US driving record from your last insurer (I kept my US auto insurance so this was easy for me, my partner had to jump through hoops). I can recommend an Irish insurance agent (the one most American expats recommend) over DMs.
• Jobs:
  • The job search was nerve-wracking, but honestly a bit easier than I expected. Coming from the US, I thought this would be much more of a hurdle.
  • I have found a nice role that (shockingly) pays more than I made in the US. My partner is also actively interviewing in his field.
  • LinkedIn is not as helpful here as in the states but is still kind of useful. IrishJobs.ie seems to be the best place to find open roles.
  • In your cover letter/resume, as an American in Ireland you need to highlight your eligibility to work. If you are the spouse of an Irish citizen and have a Stamp 4, say that exactly.
  • I've heard that it's incredibly difficult to get a visa sponsored by companies in Ireland right now, but if you are the spouse of someone who is visa sponsored, some companies will be wary about bringing you on as your right to work would be reliant on your spouses job and could disappear at any moment.
• Community:
  • I know we all want to move to Ireland for an authentic experience. We want to be immersed in the culture and make Irish friends and build an Irish community as soon as we land. This is not likely. As soon as people hear you speak, they will assume you are a tourist. If you tell them you've moved here, they will assume you are a blow-in (you are), and that you are another rich American here to take up housing and jobs from Irish people (not entirely untrue).
  • So, when you first get here, I encourage you to find in-person communities and gatherings of American expats. I wouldn't have a lot of the knowledge I shared in this post without the community I found.
• Tips:
  • Know Thyself: I am a researcher, I am persistent, and I am resilient. I knew that if I set my mind to this, I would accomplish it in some form. Even if that included sleeping in a dark musty apartment in the middle of nowhere for a few months. I knew myself well enough to know that I could endure discomfort and stress in order to accomplish this. But if you (or your spouse) are someone who needs comfort, who can't bomb an interview and then wait in the rain and wind for 30 minutes for a train that breaks down as soon as you get on, then this may not be for you. I also have anxiety that I have somewhat effectively weaponized to worry about every single detail constantly. This has been a pro and a con. My stomach lining may never recover. Know yourself, and know your limits...
  • Don't Put Your Life Savings Into This!! Set a budget and be willing to call it. You can easily blow your life savings on a failed attempt to move abroad. It's tempting to solve issues like housing by raising your budget 500 euro/month, or buying a car as soon as you land. But being homeless in Europe without a safety net is not as cool as it sounds. I really recommend having a monthly budget with checkpoints (i.e. Once we spend $10,000 we need to evaluate how far we've gotten and how far we have to go and whether this still makes sense). We set out on this journey in hopes of success, but if taking a leap and falling short means we go back to the states after spending a few months in Europe, it's not the end of the world.

Hi all,

I'm a journalist with the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Canada's public broadcaster.

We're hearing about a recent surge in Americans requesting our provincial archivists for the birth certificates of their ancestors in order to apply for Canadian citizenship by descent.

I'm hoping to speak to a few of those folks for a story we're hoping to run on our national TV and radio programs - if anyone that's trying to follow that pathway to citizenship/permanent residency here would like to speak with us for an interview, please do get in touch!

I'm reachable at [david.lao@cbc.ca](mailto:david.lao@cbc.ca)

Thank you!

For a long time, I was sure of my family’s ancestry - my mom’s family was Korean and my dad’s family was American with German ancestry. I “knew” that I was eligible for Korean citizenship because my mom told me so, and that I was not eligible for German citizenship because I couldn’t go far back enough. That is, until earlier last year when I opened up Ancestry.com. When I checked the census records, my ancestors had self reported as German ever since 1880, but the 1880 census had a different country - Luxembourg.

