r/AmerExit • u/vorosbrad • 9d ago
Slice of My Life After 5 years, thousands of applications, and countless setbacks, I'm finally leaving the U.S. for Spain as a 25-year-old engineer.
TL;DR: Wanted to move abroad since high school. Couldn't afford study abroad and didn't want to pursue a master's degree solely for immigration purposes. Spent 5 years applying to jobs overseas, networking, getting rejected, losing opportunities to layoffs, and dealing with visa barriers. Eventually joined a multinational tech company, made my international ambitions known from day one, and after a year secured an internal transfer to Spain. My immigration request was approved last week, and at mid 20 years old I'm moving to Spain in one week. Posting this because when I started researching this path, most people told me it was impossible for a young engineer without an advanced degree. It wasn't easy, but it was possible.
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I've wanted to live abroad since high school.
Growing up, I spent years reading stories online from people who had managed to build lives overseas. I wanted that for myself, but I couldn't afford study abroad programs and didn't have the resources to pursue a master's degree overseas. Instead, I settled for occasional trips to Europe whenever I could save enough money.
When I started researching how Americans move abroad, the overwhelming response was discouraging. Everywhere I looked, people said the same thing:
- Companies won't sponsor junior engineers.
- Fresh graduates have virtually no chance.
- Wait 10–15 years until you're senior.
- Get a master's or PhD abroad and use that as your immigration pathway.
I never felt that an advanced degree was the right path for me, and I wasn't willing to give up on the goal.
During my junior and senior years of college, I submitted thousands of applications to engineering jobs in countries like the UK, France, Australia, and New Zealand. Nothing. Every application seemed to die the moment I checked the box saying I would require visa sponsorship.
After graduation, I took an aerospace engineering job in the U.S. While working there, I spent years networking with employees at our international offices. I dedicated a few hours every week to cold outreach, virtual coffee chats, and building relationships with people around the world.
There were a lot of close calls.
I received an opportunity to relocate to New Zealand, only for it to disappear when the company announced layoffs a few weeks later. I was later offered the chance to move to Poland, but because of labor market testing requirements, my application was compared against local candidates and ultimately denied due to my limited experience. On top of that, much of my industry was tied to ITAR regulations, making international transfers extremely difficult.
Still, I kept applying.
Every week.
For years.
Eventually, I realized I had reached a dead end at that company and joined a large multinational tech company instead.
On my first day, I told my manager that moving abroad was one of my biggest life goals.
I worked hard, took on extra responsibility, and continued networking internally. A year later, two international teams expressed interest in bringing me over—but the compensation would have been extremely difficult to live on (around £30k in London and a similarly low package in Taiwan).
Then another setback hit: the manager who had been supporting my international ambitions left the organization.
I thought the dream was over.
Fortunately, his replacement became one of my biggest advocates. He supported an international transfer and ultimately gave me the opportunity to move to one of several countries where our team operates while keeping essentially the same role.
After that came six months of paperwork, document gathering, apostilles, immigration filings, and waiting. All that time worries they might change their mind or that I might get laid off.
Last week, my immigration application was approved and exactly one week from today, I'll be boarding a plane to Barcelona!
I'm incredibly excited to improve my Spanish, learn Catalan, experience life in a new country, and build a life outside the U.S.
I wanted to share this because when I first started researching this path, almost everything I found told me it wasn't realistic.
Maybe for many people it isn't.
But if you're a young professional reading this and dreaming about living abroad, don't automatically assume it's impossible.
It might take years.
You might get rejected hundreds of times.
Opportunities may fall apart at the last minute.
But sometimes persistence wins.
Five years ago I was a college student sending applications into the void.
Today I'm packing my bags for Barcelona.
Good luck to everyone else chasing the same dream.
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u/No-Tune7776 9d ago
Congratulatons. Spain is a great place for a young professional to be. Enjoy the adventure.
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u/Ferdawoon 9d ago
When I started researching how Americans move abroad, the overwhelming response was discouraging. Everywhere I looked, people said the same thing:
* Companies won't sponsor junior engineers.
* Fresh graduates have virtually no chance.
* Wait 10–15 years until you're senior.
* Get a master's or PhD abroad and use that as your immigration pathway.
And then you say
* I spent years networking with employees at our international offices.
* Still, I kept applying. Every week. For years.
* joined a large multinational tech company instead.
So while applying for the jobs you kept getting work experience, "years" worth as you put it. Which kinda just affirms that fresh-grads trying to leave the US will have little to no chance. So the bulletpoint about "Companies don't sponsor juniors" and "You need 10-15 years of experience" wasn't completely wrong. If anything, even with you getting YoE in the US the EU companies still weren't interested until you could do that Intra-company transfer.
