He may not need a visa, if he is getting citizenship through investment [1].

[1] https://www.newzealand-migration.co.nz/dual-citizenship-serv...

Probably should multiply by a googol for a fair price.

Thank you for the information.

Citizenship by investment (aka golden visas) invite corruption. The European Union has been trying to eliminate these sorts of visas for obvious reasons.

If you want to see a dedicated scam artist who will scam you out of 6 figures to “help” you get a citizenship by investment, check out Nomad Capitalist YouTube channel.

Link to SCAMMER YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/c/nomadcapitalist

You are being downvoted because you did not provide any proof he is a scammer, nor a definition of what you mean by this strong claim. Citizen by investment costs from 150k (montenegro?) to 250k-350k (st kitts, turkey, etc) to 600k-2.5 million USD (USA?), and typically costs 30% less if you're willing to simply pay the money and be done with it, or the undiscounted price if you'd like to genuinely invest (normally in assets that are government-approved and looks scammy/risky to me).

My point with the above, is that it's a high ticket item, and can be massively impactful for the buyer. It's normal when people spend a few hundred grand for those involved in the process to take a high commission. Even a 5% commission could be 15k. Is he scamming people for more? This would be kinda strange because the costs of these programs are very much public. Is he pretending he can get you a citizenship for cheaper and then pocketing your money, knowing you won't go to law enforcement because you intended your money to go towards corruption of a government official?

Please provide evidence.

As an aside, has anyone here purchased a citizenship through investment and not lost money? I'm very curious.

Thank you for the insight--which I missed.

Here is a review site for Nomad Capitalist detailing his scam methods (which has "positive" counterreviews--especially towards the top): https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/nomadcapitalist.com (Control/Command + F = "Just don't do it" to find the gist of his scheme)

Here is a whole website calling out Nomad Capitalist being a scam: https://nomadcapitalistscam.com/

Here is a Reddit page of somebody who was scammed by Nomad Capitalist: https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/ita1i4/a_disg...

Here is another Reddit page where people are skeptical of Nomad Capitalist: https://www.reddit.com/r/digitalnomad/comments/6wl962/is_and...

People on these pages have advised instead to get both accountants and lawyers on both sides (USA and country abroad) and looking into stuff yourself, instead of relying on businesses such as Nomad Capitalist and others. For the lawyer side, especially abroad, you will want both a business and immigration lawyer helping you out. The place to go for that is the US/Canada/Australia/UK/Ireland/etc. embassy to your target country's website, and get those lawyer lists. Obviously the list is not an endorsement of the lawyers, and lawyers can be sketchy. It is important to look for red flags such as painting an overly perfect picture of themselves, or positive counter-reviews (to negative reviews). My lawyer (for Croatian citizenship) was also head of an international commerce association, and therefore it meant that he probably had to deal with complicated laws, had to get along with people, and had to get things done.

I hope this helps.

None of these links have actual evidence that NC is a scam. They are all pretty much “he charges a lot of money for consulting fees and I don’t want to spend a lot of money.”

Typical for Reddit.

How does it invite corruption if it's a legitimate government sponsored pathway? I'm sure NZers are happy to get a piece of rich migrants wealth vs. their money staying in offshore havens

The EU did some pretty thorough research on this.

Link to page: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re...

Citizenship by investment (CBI) and residency by investment (RBI) schemes in the EU

This study analyses the state of play and issues surrounding citizenship and residency by investment schemes (so-called ‘golden passports’ and ‘golden visas’) in the EU. It looks at the economic social and political impacts of such schemes and examines the risks they carry in respect of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.

Link to PDF document: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/6271...

Are you familiar with Vancouver, BC, Canada?

There is a perception here that housing prices are constantly propped up and inflated because of rich migrants. Or simply because rich people are parking money in Vancouver real estate.

This has been going on since the 1990s.

In the short term people who own property and can benefit from the influx of money are happy. Over time it creates huge resentment from those who don’t see an opportunity to be able to afford owning. This resentment is even found among those earlier rich migrants who are now being priced out by migrants with more money.

I’m sure there is similar sentiment in San Francisco and other places where tech workers have caused prices to increase.

