[sneak]

My point is that if those are your options, start being “based” on the internet instead of wherever you consider yourself “based” now, because good programmers on the internet are paid €10k+ per month.

If you have a lot of experience and a good network, you can easily double that (€20k/mo, €125/hr) as well. Triple that is not out of the question, either.

High end specialty researchers are billed at >=$400/hr by large firms.

[maxnevermind]

US employers are very reluctant to hire remote devs from Europe imo. As soon as they hear you are from Europe the dialog is over.

[sneak]

So don’t mention where you are? As long as you don’t have a window in frame, work the same timezone hours, and have decent internet, I think you can sidestep this issue.

That said, I don’t think this is as big a blocker as you seem to think. It’s a different issue in the sales process.