Relocating to Europe

Forums: Europe, Immigration, Moving, Relocating, Relocating To Europe
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My fiance and I are thinking about moving to Europe for a number of years before we decide to have children. We are getting married in February 2010 and would likely make the move (if we decide to) by the end of that summer.

Obviously there are a lot of normal things to think about and figure out (finding a job, etc) but what sort of international, living abroad, type stuff do we need to research.

We're thinking about Switzerland right now, but are pretty open to most any country depending on the opportunity.

There's not much tagged for moving overseas, so I guess I'll start with this and see what people say.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 8 • Views: 2,679 • Replies: 19

[+3] - CalamityJane - 03/10/2009Well, you just cannot move to Europe for a few years and live and work there. Just like the United States has restrictions, so does Europe, and Switzerland not being an EU country, it is even...

the two most important to me would be making sure that my kids born overseas were American citizens, and running the financial numbers. You would want to know all the ins and outs of tax law, and figure out how much extra living there will cost you given the current exchange rate. Given that the global economy is in crisis you can not could on exchange rate norms holding in the future, so you would be opening yourself up to a lot of risk if you can't quickly and cheaply pick up and come back to the states.

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@maporsche,

Is it possible for you to work in Europe, map? What are your bona fides?

I'm told that if you aren't too distant, generationwise from your country of origin, it's possible to get a visa.

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@maporsche,

Well, you just cannot move to Europe for a few years and live and work there.
Just like the United States has restrictions, so does Europe, and Switzerland
not being an EU country, it is even harder to gain entry for longer than 90 days (the length of a regular tourist visa) or even get a work permit.
Switzerland is notorious for being difficult and to gain entry to the work force
as a non-resident, it would take years to get finally a valid work permit.

Working for an international firm with satellite offices in Switzerland would
be your only way to gain entry and a job.

It's easier in EU countries but with unemployment quite high everywhere,
to get a work permit will be difficult as well. Freelance work on schools
teaching English would be doable, but you would need to contact schools
prior to moving there, as they apply for your work permit.

Each EU country has its own ruling towards work permits, and here you
can check the requirements of the country of your choice
http://www.projectvisa.com/

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@CalamityJane,

This is good information. My company just bought an international company last year, I wonder how difficult it would be for me to get transferred to that company and possibly work abroad that way.

I didn't know it was as difficult as you laid out. Thanks for the link.

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@maporsche,

the thing that surprised me was that I not only had to pay German taxes but the US government taxed me as well. The US claims that all money made is taxable by them, it does not matter where on earth you live.

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@maporsche,

What CJ said.

And here's another link

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@hawkeye10,

There are international Tax Treaties to avoid such.

For Germany:

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@Walter Hinteler,

Source for above quotes

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You might want to find a good place to store your arsenal.
I doubt many European countries would let you bring your guns.

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@George,

Even in Switzerland you must have a weapon acquisition permit ...

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We don't like foreigners.

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Quote:

If you have your full time residence abroad for a full calendar year, or live there for 330 days out of any consecutive 12 month period, you can exclude up to $87,600 of earned income from U.S. Income Taxation for 2008 and lesser amounts in earlier years. If you are married, and both of you earn income and reside and work abroad, you can also exclude up to another $87,600 of your spouses income from taxation. These exclusions can only be claimed on a filed tax return and is not automatic if you fail to file your Form 1040 for the year it applies as well as the appropriate forms claiming this exclusion. This is a fantastic advantage for people who live and work outside of the U.S. Earned income is that paid you for your work or services and does not apply to rental income, dividend or interest income, or other types of income that is not paid for your own personal efforts.

You can also claim an additional exclusion from your U.S. taxes in excess of the $87,600, if the rent, utilities, etc. you pay on your residence abroad and other living expenses exceed a standard amount (which is currently approx $13,000 per year) established by the IRS. This exclusion only comes into play when your earnings are in excess of the $87,600 foreign income exclusion and is limited by new laws enacted in 2006 to a maximum of approximately $13,000

http://www.taxmeless.com/page4.html

If you live abroad you still may owe income taxes to the US, may pay more in taxes to the host country than you would normally pay America, and you don't add to you social security account. This is all stuff to consider, as it impacts your standard of living. Another possible additional cost is health care.

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

If you live abroad you still may owe income taxes to the US, may pay more in taxes to the host country than you would normally pay America, and you don't add to you social security account. This is all stuff to consider, as it impacts your standard of living. Another possible additional cost is health care.

Right. But you get health service (from totally free up ???), pay in the pesnion fonds of the country of residence, get at least (in EU-coutries, Switzerland ...) 24 working days paid vacancies ... ... All to consider as well.

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@Walter Hinteler,

All interesting. Once upon a time, not all so long ago, I considered living in italy part-time and gave it up for financial reasons related to my income. I have a close u.s. friend who lived in italy nine years, really interesting years (she taught english, she was a governess, she was a production assistant at Cinecitta, typed a writer's manuscripts) and only left to the country pro forma every x number of months. I haven't emailed with her in several months, but in our next long email exchange, I'll ask her about taxes back then. Not relative now, of course, but just as a matter of interest.

There are other threads on a2k about this... some about people wanting to live and work in england. Presumably no one has tagged them yet.

I'm wondering how el Pohl is doing. He is a long time a2ker from Mexico, did some schooling in the Netherlands, and was looking to stay in Europe after the schooling.

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@ossobuco,

Anyway, our major search function is not worked out yet, and it'll be a while, but sometimes you can find threads in the google/a2k place in the upper right by putting in various phrases. So, I'd try things like "working in england", "moving to england" and variation of those. I say this because some of the answers about all that were quite detailed.

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I wonder if the plans have been cancelled.

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@Walter Hinteler,

Yes, as soon as he found out that he has no right to bear arms in Europe! Wink

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@Walter Hinteler,

Nope, not cancelled, I'm still researching how to make it happen, and investigating how I may be able to transfer within my company to somewhere overseas.

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If you want to go to Switzerland or another European country how about the knowledge of a second language?
In Switzerland they speak four languages. German - spoken is Schweizerdeutsch- French and Italian also Retoromanisch, but you can forget that.
If you speak one of the three languages you should at least try to go to the part of Switzerland where it is spoken.

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Relocating to Europe

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