If this is limited in some way, then maybe the locals will be happy to see some additional wealth coming in.

SF has been unaffordable long before the last two or three tech booms, and it's because of limited supply. People just don't go back to read the headlines from the 70s about how expensive it was.

A quick search reveals an article [1] documenting some of the zoning issues that seem to have started in the 1870s.

It mentions many different discriminatory zoning practices throughout the history of the city, and it does show an article from 1978 where people started to voice concerns over pricing.

Thanks for pointing out the longer timeline on affordability!

[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90242388/the-bad-design-that-cre...

That's a good question. However, as a NZer, I think it's a pretty good deal for NZ to admit someone like Hölzle even if he only stays here for a year. For sure he will contribute to the economy by spending significant amounts (we have a sales tax he can't evade), and we should be able to collect income tax too. It's also good for our tech industry to have people like him around.

I have no reason to believe Hölzle is particularly corrupt or that he obtained entry in a way that's more corrupt than the banal "paid really diligent people to work the bureaucracy to his advantage". NZ's tolerance for personal bribery of officials is very low.

Oh wow...

While being Serbian, with family from Croatia (some of which are now there dealing with corrupt government employees accepting faked papers to transfer land ownership). Means I totally get the pessimistic and corruption focused view of the world/governments/etc.

We just don't have enough info to go into such tabloid level direction for this guy.

---

Maybe his wife or one of grandparents came from N.Z. and he can live/work there without visa?!?

Maybe it's intra-company transfer (like how many Googlers from "east" start in EU/Canada, and then get transferred to USA after a year or two) there?

---

Either way - it's still pretty shitty "Do as I say, not as I do" behavior from the guy, and Google itself (Hey, here are great tools for remote collaboration with your team - as long as you're not a Google employee).

You’re right. I am being overly judgmental here.

I am also sorry that your family is dealing with Croatian government corruption, which is never OK. I hope your family is able to get a good lawyer, that will protect your family’s interests and needs.

You really need to provide evidence to some of your claims here.

People have shown that NZ has investment pathways. It’s entirely possible he used them. If you disagree with those, fine, that’s your call. However, that doesn’t make it corruption, and you shouldn’t frame it as such.

I provided evidence earlier with contextual information via this link, which was a huge document produced by the European Union on golden visas and golden passports: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?re...

FWIW, in the NZ context, AFAIK there are no tax advantages for NZ's investor visa schemes (over whatever all NZers enjoy). And NZ is far from a tax haven.

Wow this is borderline slander.

What's the good argument behind preventing remote-work visas? I mean, it sounds like the best of all worlds from a country's perspective - someone from another country is paying this person, but that person lives here, and they spend their money here? That's a net inflow, what's not to like?

> argument behind preventing remote-work visas

A remote employer may not pay all the local taxes and contributions. In particular, in EU a part of the social security contributions is usually paid by the employer, not employee. The remote worker will benefit from the social security paid by others .

A remote employer will not necessarily respect obligations that local employers may have (e.g. the number of maternity leave days). It may give the remote employers an unfair competitive advantage wrt the local economy.

Think of human labor as a natural resource. If the employer is overseas, you're selling the raw resource. You'd rather make some goods out of the resource and sell that instead.

To me, that just means that an equivalent local worker is worth more than the remote worker, but the remote worker would still be a net inflow regardless, as the parent comment said.

It's not as though most countries have a local Google / Facebook / etc clone, so they can't "make the goods" domestically, there's no "means of production" in-country.

You as the country the prospective remote worker could be visiting aren't the owner of the human labor though. The human labor and employer are both overseas and you have the option of getting one to visit you and spend their money in your land.

Everything about the scenario exactly mirrors tourism as far as I can see, and countries generally like rich tourists visiting.

A handful of countries allow remote work on tourist visas - Canada, UK. The vast majority of countries including the US implicitly or explicitly prohibit any work on tourist visas.

It's an open secret in the digital nomading community. Many are not working legally or paying taxes to the host country.

I thought there was a lot of gray area in there, depending on the country. If you go to a conference or a meeting in some countries, for example, you are obviously "working" while on that visa, arguably remote, and it's often the case that is done on a "tourist" visa for many countries. I thought this was the case for most EU, and it's the case for some South American countries.

