Help me leave my country!

[lobotomy42]

Dear everyone,

My country (the United States of America) is going down in neo-conservative flames. Please help me escape. I want to immigrate to Europe pretty badly. i used to be dead-set on London, but after six months of trying and failing to find an immigration strategy, have expanded my goal to "anywhere that could conceivably be called Europe and where English is spoken at least enough that I might actually land a job somewhere."

As these boards seem to have a fair number of Europe-folk on them, I was wondering if any of you know of a relatively painless way to immigrate and, ideally, get some kind of work permit. I have a Bachelor's in Computer Science and a fair amount of web development experience, so I'm not totally unemployable.

You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I want to get out so badly, it hurts.

Love,

Greg

[twmac]

I know it isn't Europe, but if you just wwant to get away Australia isn't a bad choice. You can get a traveller's VISA there which will allow you to stay in the country for up to two years and will let you work in the same place for 6 months at a time.

As for Europe I would recommend you take a Tefal course that will allow you to teach English anywhere in the world then look into English schools abroad. You can be certain that anywhere there are English schools there are English speakers (for example my friend has been working in Turkey for the last 2 years he has learnt to speak some Turkish but there is a fairly large contingent of ex-pats).

[Roderick]

I don't really know what you need to get started here in the Netherlands, but our entire society is pretty much English (we don't dub a whole lot of things like the French and Germans) and I know a fair few people who can here from abroad and stayed. Mostly through school though. It's a good country to live (even though we have a ghastly Christian government at the moment too), but again, I don't know procedures.

But aren't you abandoning schip a bit too early? Maybe Obama will clear things up? I know it seems McCain has taken the lead right now, but that's more due to the Republican Convention and the newness surrounding Palin than anything else. I think people will soon prick through Palin and see her for the horrible leader and woman she really is.

[Wrestlevania]

I'm assuming that lead I sent you ended up being fruitless..?

Just out of interest: what about heading north? By all accounts, you've a rather wonderful country off your northern borders. So much so that I've spent the last couple of years day-dreaming about emigrating there myself.

[miffy495]

It's ok up here, where at least our Conservative government is only a minority (and by most accounts our conservatives are on par with your liberals) but you may want to wait a while. We're currently building up steam for our 3rd election in 4 years. Rumour has it it'll be held sometime in mid to late October. At least wait for election fervor to settle down up here before you come up. Don't want to wander into any pitched debate when you just moved in a week or two ago.

Oh, and you'll have to learn to spell things the real way and say "zed" instead of "zee." Some people still don't get that, and it irritates me to no end. I don't rightly know why though...

(This is of course a tip for Americans and not Wrestlevania. Being from the UK and all, he already knows how to spell things and say the alphabet the way nearly every country does)

[Roderick]

I have been lied to by Dragonball ZEEEEE!!

[Marek]

Leaving the US is not a bad idea.

Even though Obama is going to 'win', McCain is probably actually going to win.

Wait until the elections are over just in case, then GTFO.

[Roderick]

(I still want to live some time in America though, just to see what it's like.)

[Marek]

Erm to offer something constructive: any country in Europe is probably fine, but if you're looking for countries where English is spoken a lot, try the Netherlands. Scandinavian countries are a good bet, but stick to big cities. Sweden and Denmark are nice. Heard good things about Norway but tough to integrate fully... people will speak English but it's tough living there not knowing Norwegian. Germany might also work (like Berlin or Munich maybe).

Don't know much about immigration or work permit policies though. I've never had to think about it because as an EU citizen you can live/work anywhere in the EU without any paperwork.

[Nachimir]

TomTom maintain an office with a lot of English speaking support staff in Amsterdam, I'm sure there are plenty of others there too.

[Roderick]

Hey, I recently spoke with such an immigrant who worked at TomTom in Amsterdam =) Good call.

[Spaff]

to come from the us to here you need to get a visa, you can do that on your own steam but it probably costs a fair bit and takes ages, - speak to a lawyer about that perhaps.

the other way is to get sponsored by a company, then they pay for the visa and relocation. try looking on gamesindustry.biz for jobs in this industry, although maybe look for something a bit more stable

the British economy is currently fucked also, central Europe might be better.

[Ginger]

Ireland might be worth looking into, no idea what their immigration policy is but have a feel they are trying to expand the their tech industries (don't ask me why I have this feeling)

I'd give up on the UK (unless u can find a Brit to marry) as they've changed immigration laws here in the last few weeks (or maybe it is coming in the next few weeks), to get a work permit with a company now they have to show there is a shortage of EU workers to fill the role.

[ThunderPeel2001]

How about some sort of life-swap? You come to rainy London and I move back to sunny Cali and stalk hang out with Tim Schafer?

Also, being a US citizen, why don't you just move up north, as others have suggested? It may not be exotic to you people (actually, I'm sure you view it as quite the opposite) but it's gotta be safer and cooler. How about Vancover?

Also also: Surely McCain isn't going to win...??? I might have to move planet if he does.

[Roderick]

If he does, I'm actually afraid he'll die within the first few months. I think Palin is a lot scarier as a leader than McCain.

[syntheticgerbil]

Take me with you Mr. Lobotomy! I don't like it here much either!

EDIT: You guys are making the Netherlands sound very appealing. What video game companies are there? Are they any good? Do they hate citizens of the ol' US of A?

[Roderick]

As a rule, foreign people are always interesting to interesting people. You'll have no end to the chats about politics and culture. At least, that's how it's always with me. As soon as I know someone's from abroad, I zoom in on them and begin discussing these things. Just ask Ron Gilbert

Since about a year or five we've got a pretty good Video game industry building up. We've got the big boys like Triumph (Overlord) and Guerrilla (Killzone), and the guys who are making the new Tomb Raider, and then there's a slew of interesting companies underneath that. Anything from Chronicles of Spellborn to Swords & Soldiers. So there's definitely something there, even if it isn't yet to the level of, say, Britland.

[JoannaDark]

eep. ireland has havoc and demonware but there's a recession (big scary recession) and also according to a friend, the immigration process is nearly as bad as for the uk. which is funny, considering how almost the entire american population IS actually, y'know, Irish...

[Scrobbs]

Just out of interest: what about heading north? By all accounts, you've a rather wonderful country off your northern borders. So much so that I've spent the last couple of years day-dreaming about emigrating there myself.

Ditto.

Also - I didn't know you guys say 'zed' either. One more chalk mark

[Wrestlevania]

It's also worth pointing out that Video game development in Canadia is undergoing something of an atomic explosion in terms of expansion at the moment. Lots and lots of jobs going over there, so much so that I went to a free conference in Bristol hosted by a conglomerate of Canadian developers looking for British talent to export.

Seriously, look up!

[Marek]

and the guys who are making the new Tomb Raider

What? Who?

[Roderick]

Nixxes, who are working together with Eidos to create the new Tomb Raider. Go Dutchies!

[Wrestlevania]

Eh? What happened to the all-singing, all-dancing saviours of Lara Croft, Crystal Dynamics?

[Twilo]

The jobs market in Ireland at the moment is such that I went back to do research in University rather than fight for a €26k job.

[Wrestlevania]

Jesus, that sounds pretty miserable, making some gross sweeping assumptions about the post(s) you were looking at.