3d ago

time to get out

148 comments

if anyone has any questions about getting out of the country, ask away.
I'm a long-term traveler.
- What countries do you recommend that have the easiest visa requirements?
  
  at this point, visas are very easy to get in general, but Thailand is still one of the easiest and is one of the friendliest and most affordable countries around.
  if you're a US citizen, you have visa-free travel in Thailand for 60 days.
  if you need a visa, go to the evisa website, thaievisa.go.th, fill out the form, pay the fee, they'll email you the visa in a couple days.
  I usually recommend Thailand or somewhere in Southeast Asia as a first destination. good food, great healthcare, cheap living, great people, beautiful environment, and they're very used to travelers so there are local and expat support systems nationwide.
  another nice thing about Southeast asia is that there are tons of other friendly places close by.
  it's about as easy to live there as anywhere else, but the support systems and the country being very used to travelers might make first time travelers more comfortable.
  oh PS thailand has a lot a lot of really good all you can eat buffets for 3 to 10 dollars per person.
  
  Many European countries allow you to visit a maximum of 90 days within a 180 day period, so if you're rich enough, you can technically live there half your life.
  
  yup, it's called the Schengen area:
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area
  you do not have to be rich to live in Europe, Europe is much cheaper than the states, especially in the situation you're describing as a long-term traveler.
  
  I've read in some unsubstantiated comments that the state of the authorities of Hungary is so fucked up, they barely check if you can bribe a family tree researcher to make up some BS that your grandparents were Hungarian.
  Pretend they were 1956 refugees that never had papers in the US, find some people who actually got lost in 1956 that have birth certs in Hungary - like maybe killed by the Soviets - learn some elementary Hungarian, be white, and boom, EU citizenship.
  I take no responsibility for this harebrained idea and reiterate that this is just some ridiculous thing I read back on Reddit way back when.
  
  Hungary itself is leaning quite heavily into an authoritarian vibe these days. If one were to go this route, I’d recommend taking advantage of your new EU-citizen status and find permanent residence in a country with stronger democratic traditions.
  
  Netherlands and the nordic countries are probably the top choices
  
  Authoritarian
  This just means democratic results where CIA failed. Europe warmongering despots takes authoritarian views on diminishing Hungary. Hungary allows "same sex registered partnerships". "Needing" a pride parade is supremacism. Trying for citizenship in "CIA democratic beacon EU" will get you drafted into mobile infantry to go be cannon fodder invading Russia, or selecting a nuclear strike target.
  
  This just means democratic results where CIA failed.
  This is some tankie bullshit lol
  
  It must be so exhausting for them to have to downvote every single reply to their comments.
  
  What other alternative is there? Admit that your worldview is skewed by all kinds of propaganda to the point you're detached from objective reality as desired by your party?
  That's just crazy talk. Just like the idea that words have meanings and you can't just use them however you choose to devalue the meaning behind them.
  
  Edit: Shit sorry I COMPLETELY misunderstood your comment and thought you were directing that at me. A re-read solved that. My apologies if you caught my snarky response before this edit.
  
  All good, sarcasm is hard to catch on the Internet. I get that IRL too due to a dry sense of humor and delivery.
  
  After reading that I was hoping you could clarify something for me. What the fuck are you talking about?
  
  Man, you really have no idea what's going on here in the Balkans.
  
  I'm a white American that's been living in tijuana, Mexico for the last 9.5 years. I drive north to the US to go to work every day and drive south again to go home. The Mexican border police only check maybe 5% of cars that drive from US to Mexico, and when they check me they've only ever checked my car registration and/or passport. It's an extremely open border crossing when going south.
  If you wanted to actually be legal, a temporary tourist visa to visit Mexico can be purchased for about 25 usd and allows you to stay for up to 6 months inside Mexico 🤷‍♂️ and when it expires you can buy a new one.
  
  Cyprus sells passports, so if you have the money you can instantly become an EU citizen
  
  What kinda money we talking here?
  
  Like a lot. Like €300,000. Which is cheap compared to other countrys' golden visas tbf
  
  That is a lot but not out of reach for an upper middle class family, interesting.
  
  Not out of reach but will hurt like hell to just give away 300k for just a passport.
- What tips or suggestions do you have for families with young kids?
  
  Three big ones are:
  There are lots of international families, so they'll have company, support networks and infrastructure.
  There are tons of safe, affordable countries with easy access to good education.
  Native English speakers are all but guaranteed jobs as ESL teachers, so the parents will have access to available, steady income abroad.
  A lot of people don't know about international schools, which is where most international families send their kids.
  Other than the first two points, there are not many differences between my individual and family advice. For many families, moving from the US to a country like Thailand means safer, more affordable lives with a better quality of life.
- Any advice on how to move all my shit without it getting stolen?
  I've got a collection of a shit load of Legos from childhood that hold a lot of sentimental value, but it's easily worth a shit load of money. In particular I'd be looking to move to Costa Rica. My fiance is from there, but she said stuff like that would be likely to get stolen by customs.
  
  people usually ship their belongings by sea or air(ocean freight is cheaper and slower, but I'm not sure by how much with Costa Rica being so near) with a company like DHL, I've used them and found them to be a reliable international shipping company, FedEx and UPS are also options.
  I wouldn't worry about customs taking your stuff, especially if you have insurance or tracking or anything like that on the ticket, and especially with a wealthier country like Costa Rica where paper trails are more important.
  I've actually never heard of customs taking anything legal in real life from anyone who's shipped belongings overseas(my friend's yak jerky got confiscated because it's illegal to import a lot of international meat products into the US) so I personally don't believe customs pocketing things is very common.
  Legos aren't apparently valuable on their face and with the paper trail of receipts/documents I wouldn't think you have to worry about anything getting lifted by customs. plus, if you add some fragile notices and insurance on there the agents responsible for transporting the packages will be a lot more careful, for sure.
  
  I wouldn’t worry about customs taking your stuff, especially if you have insurance or tracking or anything like that on the ticket, and especially with a wealthier country like Costa Rica where paper trails are more important.
  It's something my fiance warned me about. Her and her family has known customs agents to take shit. Recently they tried to send some chocolates and small gifts to us here in the U.S., and about 1/3rd of the chocolate got stolen. I'm not sure which company it was with, but it is something that happens, and to my understanding is just a culturally known fact of life.
  Legos aren’t apparently valuable on their face and with the paper trail of receipts/documents I wouldn’t think you have to worry about anything getting lifted by customs.
  Sure, but by weight I'm looking at about $2k worth of misc boxes, before accounting for built sets that are in good condition with all their pieces.
  if you add some fragile notices and insurance on there the agents responsible for transporting the packages will be a lot more careful, for sure.
  I'll have to look into this then. Thank you for the help!
  
  I see what you mean now.
  I thought you were mainly concerned about shipping things from the US, which neither I nor anyone I've known has had intercepted or interfered with en route to dozens of countries, frequently containing valuables. It must happen, but it seems very rare.
  The other way though, if you're sending packages to the US from other countries, you could have that problem occasionally, which I have experienced twice and heard of from other travelers shipping things to the US.
  As far as I know, that's a one-way problem, US-tagged packages seem to slip through sticky fingers.

148 comments