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Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

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Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#51

Post by scrollaway »

loxs wrote: post #34

Prepare to be much worse financially. You will earn less, pay higher taxes (as percentage) and will feel much poorer. Cars, especially nice ones, are much more expensive (in absolute numbers, not only as percentage of income) to buy and own. Petrol is several times the US price. Rents are higher in most cities (at least compared to income). Maybe only SV is worse compared to Europe. All tech gadgets are more expensiv…

Are you trying to spread fud? Because everything you said is either plain wrong or made to sound worse than it is.

1. All prices in europe include tax, unlike in the US where it's customary to not include tax in the price and pay it at checkout. Stuff tends to be more expensive not just because of VAT but also because of shipping prices and extra consumer protections such as mandatory 2 year warranties.

2. Just like in the US, rent varies wildly. In Athens you can pay 100€/month for a studio. In London, you'll find that same studio for 10-15 times that depending where you look. "Compared to income" IME it's about equal if not better - please cite your sources.

3. Healthcare is unquestionably of excellent quality across the board. I've lived in France, the UK, Greece, Sweden, there's no exceptions.

4. Petrol prices are kinda irrelevant when you don't need a car. European cities are far, far more tightly packed than the west coast. In all capitals you can get all your stuff done by foot, metro or cycling.

What you're somehow forgetting however while complaining about earnings is that as a US citizen, you need to watch out for double taxation when moving to a different country. So I don't know, your post here is actually super counterproductive.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#52

Post by alexhakawy »

dClauzel wrote: post #49
taway_1212 wrote: post #4

Man, you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship. I am very envious of folks who have it. The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world - i.e. maybe the rest of the world combined is as interesting tech-wide as US is - but with lower salary and language/immigration barriers (i.e. try job-hopping, over a span of say 5 years, fr…

> you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship DAFUQ ? I am a French research in computer science, now working for a company producing and streaming contents on the web. I can assure you that my carrer opportunities — as sysadmin, researcher, or developper — are pretty good in France and in Europe :)

how you get a job like that lol

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#53

Post by mantas »

alexhakawy wrote: post #36
robjan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You will unless they are closely related enough to give you citizenship rights. Nationality law is completely different from country to country within Europe, though.

It's my fathers sister.

Depends how she got citizenship. If she got it through bloodline, maybe you're eligible too. If not, you can come as a tourist. Probably 3-6 months, depending on country. May be eligible for cheaper visa if you'd supply an invite from her.

Keep in mind that major non-EU countries (US/CA/AU/etc) don't need visa for tourist stuff. You'd get a stamp at airport for x months and that's it.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#54

Post by [deleted] »

dClauzel wrote: post #49
taway_1212 wrote: post #4

Man, you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship. I am very envious of folks who have it. The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world - i.e. maybe the rest of the world combined is as interesting tech-wide as US is - but with lower salary and language/immigration barriers (i.e. try job-hopping, over a span of say 5 years, fr…

> you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship DAFUQ ? I am a French research in computer science, now working for a company producing and streaming contents on the web. I can assure you that my carrer opportunities — as sysadmin, researcher, or developper — are pretty good in France and in Europe :)

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#55

Post by welder »

mbroncano wrote: post #21

EU citizen currently living in the US here. Hugely recommended, if only for comparison purposes. From my own experience, English speaking countries are a must. If that's not an option, cities like Barcelona or Berlin should cover your bases for at least a year, but you won't survive for long without speaking Spanish or German. There are more things than work in life, and you'll soon get tired of only dealing with exp…

Second this, besides Berlin I would recommend the northern countries. They speak English natively so it's less of a culture shock. You will pay more for rent and necessities than Berlin but salaries are higher too.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#56

Post by taway_1212 »

dClauzel wrote: post #49
taway_1212 wrote: post #4

Man, you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship. I am very envious of folks who have it. The tech career opportunities outside of US are really not that diverse and are heavily scattered across the world - i.e. maybe the rest of the world combined is as interesting tech-wide as US is - but with lower salary and language/immigration barriers (i.e. try job-hopping, over a span of say 5 years, fr…

> you have a very vauable asset for a tech career - a US Citizenship DAFUQ ? I am a French research in computer science, now working for a company producing and streaming contents on the web. I can assure you that my carrer opportunities — as sysadmin, researcher, or developper — are pretty good in France and in Europe :)

I didn't say it's impossible, it's merely generally harder and for less money.

