I have an Australian colleague who was living in the US and considering moving here permanently until COVID. His wife and kids were miserable here and insisted they go home with or without him.
No doubt that it could be hard to get used to for some. But my wife and I have been there many times, and we both love it. I say “it” but states/cities are really different in the US. I’ve been to Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, and a few other places. Florida might be very different again but we both want to do it. Daughter is only 4 so she will adapt to anything. We won’t be selling our places here in Japan so if we hate it we’ll just come back, but I doubt that will happen. Japan is getting unsafe for me to live in - one little pandemic and they would stop me from re-entry to Japan indefinitely. That puts my job and family at risk.
Good for you. If I could change my citizenship and be able to have the same level of job, house, etc. I’d stop being American in an instant. I’d trade my US passport for any nation that has universal healthcare, a respect for science and less gun violence/terrorism.
I moved from the US to the UK in 1995. Got a British passport in 2000. Maintained two passports until around 2012 when I gave up the US one.
My biggest problem will be learning to tip. I will need a lot of cognitive behavioral therapy to get past doing something expected, that has immense negative externalities, just so that I fit in. Goes against my very nature. We’ll eat in a lot.
What’s the difference between an Australian and a canoe? A canoe tips.
Take comfort in the fact that countries with tipping cultures have more corruption than those without.
Interesting. I’m guessing that finding only correlates in western countries. Asian countries have massive corruption and no (or minimal) tipping. Trouble is, you can’t call out corruption unless it makes the news, and if the society is built around keeping corruption out of the news, it looks like you have zero corruption.
But this again calls into question what the OP meant by his/her OP question.
E.g. my American passport allows me to travel to most anyplace in the world. Would I trade it for a Canadian passport so I could easily travel to Cuba?
No, I wouldn’t. Going to Cuba doesn’t mean that much to me. But I would trade it for a different and more important reason–holding a Canadian passport would mean I am afforded the rights and responsibilities of a Canadian citizen which are so, so, so, much better and more civilized than the USA.
Am I mistaken in thinking the OP never clarified their question? I’d like to know what they meant because it’s rather silly that some of us are talking about what countries you could visit while the rest of us are talking about what it would mean to be a citizen of another country.
Are we talking jumping thru extra hoops or outright not wanting to give you one? Is it totally a racist thing or do white South Africans have similar problems?
Getting in to Cuba with a US passport is only a problem if you try to leave direct from the US. You can go to Mexico and then to Cuba no problem, Cuba will just agreeably not stamp your passport. Or at least it used to be, I’m talking 15 years ago.
You are mistaken. See this post from Mar 21:
Both. It varies by country, and length and purpose of intended stay
No, White South Africans who only have a South African passport face the same problems. Which is why a lot of White South Africans scrabble for any ancestral passport they can get (mostly UK)
Sorry, man, that’s all kinds of fucked up.
And in some cases get very disappointed when they discover that a lot of benefits in the UK depend on a prior period of residence here rather than citizenship.
Oh, yes. It’s quite a shocker for some.