Permanent Residency in Japan After One Year

The Ginza Wako Clock, Tokyo, Japan, Jordy Meow

There's a strong competition amongst countries to attract highly skilled labor, particularly those in STEM (science, technology, engineering, medicine) fields. Japan has made an interesting move in this game: highly skilled workers may be eligible for permanent residency in Japan after only one year.

How to Move to Europe (or elsewhere)

It's that time again when people are upset at the results of the US presidential election and traffic to this blog spikes. I've written for years on different ways to move abroad, but I've let the blog go fallow as other priorities presented themselves. So here's a quick primer for those new to the topic.

Who Am I?

Your author at the São Jorge Castle in Lisbon, Portugal

I'm an American who's lived in the US, Japan, the UK, the Netherlands, and now France. My wife and I have considered other options, such as moving to Spain or Malta, but in all honesty, we'll probably stay here in France. Despite some problems, France is a pretty awesome place to live.

I started this blog simply because people kept emailing me to find out how to move abroad and other sites were too niche (how to move to Belize!), or scams (pay us money to move to this deserted island and be free!), or were light on details in an attempt to sell you something (buy my e-book on how to get a new passport!). So my emails got longer and longer and I learned more and more and eventually decided it would be easier to start a blog and point people at it than cut-n-paste from older emails all the time.

So let's consider why and how to move abroad.