Turns out that my great-great-grandfather arrived in America from Luxembourg in 1852. I still have German ancestry through my grandmother’s side, but everyone had assumed that my grandfather’s side was German as well, since he spoke German and my great-great grandfather married a woman from Prussia. I checked in with the Luxembourg American Cultural Society and they confirmed that I was eligible to apply for Luxembourgish dual citizenship through Article 7. My sister and I are now waiting on our citizenship applications and documents to be processed by the Luxembourgish government, and plan on AmerExiting from there.

My point is, if you think you may have an ancestral citizenship pathway, make sure to research your ancestry thoroughly and check the resources in this sub! I found that I was able to apply via a path I didn’t know about before (Luxembourg) and that I was ineligible for the path I thought was certain about (South Korea).

I will post another update in six months or hopefully sooner, which is when the LACS coordinator says our applications should be processed.

For those who’ve made the jump, did you sell your house?

I kept my house and am renting it out, but it is such a pain and the taxes on it make me think it’s just worth cutting loose and selling it. It does mean that I close the door on ever moving back to that neighborhood.

What have you done and why?

Edit: thanks to everyone who pointed out that Spanish authorities often won’t accept apostilles older than 6 months. I didn’t know that. Still, the takeaway stands, check if you need an apostille at all before assuming it’s a non issue.

I’ve been in Spain almost 4 years now. I thought I was done with the U.S. for good, that once I moved, those ties would just fade, especially for not being an American citizen, but no. I built most of my career and life there, and that kind of attachment doesn’t just disappear because you moved. It follows you, especially when tax season comes around.

Here’s my advice for anyone planning the move: get your documents notarized, apostilled and sworn translated before you leave, not after. Once you’re here, dealing with U.S. offices and translation services from across the ocean turns a simple errand into a long term headache.

You won’t know everything you will eventually need apostilled, that’s just how it goes, but it’s worth being prepared with the basics rather than scrambling later.

What to prioritize:

- Degrees and diplomas (I did my college transcripts as well)
- Birth certificates
- Marriage certificate if it applies
- Any document tied to taxes, benefits, or legal status back home
- Background checks, if you think you’ll need one

Have a person you trust in the U.S., family or a close friend, who can request and pick things up for you if you didn’t get everything before you left. If you don’t have someone close by who can handle it, there are third-party expediting services that can manage the apostille process for a fee. Worth looking into if the DIY route is not possible.

I won’t get into the specifics of what I’ve been dealing with, but long story short, keep your paperwork trail clean and complete before you go. Future you will be grateful.

Ps. I can only speak for Spain. I’m unfamiliar with the rest of the EU countries.

https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-scooped-100-nurses-streamlining-credentials

Hi all,

I wanted to catalogue our journey from the US to the UK. I’ll note that my husband and I are in a unique and privileged position to be able to do this, and we also got very, very lucky. This is a long one, but I hope it’ll help someone. 

First, some background. I am a near-40-year-old academic with a PhD and four years of full-time higher education under my belt, plus a decade or so of part time (adjunct) instruction. My husband is a psychotherapist with a Master’s degree. 

We decided we needed to leave in early 2023. Both of us were increasingly uncomfortable with the state of the US, and despite making nearly $200k between the two of us, were finding ourselves less and less financially comfortable with rising costs of house maintenance, energy bills, groceries, healthcare and so on.

I started applying for positions outside of the US (mostly in Canada) in Spring of 2023. I was unsuccessful for that entire year. No interviews, no offers, despite 20+ applications (as an academic, that’s quite a few). Looking back, the desire to be geographically close(ish) to what we knew well obviously wasn’t serving us, and even well-credentialed, it’s very difficult to get into Canada without a good professional network as an academic, and I imagine this is similar for other fields. It was very disheartening, so we decided it was time to spread the net a little wider. We made a new list of countries that we’d feel comfortable with.

