Given all that’s been happening, my plans for the future are in a bit of a flux. I’ve announced my retirement at work, but my wife doesn’t plan on retiring for another year or two. I was hoping that we’d do some serious travelling, possibly adopting the whole Slow Travel lifestyle. But for obvious reasons, lately I’ve become a bit more interested in leaving permanently, even dropping my United States citizenship. Of course, any such decision takes time, usually requiring a long period of residency before gaining citizenship. So I’m looking at the alternatives. Some of these might be interesting to others.
According to Freedom House, the freest nation in the world is Finland with a score of 100. (The United States has a score of 84. This score predates the Trump inauguration, so that number may change next year.) Finland has a political rights score of 40 and a civil liberties score of 60, both of which are perfect scores.
For those of you who want to live in a free country, the obvious question is how to move to Finland. You might even want to know how to become a Finish citizen prior to dropping your American citizenship. So I did a little research.
First, the bad news for people like me. I’m old and (almost) retired. I really don’t have interest in working into the future unless I need to. Finland does not have any sort of long term passive income residency visas that leads to citizenship. I can go to Finland on a Schengen tourist visa, which lets me stay there for 90 days out of 180. Like other tourist visas, it does not lead to citizenship. (It’s also cold and expensive, so it’s not a country I would want to retire to. But that’s a personal decision.)
What about younger people? There the situation is a little more open.
To become a Finnish citizen, you must have legally lived and supported yourself in Finland for eight years. This means you must have held a residency visa for those eight years and been in the country for most of that time. If you have language skills in Finnish or Swedish, you only have to live in Finland for five years. While you’re in Finland, you also need to maintain yourself financially. The minimum income level varies based on the specific occupation you’re in.
But for younger people who have the job skills to get a job in Finland, becoming a Finnish citizen is an option.
Next week I’ll look at the next country on the list. This isn’t an in-depth look, but just a quick glance at options.
