One of the first things you do when learning to program computers is you learn how to print out the phrase “Hello, world!” on the computer screen. It felt fitting to use that phrase to title the first post about our journey figuring out how to relocate from the USA to another country.
We’re starting this blog to help us stay connected with our families, to help write down our thoughts about moving abroad, and to journal our process working through all of this. Currently, moving to another country feels like a DAUNTING task, one where we barely even know how to begin.
Let’s get started
If we had to guess what it would take for us to move abroad currently, it probably goes something like this:
- Figure out where we might want to move
- Figure out the constraints
- Decide what our pathways to immigration are based on the country/countries we are considering to move to
- Put a plan together to get our finances in order
- Put a plan together to facilitate the actual move
… and probably a bunch of other stuff we haven’t yet considered.
Where are we at now?
There are two answers to this question.
A. We currently live in San Francisco, CA.
B. We are in the very early stages of this process, have not decided where we are moving yet other than the very broad destination of Europe, and we have already booked a cruise for late May 2026.
Do you have any ideas of how you will legally move abroad?
We are kicking around a few ideas, such as:
- Laura going for a PhD program
- Jarrett and/or Laura getting a job overseas with a company that offers relocation benefits
- Jarrett pursuing an entrepreneurship visa
- Some combination of the above
Some are more clear-cut approaches than others, depending on the country that we could move to.
Currently, there are a handful of countries in the running, which are the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, and a few others, but it depends on a few things. One is that Jarrett REALLY wants to pursue entrepreneurship (a goal of his for the past 15+ years), and one of the dogs is definitely not a poodle or mixed-breed with a poodle, which some countries may have a thing against snobby poodles. Those silly poodles.
Outside of this, there’s not a lot of restriction. There may need to be some convincing Jarrett that now isn’t quite the right time to pursue entrepreneurship, or maybe the convincing needs to happen with Laura that Jarrett really can get up and running with something fairly substantial in the next 18 months.
What’s next?
The main thing to decide next are the countries to target and start looking into viability of each of those options. As far as this blog is concerned, we’ll be getting a email newsletter set up so we can more easily keep you in the loop. Thanks for checking it out!