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European Expats living in the US

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  Crawford 
#1 ·
I am keenly interested in hearing from European expats who've moved to the US, especially if you moved to America as a pensioner in retirement. What are your retirement goals for activities/lifestyle and quality of life? As a pensioner on a fixed income or, at least, a budgeted income without the prospects of working a job for more money to supplement, how well do you think your same pension would have covered your expenses if you stayed home compared to the costs of living in the US? Are you pleased with the medical services in the US compared to what you left behind? Do you plan to return home later, perhaps when your mobility becomes much more restricted and you near end-of-life?

Thanks for any reponses.
 
#2 ·
First things first - there is no retirement visa for Europeans to enter the US (or any other nationalities). So,unless parents have children who can sponsor them or they can afford an investment visa they have no route for living permanently in the US.

Secondly, migrating to the US as pensioners means they have not paid into the Medicare medical system for senior citizens and, therefore, will have to pay for private, individual pension plans. These, at over 65 years of age, can be eye wateringly expensive. Many seniors, even with children in the US don't emmigrate due to health insurance costs - and that is not taking into account out of pocket expenses if you do need extensive treatment.

General cost of living in the US varies enormously, depending on the State.
 
#4 ·
First things first - there is no retirement visa for Europeans to enter the US (or any other nationalities). So,unless parents have children who can sponsor them or they can afford an investment visa they have no route for living permanently in the US.

Secondly, migrating to the US as pensioners means they have not paid into the Medicare medical system for senior citizens and, therefore, will have to pay for private, individual pension plans. These, at over 65 years of age, can be eye wateringly expensive. Many seniors, even with children in the US don't emigrate due to health insurance costs - and that is not taking into account out of pocket expenses if you do need extensive treatment.

General cost of living in the US varies enormously, depending on the State.
Thank you, Crawford, for your candid remarks. They underscore just why we don't have pensioners considering the US for retirement, and really the only reason for a foreign national to come to America is to work with hopes of attaining the "American dream," which has quickly evolved into a bloody nightmare.
 
#3 ·
There are a couple other points that may be relevant here:

Unlike many/most countries with a national health care system, it is not necessary to have health care cover to live in the US - even if you are there on a visa. True, it's probably foolish to "go naked" when it comes to health insurance, especially as you get older. But a few million folks in the US do just that.

There are also considerations linked to the various tax treaties concerning the taxation of pensions. Under some treaties, the source country gets to tax pension income. Under others, the country of residence. And claiming double taxation relief from the IRS definitely complicates your tax returns to a considerable degree and can result in a certain level of double taxation on the income.

You also mention returning to the home country when seniors suffer mobility limitations. Health cover is not always maintained once one has left the Old Country. In many countries, it would be necessary to re-establish residence (which takes a while) and finding private cover for whatever period of time it takes to establish residence plus the time necessary for registering with the health care system.

There are a number of reasons why "retiring to the US" isn't a terribly popular option for many.
 
#5 ·
There are a couple other points that may be relevant here:

Unlike many/most countries with a national health care system, it is not necessary to have health care cover to live in the US - even if you are there on a visa. True, it's probably foolish to "go naked" when it comes to health insurance, especially as you get older. But a few million folks in the US do just that.

.
'probably foolish' ? 'Absolutely out of the question' is more like it. No health insurance means you are one step away from bankruptcy if needing any kind of hospitalisation treatment.

While there might be millions of folks in the US who have no health insurance, the majority are not doing so out of choice - they just don't have the money to pay for it; and live dreading the day they might be struck down with an illness.
 
#8 ·
We considered it, especially as the suegra is a US citizen but it was the medical costs that put us off. We even had a villa in FL for the inlaws to live in. OK there were some cheap options on some things such as outlet stores and the likes of Lowes, etc. but, in general, things worked out expensive. For example, one couldn't just walk to a nearby corner-shop for a few groceries, one had to take the car and drive to Walmart or some other store. Th general, the quality of foodstuffs was on the poorer side of OK, especially compared with here in Spain.
 
#9 ·
BINGO!!! You nailed two important points, regardless of citizenship status. The medical costs are outrageous and the quality for foodstuffs, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. Unless you live close to the source of the fresh produce, you'll get fruits that lake flavor because they are picked so green so-as to not be rotten by the time they hit the supermarket shelves, or they are mushy. (Oh, how I long for a good, fresh peach!) The big boys in the grocery store business have pushed the smaller, mon-and-pop stores out of business, and it used to be the local mon-and-pops had connections with local growers. I recall Tesco in the 90's; I used to shop at the one in Amersham. I was amazed at the quality of fruits and veggies. The carrots were HUGE and had great flavor. I recently spoke to a work colleague in Germany about my desire to retire in Europe, and he laughed at me when I used the thought of fresh produce as one of my reasons.
 
#11 ·
P.S. another 4 kg of cherries have just arrived at the door they are plump, black and delicious. We have also had some of the variety Lamper but they are normally a little later in the season and not so easy for us to get since we usually send a number of semis of them to Italy each day for Ferrero to use in their chocolates so you eventually get those in the US.
 
#15 ·
IF someone has been working in the US and IF they have a green card then, sure, retiring to the US is no big deal. In fact, it's probably even easier if someone who has been working there and who has a green card just takes US nationality and no problem.

I believe what Heinz57 has been asking about are those who retire to the US from elsewhere. That's where things get tricky. There are the snow birds, who split their time between the US (usually Florida or maybe Arizona) and their long time residence in Canada or the UK. But that's a B-2 visa, which isn't an immigrant visa.

It's more difficult to consider retiring to the US after long-time residence (and completing your career) elsewhere - where you actually change your residence to the US. There isn't really a visa made for this purpose, and that's where you run into problems with things like health insurance, establishing credit and other such details.

For those already established in the US, it's not all that difficult to stay where you are for retirement. But retiring to the US raises a number of significant issues, starting with that of the visa.
 
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