I always mention looking at working holiday visas to any friends who bemoans how hard it is to leave their country. For anyone below 30, it's often a very good pathway to immigrating, getting a job and eventually a more stable visa situation.

I've also seen it combined with student visas, so one year on a student visa to learn the language (that costs more in most countries, although there are some countries with relatively cheap language courses and possibility to work for up to 20 hours a week, example Japan or France) then a working holiday visa and then finding a sponsor.

In many cases you don't even need a "working holiday visa" to go and live somewhere else.

E.g. if you have a remote job, you can just travel to a third country and work from there. Most countries just require that you get out for a few days per 3 or 6 months (which can be just visiting a nearby country, staying in a hotel, and returning) to renew your plain tourist visa.

I'd be careful with this. I've done that in the past in Malaysia, going through the border from Malaysia to Thailand every 3 months.. Eventually when I took a plan from the airport to travel somewhere else, I got questioned by immigration because of the patterns of staying 3 months and then leaving for a few days. They asked me how I could finance my stays and told me that any work I was doing while in Malaysia remotely violated my visa.

In the end, nothing happened but ymmv. I also know a few people who did the same in HK and eventually got into trouble because of that.

I do think it works well but it's not a long term plan and if you do it, you must plan with potentially being denied entry eventually.

>I do think it works well but it's not a long term plan and if you do it, you must plan with potentially being denied entry eventually.

First, absolutely, the latter can happen at some point.

Second, however, I know tons of people that did it just fine with no issue for years.

YMMV

Indeed, though I've always been a "cross my t's and dot my i's" kind of person. Keeping things above board saved me a lot of worry.

It worked out nicely; as an Irish citizen I still have the right to live and work in both the EU/EEA and the UK, which is handy.

I live in Europe, but I would love to move to America someday; the opportunities to start something there are vastly more visible (European startup culture is nearly a contradiction in terms). Sadly, it becomes increasingly more difficult.

You probably want to do that when you are young and healthy.

I am already an immigrant, so I don’t have the full social security in the country I currently live, and yet I have to pay all taxes and social charges. If and when I won’t be able to sustain myself, they’ll just kick me out. And I have no interest in returning to my home country (Russia), for obvious reasons.

If you can't get the pension you pay for, you are usually entitled to a refund for your pension payments. At least that's the case in Germany.

If I move to another country, yes. I have no intention to, but I can’t get a permanent resident permit here for a multitude of reasons.

Perhaps I can lend a hand. Feel free to email me at [email protected]. I'm familiar with all the challenges immigrants face in Germany.

Ah, in that case it makes a lot more sense, you have much less to lose.

I remember reading your post about this a few years ago, when I was first considering moving abroad!

Glad it’s going well for you. I have recently taken the plunge and moved to Estonia :)

Wonderful! I hope it's a journey full of small delights and unexpected joys.

Ah, just another classic example of how much the details matter when parsing JSON. ;)

Very cool story. It's funny how little decisions can ripple out into huge changes to a life trajectory. I suppose the art of it all is to occasionally make a few good little decisions -- and ride the momentum when you do. Glad yours worked out!

When it comes to working holiday visas this is one of those times non-Americans[1] actually have _more_ options than Americans.

1: Western non-Americans, more specifically, unfortunately..

US citizens can avail of WH visas for Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and (more restrictive) South Korea and Singapore.

Though some of the new digital nomad visas coming out aren't entirely dissimilar.

It started with you taking action though. Lots of people wait and hang around for serendipity to find them.