Some countries obviously don't allow that - I recall I needed an invitation for China and South Africa, for example for some conferences, although I think they were still tourist visas.

You will get questionned heavily by US customs if you travel "too much" to U.S. even for conferences (you better have proofs for these as well). It is accepted for a conference because duration is short. But they get highly suspicious for longer periods.

> I should also point out something else unfair. I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen who works part-time remotely as a contractor for a US-based company in Croatia, while studying for her masters degree in electrical engineering full time. Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States, while essentially getting paid more (compared to the locals and most other European Union citizens) for just having US citizenship and related credentials.

For another perspective as a US citizen living in Europe, getting work remotely for US company really only works in tech from what I have seen (maybe in other professions, but they are not that common). What you need is the combination of being able to work on contract, and hopefully not have to shift your hours unless you are working part time. For companies that are large, established, and have remote workers you will likely be paid at market rate for where you live. The tax situation can get complicated depending on your income level, and tax rates in most European countries are much higher than the US. Your investment options outside the US are limited, many expats retain their US banks for this reason. You won't have the benefit of a 401k contribution either. The best situation for employment is being able to invoice a company directly and get paid on a contract, not every company is willing to do this. Otherwise, worst case you would be employed by a local PEO which means for tax purposes you are a full time employee and will likely be paying more taxes than you would in the US. I think Croatia might be in the sweet-spot of countries that hasn't a decent quality of life but also low taxes for independent contractors.

This setup looks to me indeed not sustainable on the long run. I'm not giving recommendations, I'm just thinking that working for a local (or nearer) company and/or giving up US citizenship could be ways to achieve a simpler and cheaper living...

I’m the OP. I am not that sentimental about being American. However, the US discovered the very rare disease that I have in the early 2000s, and ultimately saved my life (and others) around the world. That is the only reason why I do not renounce my citizenship.

Because of this, I also have complex healthcare needs. So, the US always is a place to fall back on, as it has a lot of doctors treating obscure conditions.

Why do you get paid more than most other EU citizens for having US citizenship? Just because it’s a US company? Did you get the job in the US then move to Croatia? Do they only hire US citizens? How does the local tax situation work out?

Sorry for asking so many questions. I’m curious because I’m also an EU/US dual citizen about to start my career in tech.

Basically it is because it is a US company. I got the job after I moved to Croatia. In this case, you generally need to be hired on as a contractor. Of course, your employer needs to know that you are a US citizen and you are living abroad, for US government tax reasons.

The way it works is that you basically look for contractor jobs that are remote-only, that are based out of the US. You ask them if they are willing to take on you, a US citizen with US-based work credentials, working abroad (in X country in Y time zone), as a contractor.

The key is that you need to get a local (abroad, where you reside) payroll company to do the taxes (as an intermediary) between you and the company. Technically you can do the taxes yourself, if you know what you are doing, but usually this is the best way to approach it. It certainly looks better to your employer to do it this way.

I live in Thailand. One of the big tech companies here is agoda. If you have dual citizenship, and you apply for a job there and present your non-Thai passport (HK, SG, USA, etc), your job offer will be for significantly more.

I like your username given this context.

"In all fairness to Mr. Mellon here, it was a really big check." - Back to School

> minus Croatia and Czech Republic--both countries are part of the European Union and therefore become "westernized" quickly after accession

Why would Czech Republic, formerly a province of Austria-Hungary, need to become "westernized"? It was "westernized" centuries ago -- at the time of the first Přemyslids, in fact, when the Eastern church, courtesy of Cyril and Methodius, was replaced in Bohemia for political reasons by allegiance to the (Catholic) Regensburg diocese.

I’d imagine the NZ government would be happy to attract rich people to move in. Doesn’t Australia have sone pretty steep financial requirements for those who want to emigrate there?

//Because I am an EU citizen, I can work in 30+ countries remotely, outside of the United States,

How does this work, given that European countries speak different languages?

