@CairoCarol lives in Hawai’i
I don’t live in Seattle, but I have friends who do. It’s a very nice, if rainy, city. Lots to do, and lots of wealth disparity. Housing is astronomically expensive.
There are, or at least have been, other posters who do as well, although at the moment I am blanking on the names of any currently active ones. I’m just a carpet-bagger, although I try to contribute to the community and be respectful of local knowledge and traditions. Still, if @survinga is thinking of moving to the islands in middle/retirement age, my experience would probably be more relevant than that of someone born and raised here, so ask away about living here if you like. (I’m on Hawai’i Island, aka “Big Island.”)
OK, thanks, I’ll message you offline.
Traffic, and crowding in general, is as bad as L.A.; There are two seasons: August, and Rain; and it’s one of my favorite places to visit.
If you have a UK grandparent, you might qualify for a UK Ancestry visa. It grants you indefinite permission to live in the UK, where you can then work towards citizenship. Warning: it’s expensive and involves a LOT of paperwork. I was looking into it, but it’s a lot less attractive post-Brexit.
I read somewhere recently that Canada is disallowing this type of behaviour.
I’m surprised to see no mention of Australia here, certainly very little language problem to overcome! And I think you’d find the local culture close enough to not be too challenging.
That said, I know little to nothing about the requirements to move here temporarily or permanently.
Thanks for that. I will look into it.
I beleive Ireland has this, too, but you have to prove ancestry with an ancestor’s birth certificate or other official documentation.
^ Correct. Document gathering was a bit of a challenge, but once that was done the process was pretty straightforward (and can probably be done online).
(High point was when I called the registrar’s office in Ireland to inquire about document fees. The nice lady replied, “Oh, just tuck a five dollar bill in with the letter and you’ll be fine.”)
I could totally get citizenship in Italy… unfortunately, Italy has gone Fascist again for the first time since Mussolini was overthrown. 
Disgrazia.
I’m pretty sure I qualify for Hungarian citizenship. But for one thing, the paperwork to get it done is immense (I have relatives who have done it) and second, Hungary isn’t really saner than the US.
It would give me access to the entire EU, though.
For now…
If you have a spare $5M lying around, you can now move to NZ!
The article says most applicants are from the US & want to get away from Trump
Permanent?
Pretty rigorous without a sponsor and expensive even to apply.
Cost us $11k non -refundable to apply through a licenced immigration consultant and since I had a sponsor we were pretty confident of succeeding and we did.
https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-leaving-australia/moving-to-australia
Temporary
Easy to visit and if under 30/35 there are cool work/visit combos that are popular.
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/work-holiday-417
You might get boggled with Stralian slang - her’s some
I still get caught out at times.
Where I live now and about to be a citizen - I will keep my Canadian passport as well.
Huh, I thought the threshold was much lower than that, c. $700,000 American.
IME, this can be very much true.
My dad was an Air Force cryptolinguist (i.e., listening in and translating military communications in adversary languages) stationed in Japan. My mom was Japanese.
Dad’s background and skill in languages came across to Mom in how carefully and skillfully he spoke Japanese. She called his speech “beautiful”.
There’s been at least 3 recent threads here active in the past year, but using this one…
Every web site I search on this gives different info. For New Zealand for example, I recall 700K being the minimum from a thread last year on the topic, but the site linked above says that is actually 5 MILLION (which is an adjustment downwards from where it apparently was, 10M), but another (which bills itself as the “complete” guide) doesn’t even mention any of these gargantuan fees/requirements at all. I am also not sure what is a “fee” which is gonzo forever, and what is merely one’s total net worth, which of course I can hold onto.
I just turned 63 but am as healthy as a horse (they need a health checkup form filled out note), and while I am not working right now I guess I could get back into teaching/tutoring if need be, if they look down on retirees that much.