BootsnAll Travel Community

Okay, so here's my situation. I'm a US citizen, wanting to live abroad for a year or two, preferably in Latin America or Eastern Europe.

I have enough money saved up so that I won't need to work while I'm living in another country. However, I'm way too young to qualify for a retirement visa and my savings aren't enough to qualify for the resident visa that some countries offer.

So...what countries will allow me to live there for a year or two while I'm not working??? I'm assuming I'll need to do some sort of border run to renew my tourist visa though I'm open to other ideas.

Thanks!

You should be fine in either region.

Most Latin American countries make it fairly easy for a foreigner of means to stay indefinitely. Residency in Argentina, for instance, only requires that you show you have as much as $800/mo to live on. And for that you obtain residency that will soon be applicable in all Mercosur countries.

Many Eastern European nations have yet to join/implement the Schengen agreement, and make staying for long periods fairly simple provided you can show proof of income/savings. (Not that they look for Americans anyway.) These include Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.

(Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will, however, all be practicing members of the Schengen Zone beginning in December. So you'd have the same hoops to jump through there as in western Europe.)

Like CoOp said, if you're willing to do visa runs then I don't see why you'd have any trouble.

AmCits can travel to Ukraine without a visa and stay for 90 days. Travel to Moldova every 90 days to renew and you're all set.

Thanks for the replies. A couple of follow-up questions:

Continental Op: Do you know how they calculate the $800 a month? Assuming 5% interest, I'd only be earning about $500 a month based on my current level of savings.

Skobb: My understanding is that Ukraine recently changed their rules and you now only get 90 days out of every 180. Do you have any insight into this? See this discussion for more info:

http://www.expatua.com/forum/index.php?topic=471.0

Thanks again!

I don't know off hand, EMH. I did hear rumblings of changing the 90 day rule, but haven't really followed it. It would be a really stupid decision to do so, but the government here is good at those sorts of things. Actually, government in general here is in a bit of flux so those rules could be changing a lot over the next six months or so while they sort it out.

quote:

Originally posted by EMH:
Continental Op: Do you know how they calculate the $800 a month? Assuming 5% interest, I'd only be earning about $500 a month based on my current level of savings.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. If your savings is large enough to generate $500 a month in interest, then you'll certainly meet Argentina's residency requirements. Documented savings will be as fine for them as documented income. I don't think you'd have any trouble getting a residency permit.