Re: sysadmin and developer roles - my post was mostly about diversity and breadth of available roles. These sysadmin and developer roles are generic enough that one will be fine in them in Europe. A sufficiently specialized researcher, on the other hand, usually has only a handful of places in the entire world that are interested in hiring him within his specialty - a lot of which are in the US.

I see this in a friend of mine. He's a young PhD Machine Learning Researcher with top credentials (Ivy League, top publications, won awards in his field). He wants to live in Europe due to family concerns, but he really can't find a position that would allow him use his talent, and is semi-wasting his time in random bad Data Science jobs for now - while he's getting numerous awesome offers from the US (like leading a research unit at Google or faculty positions in Ivy League schools).

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#57

Post by loxs »

GavinMcG wrote: post #46
loxs wrote: post #34

Prepare to be much worse financially. You will earn less, pay higher taxes (as percentage) and will feel much poorer. Cars, especially nice ones, are much more expensive (in absolute numbers, not only as percentage of income) to buy and own. Petrol is several times the US price. Rents are higher in most cities (at least compared to income). Maybe only SV is worse compared to Europe. All tech gadgets are more expensiv…

Do you have more info to support the "usually of very questionable quality" claim? Edit: corrected "low" to "questionable".

Sorry, I only have my personal experience and that of my family and friends. And I didn't say "low".

Usually it's highly bureaucratic - you have to "climb a ladder" of doctors. First your GP, then a specialist, then, maybe a hospital. You wait a lot (sometimes weeks and months, because you are not "emergency"). And sometimes you encounter outright incompetence and have to go to a private doctor/hospital to have your problems properly attended to.

That summarizes my experiences with the healthcare systems of 4 different EU countries.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#58

Post by Coding_Cat »

alexhakawy wrote: post #31
lordnacho wrote: post #23

That's a big life decision. I've lived in Europe my whole life, but I have a lot of friends and relatives in the US. I've also lived in 3 different European countries, and of course I know people from just about all the Western European nations. There's a lot got you to think about. This is only a small part, off the top of my head: - If you're American, you pay tax worldwide. Most countries have higher tax than the…

if I have family there do I still need visa to live with them?

Depends. Europe is not a single country, it's impossible to answer this question. (unless in the case where you can in every country, but I wouldn't know).

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#59

Post by chillydawg »

TamDenholm wrote: post #27

I dont know the specifics as i'm not a US citizen, but to my knowledge, i think if you earn a wage in another country outside the US, you will have to pay the local taxes and also tax back to the US Gov as well. Someone please correct me or clarify if i'm wrong.

Most western countries have double taxation treaties with the USA, but there is often a period where you have to temporarily pay the taxes in both places and then get a refund on the US portion, which can be very expensive if poorly timed.

Re: Ask HN: Thinking of moving to Europe from USA

#60

Post by tluyben2 »

loxs wrote: post #57
GavinMcG wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have more info to support the "usually of very questionable quality" claim? Edit: corrected "low" to "questionable".

Sorry, I only have my personal experience and that of my family and friends. And I didn't say "low". Usually it's highly bureaucratic - you have to "climb a ladder" of doctors. First your GP, then a specialist, then, maybe a hospital. You wait a lot (sometimes weeks and months, because you are not "emergency"). And sometimes you encounter outright incompetence and have to go to a private doctor/hospital to have your…

What countries? My experiences are excellent in Netherlands & Spain public healthcare. I hear people complain about NHS a lot but never used it so no idea.
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