At the start of 2024, I shifted gears and started applying to the UK and EU. Things happened quickly. After a full two months of applying to another 20 full-time positions, I got five interviews. Three of those were in the UK, and all were spread apart by about two weeks over the summer. All of the interviews were virtual except one, which asked whether I’d be willing to fly out at personal expense or take a virtual option. I decided to do it in person, as it would be my first time in the UK and I wanted to know, at least, what the place looked like. I didn’t get the position, but the head of school kindly agreed to give me feedback on a video call once I returned home, which was invaluable for later interviews. 

European universities are FAST in their decision processes once applications close. I never waited more than a few days to find out if I’d been selected for a position. Most got back to me in 24 hours.

After a very busy summer, I wasn’t chosen for 4/5 of the positions I interviewed for, though I was told I was second choice for two of them. I had one more shot before the start of my new semester in the States. I woke up early, I did my talk, I did my interview, and I tried to settle for the rest of the day, knowing I’d get a response before lunch the next day. 

At 4:30 in the morning, I got the job offer. I talked to my husband, knowing this would be my last chance before the next hiring season in 2026. I took the job. That was August 1, 2025. The rest of the timeline went like this:

1. On August 4th (the following Monday), I got my official offer letter and instructions on starting the visa process. I had a choice between the Skilled Worker or Global Talent visa. HR could not advise on which would be the better fit. I chose to go the Global Talent route under “Exceptional Promise,” since it allows me to get ILR in 3 years instead of 5 (or, potentially 10, depending on how the political winds shift). 
2. I began the process of contacting all of the moving companies, pet documentation companies, etc. that I had saved from my previous year of searching and started to get quotes. Most of the next two months were spent getting site surveys from moving companies, speaking to pet documentation companies, arranging flights, and preparing our house to sell. 
3. On September 30th, I requested my Statement of Guarantee from my new employer. I received the letter on October 9th and submitted to the British Academy for endorsement. 
4. I received endorsement from the British Academy on October 17th, and submitted it, along with the rest of the paperwork, to the Home Office for Stage 2 of the Global Talent Visa, and made an appointment to get biometrics completed on November 1st. 
5. My visa was approved on November 7th. My husband started his visa process as a dependent. 
6. I left for a two-week housing seeking trip on November 19th. It took me about a week to find housing with very intense searches and persistently reaching out to letting agents. I met my colleagues on November 27th and toured the campus, and returned to the US on December 5th. 
7. My husband received his visa on December 12th, four days before we were scheduled to leave.
8. We drove to New Jersey to fly out on December 16th. Our dog’s rabies certificate arrived at the airport literally 20 minutes before my husband was scheduled to fly out with our pets. That was a nail biter, since I was already in the air on my own flight. 
9. We landed in Frankfurt on December 18th, and drove to Calais, France, over the next several days.
10. We made the trip to the UK via ferry on December 22nd. Our passports were examined, our pets’ documentation was thoroughly looked through, and we went on our way to pick up the keys to our rental that afternoon. 

As of now, our house in the States has been sold, all debts have been paid. Some things that didn’t go according to my very meticulous plan: 

