Which country should software engineers emigrate to?
I’m going to research everything, build a big spreadsheet, weight the various factors, etc. over the next while, so any advice that saves me time or improves the accuracy of my analysis is much appreciated. Are there any non-obvious considerations here?
There are some lists of best countries for software developers, and for expats in general. These consider things like software dev pay, cost of living, taxes, crime, happiness index, etc. Those generally recommend Western Europe, the US, Canada, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, India. Other factors I’ll have to consider are emigration difficulty and language barriers.
The easiest way to emigrate is to marry a local. Otherwise, emigrating to the US requires either paying $50k USD, or working in the US for several years (under a salary reduction and risk that are about as bad as paying $50k), and other countries are roughly as difficult. I’ll have to research this separately for each country.
Context: I am a software engineer living and working in the US. I am a US citizen and my wife is not, and we are working on getting her permanent residency.
It’s definitely worth investigating the difficulty of immigrating to the various countries. Canada and Singapore both have reputations for being a lot easier for skilled workers to immigrate to than the US, but YMMV.
Note that if you do marry an American, be sure to start the process of getting your permanent residency while you’re still in the country. My wife and I made the mistake of starting the process while she was temporarily abroad, and that has caused significant delays.
See if there are companies that are willing to hire you while you’re on OPT. I think that buys you a couple years to try for an H1b or perhaps get married. If they’re willing to hire you in the US and let you transfer internationally if immigration doesn’t let you in, even better.
Also keep in mind that if you become a US citizen, the US will tax you on your worldwide income, not just your US income. That’s not an issue if you plan on staying in one place, though.
How ambitious are you? If you want to work very hard and potentially change the world, come to the US. For better or worse (probably worse), the US is basically the place where world-changing technology development happens.
If you are more interested in work/life balance, I would recommend Europe (esp. Germany), Canada, Australia or maybe NZ. In particular everyone I’ve talked to who knows both Australia and the US agrees that while Americans make more money, Aussies have a better lifestyle.
There are many, many things about the US that are just astonishingly broken. The immigration system is one of them. Also, there is lots of anti-immigrant turmoil going on in the US now.
Which country should software engineers emigrate to?
I’m going to research everything, build a big spreadsheet, weight the various factors, etc. over the next while, so any advice that saves me time or improves the accuracy of my analysis is much appreciated. Are there any non-obvious considerations here?
There are some lists of best countries for software developers, and for expats in general. These consider things like software dev pay, cost of living, taxes, crime, happiness index, etc. Those generally recommend Western Europe, the US, Canada, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, India. Other factors I’ll have to consider are emigration difficulty and language barriers.
The easiest way to emigrate is to marry a local. Otherwise, emigrating to the US requires either paying $50k USD, or working in the US for several years (under a salary reduction and risk that are about as bad as paying $50k), and other countries are roughly as difficult. I’ll have to research this separately for each country.
Context: I am a software engineer living and working in the US. I am a US citizen and my wife is not, and we are working on getting her permanent residency.
It’s definitely worth investigating the difficulty of immigrating to the various countries. Canada and Singapore both have reputations for being a lot easier for skilled workers to immigrate to than the US, but YMMV.
Note that if you do marry an American, be sure to start the process of getting your permanent residency while you’re still in the country. My wife and I made the mistake of starting the process while she was temporarily abroad, and that has caused significant delays.
See if there are companies that are willing to hire you while you’re on OPT. I think that buys you a couple years to try for an H1b or perhaps get married. If they’re willing to hire you in the US and let you transfer internationally if immigration doesn’t let you in, even better.
Also keep in mind that if you become a US citizen, the US will tax you on your worldwide income, not just your US income. That’s not an issue if you plan on staying in one place, though.
make a list of the 10 places (companies or locations) you want to work. Write to them and find a way to impress them in such a way that they hire you.
How ambitious are you? If you want to work very hard and potentially change the world, come to the US. For better or worse (probably worse), the US is basically the place where world-changing technology development happens.
If you are more interested in work/life balance, I would recommend Europe (esp. Germany), Canada, Australia or maybe NZ. In particular everyone I’ve talked to who knows both Australia and the US agrees that while Americans make more money, Aussies have a better lifestyle.
There are many, many things about the US that are just astonishingly broken. The immigration system is one of them. Also, there is lots of anti-immigrant turmoil going on in the US now.
Not just in the US. It’s also happening in Europe and Australia.