[kephra]

I would recommend my hometown for self employed, small companies and freelancers: Bremen/Germany

Bremen was a harbor and shipyard town 30 years ago. Now most shipyards are bankrupt, and the harbor seldom sees big ships.

Rentals are really cheap, e.g. I'm paying Euro208 warm (including heating, water, waste, etc - excluding electricity 64Euros and internet SDSL+Cable ~ 50Euro) for two small rooms plus a big kitchen. So I can smoke at my computer, sleep in a room where I dont smoke and host guests at the kitchen. Houses are also cheap, sometimes only Euro40k.

Bremen is a medium size (500k inhabitants) green city with parks everywhere, and gardens around the houses. You can ride bicycle everywhere. We have a good public transport. Its long and narrow. So regardless where you live, you are in walking distance to the river, and in walking distance to the rural. It basically feels like a suburb, but with good transport, and bicycle lanes.

Internet is cheap and available, e.g. 30mbit cable for Euro30/month or 100mbit cable for Euro40/month. Ryan air is at our airport, so you can fly within Europe for Euro19, if you pick the right time at night for ordering a ticket.

Bremen is a free Hanse city and friendly to foreigners. One of our mottos are "Am nettesten sind die Zugereisten" (the nicest people here are from outside). Citizen here are traditional left wing, so neo-nazi's have a very hard stand, and are seldom seen in public.

Bremen has a friendly police, and a sane drug policy. You can smoke marijuana at the dike, and the police will greet you while riding bicycle, and its usual that junkies are sitting in a small park behind the police station. Especially Bremen-Nord (north part of Bremen) has a very friendly small tax office, with great newbie support, and public servants who care for your business.

The drawbacks are high unemployment, low wages, and its nearly impossible to get a developers job outside of the military industrial complex. Also others claim that we are cold. Its hard to learn new people in a pub, but thats easier if you are from outside Germany. But we prefer to gather in clubs (e.g. we have 2 hacker spaces). We have several sport clubs, that are affordable, e.g. most working class sailing clubs costs Euro100/year for adults with own yachts. We often joke that Bremen has always good weather: In winter its warm and rainy, and in summer its raining and warm, thanks to gulf stream.

[pyvpx]

what are the VISA requirements like for someone from a western country (say, the US or Canada)? If I wanted to live in Germany for a full year, is there a way to do so working independently (i.e. without a German corporation sponsoring a work VISA)?

thanks.

[Guest98130]

Germany has a freelance visa that'll allow you to stay in the country for a year or longer. It's not the easiest to obtain, but do a quick search on Google and you'll find information on the process.

[kephra]

Thanks - thats new to me - I'll investigate it. But I fear 1-2 years are not enough to be interesting for most people. Thats why those I know used the marriage trick.

[moonfern]

Yes, they have the "artist/self-employment visa" More info:http://4dayvisa.tumblr.com/ I would recommend Munich nice village with a good climate in the southern part of Germany.

[kephra]

Munich is extremely expensive, the natives there are right wing and known to be unfriendly to foreigners, who do not speak Bavarian. Recommending Munich to foreigners is like recommending southern US states to black people.

[Cass]

While Munich is in fact hellishly expensive, the Bavarian version of "right wing" is VERY different from what most Americans would probably expect when reading that phrase. (My general expression of the American right wing, particularly in the southern US states, as a German, is that it tends to be partly centered around opposition to issues such as gay rights, abortion, and free healthcare, which the average person from Munich tends to have very liberal views on, in my personal experience.) And my friends from other countries have uniformly told me that they've felt very welcome in Munich - there's a very high rate of people who speak English here, for one, more so than in more rural areas or some of the eastern states.

It's not a perfect city, of course, but I'd highly recommend it to any foreigner who's willing to put up with the prices.

[ncc88]

There are more black people in the southern US than any other region, your analogy does not match up and is woefully ignorant.

[tmuir]

If the southern US has not historically been more hostile to blacks than other regions of the US, then why did almost every major event of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s take place in southern states?

Why were most of the jurisdictions requiring preclearance to change their voting laws under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the south? Its because those counties and states have had a documented history of limiting the voting rights of minorities, specifically blacks.

[kephra]

Same as in rest of Germany/Europe: Its nearly impossible for free lancers or small business if you are from outside Europe.

There is an equivalent to green card in Germany, but thats only for wage slaves.

Most Americans I know came as GI's and married a woman to become resident. oh well Its also common to Africans to buy a marriages. We have lots of unemployed people who sell this service.

[nekopa]

In 2005 it took me just under 72 hours to get my freelance work permit (US citizen). I am now in the Czech Republic on a freelance work permit. You seem to be spreading FUD.