Being an expat still comes with tax obligations to the US, no matter where you live in the world. I moved to Germany but I still have to file US taxes every year unless I renounce my US citizenship someday. That’s one the most notable downsides that I can think of.
Vielen Dank! We really enjoy living here and we are working hard to settle here permanently.
As an American we had the standard 90 day visitor visa, which is basically just proven by showing the stamp you get on your passport when you enter Germany. I recommend applying for your next Visa immediately. Our wait time for an appointment was just short of 90 days. We did the language learning Visa which is good for up to one year and allows you to work up to 20 hours per week. They can’t really track that if you have a remote foreign job, it just hinders you from getting full-time employment in Germany. If you go this route, you can find a job that will sponsor you for a work visa or you can apply for the new Opportunity/Chance Card (Chancenkarte) which is up to a year long “job seeker visa”. If you have an accredited degree then you are eligible, otherwise there is a point system for things like language, age, finances, etc. The Chance Card wait time is pretty long so keep that in mind when planning.
The non-working visas also require you to have €992 per month in a “blocked account” that will be disbursed to you each month for living expenses. If you aren’t working, you’ll need private health insurance. Ours is €50 per person per month and is far better than the Kaiser Permanente insurance that we paid $550 a month for in the US.
I’ve been asking myself that question for years. My wife and I thought the best solution for us was to leave the country. We don’t have a good outlook for the future of the US. We moved to Germany last spring and have been enjoying a healthier and better quality of life. It’s not easy but it is very rewarding. The cost of living here is less than half of what we were paying in the US. Groceries, rent, utilities, insurance, everything is cheaper except eating out at restaurants (that costs pretty much the same). For what it’s worth, we moved from Denver to Frankfurt.
I am dissapointed that my VPN is getting involved in US politics. This is not something I want for this kind of service. I dont want to debate US politics here. That being said, I cancelled my annual autorenew for April and I would like some recommendations. Originally I was deciding between Mulvad and Proton. I’ve also seen some people in this thread using Tuta? I am in Europe and just want a service that prioritizes anonyminity and data protection. I don’t know how the dust will settle on all this Proton stuff. What would you all recommend for a provider?
Medical bills account for 40% of bankruptcies in the US.
Yes. In Germany it’s called Soja sauce. Same thing.
“Official capacity” has not been defined yet so we don’t know what the limits are. We will have to wait and see.
You could check on the new requirements. There are some massive changes this year to the work visa programs. One such change is that you don’t have to work in your field of education anymore.
Wife and I are moving to Frankfurt am Main next month from the USA. Hopefully it goes well for us.
I’ve been using my Shokz OpenRun headset almost everyday for the past 6 months and I love them for lots of things but they dont replace earbuds/headphones completely.
I work in a machine shop and it’s important to be able to hear machines and things happening around you. Most shops don’t allow earbuds or headphones for that reason. Our machines aren’t too loud so it doesn’t drown out the sound but these definitely won’t work in a loud environment unless you wear earplugs but then that defeats the purpose.
Great for audiobooks, podcasts, and music that doesn’t have a lot of bass. I mostly listen to punk and metal and it’s fine for that. I can even listen to hip-hop and not expect some kicking bass.
I tried to use them for PC gaming and they just crackled during explosions and could not handle that. So I don’t use it for gaming.
Having hands free conversations with people is definitely a plus. I did some testing with my wife and she could not tell a difference in volume or on quality between using the headset and talking regularly on the phone.
Battery life and comfort are great. Sometimes I forget I’m wearing them if they are just idling on my head. With mixed use on and off all day, the charge lasts several days for me. If I was to listen to something constantly, I think I’d get more life out of a charge than I have waking hours in the day.
One thing that bothered me at first is at the highest volume, I can feel a tickle on the skin where it rests. I usually only have them up when that much when ambient noise is a bit high and then I dont notice it as much. But I’m also used to it now so it’s not as bad.
Be careful with cheap sets. My wife got a cheap pair on Amazon with “good ratings” and it was awful. It was basically earbud style speaker/drivers that were up against your skin and it was terrible.
You could try some bone conducting head phones. I’ve been wearing the Shokz brand OpenRun headband all day at work for about 5 months now and it’s comfy. I use them in bed sometimes but don’t fall asleep in them. They have some new wrap around ear ones that might be comfier to sleep in.
Edit: A full charge will last all day and they recharge quickly.
He’s waiting on a counter offer from Harlan Crow.
I used to be an Operations Manager at a machine shop with 150 employees and a Program Manager at another places with 250 employees. Both had 5am starts. In my experience, the biggest factor was support for the billable staff. You have direct labor employees; these are the people who run machines and fabricate products. Then there are indirect employees that support the direct employees; like purchasing, planning/scheduling, management, customer service, quality, etc. Most manufacturers with a 5am start time are running multiple shifts of direct labor. The indirect employees usually don’t start until 7-8am and overlap both shifts to have some support for both day and night shift.
Manufacturers that run one shift(like my current job) usually start later. We start at 7am but allow people to flex their start time for kids, etc.
If you look at other countries like Germany you can get high speed 400mbps for around $30-35 a month. Fiber isn’t as available in a lot of areas but it is expanding and you can get 1000mbps for $45 a month.
US cable companies are price gouging customers so bad. And that’s all while getting money from the government to fund their infrastructure expansions.
Haha. I read that a lot, but it’s honestly not so bad as long as you stay away from the Hauptbahnhof. That area is truly awful.