145: The 4 easiest ways Americans can move to Europe

Most people start their research by obsessing over visas and which country is the easiest to move to. In reality though, there is one question that determines almost everything else. How are you going to earn money? Answer that first and the right visa and the right country follow a lot more naturally from there.

In this episode I am walking you through the four easiest and fastest ways Americans are successfully moving to Europe while earning an income.

Here is what we are covering:

• Why most people are asking the wrong question when they start planning a move to Europe
• Option 1: How to keep your US income and move on a digital nomad visa
• Option 2: How to get sponsored by a European employer and which industries make it most accessible
• Option 3: How freelancing and building an online business can get you there with more flexibility
• Option 4: The best options for new grads including teaching English, getting a master's degree abroad, and internships
• A simple breakdown of which option is the right fit based on where you are in your career right now
• Exactly what I would do if I were starting from scratch and wanted to move to Europe as fast as possible

There is no single right way to move to Europe. The best path depends entirely on where your income is going to come from. Solve that one question and the rest becomes so much more manageable.

👉Take the free quiz: Which European city should you move to? 🤔

Grab my free guide: 5 exact steps to move abroad

Website: jordangiberson.com
Instagram: @jordan.giberson

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One of the biggest myths about moving abroad is that you need to save up $100,000 before you go, don't overthink it The best path depends on you, and where your income is going to be coming from. And then once you've kind of solved that problem, then everything else like the visa, the country, the timelines for that become a lot easier. Hey, my name is Jordan Giberson. I'm a Texas girl living and thriving in London. The best thing I've ever done? Moving abroad, hands down. And I'm passionate about helping others do the same. Are you curious about finding a job abroad? You're in the right place, friend. I'll teach you the tried and true secrets of how to make moving abroad a reality for you and how to live a fulfilling life once you get there. We'll cover topics like choosing the best visa for you, how to get a job offer in another country, how to get over your fear of moving abroad, and how to live a life you love once you get there, this is The Move Abroad Podcast. And welcome to another episode of the Move Abroad podcast. Today we're gonna be talking about the four easiest ways that Americans can move to Europe. One of the biggest myths about moving abroad is that you need to save up $100,000 before you go, but you don't. I think you do, though, need a plan for income, so that's what we're talking about today. I've noticed that whenever people first start dreaming about moving abroad and researching it, they usually obsess over visas, and maybe housing, or what city that they should choose, and the country that they should move to. But in reality, I think that There's one question that really determines almost everything else, And starts you on the right path to move abroad with ease, and that question is how are you going to earn money? So once you answer that, your options become a lot clearer. So today we're gonna be talking through the four easiest ways and the fastest ways that Americans are successfully moving abroad to Europe while earning an income. So one thing I want you to think about and consider as we're talking about this discussion of the easiest ways to move abroad to Europe is to reframe how you're thinking about the easiest way to move abroad. And what I mean is that a lot of people ask which country is easiest to move to. That might be a question that you've been asking. Or which visa is the easiest. But I think a better question to be asking is where is my income going to come from? And once you know that, the visa and the country kind of follows, and then you can see what options work best for you once you know the type of income that you're going to have. So whether you're going to be a freelancer, a contractor, if you're gonna have a remote job, if you're going to be employed by a company, because different countries have different visas. As in a lot of countries have similar visa categories, but there's going to be some nuances, like not every country is going to have a remote worker visa. Like the UK, for instance, does not have that. But most countries do have sponsorship visas, so if you're going to get a job in that country, then that's kind of across the board. So it's helpful for you to know where your income is going to come from first, and then figure out which visa works best for that type of income and what countries offer that type of visa. So I think it's a little bit of an easier thought process once you know what your income is going to be, and then go from there So jumping into our four options for the easiest ways that you can move to Europe and make your income is option one would be to keep your US income. If you've been working for a US company, and you've been working remotely for that company already or even partially remotely, they might be open to you moving to another country and keeping your same working hours or even being flexible with your working hours where you partially overlap. So I actually work remotely for a US company. I got the job while I was living in the UK, but I did get a remote job from an American company where most of the people work in the US. And I do work a little bit later hours but not crazy, and my time does overlap with the people in the US. And I have my meetings a lot of times in the late afternoon, and they have a lot of their meetings earlier in the morning. So it's worked out for me, and I have a remote job with them. So if you do have a job in the US, or you can get a remote job for a US company, I think that could be a really great fit. So if you are able to get a remote job or you already have one, then you could apply for a digital nomad visa. A lot of times if you have a job with a US company, you can typically get a higher salary than if you were to get a job in a European country. So I think that's one of the bigger advantages is a higher salary, and you can get a