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Could you ever permanently live abroad?

vadimivich said:
As some who lives abroad with no plans to return home any time soon ...

I'm not sure I could live ANYWHERE permanently. Not close to home, not far from home. I'm just a wanderer at heart, and with the internet / skype / etc ... the parts of American culture (I watched every game of the NCAA Tournament, every NFL game I wanted too, etc - all in HD ... I talk to my family regularly via video chat, etc) that I really want to have I don't have to miss. This isn't 1860 anymore.
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Yeah, but you get to live w/ your girl, amirite?
 
94Deac said:
Short of places like North Korea, Cuba, or Vietnam, I don't know of any country that requires you to renounce citizenship.
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Lots do. For instance, off the top of my head, I know that Norway and Singapore do.
 
94Deac said:
I doubt anyone would do it, save the most Lee Harvey types amongst us. I believe I've read that you cannot renounce your American citizenship solely for the reason of avoiding taxes. Some have tried this though it seems to work best if your name is GE, Exxon, or Dart.
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You can definitely renounce your citizenship and not pay taxes. It's just that most people don't want to go that route.
 
I always thought I wanted to live for a long term abroad. Well, I've been living abroad (w. europe) for two years now with at least one more to go. I've really liked it, but I'm starting to get a bit homesick now.

It sucks when everyone in the USA gets together for Homecoming or some Memorial Day trip and you can NEVER go because it is hard to spend $2k (and jetlag) on the total trip just to spend 3-4 days with your family or friends. Also, I have missed almost two full years of sports because I just can't stay up at 2am to watch a football game live. It sucks. Sunday afternoons are totally different over here. (Plus, no one cares about college basketball, or any type of american football....i.e., you watch games alone)

Also, you miss weddings, air conditioning, bbq, free wifi in public places, mexican food, and if you don't learn the language quickly, you miss out on a lot of stuff socially.
 
Most of my family has lived abroad for major time periods of their lives and I was sure I wanted to do the same once upon a time.My grandmother, born of American parents in Brazil, had to give up her American citizenship when she married my grandfather, a Canadian citizen, in Cuba in the early 1900s. She had to apply to get it back several decades later so my dad and his brothers could serve in WWII.
Her sons were born in Cuba and didn't have US citizenship.

I wouldn't have minded living abroad with my husband we were first married. Our friends that did that really loved it.
 
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Lived in Germany for two years in the 90's. It was a great experience but we were sure glad to get home. Don't think I could live outside the US permanently.
 
denverpacker said:
We lived 3 years in Burma (without TV) and I loved it.

Like 94, we are very seriously looking at moving to the Caribbean and setting up shop.

I would move to Australia tomorrow and never look back.

Would never give up my citizenship however.
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You most likely know it as Burma, but it will always be Myanmar to me.
 
OGBDeacon07 said:
I lived in Japan for almost 2 years and enjoyed the experience, but I wouldn't live there again since it was so expensive. If I did relocate permanently abroad it would have to be a place where I can make a decent salary (think: US standard of living) and live inexpensively (like Central/South America). Someplace in Europe would be doable for me culturally, but economically they are having a lot of problems. The US is having problems too, but there's a lot to be said about living near your family when times are tough, which is why it makes sense to stay put.
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I could easily do Japan. Kobe steak and sushi and asian girls? Sign me up.
 
I could definitely live in Ireland or the UK, although it would be harder as my mom gets older (and I'm an only child). I could probably do western Europe for some period of time but not forever. It would require having the job that allows me to have a reasonably similar standard of living as in the US, and to have my family with me.
 
I'd live in Kazakhstan, booming economy, lots of potential for growth, cheap as hell, hot babes.
 
I have a friend in her late 20s who moved to New Zealand this past June to live there permanently with her bf. She writes me that the adjustment had been extremely difficult. Cultural differences have been profound,even in an English-speaking country. She lived in Turkey for three years after grad school, so she is a pretty flexible person.
 
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any details? i'd be interested to know what is so different.
 
TravelingDeacon said:
I always thought I wanted to live for a long term abroad. Well, I've been living abroad (w. europe) for two years now with at least one more to go. I've really liked it, but I'm starting to get a bit homesick now.

It sucks when everyone in the USA gets together for Homecoming or some Memorial Day trip and you can NEVER go because it is hard to spend $2k (and jetlag) on the total trip just to spend 3-4 days with your family or friends. Also, I have missed almost two full years of sports because I just can't stay up at 2am to watch a football game live. It sucks. Sunday afternoons are totally different over here. (Plus, no one cares about college basketball, or any type of american football....i.e., you watch games alone)

Also, you miss weddings, air conditioning, bbq, free wifi in public places, mexican food, and if you don't learn the language quickly, you miss out on a lot of stuff socially.
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Pretty much agree with all of this.
 
I actually think living in an English speaking country might, paradoxically, make living abroad worse. If you're moving to a non-English speaking country, you fully expect to experience a different culture and lifestyle. Whereas if you're moving to an English speaking one, you will likely come into it with some expectations of similarity even if you don't consciously realize it.

As for what's so different. Well, in western countries a lot of the superficial stuff is the same (tv, movies, celebrities, etc.) but most of the core stuff is different. A country/culture strongly shapes the values that its people have. For instance, norwegians cannot be inside on a nice day. It may sound silly, but it just eats them up. They also inherently trust that the government makes reasonable decisions and, even when they disagree with a decision, they believe that it was probably reached fairly. Those are just two minor examples, but imagine how a conservative from Florida would feel living in a society that reinforces both of these ideas constantly.

I could go on for a while about this, but it's probably already entered tl;dr territory.
 
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