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Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#151

Post by shock »

pimlottc wrote: post #139
tommiegannert wrote: post #133

Sweden-> Ireland (5 years) Ireland -> Switzerland (3 years so far) I wanted to switch jobs after 7 years, and got an offer from Google. They handled relocation to Ireland. After five years, I wanted to leave, but didn't feel like going home. So I transferred within Google to Switzerland. Again, they handled relocation. Now I've left Google, after 7 years, of course. No plans on going anywhere but back to Sweden. Ther…

> Now I've left Google, after 7 years, of course. Why “of course”?

Probably some vesting schedule.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#152

Post by lapaz17 »

olalonde wrote: post #39

I'm from Canada and have been a full time expat since I'm 19 (32 now). I've lived in Hong Kong, China, USA, Dominican Republic and now Turkey. I never really planned anything, I just visited places and eventually decided to stay longer than expected. I'm lucky that I can work from home and made some lucky investments. For me, the most difficult is dealing with bureaucracy like getting visas and bank accounts. Another…

Hi olalonde, how did you land in Turkey?

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#153

Post by BrandiATMuhkuh »

erdo wrote: post #103
BrandiATMuhkuh wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tip for any EU citizens marrying a non EU citizens. For the EU citizen, make sure you execute your European right before your partner applies for residency. That way your partner does not have to learn the local language etc. The reason for that is, that EU family law is pretty liberal. And EU law is "higher" then local law. But that only applies if you executed your European right. To execute your European right, yo…

I think this is referred to as the Surinder Singh principle, here's more about it: https://www.freemovement.org.uk/surinder-singh-immigration-r...

Thank you. Good to know.

For me most interesting about this situation is, that most people I know, think they are EU citizens just because they live in an EU country. But that's not really true, until they executed their EU rights first.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#154

Post by sygma »

netjiro wrote: post #115

Just my opinions. Grew up in Sweden (Gothenburg). Started moving around on my own in my late teens for work, studies, research, love, etc. Have lived in quite a few places over the years. Moving to a new place is not difficult. Just don't bring a lot of baggage, neither physical nor emotional. Don't pack lots of expectations and opinions. Adapt fast. Expend serious effort to make a lot of new friends immediately, the…

Out of curiosity, Konstanz and München sound like they should fit your constraints yet you said you need strong reasons to move back to. Why is that?

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#155

Post by meheleventyone »

CodeGlitch wrote: post #129
meheleventyone wrote: post #75

I moved from Scotland to Iceland just over ten years ago. The company I worked for exploded spectacularly and a company here came to pick up the pieces. I wanted to visit but didn’t really have any intention to live here. Initially I thought I might be here a couple of years and then move on again. It was super easy to move here due to the UK being in the EU at the time. Brexit didn’t change anything for me personall…

> It was super easy to move here due to the UK being in the EU at the time. Brexit didn’t change anything for me personally but has made me more keen to get citizenship here to get back in to Europe. I'm don't quite follow what you are saying here - Iceland wasn't (isn't) in the EU? So I imagine Brexit or not would have made zero difference to your situation.

As noted Iceland is part of the EEA and so follows almost all of the same rules as countries in the EU including freedom of movement. When Brexit happened it was pretty up in the air what that meant for my permanent residency but the UK and Iceland signed an agreement before the UK left. Right now my wife and children can freely travel in the EU and I can’t or won’t be able to shortly. So getting citizenship here in Iceland will restore my rights in the EU.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#156

Post by meheleventyone »

mdp2021 wrote: post #112
meheleventyone wrote: post #75

I moved from Scotland to Iceland just over ten years ago. The company I worked for exploded spectacularly and a company here came to pick up the pieces. I wanted to visit but didn’t really have any intention to live here. Initially I thought I might be here a couple of years and then move on again. It was super easy to move here due to the UK being in the EU at the time. Brexit didn’t change anything for me personall…

> There is a vibrant cultural scene Care to elaborate? Thank you! By the way: have you found the cold an issue?

I’ve not found the cold to be an issue. It’s actually pretty temperate, we get a few days of really freezing temperatures a year but nothing very low or very sustained. The darkness is more of an issue, we’re high enough that days get pretty short in the winter time. But it’s also a very cozy time.

