I can’t prove it but I think that it’ll be hard getting a job here without speaking the language unless you’re extra qualified. At least, that’s my perspective in France but I might be 100% wrong since I actually never held an office job here.

Not sure about Germany, but I would say that they speak better English than us French on average so that’s where I would try my luck first if I was you.

… except that German will be useless if you ever want to transition to Spain / Italy. Learning French would allow you to learn Spanish or Italian fast, but German wont.

(This message is definitely a nothing burger concerning finding employment, but I hope it gave you some ideas to consider)

You might dislike how rich British bankers in Hong Kong are called expats, while poor Eritrean refugees in Britain are called immigrants. But technically, those usages are accurate.

Still, expatriate often carries the connotation of a higher-status person living in a lower- or similar-status country—like a British banker in Hong Kong. It doesn’t quite fit when someone of middle status moves laterally—say, an American recent graduate relocating to Europe. Migrant is denotatively correct, but the connotation doesn't quite match because in practice it used for low status or irregular immigrants.

In many such cases, it may be best to avoid using any of these terms at all. Temporary residence might be the term we’re looking for and it likely reflects the legal status as well.

That is this entire thread, including the OP, with whom you seem to agree. Why have you not complained to tkiolp4 that they are just quibbling over technicalities? To be frank, I rather suspect it's because "quibbling over technicalities" is something that does not concern you, except as it can be a convenient excuse to dismiss an argument you don't want to engage with intellectually.

I can only add my voice to what others have said: Just apply to universities and get your student visa.

In general it is very difficult applying to jobs in countries from abroad, and in many countries they have laws requiring that companies must prove that they couldn't source talent locally first.

Meanwhile student visas are very easy to get, and after you are in the country on a student visa, you can seek part time work, or get a job as soon as you graduate. Many countries offer fast-track residence permits for expats who have graduated from one of their universities.

My story: I applied to a german university, got accepted, and got the student visa relatively painlessly. After graduating I found a job relatively quickly and got a work permit.

> Language: In Germany you can get around no problem with 0 German. Me personally I downloaded Duolinguo the day before my flight and I did just fine learning as I went.

> EU financial foundation: I'd say you can just build a US financial foundation then send it over via bank transfer when u arrive.

> Established living situation: If you get accepted to a german university, try to show up at least a month before courses start. Take that time to open a bank account, get insurance, enrol and find an apartment. Do NOT try to find a rental when you don't have boots on the ground, there are a bunch of scams that target international students trying to secure accomodation. For your first month or so, just stay in an airbnb until you find a place you like long-term

>

Applying for job out of the blue is notoriously hard, even with right qualifications (IT for example) at right time (not recession). Even my EU citizen friend struggled finding job in London (pre-brexit), another got a "work-application visa" in Netherlands, and didn't find anything for a year, even with a degree from an EU university. She got an offer too late, by contact in her previous residence, so still it was through networking.

You can still ofc find jobs. There are forums, job boards, events to connect with people. But for Europe, unlike US you're well protected as a worker. This makes hiring more risky and employer a bit more cautious, which means you're extra disadvantaged as a guy applying from abroad, because they can't gauge trust. Networking (knowing right people, have the right degree/school/job on your resume) is still powerful in Europe.

As for my story: was (kind of?) expat in Japan for 5 years, although my mother is Japanese (but I'm born and raised in Europe) so being able to speak the language & understand culture put me in a native-expat middle ground. I found a job through an "IT Talent from abroad recruitment service". Many of my expat/migrant coworkers found job the same way, although they usually had PhD or Master degree to help their visa application.

Still, the biggest help to land a job was the language fluency + I had gone to an exchange program at one of their top 3 university (although only for 6 month, enough to land "trust points")

So... any expats? Or Americans moving overseas? Or people from the USA moving to EU countries? These will be wildly different scenarios.

For me it was signing a work contract in Switzerland and moving there from an EU country. The path to get that job was by finishing a good uni and having some work experience already while studying. Not sure this helps you much...

Alternatively, if you really want to go via an employment, look into the companies that have permission to ask for a knowledge migrant visa: https://ind.nl/en/public-register-recognised-sponsors/public...

As a student, the internship visa or student visa are great options. It's a lot easier because of all the help you get from university. There is a lot of infrastructure in place to welcome and integrate students.

