I’ve heard the opposite - that it’s very difficult for a doctor with foreign credentials to get them recognized so he or she can practice medicine in the United States. The cynical explanation I heard was that American doctors don’t want a flood of foreign doctors entering the country and competing against them. And the American doctors are the ones who control the accreditation system.
According to several of my doctors (I actually asked this year due to a co-worker) — if most/all of your training is in the US you are pretty much golden anywhere in the world. Same with most of Europe and some Asian countries. But if you are trained and licensed in say South America or any of the former Soviet Republics, for example, you won’t get hired even as a nurse. A former Russian doctor (medical/physical) works with me in a warehouse right now until he can catch up classes to qualify as a nurse with the possible future goal of medical school. Again. He’s sharp and will probably make it but we’re talking another 10 years of his life maybe. YMMV if you happen to be a surgeon of some renown in a special field but other than that forget it.
If you hit a “foreign” doctor in a US hospital, chances are he did undergrad and pre-med in his country of origin and then med school here in the US.
My PCP was Peruvian and immigrated here after qualifying as doc in Peru. He said it took him about 3 years to jump through all the hoops to get US certs.
Back in the day, one way to get into the US as a doc was to go work for the military - accreditation standards were severely lacking - my ER doc in 96 was called Dr Death because at the time he had 23 malpractice lawsuits against him and he was barely able to speak understandable english on top of that. [southern India, Goa maybe?]
It’s got to depend on more than that - maybe which medical school or how far in the past medical school was or passing a test . I know that my family doctor graduated from medical school in Belarus and he’s been practicing in NY for too long for him to have gone to medical school again here. He may have come to the US shortly after medical school and done a residency here, but he couldn’t have stated from scratch when he got here.
Foreign doctors don’t have to redo medical school in the US, but they do have to redo residency (and fellowship, if applicable) in the US in order to practice here.
And pass a bunch of exams before they are even eligible to apply for residencies.
I have a (former) coworker who has done this. He bought a palm oil plantation and occasionally lectures me on facebook about the environment and my carbon footprint. I expect him to implode in a giant flash someday when the irony finally rushes in to fill the awareness vacuum. 
FWIW: I investigated moving to Australia many years ago. It was for economic reasons, not the political tantrums we’re watching now from the toddlers. As I recall, there were restrictions on using any of the health care system (I believe the requirement was to have worked and paid taxes for 10 years). The other option was to pay a 7-figure tax amount to get myself into the system. This was back in the 70s and I was unable to pay that large amount (so I gave up the idea).
Disclaimer: This is all from decades old memories. Accuracy shouldn’t be assumed.
Especially concerning SE Asia, those very things that made it so easy to move to many developing nations, those laws are currently being altered, almost yearly in many places. They are becoming stricter, with more costs and hoops to jump through. And of course the early arriving expats are bitterly upset. But it’s a very natural progression when you think about it.
I’ve certainly noticed significant changes especially in places like Thailand, over the thirty years I’ve travelled through the region. And even Cambodia now is making rapid similar changes to what was a very open entry system for expats who want to work there.
So, while I agree, it isn’t as hard to find a welcoming place if you’re willing to move to a developing nation, it needs to be noted that things can and do change rapidly concerning such things. And expats often find themselves without choices. Sometimes it’s new documentation that’s required or more financial resources, or proof of one thing or another.
They may have cut ties back home, may have been escaping debts, divorce, legal hassles, tax problems etc, etc. Returning won’t be easy, pleasant or cheap. But then, I’ve always felt expats escaping such things are only biding time anyway. It’s a more connected world every day. It seems to me in the near future your past will potentially ALWAYS be catching up to you, wherever you go.
Sounds legit.
I think the in-laws had to pay in the vicinity of $60,000 each toward the health system when they emigrated here in the current decade.
(A) Most aren’t serious
(B) Some are, hence the Canadian immigration website crashing on election night. But that would seem contrary to your assertion – if people really thought they could just go anywhere then they wouldn’t be reading the official site talking about how to legally immigrate.
(C) Actors and the like don’t really count because, as mentioned, if you’re rich you can pretty much squat where you want provided you’re not actually seeking citizenship.
