Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Had enough of the U.S.? Consider this first, says a former American and relocation expert

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After recent U.S. presidential elections, a predictable spike of disgruntled Americans vow they will move to Canada, going so far as googling what it takes to move north or even hiring an immigration attorney to take the initial steps towards securing a visa. Andrew Henderson advises them to reconsider.

Henderson, known online as the Nomad Capitalist, says these Americans are lacking creativity. Sure, as another primarily English-speaking country that abuts the U.S., Canada seems like a comfortable backup plan—but it doesn’t exactly have open borders. Though many Americans may like to think immigration laws and procedures don’t apply to them, moving to Canada is not as simple as finding an apartment on Craigslist and jumping on the next plane—or train—to points north. Henderson would like people sincerely interested in moving abroad to look at some other options.

“Why go from one frying pan to the other?” Henderson tells Fortune. “Why are we going from one place to exactly the same place, when there’s 252 different places we can choose?”

Henderson, who runs a popular YouTube channel and is a controversial figure in the Digital Nomad community, has for more than a decade helped high-net worth clients primarily from the U.S. gain dual citizenship or residencies in countries around the world. He advises them on international tax laws, visa-free travel, and more. He works with his own network of experts across the globe to provide the most up-to-date information on golden visa and passport opportunities, much of which, he says, can’t be easily found elsewhere.

Americans, he says, often come to him interested in Australia, Canada, and England—familiar places for America’s wealthiest, but not Henderson’s favorite destinations. For one, taxes are often higher, while salaries are lower. Housing costs in London and Vancouver—the wealthy, used to their creature comforts, aren’t likely to be interested in moving to smaller, less expensive towns—can top the already astronomical ones in the U.S.’s biggest cities. And without a job, a spouse who is a citizen, or a hefty sum to invest, Americans can’t just up and move to these countries.

“Americans have this idea that they’re kind of uniquely special. And in reality, it’s the other way around,” he says. “The American somehow thinks, ‘Why don’t they want my American money?’ Yeah, they don’t. There’s a lot of people with money these days.”

Henderson’s country evaluations focus heavily on their tax regimes and cost of living—the lower, the better. Lately, for example, he has been enthusiastic about Oman, the Middle Eastern country at the base of the Arabian Peninsula. Sure, you give up living in a democracy and your freedom of speech is curtailed, but Henderson says it has other perks.

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