I’d pick Slovenia ahead of Croatia. Slovenia was lucky and got out of the break-up of Yugoslavia without any combat. And there’s a large number of English speakers, which would make life easier.
And if you’re Charles Ng, they’ll extradite you anyway.
IMHO, by region:
SE Europe: Slovenia*, although your dollars can probably go much farther in nearby countries. I too would say Croatia is a little lower, but still a nice place. Both have very pretty landscapes and architecture. Belarus would be the worst choice, Moldova probably the poorest (not necessarily a bad thing).
Middle East and North Africa: Morocco. Lebanon, parts of it. UAE if that’s your thing but your money will be gone quickly. Maybe Tunisia.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Namibia, many of the various islands e.g. Cape Verde, Mauritania is the one that’s closed to SE of Madagascar, the latter of which has had some problems lately but not the kind that will get your head chopped off. Nice nature.
Asia: Mongolia, or China and Russia (see Europe also) with less human rights. Places like Moscow will drain your reserves fast. Not sure what the least bad -stan is. Kyrgyzstan?
*Well, they had 10 days of war, but it was curtailed by Croatia’s secession and they were in the between the two countries. Also, I’ve heard mixed things: but maybe they have a high tax burden?
Also, I assume that if an extradition treaty is signed, then you’ll have to move again? I put Slovenia high on the list of next country to sign with the US.
March 14, 2015: History is set as President Obama lifts the blockade between the US and Cuba, allowing free trade and travel between the two countries since before most Americans were born.
March 27, 2015: Ranchoth is extradited back to the USA for both mopery and dopery.
I don’t see Iran as that bad
It’s not that corrupt for the middle east, it’s got a well educated and young workforce and it’s desperate for investment. It’d be easy to start up a successful business.
Ethnicly it is diverse, and you’d not stand out too much or encounter too much racism. Religiously, there are significant and legally protected Orthodox Christian and Jewish communities. Heathcare is cheap and good.
The religious laws and culture is a lot less strict than popularly imagined, shesh! there is even effectively legal prostitution if you are Muslim. There are all woman special forces units. It’s hardly Saudi Arabia.
I wouldn’t go if you were a gay man or a evangelising Christian, but if you are genderqueer it is surprisingly liberal towards transpeople.
I’m surprised nobody has yet mentioned Snowden’s original hiding spot: Hong Kong, while technically a Special Administrative Region and not a country, it has every imaginable modern convenience, widespread English thanks to 100 years of British rule and is close enough to many other non-extradition countries that you wouldn’t feel cooped up.
$500K wouldn’t go far but the job market is robust so, assuming you have marketable skills, you could make a very good living.
$500k the government are not going to waste man power and money to bring back $500k u will just be on there wanted list,perhaps a Eastern European country would be best, you can basically bribe ur way anywhere there,plus they are lovely little countries , I’ve been to most it’s very poor in some parts but you can have a very comfortable life in Macedonia on a lake. But be sure that all a secret agent needs to do is lure you into another European country which they can snap you and take I back to USA. Or you could just give yourself in, you will go to jail anyways, so you might as well give it to charity or to deserving people who are in great need, be a Robin Hood , it’s probally the greatest good you could do for humanity rather than hiding out
I was surprised to see there isn’t an existing treaty. Slovenia is a member of NATO and the EU and most other countries in these organizations have extradition treaties with the United States.
I noticed that none of the countries that came out of the former Yugoslavia have treaties. Is this a coincidence or is there a pattern at work?
Well note one point for the map quoted above: “Data source is list of U.S. extradition treaties as of April 2006”–so there could well be treaties post 2006 for some of the countries which came out of the the former Yugoslavia.
Is there a current list of countries?
New Caledonia is not marked as being an extradition treaty place on the map.
Hard to believe that you are safe from extradition there though…
The law in Canada has changed since the Ng case. Nowadays, the Canadian government would require a guarantee of no execution as a condition of extradition.
You’d never said you were Isabel Preysler! Those “couple ski slopes and shopping mall” are pretty big, although someone from the US (specially someone from that enormous flattish area in the middle) might get claustrophobic real fast. Not someone from LA: those would feel right at home in the daily traffic jam, once they got used to the lack of lanes.
ETA: I checked and to become a resident you need to have a permanent job (it may be for your own Andorran company). I haven’t gotten to the point of checking what are the requirements to create an Andorran company.
So is Slovenia - but as **Past Tense **said, they probably have an agreement in place by now.
Is Taiwan a decent place these days?
For me, definitely Viet Nam. I’d buy a little place in Nha Trang and spend my exile very happily.