First and foremost, I speak Croatian pretty well, which is a second language for me. I am working on French at the moment, and that is what I will be focused on for the next 1.5 years. After that, I will go on to learn German. But, a lot of people speak English in the European Union.

I also use nifty and unique tools like this, which helps me learn languages in my sleep (I use it for engineering coursework too!): https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep

I also wrote a script that creates 10,000 Anki flashcards: with the English (10,000 most commonly used words in English) and the corresponding Foreign word, IPA pronunciation (English and Foreign word), Text-to-Speech audio (for both the English and Foreign word), and a GIF image corresponding to each flashcard.

With respect to becoming conversational, this is the best tool: https://ai.glossika.com/

This is a good place to figure out good learning methods: https://forum.language-learners.org/

I should point out that you never need to go abroad to learn a foreign language. You can just find the cheapest person on italki who is a native speaker of your target language, and have a session with them, where you only speak words in the target language. That is the best way to learn.

But, this is the ultimate guide for learning a language. Basically, from there, it is a matter of finding inputs/outputs (materials to learn from) to work with in the foreign language: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/paul-nations-resources...

Awesome learning resources, Thank you!

Are you learning French/German for the sake of employability?

Or you find that good English all that's required for most EU remote jobs?

Good English is all that is required for most EU remote jobs.

I am learning French and German for assimilation reasons. I may move somewhere else, eventually. To keep this short, I have complex healthcare needs, and the countries that can provide me the healthcare I need speak primarily French or German.

Ah crap - and it's exactly those French and German speaking countries that generally don't speak great (or like at all) English.

As the other commenter already said "Puno uspeha!"

Hvala :-)

Good luck in getting the Healthcare you need.

> I also use nifty and unique tools like this, which helps me learn languages in my sleep (I use it for engineering coursework too!): https://github.com/Frederik-D-Weber/cosleep

o.O Does tbis work?

Yes. Look up Targeted Memory Reactivation on PUBMED: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=targeted+memory+reacti...

This is a form of closed-loop TMR, which is far more efficient.

That's a wow. Are there similar devices which can be just bought, as opposed to fiddling with hardware (which is not for everybody, also not for me)?

I basically have it set up to where you basically just start up your Ubuntu Laptop, startup the software, and then plug in the leads for your EEG cap (which are labelled--both on the wires of the EEG cap and the 3D printed case) into the case. After that, you just connect the case (the "device") to the Ubuntu laptop and then go to sleep.

See this case: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2085981

But to your question: no, unfortunately. The guides on it are not the friendliest, either. I have been thinking about writing a guide, as I have a unique ability for breaking down complex concepts.

The compiling of the software (not required--however it is useful and you will want to do this versus using a USB stick or the pre-compiled software [which also requires special steps for use] available on the GitHub page) and the wiring are the trickiest parts.

The wiring can take a couple of nights to learn, even with experience.

Wow, how does cosleep device work (technically)? It plays predefined audio files based on your brain wave activity during sleep?

Yep. It makes several copies of the original text-to-speech file, with background noise of different frequencies.

Basically, it plays the intended file (of a certain word and a particular frequency) to get your brain in sync to encode the information effectively and efficiently to your memory. Hence, it is closed-loop.

But, it is a huge pain to compile the repo and to get working (you can use the USB version with the Ubuntu image but it can be finicky). I probably spent 80 hours trying to get it to compile and probably reinstalled Ubuntu 30+ times to get working. Eventually I was successful.

I now have a backup of the Ubuntu image thanks to Acronis True Image and I also use an NAS server.

If you email me (check my profile) I can help you with getting this all set up. I would get it to compile first before purchasing OpenBCI equipment.

Most educated Europeans speak at least English. Many speak three languages.

Speaking the local language isn't a legal requirement.

English

For example, the German freelance visa requires a local economic interest, which translates to having clients in Germany. If you can't find German clients, you won't get the visa nor be ableto renew it. They check this thoroughly.

Howeber, Malta let's you buy a EU citizenship for 650,000€, and other EU countries have similar schemes for rich people.

You should hurry to apply because the EU is starting to move towards blocking those schemes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-09/cyprus-an...

Yep, I heard about this already. I have a German residence permit, and I don't have 650k at hand anyway.