How To Live In Europe

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Have you always had a dream to live in Europe or live somewhere abroad? Are you wondering how you can legally live in Europe?

Live in Europe For A Short Term
Citizens of many countries (USA, Australian, Canada, etc) can live in Europe legally for 90 days with nothing more than a valid, current passport. No visa or permit is required for passport holders of these countries. Otherwise, if you are not a passport holder of one of these countries you will need a Schengen visa to live in Europe for up to 90days.

Live in Europe for a Long Term
If you want to live in Europe for a long term, you will require a residency permit. These are complicated, but not impossible, to come by. There are three possibilities.

* Get Citizenship: Some countries, such as Ireland, allow descendants of citizens to become passport holders. If you have a mother or father or sometimes even a grandparent with a European nationality, see if you can also be granted a passport to that country. Once you have a European passport, you can live anywhere in Europe with nothing more than completing some simple paperwork.

* Get a Job: If you can get employment from a European company the company can often get the necessary paperwork done for you. How do you get a job with a European company? If you are a student, there are often internship or trainee programs which you can apply for. Permits for interns are relatively easy for a company to apply for and many large companies regularly do this. Once they get to know you, the company may be willing to hire you on a permanent basis.

If you are not a student but have marketable skills (computer programming, MBA, engineering, etc) are a native English speaker and preferably speak a European language try applying to corporate head offices of a major European company. For example, if you want to work in Germany apply to German corporate giants like Allianz, Daimler, Deutche Bank, Siemens, etc. If you want to work in France, apply to French corporate giants like Total, Renault, Air France, etc Why? Big European head offices usually exist to serve their smaller affiliate offices around the world and the corporate language is often English. If you have marketable and relevant skills, can speak and write English fluently and ideally, speak and write their native language, they may be interested in hiring you and should be able to justify your working papers to their authorities.

* Start a Company: Do you have a company or company idea? Have you considered starting a Foreign Business ? Many countries will give permits to people who start a small company. In some countries you must be able to demonstrate that the company will be financially successful and in some cases you will have other requirements such as hiring a certain number of employees (usually 1 to 5). Sometimes there are few requirements other than having a legal company. One of the best places for a US citizen to found a company is The Netherlands. The reason is that there is a special treaty between the USA and The Netherlands called the Dutch American Friendship Treaty (DAFT) which grants special privileges to US passport holders. There is still a lot of paperwork necessary and it can be quite expensive and time consuming. But, the requirements are relatively easy. You may want to discuss this option with a lawyer experienced in applying for DAFT permits.

How do you get more information about the requirements for starting a company abroad? Every country has a government agency which is interested in attracting business owners. The agency will give you free advice about how to start a business in their country. To find the agency for a particular country, Google “Invest in The Netherlands”, “Invest in France”, “Invest in Switzerland”, etc.