I assure you, though, that in most if not all cases those folks did a lot more administrative work to pull off their moves than you might realize. It’s not terribly hard to enter a country and set up shop without necessarily going through all the correct procedures, but it’s a high risk move than can screw up your life if things go awry. Once you’re in a country’s bad books, getting out is nigh on impossible.
Or their employers did: the Visa I had the last time I lived in the US was an H-1 and wasn’t so much granted to me as to my employer, whose name actually appeared on the Visa (they got a yearly quota based on their business figures); that same employer had previously sent an American engineer to my factory for a year, her family came along. In both cases, the greatest part of the paperwork was handled by the employer.
I think that many Americans could move to another country. Not “on a whim”, like you just pack up your bags and get on a plane, but with a few months of effort, why not?
I know lots of Americans who have moved to foreign countries. It might be hard to move to any given Western liberal democracy specifically, but if I just wanted a country with a relatively stable government thats further to the left the the US, there are lots of choices.
I have skills that are desired by employers and the ability to navigate bureaucracy. So do lots of other people.
again, it isn’t just getting there and finding a place to live. if you still need to work that becomes yet another hurdle. and it’s not enough to have desirable skills, you also need to demonstrate (or have an employer advocate for you) that you should get the job over a native citizen.
My sister used to do that. She worked in the human resources department of a software company and she handled the paperwork for employees who were hired from other countries.
I don’t think that I could move anywhere. But my husband is in a desirable field and has brothers currently living in Canada so if he found a job in Canada I think it would be fairly easy for us to move there.
I am 95% sure we won’t move, but my husband told me he is planning on applying to a job opening in Vancouver so we will see…
I’m guessing that some disgruntled Americans *could *move, and would have a pretty good choice of countries.
I’m thinking of retirees with solid, secure incomes. Many nations welcome retirees with bucks. They won’t take a job from anyone, and they’ll spend their money.
My elderly father was threatening to move if Trump was elected. His country of choice was Ireland. It’s English-speaking, and he has living relatives there.
He was joking, of course, and has no intention of moving, but someone actually looked it up, and he could in fact move to Ireland, without much trouble. He might not be able to get citizenship, but he could get whatever the Irish equivalent of a green card is.
I’m pretty sure I could emigrate to Canada, since I’m married to a Canadian citizen, and her family (my in-laws) would happily fix me up with a job. But I’m not moving (although we have talked about retiring to Canada).
But the number of people who seriously intended to move out of the country if Trump was elected is probably vanishingly small.
In a non-zero number of countries, being a native English speaker is a highly marketable skill.
The number of countries where being an itinerant English teacher is easy is certainly shrinking, and you may be looking at low pay, remote worksites and occasional visa issues. But if you are healthy, have something that looks like a college degree, and speak English, you can live overseas for a couple years quite easily.
Getting permanent residency in Mexico was easy. Of course there is red tape and waiting in lines at immigration offices, etc. but in general the process was very easy, straightforward and the immigration authorities are extremely kind and easy to work with. It helps a lot to be able to speak Spanish at least well enough to muddle your way through the process.
All you need is either enough savings or income to demonstrate that you can support yourself. Or you need to have a job offer in Mexico in which case your employer would handle most of the paperwork. There are also special cases for volunteer work or having family in the country. When you’ve maintained residency one year a time for 4 years you can then apply to be a permanent resident. That’s it. Everything else is just paperwork.
Beyond that the standard tourist visa for anyone from North America is 6 months. So it is trivially easy to stay 6 months at a time and just leave and come back to renew your tourist visa. There isn’t any limit to how many times you can do that as far as I know.
It’s often used as a derogatory term because for the large majority of undocumented immigrants in the US at least no crime has been committed. It isn’t a crime to overstay a visa, or allow some paperwork to get lost, etc. Generally people refer to undocumented immigrants as “illegals” without any regard for the legal specifics of their situation. Being in the USA without proper paperwork isn’t in itself a criminal offense.
Uh, you usually have to be fluent in that country’s language(s) too if you’re going to be a translator or teacher.