[acabal]

I completely agree with everything you've said, and that's why I'm doing the same thing. My girlfriend is German so I was thinking of trying for a residency permit there next year. You mentioned the government wasn't supportive; do you have any anecdotes on the difficulty (or otherwise) of getting a short-term German residency permit?

[naner]

Here's an anecdote from a HN'er trying to start a business in Germany:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3224374

[acabal]

Thanks for the link. I'm not trying to start a business though, I've happily self-employed with my own website for a few years now. (Though not earning the 60,000 euros suggested by that link.) I'm mainly just looking for a residency permit... i.e., I'm not going to work in Germany, I just don't want immigration getting angry when I try to leave ~12 months later.

[nirvana]

The netherlands and america have a treaty called the Ducth American Friendship Treaty. Under it, you can get residency in the Netherlands by putting something like 10-12k Euros into a bank (or starting a business with that much value, you'd need a lawyer to navigate the details.) At any rate, as an american citizen you have a sort of inroads to getting residency in the Netherlands. Under this treaty, so long as you maintain that business in the netherlands you can be a resident (and you can work towards citizenship if you were so inclined.)

As a resident of the netherlands, you can live and work in germany visa free because it is part of the free trade zone. I am pretty sure this is the case, but again, I'm not a lawyer and haven't run this idea by a lawyer.

But that's one option that might work for you.

If you'd like to keep in contact with me, I'm interested in corresponding with people doing these kinds of global startup adventures because there's always tips we can share with each other. (Email and twitter in my profile.)

[waqf]

Hmm, does this work the other way too? Can any EU citizen claim residency in the Netherlands, then use this to get U.S. residency for a small deposit?

If not, isn't this a somewhat unequal treaty?