Why did I leave my home country?

Your (pudgy) author in Bermuda
(If you think the contrast is bad, you should
have seen it before I started fixing it)

Over on the Franco-American flophouse blogs, Victoria Ferauge explores ideas about why some people leave their home country. It's a beautiful read and I highly recommend it, but I must admit that my motivations are different from what is explored there.

There are both push and pull factors to immigration. Push factors are prevalent and in some cases are as severe as war or famine. For Victoria's case, she refers to "Casting Errors" (what a lovely title) where we're born in a country where we just don't fit. I meet this a lot over here in Europe: many Americans are just tired of what's happening back "home". The poisonous politics, the idiocy over the health care "debate", the Christian Right trying to force their extremist beliefs into law, and so on.

On the other hand, I meet Europeans who also head abroad due to disenchantment with Europe. There are widespread pockets of racism here. The market simply isn't as free as the US market (both good and bad points there). In the case of the UK, a high crime rate is causing many Britons to feel disenchanted with Blighty (the problem, though bad, is less than it's made out to be).

While I admit to a certain "fish out of water" feeling in the US, I doubt it's particularly worse than many people feel about their home country. And for every person who's called me a traitor (often incoherently) for living abroad, or who mistakenly think that I hate my country because I'm willing to discuss problems with it, well, that's just foolishness I mostly shrug off.

There weren't strong push factors for me; it was a single pull factor. The simple truth: I did it for adventure. Sure, I knew I was going to meet many family members I hadn't known about. I knew I wasn't going to have to worry about health care any more. I knew I wouldn't have to deal with rabid Christians assaulting me (three times!) because my beliefs were different. That wasn't the reason I left.

I left for my dream road trip to Corsica. I moved so I could enjoy my first flat abroad and experience foreign culture firsthand. I moved abroad to enjoy the food. I left for adventure. That's all. I've had it in spades and wound up with a lovely wife and daughter to boot.

Don't give up your dreams.

If you're reading this, there's a good chance you either want to leave your home country or go to another (push and pull, remember?) Tell us why!

"Innocent until proven guilty": The US versus France

Charges were later dropped.
Used under Fair Use.

There are some people who read this blog who may know the background of what is below. Please do not post any links to it. At all. This post is not about the people I'm referring to in an anonymous manner, it's about the difference between how the French and US legal systems deal with the accused.

Move Abroad by Working Remotely

The view from our bedroom in
our home in La Rochelle, France

Did you know that many countries allow you to live there even if you can't work there? I've hinted at this when I wrote about moving to Uruguay, but this is a more widespread thing than you would realize.

It works like this (with lots of hand-waving because different countries have wildly different laws): you have residence permits, and work permits. You usually get the former with the latter, but not necessarily the other way around. If you have a work history of working remotely and can show a decent income, many countries will allow you to apply for a residence permit.


Despite having written on the topic of "how to become an expat" for years, I've not paid much attention to the remote working aspect of it. I've touched on the logistical problems of working remotely, but I'm kicking myself for not realizing that the practice of issuing residence permits for remote workers is more widespread than I realized. This blog post details one family's research into living in Europe with remote work, but it's short on practical details. I suspect part of the problem is one I've struggled with repeatedly: laws in this area are not well-publicized and change frequently.

After asking, I was pointed to this Spanish Consulate visa page which describes "Residence visa with Non-Lucrative purposes" (whatever the hell that means). It's apparently the visa process that allows you to live in Spain so long as you have sufficient income. It's complicated, takes about three months and, in the lovely words of the page: ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS MAY APPLY (their words and emphasis). One of the requirements is:

Proof/s that you have sufficient financial means for you (and your accompanying family) during the stay in Spain without the need to work translated into Spanish.

Ignoring the awful, awful grammar: what does "sufficient financial means" mean? Who the hell knows? According to the blog entry that tipped me off, Italy requires a €50K annual income and Spain is apparently less, but that's all I know.

Meanwhile, Forbes has an article about the best-paying remote jobs. I currently take contracts remotely, but I have a specialized background (mostly IT related). Medical transcriptionists need a bit of training, but not overly difficult. You won't get rich doing that, but with a salary between $30K (US) and $50K (€22K to €37K), you can earn enough to survive in most of Europe, so long as you steer clear of the biggest cities. Personally, I find the smaller towns more pleasant, anyway.

Anything IT related, writing and editing jobs, and even public relations people can work remotely. In fact, there are plenty of remote jobs available, with varying salary levels, If you target South America, Africa, Eastern Europe or many parts of Asia, you should easily be able to afford to live abroad. The hard part is navigating through the laws that get you a residence permit based on your remote income (in my experience, South America is the easiest for this, but I hear good things about parts of Asia).

Good luck and start looking for a new job! If you know anything about these types of residence permits, let me know.

My Global Family

A few days ago I was in London on business. To my surprise, I appear to have taken far fewer photos than I realized, but that's probably a function of working hard and also spending time with my two surviving brothers in London.

This was my first flight out of the La Rochelle airport and while I knew the airport was tiny, I didn't think about the fact that I was going to be flying on this:

The plane I flew on

If you fly frequently, you know what that means.