Seconded. I'm in the US but I've looked into emigrating to quite a few different countries (including some with reputations for being more friendly to immigration such as Australia), and it's a lot harder than it sounds. I had a work visa in Canada for several months but then covid hit and they closed the border. Israel seemed like the easiest process I found, but only if you are Jewish (although temporary work permits are liberal there). The US also complicates things by being the only (?) nation on earth that still taxes it's citizens even if they didn't step foot in the country the whole year. This forces you to either renounce your citizenship entirely (which is extremely risky to do until you have permanent citizenship elsewhere, which can take many years), or be exploited by the US gov.
What countries are the best/easiest for immigration?
Actually, it is currently impossible for US citizens to renounce their citizenship for all practical purposes.
Technically it should be possible but in reality renouncing requires an exit interview and the US State Department has refused to schedule exit interviews for more than a year.
> This forces you to either renounce your citizenship entirely (which is extremely risky to do until you have permanent citizenship elsewhere, which can take many years)
Pretty much no country will let you renounce your citizenship until you already have a citizenship (not permanent residency, actual citizenship) of another country. This is done to prevent people from becoming "stateless". And the process for renouncing the US one is much simpler and easier compared to a lot of countries out there.
Not trying to be condescending or snarky here, but if that quote accurately represents the level of knowledge you have about immigration processes in general, I suggest you do way more research before you actually attempt to immigrate or even temporarily move to another country.
Source: me being a naturalized American citizen who has been (unsuccessfully) trying to get rid of his Russian citizenship for many years.
As a skilled developer ? Shouldn't be that hard - plenty of options to pick from. If you aren't fond of the US or EU there are other countries that have much better standard of living/ personal freedoms compared to Russia.
It's not easy in the sense that you'll just get a citizenship - but I have many former co-workers that went to Canada, US, Australia, etc., some got the permanent visa/citizenship, some are in the process.
> As a skilled developer ? Shouldn't be that hard - plenty of options to pick from.
Maybe it used to be that way in the past, but not these days.
When I tried to go to Ireland a year ago, entering the country was impossible due to a multi-year long COVID travel ban. Schengen visas were useless — you needed a job offer AND a job permit just to enter the country.
I passed a bunch of interviews, received preliminary offer from one Irish company, but got rejected during security screening (I have never learnt why). Decided against trying again, because Irish job permit queue was 6 months long and growing.
This was a year ago. Right now it is hardly possible to leave Russia at all — leaving by ground is denied by Russian border forces (remnant of COVID restrictions, which has been repurposed to enact impromptu iron curtain). Leaving by air is impossible because most companies stopped flying, airspace is closed and foreign governments are mass-arresting leased aircrafts. As if that weren't enough, Russian government has enacted a total flight ban, effective starting today.
Even if you somehow leave a country and go to Turkey/Serbia/Georgia with piddly $10000, — then what? You'd have to quickly find a job, rent a place to live, and get a residence permit before you are booted out of country. All of that under extremely hostile conditions, such as not having a bank account and being unable to speak the local language.
This is true, nobody I know emigrated during COVID, was mostly 5-6 years ago in that late 20s period before you settle down.
With regards to Serbia at least, while I'm not from there it's a neighbouring country, Belgrade isn't that bad and working for westerners should be the same as working from Russia, minus a few hours of TZ depending on where you are from. English should be decent as well with the younger crowd, especially in IT, some older folk know Russian. And 10000$ would get you settled for months, people there don't make that in a year on average. Don't know much about the visa/bank account issues - maybe you could open a business and setup a bank account through that.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is also super cheap and a wild west regarding laws - people buy anything there - diplomas, citizenship. Also have working banking system. But standard of living is considerably worse.
What countries are the best/easiest for immigration?