Since this wasn’t apparent the last time I asked… no, I’m actually not a US citizen or green card holder (permanent resident). Just happened to be in this country for a long time due to career reasons.
Buy some non US-based cloud storage and copy all your sensitive data to it, and delete said data from personal devices before leaving the country, so you can safely allow customs access to devices if required.
Retrieve data from the cloud when you arrive in the destination country.
Sorry it came to this. We sane few who remain will miss you; we will undoubtedly be worse for losing the diversity of thought (and snarky humor) expats like you bring.
The best advice in the thread so far was to freeze your credit. And I’d add: don’t assume you’ll never want to come back just because your current self doesn’t forsee it. For your own sake, don’t burn bridges out of spite.
OmegaMart if you’re near Vegas lawl
I had not heard of this until reading your comment, and I’ve just started down the rabbit hole… This place looks fucking incredible
is it really all that? the ads promise existential horror, but I never thought it’d deliver.
It’s an incredible art exhibit. Extremely inventive and fun. I have never been but I know people in America who have, and zero of them have been underwhelmed or disappointed. It’s my number one desire if I ever find myself near there.
- consider keeping your US phone number until all banking stuff is done since many banks do 2fa and this can be a giant pain after moving. Try to switch to an app if possible. Many providers also disallow known VoIP numbers.
- driving license was another one mentioned. Having it not expire before you can transfer it is preferable (assuming the target country allows transfer. Japan didn’t until after two years after I got here and my license expired so I had to start from zero despite driving for 15+ years in the US). You may need to get notarized driving records which is also easier before you leave.
- go through and change/cancel anything with an address on file – can be much easier from within the US. I went through the past year’s bank records to find anything sneaky that doesn’t renew monthly. If you have things that only renew every N years, don’t forget to cancel or update those (domain names, for instance).
- Make sure all city, municipal, county, state, and federal tax stuff will be OK to do after leaving (sometimes, some prep is needed)
- If you have any retirement plans like 401ks, IRAs, etc. see about rolling them over or whatever
- maybe do something with social security with regard to your target country if an agreement is in place, particularly if you didn’t work long enough to claim it. You can get US SS overseas in the vast majority of countries, but there are also certain provisions where you wouldn’t or it would be reduced based on what you have in the target country.
- Freeze credit reports at the agencies as others mentioned
Obviously this is entirely dependent on where you’re moving to, but I struggled to find the following when living abroad:
- good (American-style) pizza
- good Mexican food
- good BBQ
- certain ice cream flavors (like cherries jubilee/cherry garcia)
- wide open spaces completely devoid of people
- large-group events of a boisterous and goofy nature
- certain types of museums/educational facilities (such as good zoos/wildlife rehab open to the public and interactive science museums)
Your first three sum up to:
- Italian food but worse
- Mexican food but worse
- Food that’s probably better in most other places
I think OP is set on those in the future, but otherwise good recommendations IG
Get an FBI background check, and get it apostilled. Easy to do from your local post office in the US, difficult and expensive to do outside the us, and you will need it for many things you might want to do in other countries
Why would you need an FBI background check outside of the US?
you need it if you apply for citizenship in some countries. they’ll ask for full criminal records of all the countries you’ve lived in.
First, get a [removed by mod], make sure it’s [removed by mod], then [removed by mod] right in the [removed by mod]
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Freeze your credit profiles
What does this mean
I am WAY too lazy to type everything out, but there’s 4 credit bureaus that effect/control your credit score. Setting a freeze prevents anyone from checking that score in the process of, say, opening a credit card, buying a car or home, and more.
