My final straw is the 2028 election. By then, I’ll be 62, and that election will tell me if we still have some semblance of hope as a Democracy or if we’re a full-blown Trump dictatorship.
Currently, I’m leaning toward staying until 2028, but having a “pre-28 Plan B” out if I need it. I’m meeting with the consulate of a European country in the next month or two, to start the process of either a Golden Visa or a Retirement Visa. I feel like I’m in no danger if I stay around for a while, and see what happens. But I want to be able to get out within a year or so, if it turns south quicker than I thought.
I’m also going to talk to my employer, as I work for a multi-national corporation. I might be able to get an overseas assignment, and that would allow me to lay low for a while but with continued employment & money-making & stuff.
PS…wasn’t sure where to put this, Pit or Politics Board…I picked the Pit.
I have nowhere to go. I do work in IT and suppose I could get sponsored, but I’m not sure how competitive my resume would be overseas, as most of my experience is in the gov/military sector.
So my answer is, when things get so bad that Americans become eligible for asylum.
Will you be better off there or here? Yes America is doing sucky shit right now and we are being the rat bastards of the world, and that of biblical proportions, so as the orange might say we are the greatest rat bastards. But is it going to be better over there, when over there is still in the world?
We have good friends who left the USA three years ago and now live in Portugal. They love it and don’t miss what’s happening here at all. If not for circumstance, I’d probably join them.
It’s not really practical for us to leave the US at our age. We’re strong and healthy now, but realistically, we’re looking at diminished capacity in the years ahead, and we have a US-based plan in place for that. (We already paid, before the election, to reserve spots at a retirement home that has progressive care facilities so you can stay til you die. Our expectation is that we’ll probably move there in 10-15 years.)
And I’m trying to be selfish, because there is nothing I can do about Trump’s decimation of democracy and US institutions. That breaks my heart every day, but if I focus on the little things … my beautiful cats, the warmth and loveliness of living in Hawai’i, pretty good opportunities to indulge my hobbies … I can have some daily joy and satisfaction.
(Not to say that I’ve given up on contributing to the world - I do many hours of volunteer work each week for two local non-profits, and I teach music classes. That won’t stop Trump, but it makes my tiny little corner of the universe better, I hope.)
My husband is Japanese, and I think (although our marriage would not be recognized there) he can be my guarantor for a long-stay visa. They have excellent health care over there, and if we sell our house we can afford to rent (in my husband’s name) a nice apartment or condo. I love the public transportation in Japan, especially if I am not constrained to traveling during rush hour.
Would we? I don’t know. He doesn’t particularly want to live in Japan, and neither do I. I am not literate in Japanese, and only speak marginally, although that would improve over time. I find his family to be nice but with an oppressive tendency to swallow him up.
But mostly, I don’t want to give those currently in power the satisfaction of effectively booting all of us, those who can afford it anyway, out of the country. If it came to it, if my husband was being deported for being an undesirable queer, or if I was going to be jailed for that, we would go. I’m 75 now, there’s no-one else here who will miss me much.
p.s. I have no prediction about how likely some of these events are to actually happen. And it’s possible my position as an American in Japan could turn sour, given enough financial hardship. Who knows? Not I.
Well, I am currently really, really, really happy that I left. Trump’s policies are obviously having an immediate negative effect on Canada, but not in the same way.
Leaving permanently takes years to plan. Start now: you don’t have to go through with it, but if you wait until you have no options, you will be only going as a refugee seeking asylum.
I will be out of here in 3 months. Selling everything at estate sale mid-March. House goes on market mid-April. Informed work that end of April is my last day, start SS in May. Then off to the Philippines to start again.
My final straw was the November election results. But in hindsight it was apparent America was circling the drain long before that. Not happy about that, but can’t continue on this way, wondering every morning what shit this administration is going to pull.
I just got Taiwanese citizenship a few weeks ago, making me a dual citizen. My sister got hers, too. We’re both considering relocating to Taiwan for the near future. The main issue is funding. I do have a remote job that could earn me enough money to get by for 1-2 years there, but I expect the job to then run out of funding and come to an end. Maybe I’d get a CELTA and teach English or find some other form of work.
For me, there isn’t really a final straw. I was ready to leave the USA any time I got enough money. I was thinking of leaving even during the Biden administration. But I never had that much in savings.
Every year it becomes more likely that what you need to teach them won’t, by The Powers That Be, be allowed to be taught. Are you willing to stay and teach the party line?
In other words, while you may want to teach a lesson, there is a good chance you will just be an example.
That’s why I started the process now. I figure I need a Plan B, even if I don’t necessarily want one. And if I do nothing until, say 2029, more doors would likely be shut to me.
Good luck with that. How long was this in the works for you? When did you begin the process of immigration to the Philippines?
My main worry with Taiwan is the situation with China. It feels like “when” , not “if”, they invade Taiwan. Hope I’m wrong.
He’s been posting thoughtfully about it for quite a while, so whether or not one is skeptical about his motivations/intentions, this seems to me to be a pretty well planned exodus.
For sure. For now, I have some chronic spinal and mycotoxicosis problems that would be much cheaper to treat in Taiwan than in America (even with U.S. health insurance.) That’s one of the main considerations.
But yes, with Trump in office, it is very much in doubt he’d do anything other than treat Taiwan like an Asian version of Ukraine. To the point that my parents have been discussing with me, if worst comes to pass, whether I’d be better off letting the Chinese occupiers know I have a US passport or not. (The consensus among folks seems to be that being a U.S. citizen will still have some clout on that day, although the occupiers might just snatch the booklet and say “If you have Taiwanese citizenship that makes you a subject of China, regardless of anything else.”)