digital nomad visa if you have a remote job. And it also provides a bit of flexibility where you can, live and work in a country with a digital nomad visa, but you can also travel a little bit across other European countries and really enjoy the quote unquote, "digital nomad lifestyle," where you can travel and stay in different places if you want to. So I think that would be a really cool option for those that already have a remote job or can find a remote job from a US company. I actually was just curious, and so I just Googled remote jobs online, and EUremotejobs.com came up. And I legitimately spent like 20 or 30 minutes, and I was like, "Ooh, this is an interesting job," so I started actually looking around. There are a lot of full-time or freelance remote jobs in European time zones, and if you check out that website, EU Remote Jobs, and there's lots of job boards online as well. But this one just popped up, and I started looking into it. And, that could be a really great opportunity for you if you are looking to move abroad, and you want to stay employed. If you're used to being employed right now, and you really want to have a job instead of building up freelance work or being a contractor or building up your own business, then I think that this could be a really interesting option for you because the alternative, which is our option number two, is to get sponsored by a European employer. So this is a little bit of a different route because for this one, you would need to get sponsorship from that company. So whenever you move abroad, just in general, you have to prove to the government that you're not going to be just, taking their public funds and being a homeless person and sleeping on a bench. They wanna make sure that you're going to be taken care of financially. So that's why you need to get a visa is that you have to be accounted for to make sure that you're not just going to be using public funds. So you have to either be employed, you have to be a freelancer to prove your income that you're going to be getting, you have to be a student. Like, you have to have a reason why you're living there. And basically one of the options, and I think that this is an option that a lot of people end up doing, is they get sponsorship by a European employer. So that company says, "Hey, government, don't worry. We're gonna be sponsoring them, so we're gonna be paying them, and we're gonna be taking care of this person. So we'll pay them so that they have an income coming in." This could be a really great option. I think it's either option one or two so basically for this one, I think it's a little bit harder sometimes because you have to convince the European employer to sponsor your visa. There's pros and cons to both options. I think a benefit of getting employed by a European employer is that I think it can be a little bit better longer term, because whenever you're sponsored by a company it typically puts you on a path to be able to get permanent residency and to eventually get citizenship for a lot of European countries if that's your goal, to be able to live there long term. Whereas if you have a remote job and you're working as a digital nomad, a lot of times that does not lead to permanent residency. I also tell people that I don't think that your first visa has to be your forever visa. I had a shorter term visa when I first moved to the UK, and I could only have it for one year, but it was a great stepping stone for me. I think that it's a great idea to have stepping stone visas, and even if you have a remote job and you get a digital nomad visa in a country, you can also live there and it makes it easier to network and be able to get a European employer to sponsor your visa afterwards, or figure out something else. Maybe you decide to start a company after that. Who knows you never know where life takes you So jumping back quickly to our European employer, like getting sponsored by them, which is our option number two of the easiest way to move abroad to Europe and be able to make money. So some industries that you could consider is tech, marketing, finance, engineering, healthcare, basically a lot of different jobs. Like you can get sponsored for many different jobs. A lot of times it has to be skilled jobs. But a lot of times they'll tell you online what jobs typically you can get sponsored for. And I think really between these two options, I think both are great options, and I think that it would be beneficial if you are that person that says, "I 100% don't wanna be a freelancer or a contractor. I don't wanna go to back to school. I wanna just be employed. I don't wanna start a company. I just wanna be employed at a company." I think these are your two best options, and I think that both are solid options, and I think it might be worth applying for both, like applying to remote jobs where you could work in that European country and get the digital nomad visa, as well as applying to sponsorship opportunities because I think in some countries it's easier to get sponsored than others. Like in the UK it's quite difficult to get sponsored. It's definitely possible, and it depends on your level of work experience. But it can be a little bit more challenging. But it really depends on the market and on the industry. So I would focus on countries where your industry is needed. Like healthcare was very heavily needed in the UK, so it might be easier to get a healthcare visa. Whereas if you want to work in tech, for instance, then Germany might be a really interesting option. If you wanna work in finance, then Switzerland might be a really interesting option in Zurich. So I think it depends on the industry, and I would focus maybe your energy on the country that has a lot of job opportunities for the type of work that you do So those are options one and two, our option number three would be freelancing or starting an online business of some sort. So this could be something like marketing online, coaching, writing, consulting, design. So a lot of countries have visas for self-employed professionals. So if you have a type of job that you work online, a lot of times you probably can find a way to freelance for that type of work. So it's like freelancing, consulting or starting an online business. This is something that maybe you've thought about freelancing for a long time, or you thought about starting an online business for a long time. And I think one thing that's really cool