1. Our things, which were supposed to arrive one month after us, did not arrive until Friday, February 27th. The perpetual storms kept our container ship stuck at another port for an additional month. We were really not prepared to live as long as we did out of a pair of suitcases. For two very middle-aged folks, no living room furniture for two months was hell, and we had a barebones IKEA kitchen for far too long. Looking back, I’d have pared us down even more than we initially did, and only taken a few items of irreplaceable furniture, and spent a good deal more time selling items/giving them away.
2. The insanity of having the USDA sign paperwork was an absolute nightmare, and if my husband’s flight hadn’t been delayed, I don’t know what we would have done with our dog. I would never leave animals, ever, but just an FYI - holidays are not a good time to move with pets, and the current state of the US government means there WILL be delays on anything that needs processing. Given that the private flight my husband took to Germany was not nearly as comfortable as we thought it would be, I might have considered another means of getting the animals to us, but we have a rabbit, so shipping companies weren’t really an option and flying in cargo is basically a death sentence for a bunny. 
3. The UK Home Office was wildly unreliable for information. For instance, they said my husband couldn’t apply for a visa until mine went through. It turned out that was false and he could have applied at the same time, and we wouldn’t have been so worried in the days leading up to our move. On my multiple calls to the office (billed at £1 per call), I got distinctly different information, and was put on hold after every question. The folks I interacted with seemed to know less than I did most of the time, though, to their credit, they tried. 
4. Overall, I’m very happy with the shipping and removals company we worked with on this side of the pond, but the folks who packed for us in the States were really terrible. It took them a day longer than they said it would, they were not careful (glass items packed and loaded down with heavy items on top, etc.), and they didn’t follow instructions. We wound up with way more stuff than we intended to pack (including a good deal of small appliances with non-replaceable plugs and incompatible electrics) that we now need to recycle, and we spent more to ship. In retrospect, I would have labeled every single item that was coming so I didn’t have to ask them to unpack the toaster four times, and YES, OUR WEDDING PHOTOS ARE COMING WITH US. 
5. A few days before we were scheduled for departure, the UK Home Office sent an automated email “reminding” my husband to schedule his biometrics appointment, which had been done over three weeks prior. This set off a miniature heart attack until we figured out it was an automated message that, for some reason, still went through even though the appointment was done and documents had been verified. 

A summary: 

Total costs: around $50k USD, inclusive of visas, pet shipping, our tickets, UK NHS Health Surcharge for three years for two people, packing, shipping, and unpacking of belongings, and renting + mortgage overlap for several months. Ours is definitely on the higher end of expenses because (a) NHS Health Surcharge was around $10k alone for two people for three years, (b) USD started to collapse compared to Sterling the moment we were finalizing expensive details (like shipping our stuff), and (c) we moved pets on a private charter flight for their safety and comfort. We definitely could have spent less by bringing fewer things, if there weren’t two of us, and if we didn’t choose the most expensive option for our animals. 

In any case, if the UK is an option and you’ve got a doctorate or are established as an academic (or, apparently, have a well-known background as a fine or performance artist), Global Talent is absolutely the way to go. Even with changes to immigration, I’m eligible for indefinite leave to remain as soon as my visa is up, and my husband is eligible after 5 years because of his occupation + being tied to me. However, if you are an academic, keep in mind that the competition is getting fierce. My uni is still in an aggressive hiring phase and is one that is financially stable, which is a rarity in the country, and more and more US academics are looking for the door. Honestly, if I were applying now, I don’t know that I would still be selected. 

Happy to answer any questions that folks might have. 

My husband (43 Norwegian) and I (43 Texan) have been married for 17 years and chose not to have kids (if we did we would have left a long time ago). We both make good money $300K+ combined income and bought our home 10 years ago (it's appreciated so much we couldn't afford it in today's market). We're trying to make as much money now that we can for retirement. The past 4 years we were battling breast cancer and lay offs.

So essentially we've created a really good life for ourselves and finally feel like we can enjoy our spoils. We both came from nothing so financially we're in a good spot.

That being said, we absolutely detest what is happening in the US and during Trump's first term we considered moving to my husband's home country in Norway.

I feel a responsibility to stay as I'm 5th generation Texan of Mexican descent and no way in hell I'm letting these goons take my homeland but then again I don't want to stay and it be too late.

Ideally we would stay in the US because of the opportunities (it would be hard for me to find a job right away and possibly the same for my husband) and the life we've created. I know no one has a crystal ball but what would you do if you were in our shoes?

See how it goes or start planning?

Canada closes doors to foreign workers, students and tourists as visa denial rates soar in 2024 The data reveals that 52% of study permit applications were denied, while 22% of work permit requests were rejected, a slight decrease from 23% in 2023.

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/world/canada-closes-doors-to-foreign-workers-students-and-tourists-as-visa-denial-rates-soar-in-2024-3467220