I run a website about migrating to Germany: https://allaboutberlin.com

If you're in a foreign country, you're either an immigrant (as a generic term) or, if you want to get pedantic, you can use whatever more apt definition they have (visitor, migrant worker, non-immigrant, etc).

Immigrants and expats are overlapping terms, but there are some differences in common usage. An immigrant may intend to stay in the host country permanently and make it their new home, while an expat just happens to live there for the moment, often for a specific purpose. Expats are often more privileged than immigrants. An immigrant may seek to integrate into the society and the culture, while expats are more likely to have a purely transactional relationship with the host country.

That said, it is expat and emigrant that overlap, not immigrant and expat.

An expat is someone who has left his country, with varying degrees of permanence and volition. Eg: to be exiled is to be expatriated by force.

Absurd example: you could technically be an expat without immigrating (or visiting) any other country if you kept to international waters (or unclaimed space?).

The distinction between "expat" and "immigrant" is made by governments as well. Example: as someone who over time held multiple non-immigrant and dual-purpose visas, became an immigrant (permanent resident), then naturalized, I can tell you "expat" was nowhere to be found on the dozens of INS and USCIS forms I've had to fill out. It was never a status I could apply for or one I was given. On the other hand: the US embassy, and my home country's embassy, do offer me "expat services" where I currently live.

An immigrant is someone who moves to a country other than their own with the intention of residing there for a significant period (usually at least one year), regardless of their ultimate intention to stay permanently or leave later.

An "expat" is just a white economic migrant.

They'll try to spin it. They'll whip out irrelevant definitions. They'll invent arbitrary distinctions.

They are wrong.

"Economic migrant" has always, does now, and will always include "seek higher standard of living" in its context and definition and "well I just, you know, kinda vibe with the culture" and/or "I like, you know, just consider myself a global citizen and want to see the world" is "seek higher standard of living".

I believe, as others have stated, that the educational way is probably the most practical, as you can get a residency visa based on attending school (not necessarily a graduation, I know plenty of people that initially came to study the language, and that would qualify you for such visas), and subsequently after living there for a while follow the normal paths towards long-term residency.

As far as I'm aware, the Netherlands and Germany are destinations that have reasonably well-understood processes for immigration and a significant technical market. Both of these countries also have the advantage that you can mostly live your life in English – albeit you should of course strive to learn the local language if you intend to settle there.

For Germany specifically, there's been a recent reform in the laws which give you a very fast track even towards German citizenship, which then would allow you to live and work anywhere in the EU. On the other hand, the Netherlands seem to have a more digitalized bureaucracy, which can be practical: in Germany everything is still done by snail mail.

I've also heard good things about Switzerland, but there I have less personal experience. It is also not in the EU, for what it's worth.

That being said, I'd point out that from a technology market perspective, it's certainly more difficult to find employment at the moment than it was perhaps 10 years ago. This comes and goes in cycles, so I'm saying that so you don't get discouraged if it takes long and requires applying to hundreds of positions: that's the case even for us natives. There's geopolitical and macroeconomic reasons for that, interest rates, etc.

I wish you the best of luck!

P.S. Of course, if you're so inclined, you might want to be aware that Svalbard has no specific visa requirements for residence. You could conceptually move there tomorrow, as long as you're allowed to transit through Norway, which assuming you hold a US passport shouldn't be a problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard

However that place is certainly... not for everyone :-)

P.P.S. On a more serious note, and it's of course not the EU, but Australia has very friendly immigration paths and I personally know multiple people who were able to move there, quickly obtain work in technology, and two of them actually obtained Australian citizenship by now.

so an immigrant?

expat is usually a temporary situation .

With recent government shifts in Poland, Italy, France, Germany, etc. I think you can expect it to become more difficult to move to the EU. It already is becoming more difficult in many countries, and this is pretty obviously going to increase over the next 3-5 years.

I'm aware of the political winds, but practically speaking, immigration is not getting harder.

As I said in my original comment, it is becoming more difficult. You’d have to be completely blind to politics to not understand this. Especially when anyone moving there now practically won’t get residency for 1-2 years if they started soon. Realistically if you begin the process this year, you’re going to be applying for permanent residency/ citizenship in 4-5 years under a government hostile to it.

Which is why I suggested using a family or ancestry route if possible. Because the process is most likely going to get more difficult soon, and already is in many places.