It may sound cliche but education is so easily accessible nowadays
Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
31–40 of 52 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#32Your savings and income is enough to get a small yacht and not stay anywhere really. That said getting tourist visas for most of the countries probably isn’t easy...
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#33If you want to risk a country that is currently cheap and might soon brighten up a lot, there was a Hacker News thread on Bulgaria, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113203
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#34“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom” --Eisenhower (b. 1890)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_Stat...
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#35Education will open doors for you.
First, try to get your high school diploma. Ask the high schools in your country to give you an exam and then grant you a diploma. International schools can do this, too.
Pick a country. Then:
1. Attend a language school there. For example, the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University http://mtc.ntnu.edu.tw .
2. Take exams: TOEFL, TOEIC, local language competency, high school equivalency, college entrance, http://www.tw.org/tocfl/ , etc.
3. Apply to universities. Apply for scholarships. Every university has a student financial advisor who can help you get scholarships. Ask them for advice. Ask them to check your scholarship applications. Reply to every scholarship rejection with an appeal explaining why you need the money for school. I received a scholarship after sending an appeal letter. A lot of money is available to students who can show that they need it.
4. Attend university. Work part-time. Earn a 4-year degree. Consider earning a master's degree, too. A master's degree helps a lot with getting jobs and visas. It can also help you move to a third country later.
5. Get a job and apply for a work visa.
These steps are straightforward in many countries.
You can skip step 1 and save time & money. If you need an exam and nobody offers it nearby, take it in another country. Or ask your local university to administer the exam.
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#36If you make $2,000 USD a month I think the worst thing you could do would be to move to a very developed country, since you will barely be able to survive on that income. Consider moving to a developing but decent quality of life country where USD is strong. Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Argentina, etc.
I can vouch for that. Born and raised in Malaysia and living in Australia. With USD2K in Malaysia you can easily live a comfortable, with free healthcare, safe and decent life if you can ignore the institutionalized racism towards dark skinned people. Plus an environment very conducive to running a business. In Australia USD2K is peanuts. You will struggle to survive on that amount BUT on the other hand there is good social security and decency still means something(for how long more I have no idea).
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#37There are "golden visas" or residency by investment programs in many different countries, including some EU countries... Generally they require you to invest (much) more than 50K especially in developed countries... But there may be some opportunities there.
And there are entrepreneur visa in different countries too ; as reader of HN and someone having passive income looks like something that can be interesting... Estonia (https://startupestonia.ee),France (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24232025 https://lafrenchtech.com/en/how-france-helps-startups/french...) and Chile (https://www.startupchile.org/) come to mind but there are other option out there, including for tradition non-tech businesses.
I think that Chile - safe, clean country with a non-toxic culture (and preferably a cool climate)- also gives visas to people with passive income...
And Estonia have also a 1 year Digital Nomad Visa that may be used to test the water
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#38If you're a good programmer consider moving to Sweden for these reasons: * Many reputable software companies have engineering offices there * Obtaining a work permit is easy even for a high school dropout if you have a job offer * Getting citizenship or permanent residency is easy * Safe, clean and highly developed * Almost everyone speaks english fluently
Finding an apartment can be very hard though, depending on what city. One should be prepared to sublet on short-time contracts. Otherwise Sweden is quite good. The weather sucks though :)
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#39If you are a developer or related to IT area, in Costa Rica though is a third-world country life is descent (I'm Venezuelan living in CR), look for opportunities in LinkedIn (where most of the job market here is), there are companies that sponsor work visa and your family can come too (mine is here). Also (not necessarily related to your question) Costa Rica announced they started working on a law to have "digital nomads" work here for a "long" period of time
Re: Ask HN: How can I escape my third-world country?
#40For what it’s worth, you are doing better than me, who lives in a developed country with high school and university diploma and what is considered a good, full time job.
If that saving and passive income is self made, that is nothing short of incredible! I think you are selling yourself short in terms of landing a “lucky job”