about this option is that you can start building that up right now wherever you are. So if you're in the US and you have a full-time job, for instance, you can start freelancing on the side, a side hustle, if you will just to start testing out the waters and seeing how it looks and feels. And something that's great about this is that if you can build up clients, a lot of times you don't need as high of a salary to be able to live well in European countries, and the salary threshold or the amount of money that you have to be making as a freelancer might be a lot lower than you would think, where you can actually move abroad to another European country like Portugal or Spain for just a couple examples, and get a like a, a freelance visa or even a digital nomad visa, depending on the type of clients that you have. But I think this could be a really interesting option because like I said, you can start building up that income before you actually move abroad and prove it to yourself that you can make money on your own and then transition from a full-time job to freelancing full-time where you can, travel to different European countries and really enjoy having that flexibility and working online and like having a business that's your own. So I think that could be a really interesting option as well that you can start building up on the side before you actually move abroad. So I think the time horizon for that one might be a little bit longer to start building up that freelance income on the side. But I think it could be a really interesting option to transition out of full-time employment if that's something that you've been thinking about for a long time anyways, and then to shift that and to be able to move abroad with that, and it gives you a lot of flexibility. So I think that could be a really interesting option, and again think that it could be really great for those that have been thinking about it already and can build that up on the side of whatever they're currently doing so that they can prove it to themselves and then move abroad with that income. And then our option number four for the easiest ways that Americans can move to Europe, this is for our new grads. So if you're not a new grad, you can probably skip this section. But if you are very new in your career, if you're still in college, if you're about to graduate or just graduated, I think these are going to be your best bets to move abroad the easiest. Now, is it still possible for you to go for one of options one through three? Absolutely. It is definitely possible to build up freelance work, to get a remote job, to get sponsorship by a European employer. So can you do it? Yes, of course. But I think option number four, these options I'm going to list are for the new grads, and it's, again, it's for the easiest ways that you can move abroad. So the easiest ways for new grads to be able to have an opportunity to live abroad is to teach English. I think that's one way, getting a master's degree or getting an internship. So if I'm being totally transparent and honest with you, I was a new grad whenever I moved abroad, and I did not wanna do this. I wanted to get a full-time job, but I applied to so many full-time jobs, and it's challenging to get a company to sponsor you, especially if you have no work experience right after college. I had internships I had done, but I hadn't had a full-time job yet. So I actually got an internship abroad, and that was kind of my foot in the door. So I got an internship in Brighton, and then I actually ended up getting a second internship in London. I got an internship opportunity in Brighton. It was like an hour south of London. I said, "You know what? It's close enough. I'm going to network while I'm there, and just getting over there, and I'll figure it out. So I did the internship in Brighton for three months. I actually hated it. The company explosion-proofed forklift trucks, and it was interesting. Interesting type of people that work at a company that explosion-proofs forklift trucks. It was very industrial and just really not my thing. But I did that for three months, and I networked a lot, and I ended up getting another internship opportunity in London. And for that one, I proved myself. I worked really hard, and I was able to convince them to give me full-time employment and sponsor my visa. And so I worked for them for a while, and then I moved to the company I'm at now. But anyways I did the internship because I was a new grad and I found it really challenging to build up the other options that we talked about earlier in this episode. So I think that doing an internship could be a great stepping stone to prove yourself to that company to potentially sponsor you and to network with other companies while you're there in person because I think once you're already there, you're solving for one of the hesitancies of hiring managers for European countries, and that is, are they actually serious? Are they actually gonna move here? You get to actually meet them in person. You already have established a home and a life there, and I think it kind of convinces them that you're not just gonna move there for a month and then want to leave or like, when are you actually gonna be here? Like, you're there. You're in person. You're able to meet them. And I think you're able to prove that, you are already there and not just a person that's in another country, living in another country with an apartment in a different country and it feels complicated to get you over. So I think that it does help. So these are kind of stepping stones. A master's degree is another great stepping stone because if you have already planned on getting a master's degree, then, it's a great opportunity to be able to get a master's degree abroad and have that experience abroad and start building up time there, and it's great for being able to build up solid friendships. People that I know that were in master's degrees abroad have such strong friendships with the people that were also in that program. I think that could be a good opportunity. And also, whenever you're studying, a lot of times you can get part-time work. And a lot of times you can also get a post-grad visa where you can pay for it, and then you can work in that country for a year or two after you graduate. So not every country has that, but it's worth looking into to see what opportunities you could have. But I think a master's degree could be interesting. And