Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

I hope you will find this useful and not off-topic; here is a summary:

- Europe is very different, not a country and not even a union (parts of Europe are NOT in European Union)

- Northern Europe has cold climate, more difficult languages, higher taxes and usually better services

- in Southern Europe people are a lot more relaxed (some can confuse that with lazy, but it is not), a lot friendlier but poorer

- in Germany and Austria it is very important to speak the language well in order to integrate. They are also very strict in many ways (lots of rules and regulations).

- most of France is really nice; salaries are a bit low

- Switzerland has top salaries and life standards. It is probably the best place to live if you are highly qualified.

- the Netherlands and Belgium have pretty bad weather. In the Netherlands most people speak a very good English

- Eastern Europe has lower salaries and cost of living, but imported products (an iPhone or a Tesla car) are very expensive. However people are friendly, life is accessible and the nature is great if you are into it: lots of hills and mountains to hike, access is permitted in most places. Criminality is in general extremely low for violent crimes, robbery and corruption are fairly common in some places.

- Poland and Hungary have some right wing governments that are not very popular with the EU politicians, but for the citizens is not really a problem (except abortion restrictions in Poland, but that is a sensitive topic for a very religious country)

- Ukraine is not a good place yet, not enough English speakers, but it may improve in the next 10 years. Belarus is not a good idea, full stop. Moldova is very poor. Albania is nice, but the language is a barrier and the country is quite poor. Montenegro is soo tiny. Other than these 5 countries, Europe is OK to live a decent life, especially if you have family. Even less known countries like Slovenia are still nice if you like that kind of small country with lots of mountains.

> I'm just outside London

> ... I'd bet that's true pretty much everywhere in Europe.

I think those two statements are very far apart.

How come nobody mentions France in the comments? :)

I am French but have been working 12 years for a very large US company , spent a lot of time in the US, go friends there - an witnessed/helped several Americans moving to France.

Salary and healthcare were already covered. The fact that over a 3 days drive across Europe you visit 4 or 5 countries with vastly different cultures is a big plus. And by vastly I mean really vastly. We've been in constant wars for 2000+ years and this created a very nice and specific melting pot + cultural differences.

School will be very different. In France you will have a more formalized way of education (which is not a good thing), but also a very liberal one. Children will be drinking tap water starting at kindergarten and and stay like this their whole life. They won't (usually) go to school on Wednesday.

The office will be less politically correct. You will have people discussing politics and religion - though this became less outspoken the last 10 years or so.

You will have good baguettes and average bread - but still eons better than the average US bread.

Bureaucracy is mcu better than the stereotype. But not good either. You have to learn the power of the "pffff" sound you make with your eyebrows up - which means "I understand that this is the rule, but you know, I have to do/get/send that and it is a huge problem if I don't". Many foreigners foolishly assume that a "no" means "this is not possible".

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pae2AMnmUVA for the more scientific approach to how to be French when you are not.

I moved from San Francisco to London with my wife (no kids) in Spring of 2020. So my experience has been very covid-y but still hugely positive. We moved here because we always wanted to live in Europe and we only speak English, so London seemed like the best place to start.

TL;DR - I highly recommend doing this move if you can afford to do it (financially and socially).

Where do I live: Central London

What's the biggest sacrifice: I kept my job in the move and took a ~25% paycut in my job and got slightly worse hours. But the biggest sacrifice was being an ocean away from my friends and family. Oh and the clothes dryers suck here :-)

What have I gained: So much. I got to live in a city of 10M+ people with every possible amenity and activity you could ever want. I got to travel to so many parts of Europe that I never would have gone to otherwise. I learned how to make friends intentionally, something I haven't done since college. I learned how to work remotely effectively, something I thought I couldn't do. I learned how another country works day-to-day, which I think is hard to do without first-hand experience. I learned how to travel with last-minute plans (thanks Covid and RyanAir). I learned how much time I can spend alone with my wife in lockdown without going insane (infinite, so far!). In general I learned that we can live almost anywhere if we are determined to do it.

If it wasn't for my friends back in the US, I'd stay in London permanently. But after ~3 years in London we'll probably head back and try to resume our old life in some form. I hope that when I am older I can return, maybe I'll retire in Spain or send my kids to college in Europe.

> (..) if you took a vacation. it was actually expected.

It goes even further than this. It’s a problem for the employer if the employer doesn’t use their vacation time.