American outside the US: where can I still go that's not the USA?

June 13, 2020 10:13 AM

So I'm an expat whose taxes are dependent on staying out of the US 330 days a year. When Covid hit my short term gig let me extend for a bit but it's over as of August. So where CAN I go next? I can go back to the US but if things don't change, I'm stuck there. So where CAN a US citizen go at this point or (more specifically) by August?
posted by rileyray3000 to Travel & Transportation (13 answers total)

Wikipedia might be a good place for you to start.
posted by MiraK at 10:26 AM on June 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Where are you currently, and do you have to leave that country for visa reasons? I think that's going to be at least as important as your citizenship.
posted by mskyle at 10:50 AM on June 13, 2020 [5 favorites]

Mexico is an option. With a US passport, you can get an FMM, popularly referred to as a "tourist visa" although it's not actually a visa. You fill out the paperwork on the plane and it's issued at the immigration office in the airport after you deplane. It's good for up to 180 days, at which point Mexico tolerates just jumping across a border and back again for another 180 days, ad infinitum. The peso is pretty weak right now, so that improves your purchasing power in an already inexpensive country.

With respect to Covid, Mexico is not in the best shape, it's true. Official numbers are estimated to be underreported by a factor of as much as eight. Testing is almost non-existent. Baja California Sur, the state where I live, has started phase one of reopening despite a recent large uptick in new cases. The choice is between that and letting people starve.
posted by bricoleur at 10:50 AM on June 13, 2020 [4 favorites]

No-one knows what the situation will be by August but it does depend where you are currently and whether a quarantine period would be acceptable
posted by missmagenta at 10:53 AM on June 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: So I'm in Ireland by the border and I'll technically have overstayed my visa of 90 days by August but I'm assuming they'll be cool with it because of Covid. If not I can always leave from Belfast and then I get another 90 days from leaving from the UK. But I'm leaving because there's just no more work for me here and I'd rather go somewhere else for a bit. The question is where.
posted by rileyray3000 at 11:07 AM on June 13, 2020

I don't know how you regularise your entry to the UK if you're moving across the land border in Ireland but US nationals get 180 days to stay in the UK, so that's a longer term option if that changes your feelings about whether to stay in these islands.
posted by ambrosen at 11:20 AM on June 13, 2020

Towards the bottom of this page, there are some countries listed where travel may be possible. Of the countries on that list, given your current location (arriving from an EU country), it might be worth looking into Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and/or the Baltic republics.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:42 AM on June 13, 2020

Israel. 3 months no questions asked with US passport.
posted by hworth at 12:18 PM on June 13, 2020

France is planning to open its borders with other EU countries on Monday, Germany too. Assuming you haven’t spent time in the Schengen area recently, that should be good for three months.
posted by mskyle at 12:26 PM on June 13, 2020

These days before international flights you have to verify 3 things: 1) Are flights between your location and the destination allowed, if so 2) Who is allowed to enter the destination country, and 3) If your route changes planes in a 3rd country, what, if any, are their restrictions for #1 and #2.

I checked flight restrictions for Portugal because I live there and have their flight restrictions page bookmarked. For #1, Both IATA (International Air Transport Association) and World Nomads agree with Portugal's Immigration and Borders Service (SEF). However, neither World Nomads or the IATA have anything about #2. SEF lists the required conditions of citizenship, permits, visas for #2.
posted by Homer42 at 1:07 PM on June 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: So I see where it says I can come to a few of those countries if I'm coming from the UK or certain EU countries. But does that apply to only citizens of the EU, UK or those countries? Is COMING from Ireland or the UK enough?
posted by rileyray3000 at 3:06 AM on June 14, 2020

>"Is COMING from Ireland or the UK enough?"

Were you asking me? Each country decides what is enough. Unfortunately, almost all of the sites listing the country by country requirements deal only with where the flights start, not who is on the plane.
posted by Homer42 at 10:50 AM on June 14, 2020

This French government press release (in French) says that as of today they're lifting restrictions at interior European borders and refers to "les personnes en provenance de l’espace européen" which I believe would usually be translated as something like "people *coming from* EU space/locations." (But take this with a grain of salt - I am not a professional translator/interpreter or even fluent in French, and "coming from" is kind of ambiguous in English!) There's no mention in the press release of anyone's legal country of origin or residence. Note that if you do come to France from the UK, you'd be "invited" to quarantine, though not if you come from Ireland.
posted by mskyle at 6:02 AM on June 15, 2020