then teaching English is also Just another opportunity to be able to live abroad. You probably won't be paid very much, but I think, if you do want experience of living abroad, and let's say you do actually wanna teach or, it's just something that sounds like it'd be fun to you, it might not be a long-term career decision, but it could be something that would just be really fun and a great experience for you as you're, just trying to dip your toe into life abroad So which option is right for you to make it really clear and to summarize it, if you already have a US remote job, then I think it would be great, like your best option is to move onto a digital nomad visa and move abroad with that job, or to look for a remote job and then move on a digital nomad visa if you're not already employed by a remote US company. So I think if that's you, that would be your best option. If you have three to 10 years of professional experience or more, then you're a great candidate to get sponsorship by a European employer. I think that one would be a really solid option for you. If you already have freelance work or you've always wanted to build up your own business to be a contractor, to be a freelancer, then I think you could start building that up in whatever you're doing on the side right now, or maybe you start going full in and you start trying to build up freelance work, then the best option for you is to get that self-employed or freelance visa abroad. And if you're just out of college, then I think that the best option is going to be to teach English, study abroad do an internship, and then transition after that So this is exactly what I would do if I were starting from scratch, and I wanted to know the easiest way for me as an American to move abroad to Europe. I would ask myself a couple questions, and it would be basically, do I want to either build up freelance income in an online business? Do I want to pursue that side of things, or do I want full-time employment and be an employee for a company? So I think I would decide which of those two options I really want to start building, and if it's the freelance income/online business that I want to build, then I would start building that on the side now, start building up a little bit of experience, start working on getting my first client and my second client, and start proving that to myself that I can do that if I wanna have my own income that I'm building, then I would start working on building that on the side now. Or do I want full-time employment? Then what I would do is apply to remote US jobs and potentially European jobs simultaneously and see what the feel is. Because you might start applying for European jobs, and they're really into it, and you are getting great opportunities to interview, and it's kind of going well, and you're just waiting until you get the job offer, but you're getting some bites. But you might start applying to European jobs, and you find that whenever you bring up sponsorship, a lot of times they're like, "Eh, we don't wanna deal with it." Then maybe a US remote job might work a little bit better. But I think I would just try doing both and see what the feel is. Get a feel for the market, and I would start dipping my toe in both and just start applying. And I wouldn't worry about is this my ideal, perfect job for every single job that you apply to. But just start putting yourself out there, and just start applying. And once there's a job offer, then you can say "I, actually, I don't want this." And then you you have a decision to make instead of reading through the job application a million times and the job spec and kinda like saying "Oh, like, is this my perfect job?" I would just start applying. Just start putting yourself out there. Start getting interview experience. Start seeing what opportunities you get and seeing who bites, basically. And then decide from there if it's a good decision for you or if you're gonna let it pass, let the opportunity pass if you do get a job offer from a remote company or a European job. I would do that. I would also focus on countries that have strong demand for your profession. Maybe you work in healthcare, and everyone, has strong demand for your profession, like every country. Or maybe you work in a type of job where countries that have strong demand. And if a remote US job comes first, then go for the digital nomad visa. Go for it. If a European offer comes in first, then move abroad on a work visa. I think that both are great options, and I think that neither are better or worse. They both have pros and cons. But I think it's just seeing what opportunities come in front of you, and then make a decision from there. But don't overthink it before there's even an offer on the table or an opportunity on the table if I were you. So I hope that it feels a little bit clearer on the easiest ways to move abroad to Europe as Americans, and to see what option might work best for you. Because I do think that sometimes we have this like, oh, what country should I move to? And what visa should I go on? But I think the question of how are you going to earn money might be a little bit of a better question. Because once you know how you're going to make money, then you can see what countries and visas are options for you. And I hope that this kind of brought a little bit of clarity for some of the easiest ways that you can move abroad to Europe, and what fits you and your circumstances best. Because I think that the best path really depends on you, and where your income is going to be coming from. And then once you've solved that problem, then that become a lot easier. And then you can start checking through all of the tasks from there, and start working your way down so that you can actually move abroad. So, with that, we'll go ahead and close out today's episode. If you have been loving the podcast first of all, I wanna say thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here, and I love that you want to move abroad, and it makes me so excited. That's why I do the podcast. And if you are enjoying the podcast, I would love it if you left a review for the podcast. It just helps me reach more people, and I read every review and it makes me excited to know that what I do matters, and that it does actually help people want to move abroad. So, again, thank you so much for being here, and I will see you here again next week, same time, same place. I'll catch you then.