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ResourcesVisa & Immigration LawVisa News"Escaping the USA" Isn't the Problem for "Escapees"

"Escaping the USA" Isn't the Problem for "Escapees"

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the concept of "escaping from the USA". 

Here recently, in the last couple of months, I have noticed a number of videos talking about the notion of "Getting out of the US", or "Escaping America". I have been an expat for a number of years. I understand the wanderlust that gets into folks. I am not really making this from the standpoint of, there are a lot of people in the offshore space, the personal sovereignty space and I am definitely in many ways on the same frequency as those folks. I am more a nuts and bolts kind of guy. I don't really like to make YouTube videos, especially on this channel that get into the more higher end of the philosophy of being an expat, nomads, perpetual travelers; whatever you want to call it. That is not really the focus of this channel. I often find that when folks get more into for lack of a better term the "clouds" on these topics, they kind of forget the nuts and bolts of expatriation. I have seen a lot of stuff about "escaping America" and all of this kind of thing. 

The reason for this video is it is not the “escapee” side of things. In a sense if you are wanting to look at it like this, and I definitely don't view America this way, but if you were looking at America like a prison, well the warden doesn't care. If you want to get on a plane and leave America, you can do that, I mean provided you don't have some fugitive warrant against you or something. If you are just an American, you are uncomfortable with what is going on in America, or you just want to move abroad or whatever, whatever your reasons are for leaving, it is possible to leave. It is not the escapee side of things. It is not fortress America that is going to keep you in. The problem these days in the post COVID era is getting into that other country. For example let's just take Thailand as a "for example" but I am here to tell you, Cambodia very similar, Malaysia, Singapore to one degree or another, various jurisdictions around the world are far more difficult to get into than a mere 9 months, 10 months ago. A year ago most definitely. It was possible in February, especially the beginning of February 2020, to get on a plane and go wherever you wanted with a US passport. Not so much right now. The travel restrictions are really, really onerous. If you are really looking to get out of the USA, it is not a matter of leaving the USA, the emigration with an "E" side, that is not the problem. It is the immigration with an "I" side of getting into a country that is going to be your issue. 

So the reason for this video is to, I am not really trying to say I am setting the record straight just to provide some nuance to folks in a paradigm way. Folks shouldn't just be getting out of the United States per se or whatever country, your home country wherever that may be. I think your focus or where you should be looking, is how to get to the other country because the other country is where you are on your back foot. For example with Thailand, if you are not a Thai national, you don't have any right to come into Thailand. You may be able to gain a benefit in the form of a visa to come into Thailand, it may be granted for various periods of time and you may be able to extend it but it is not a right as it is your home country for example the USA to return or stay or whatever in the US. So I think a paradigm shift is in order and I think the notion of “escaping the US” isn't so much the priority. One should be looking at it from the standpoint of getting into that other country.