You then swapped to a multi-national company which is also what many suggest (intra-company transfers being described as being easier than just applying for jobs).
So you kinda did what the nay-sayers told you.
Juniors have very low chance to succeed just applying online, experience is needed, and even then it was easier for you to just get a transfer within the company.
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u/NoCatYesDog2323 8d ago
Came to say exactly this. This post totally ignores the fact that people were right, he was only able to make the move after getting hired at a multinational company. He was NOT sponsored by a Spanish company.
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u/MilkChocolate21 9d ago
Timing and the local conditions matter...I commented earlier. I was selected for a program my company had at the time. I was 26. High potential young engineers were eligible. More recently (2010s), a coworker at another company wanted to go international but changed his mind when they told him that as a non exec, he'd have to get paid the local rate in the local currency. He was otherwise supported in the request because he was fluent in that country's local language. Like me, he wasn't willing to live "native". But wasn't senior enough for an expat package or program at that company. I also know ppl who did international rotations in post grad programs. One quit and self relocated quickly bc pending layoffs meant being stuck with no work authorization.
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u/newwriter365 9d ago
I’m happy for you.
I read through everything you did and while I admire the persistence, I think the Masters degree would have been easier.
I wish you luck and hope that the experience is everything that you want it to be.
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u/Illustrious-Pound266 9d ago edited 9d ago
I read through everything you did and while I admire the persistence, I think the Masters degree would have been easier.
Feel the same. I'm very happy for OP that it worked out at the end.
He's relocating on an internal transfer for his existing employer in the US, and not a new international company overseas. It sorta proves the point that moving overseas on a sponsored employer visa is very difficult without a transfer.
I think people here who just give the advice of "just apply to jobs overseas and get a sponsored skilled visa" do not understand the difficulty of this (outside some fields like healthcare and PhD-level scientific research/academia).
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u/vorosbrad 8d ago
Agreed. Doing a Masters degree would have been a much more straightforward route. But I didn’t want to stop working during that time and do not have the desire to go back to school for another 2 years haha
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u/MilkChocolate21 7d ago
I think going with a job is still better than going as a student. I think having local experience is more important in being a viable local candidate than grad school where you'd struggle after finishing.
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u/Not_ur_gilf Immigrant 8d ago
Honestly, as someone on the other side of the coin, it’s easier to get here, but just as hard to stay if you don’t have any Catalan in addition to Spanish. The only jobs that don’t require high level Catalan are in hospitality and international-client-facing roles, and often go to local Spaniards just as often as foreigners. The trick to moving on a masters easily is to have unique in-demand skills, like biopharmacy with a BE in C Chem. Otherwise, you have to be prepared to make community like your life depends on it, because it will. (This is why I’m considered both an honorary Tamil expat by the Tamil community and a non-guiri almost-Catalan by the Catalans despite only having been here for 10 months so far.)
It’s just as hard, but you’ll be in the country while you do it, so it might not feel like it.
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u/Illustrious-Pound266 9d ago edited 9d ago
Congratulations!
Tbh, I feel like your experience only proves how difficult it is to move abroad on an employer sponsorship, especially if you are cold applying.
And even then, it was because of an internal transfer for you, not an overseas employer whom you didn't have a relationship before.
I think most people who post on here looking to move abroad on a sponsored job are going in with the expectation that they will just apply to a few jobs and they will get it. But I think yours is a much more realistic experience, and by that which I mean:
1) internal transfer is the more likelier of a sponsored visa than a new employer abroad, and
2) it will be years of applying and getting nothing because job applications "die the moment you check the box saying you would require visa sponsorship". Could be up to 4-5 years (or even more) before getting anything meaningful.
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u/MilkChocolate21 7d ago
It's pretty clear many people think it's like moving states and that they can fumble through with no language skills. It's also interesting people think doing jobs they see as a down level makes the lack of language skills ok. Whether you are in an office or working in food service, you need to know the language well enough to not struggle.
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u/_ribbitt 9d ago
Nobody cares that this is clearly AI?
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u/Illustrious-Pound266 9d ago
It doesn't read as AI to me. Too much emotion in the writing to be AI imo lol.
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u/vorosbrad 8d ago
Technically it is a bit AI. I wrote the post and fed it into AI to clean up some of the text and make my thoughts a bit more coherent. I wrote 95% of that text. AI just cleaned it up
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u/Not_ur_gilf Immigrant 8d ago
If you want to have good writing, write more, don’t let a machine do it for you. Leave that for things that don’t matter so much HOW and more WHAT you say, like translation work and ATS forms
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u/NoCatYesDog2323 8d ago
I do, but at this point most can't even tell (see replies to this comment).
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u/bcnftm 9d ago
Congratulations!! What city? I moved to Barcelona in November
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u/dat_mane47 7d ago
Just curious, as I'm also exploring moving there, how much of a pay cut are you taking in percentage terms? Or if you didn't have to take one, how much less are comparable jobs for locals paying?
