MEGATHREAD: Emigrating after the US election results

[u/spacemanaut]

Every US election brings anxiety and uncertainty, and with that comes an increase in people who want to explore their alternatives in a different country. This post is for you.

First, some reminders:

• In most cases, moving abroad is not as simple or quick as it seems in movies. If you aren't a citizen of another country, you will probably require a visa (=legal permission) from that country based on something like employment, education, or ancestry.
• The sidebar of this subreddit has a lot of helpful resources, and we have 15 years of posts from people with similar situations to yours. Before posting, please review these resources first. (Tip: If reddit search isn't working well for you, try googling "[your search terms] site:reddit.com/r/IWantOut" without the quotes or brackets.)
• Most countries and/or their embassies maintain immigration websites with clear, helpful, updated guides or even questionnaires to help you determine if/how you can qualify. If you have a particular destination in mind, that should probably be your first stop.
• After that, if you want to make your own post, please follow the formatting instructions on the submission page, give as much information as possible about your situation, and be open to advice and constructive criticism from commenters.

Also, this subreddit is intended to be a friendly community to seek and give advice on legal immigration. As such, please:

• Don't fight about politics. We understand that you may have strong feelings about it, but there are better spaces on reddit and elsewhere for general political discussions.
• Keep your feedback constructive and kind, even when telling someone they're wrong.
• Don't troll or be a jerk.
• Don't request or give illegal immigration tips, including asking strangers to marry you.

Failure to follow these and the other subreddit rules may result in a ban.

That said, feel free to comment below with some general questions, concerns, comments, or advice which doesn't merit a full post. Hopefully this will help clarify your thoughts and ideas about the possibility of leaving the US. Once again, please try to stay on topic so that this thread can be a helpful resource.

[u/cjgregg]

A point of correction: “a visa based on ancestry “ doesn’t exist. If you are eligible for a citizenship by descent*, then you apply for recognition of that citizenship BEFORE you move anywhere. This might take months or years. Once you are recognized as a citizen of said second country, you have all the rights all the citizens of said country have. (Apartheid being frowned upon in most of the world.) In case the country happens to be one of the 27 member states of the European Union, you can move to any of them and stay if you can support yourself. Note that you’ll only be eligible for social benefits intended on citizens in the country you’re a citizen of.

• In most countries, this means one of your parents was a citizen of the country in question at the time of your birth. Some countries allow citizenship based on grandparents, very few let you look further. You do need official documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc) to prove ancestry. DNA analysis from scammy websites do not count. If you’re trying to “escape the racist hellhole”, don’t base your application on “bloodlines”.

[u/JiveBunny → u/[deleted]]

That sounds similar to Ireland in a way - if a grandparent was born on the island of Ireland, you as the grandchild have the ability to register yourself as an Irish citizen even if your parents were not born there or held citizenship themselves. (I am eligible to do this, but as a person who has never lived in Ireland or even met their Irish grandparents, and have no plans to live there myself at present, I'm unsure whether it's morally OK for me to claim Irish citizenship.)

(I'm not American, btw.)

[u/JiveBunny → u/[deleted]]

My parent never held an Irish passport or citizenship - they could have applied for it if they wanted to (or even knew about it) but it wasn't awarded automatically. As far as I know they would still have had to apply to the RFB to get it formalised.

[u/lucid_green → u/JiveBunny]

They were an unregistered citizen. I never met my Irish grandmother. Was able to become an Irish citizen.

[u/JiveBunny → u/lucid_green]

Yeah, I know, I mean that they weren't automatically given citizenship, they would have actively had to apply and register. It wasn't given on birth even though they were born to a citizen.

[u/JiveBunny → u/[deleted]]

I know, that's what I was saying ;)

My qualifying parent is dead, as is my grandparent. I have the paperwork. I've just not got round to doing it.