Culture wise there’s just a lot going on. Currently the annual film festival is on with loads of ancillary events like playing live music to a live performance of a video game. There’s a strong tradition of authorship here so loads of books getting written. The music scene is always super busy which shows in the number of international artists Iceland has produced. Art shows abound, there are a number of theatres and concert venues and so on. Basically it’s easy to find something interesting to do.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#157

Post by netjiro »

sygma wrote: post #154
netjiro wrote: post #115

Just my opinions. Grew up in Sweden (Gothenburg). Started moving around on my own in my late teens for work, studies, research, love, etc. Have lived in quite a few places over the years. Moving to a new place is not difficult. Just don't bring a lot of baggage, neither physical nor emotional. Don't pack lots of expectations and opinions. Adapt fast. Expend serious effort to make a lot of new friends immediately, the…

Out of curiosity, Konstanz and München sound like they should fit your constraints yet you said you need strong reasons to move back to. Why is that?

I generally enjoyed my time in both Konstanz and München, but not quite enough. It was quick and easy to find fun people. Great active social life.

München has horrendous housing shortage and traffic and is a bit too large for my taste. The alps are reasonably close but it is still quite a drive. The Konstanz region has the lake but is otherwise quite densely developed. It takes a bit to get away. Also, for Konstanz, Zürich is close enough to make Konstanz kind of pointless.

Germany has significantly heavier and more heavy handed bureaucracy than I want. Everyday life, all the small stuff, also costs more of my time there than in some other countries. This is an issue for me. I want the little necessities of my days to be as few, quick, small and frictionless as possible.

I visit these regions regularly, just don't have a good enough reason to move back there.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#158

Post by serial_dev »

4ad wrote: post #76
alangibson wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It could be it just doesn't suit your personality. If you a 'rise and grind' type of person, I can see it being hell.

Well I could enumerate all the material things that are worse in Europe and better in the US (I have lived in the US enough time to have an informed opinion), but that would get old, and in the end it would miss the point, as I could just as well enumerate countless things which are better in Europe compared to US. The real issue (which causes all the above differences anyway) is cultural. What matters is not compari…

Just to add more personal anecdotes to the thread, and not to dismiss what you said... How you feel is how you feel and I wish you the best.

I'm pretty happy with the cheese situation in Europe. I'm from Hungary, and thanks to the EU, I can get the best cheese from Italy, Spain, Switzerland and France even in relatively small towns. It was not like that 20 years ago. I live now in Munich, Germany, and there I have access to even more kinds of cheese. Both countries have tons of "artisan" cheese factories.

Regarding GA, I also disagree, though I only have experience from Hungary. There, most towns have small airports for GA, my dad often brought me there and let one of his friends take me for a short flight. Once, I wanted to learn to fly a hang glider, it was arranged in half a day, and they welcomed me, and I flew a couple of times. Note, my dad was not a pilot, or anything, just had to serve two years in the military, so he knew people that were interested in GA.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#159

Post by Aeolun »

montblanc wrote: post #23
Aeolun wrote: post #10

For reference, I’m from the Netherlands. I didn’t have any plans to emigrate until my friend introduced me to a small company in Japan that was looking for an engineer. I applied, but was rejected, so I thought that was that. Then a few months later I got another email. Their initial hire didn’t work out and now they wanted me to join. I worked remote for about a month while we got the visa process sorted (apparently…

What is the salary difference? Japan isn't so cheap either right?

Mostly it’s income tax, which is 43% until around 180k in Japan but 51% from 80k in the Netherlands.

Japan isn’t necessarily cheap (though childcare is), but there’s a wide range of options. The Netherlands has sort of settled on one default, but is now slowly making that default (family home) impossible to achieve for the average (and if things keep going like this, even above average) person.

Re: Ask HN: What is your story of immigrating to another country?

#160

Post by CodeGlitch »

meheleventyone wrote: post #155
CodeGlitch wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was super easy to move here due to the UK being in the EU at the time. Brexit didn’t change anything for me personally but has made me more keen to get citizenship here to get back in to Europe. I'm don't quite follow what you are saying here - Iceland wasn't (isn't) in the EU? So I imagine Brexit or not would have made zero difference to your situation.

As noted Iceland is part of the EEA and so follows almost all of the same rules as countries in the EU including freedom of movement. When Brexit happened it was pretty up in the air what that meant for my permanent residency but the UK and Iceland signed an agreement before the UK left. Right now my wife and children can freely travel in the EU and I can’t or won’t be able to shortly. So getting citizenship here in…

I see yes it makes sense for Iceland with such a low population to still be part of the EEA.

Hope it works out for you.

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