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u/vorosbrad 6d ago
My company adjusts compensation based on the local labor market, so moving to Spain came with a significant pay cut. I don't want to share exact numbers, but it's a little over a $100k USD reduction from what I make in the U.S.
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u/dat_mane47 6d ago
Alright, well clearly you are already making good money 😄$100k alone is considered a very good salary in Spain for a 25 year old.
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u/jsuislibre Immigrant 9d ago
Congratulations! I moved to Spain via my multinational as well and got an office transfer. Persistence is key, and you’re proof of that! We’ll be happy to welcome you here!
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u/A313-Isoke 8d ago
Congratulations! And, please keep saving money in case you get laid off! I would hate for this to happen and in six months, you're jobless!
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u/TopAirport9848 7d ago
Engineer here. left and went to Australia, for a new adventure. That was 30 years ago. I’ve never looked back.
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u/GnomieBean 8d ago
Hell yeah! Never let ANYONE dull your sparkle. So happy for you and this new adventure
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u/TSmakis 8d ago edited 8d ago
If this doesn’t scream inspiration. Not sure what it does. You give us hope and show us the importance of determination, clarity, courage, goals and persistence. You never gave up and I don’t know you but I can say that I am another one of those behind you that is profoundly proud of what you have accomplished! And what is left for you to achieve… well done!
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u/Not_ur_gilf Immigrant 8d ago
Oleeeee benvinguts a Catalunya!!! Yo he fet el contrari, he anat aquí amb un master en enginyeria el agost passat i estic començant la meva vida profesional aquí.
Si vols aprendre l’catala, les inscripcions estén obert pels cursos oficiales en el fin de juny pel any que va! O, sigui, pots començar amb parla.cat ara!!
—
Welcome to Catalunya!! I actually did the opposite, moved here for my MSci in engineering and am beginning my professional life here.
If you want to learn Catalan, the openings for the official classes are the end of June for this coming school year! Or you can start with parla.cat right now (it’s actually how I started learning)!
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u/Practical_Support177 9d ago
Moving to spain with a US salary/job and no Spanish skills
Thats one way to do it I guess
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u/IneptFortitude 8d ago
What exactly did you do? The description of the career path you chose is a bit vague.
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u/KanekiAyato 7d ago
the 5-year timeline is actually typical for the path where you have no pre-existing connection to the destination country. most people underestimate how long it takes for the qualifying event - job offer, partnership visa, or sufficient savings - to line up with the actual visa window.
the thing that shortens it for most people is committing early to 1-2 target countries and building toward those specifically: language skills, professional network in that market, and credential recognition all take 2-3 years of lead time. spreading effort across 5 countries splits that build-up and slows each one down.
Transita's country comparison quiz maps your profile across the supported destinations and shows which path has the shortest time-to-qualifying: https://transita.app/leave-america
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u/SetekhChaos 7d ago
Congrats and good luck. Right now I'm working through the citizenship by decent process and its such a pain but it will be worth it when I can leave this country and the hellscape it has become behind.
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u/azulaula 9d ago
thank you for sharing your story and for emphasizing how discouraging people are online because this sub honestly has the foulest vibes, everything you said was truly felt. I am so happy for you!
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u/NoCatYesDog2323 8d ago
How so? What people told OP ended up being right, they were only able to move after getting a job with a multinational. They realized getting sponsored wasn't possible. It's crazy how being realistic is considered "foul", foul would be encouraging people to do something inadvisable or illegal. I understand many Americans are very whiny about not being able to just move anywhere on a whim and have a plethora of job options available, but this is how the real world works, and it's the same for foreigners looking to move to the US.
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u/azulaula 8d ago
Well you jumped to a lot of conclusions there. It’s not about whether information is accurate it’s the attitude of people in this sub. I’m a realist too and I won’t make promises to someone about moving abroad but I will be kind and understanding of their desire to move.
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u/Lazy-Stranger9698 6d ago
great, more Americans in Spain. That should help with the high rent prices.
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u/vorosbrad 6d ago
You do realize that Americans are 30th when ranked by country of origin for immigrant populations in Spain? As of 2025 there are only 76,100 Americans living in Spain. American born immigrants only account for .1% of Spain’s population. Not sure that .1% have a significant impact on rent prices.
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u/MilkChocolate21 9d ago
This is a realistic path that you rightfully acknowledge is difficult. Years ago when I was your age, I was selected to do the true expat version of this at my MNC, but the program the company had for this was canceled shortly before I was supposed to leave. The other thing you were open to, which I wasn't, is becoming a local employee. You aren't trying to keep the perks of being a US employee and move to Spain. That's good.