Don’t Wait Too Long to Ask About This…

Overseas Residency Options Are Perfectly Viable… Given Enough Time.

His eyes told me everything I needed to know about the conversation we were about to have… 

I was manning my consultation table at International Living’s Go Overseas Bootcamplast weekend in Denver. At first, business was slow, since many people didn’t know me well enough to know what to ask.

But as soon as I gave my first presentation on Sunday morning—titled Second Passports: Why You Need One, and How to Get It—people lined up three or four at a time.

My guesstimate is that about 75% of the people I spoke to walked away from my table with the excitement that comes from learning that yes, you do indeed have a viable pathway to a second passport. I was even able to tell two different people that, according to my understanding of the situation, they were both already citizens of a foreign country, even though they didn’t know it! 

But the gentleman in front of me—whose eyes told me everything—was one of the few knew I wouldn’t be able to help. Because frankly, he had waited too long to take the necessary steps… 

I could tell he was somewhere in the second half of his 80s. For whatever reason, he didn’t have much family. He’d become fearful about conditions in the United States, especially the cost of living and of healthcare.  

The simplicity of his question betrayed the mild desperation that he must have felt. “What’s the best country for me at this stage in my life?” he asked. 

My stock answer to anyone who asks me about the “best” anything is to say it depends on the person asking. As with most important things in life, there’s no single—nor simple—answer.

That’s especially true when it comes to choosing a place to live… whether it’s across town or across the planet. 

But in this gent’s case, it was highly unlikely I’d be able to find any plausible pathway forward given his age and the numerous health conditions he told me about. 

If he’d been eligible for another citizenship via ancestry—sadly, he was not—there might have been a chance. But the harsh truth was that in his situation, the only viable route would have been through extended residency in a foreign country followed by an application for naturalization. 

Now, 28 countries in the world will grant citizenship after five years or less of legal residency. Some are as short as two to three years. But all require two things from a potential new citizen. 

First, you must qualify to live there in the first place. If you’re retired, that means having sufficient means to support yourself, and a willingness to spend at least nine months of the year there.

Second, you must be prepared to live without most Medicare benefits, since these don’t apply outside the U.S. except in emergency situations.  

For this man, that combination was a deal breaker. His medical situation meant he needed to spend considerable time in the United States for treatment. That would make it impossible for him to fulfill the “time in country” requirements for naturalization. 

I could tell this was something he really wanted, but I was honest with him. I just didn’t see how he could make this work. 

In my mind, I was thinking, “Why did you wait so long?” But of course, that’s another question with no single or easy answer. All of us are perfectly capable of delaying making critical decisions until it’s too late. 

Most of the people I spoke to at the Denver Bootcamp felt conditions in the U.S. had finally compelled them to take the possibility of a life abroad seriously. Most were still at an age where this was perfectly feasible… and I could help them.  I want to help you, too. So, take the lesson I learned from the gent in Denver to heart: Don’t wait too long to ask whether it’s feasible to begin a new life abroad.