On Countries, Citizenships, Residence and Paying Taxes

The Basics

The most important part is to understand the legal basis for pretty much
all topics related to entering and leaving a country and the permits.
This is surprisingly complex because of the huge variety of different
terms for related topics.

Citizenship

Citizenship is typically what you get at birth and it makes you the
citizen of a certain country. In the majority of countries being a
citizen gives you certain rights but also obligations. For instance
in Austria citizenship gives you the right to vote, but you are
required to defend your country. Citizenship also almost always gives
you the right to live in a country though there might be further
requirements.

Multiple Citizenships

This refers to the idea of holding two (or more) active citizenships.
This is one of the more complex topics because of how different
countries approach this. On the one hand are countries like Austria
which have the concept of dual citizenships but make it very hard to
hold multiple. On the other there are countries like the US which do
not recognize other citizenships at all but will not prevent you from
holding multiple. Lastly there are countries which outlaw multiple
citizenships altogether.

Visas

If you are not a citizen of a country you might need a visa to enter
or leave a country. Visas in itself however do not necessarily give
you the right to actually be in a country. A good example for that
would be a person who immigrates into a European country for work from
a country with a passport that requires you to have a visa. In that
case you need a visa to cross the border and then you need a permit to
stay / permit to work.

Permits

Permits come in different flavours and not all countries have the same
approach to them. In most countries there are permits to stay and
separate permits to work and sometimes there are residence permits
which work differently. In Austria for instance there are permits
called “Aufenthaltstitel” which literally translates to “entitlement
for stay” which also usually comes with an indication if you are
allowed to become part of the workforce or not. For instance a family
member permit gives you the right to work whereas a permit for stay
for students will only give you limited permissions for working.

Passports

Passports are travel documents and means to identify yourself
internationally. As of a few years ago any person travelling will
need one of those which includes little children. Interestingly
however passports are a lot more complex than you might think because
they are not directly linked to citizenship. More about this later.

A passport gets you across a border and in many cases can act as an
universally accepted way to proof something about yourself. For most
states in the world the passports follow a generally accepted format
which makes them very convenient and they are on of the few documents
you never need to translate. Because of this, they will become your
best friend when you are not at home though they are by no means the
only document you need to reside in another country.

Relationship Citizenship and Passport

Most people would assume that having a passport of one country makes you a
citizen thereof. That however is not at all correct. There are different
reasons for this and I can’t go into all here. The biggest reason why you
might have a passport of a country you are not a citizen of is because you
are a stateless person.

For most people in the world once they hold a citizenship they cannot
become stateless. The reason for this is that there are international
treaties where if ratified in a country you cannot lose your citizenship
unless you acquire another one. There are some countries where this is
not the case. The United States being the most popular of them. A US
national can give up their US citizenship and become a stateless person
this way. The reason this works is because you do not need to be a US
citizen to be a US national. For instance people born in American Samoa
are US nationals but they are not US citizens. This is also the part
where citizenship and nationality becomes unclear. A person born in
American Samoa will for all intents and purposes be seen as a US citizen
as their passport will indicate that they have US nationality.

On the other hand there are many stateless people living in Estona and
Lativa who are officially stateless. The reason for this is that they are
Russian speaking and are either not entitled to Estonian or Latvian
citizenship or have no interest in applying for one. They are issued a
special passport for stateless people which however some some special
powers an Estonian passport does not have: they can travel to Russia visa
free.

How Do I Migrate?

This for many is the million dollar question. How can I immigrate in a
foreign country? Generally this question heavily depends on your own
citizenship and the laws of the country you want to become a resident of.

Here are the most common ways to immigrate:

Freedom of Movement

Sometimes you are entitled just like that to live in another country
like a citizen of that country would be. This for instance is the
case within the European Union. If you are German but you feel like
living in the Czech Republic, you can do so. Just head there and
you’re done. That’s not entirely true, you still need to do some
paper work in some cases (like registering etc.), but there is no rule
that prevents you.

This is by far the easiest route but it’s restricted to a certain
population of the world, and there is good chance you as a reader are
not in that group.

Marry a Citizen

Marriage is still the best way to get a permit of residence and it’s
becoming an even better by the day because the requirements are so
stict nowadays. However marriage does not immediately give you
residence and most people will probably have noticed that. As an
example in order for me and my wife (who is not Austrian) to legally
live together with our child in Austria we need to have household
income of 17.500 EUR per year after taxes. That does not sound like a
lot, but for many people it’s not the easiest thing to show,
especially because those earnings need to exist regardless of the
outcome of your residence application. For most people this means
showing that you have that much in cash available as you probably do
not live in the country yet to demonstrate a regular income through
paychecks.

In the United Kingdom the income requirement is currently 18.600 GBP /
year and you need to show income for 2.5 years. Which means that if
you want to show it in savings, you need to have at least 62.500 GBP
on an account somewhere.

Be Exceptional

The only other way to immigrate is typically to be exceptional. In
most countries this is either by being rich enough to invest into the
country and get residence or citizenship in the process or by being
extraordinary intelligent or in demand. This works well for engineers
because engineers are in demand in almost all places. However that is
no guarantee yet, as in most countries visas and permits are
restricted by numbers and there is a certain amount of luck
requirement to get one.

Become a Citizen

Most people cannot become a citizen from one day to another, but
sometimes they can. In that case that is the way to go. Typically
this is done by a prior claim to citizenship that you forgot about
(for instance to be born to a parent with a certain citizenship).
This most of the time is only possible for as long as you did not turn
18 yet.

Claim Asylum

In certain situations you might be getting away with claiming asylum.
Pretty sure the chances that you are a reader of this blog and you
quality for this route are very dim. Asylum is restricted to people
who come from situations where their life is in danger.

Legal Immigration is Hard

Legal immigration is expensive and a lot of work. Besides the proof of
income (which just requires you to have money), there is a lot of time and
effort required. All the documents you need (birth certificate, proof of
being in good legal standing, citizen certificate, proof of registration
in the original country, prior academic records, drivers license, etc.)
need to be apostiled or otherwise made work for international usage and
translated. In some country many of those documents can only be retrieved
in a single place and then you need to go through notaries to get them
attested. All steps need to be done in one exact order as each border
crossing needs to be planned and there is time involved in the paperwork.

On top of that you often need to pass language exams so there is some
learning to do. In Austria for instance you have to leave the country if
you cannot show German on an A2 level and you cannot even apply without
A1. There are some exceptions to the rule (for instance this does not
apply to asylum seekers or people immigrating via freedom of movement) but
for the most part everybody has to go through.

Finally: Where do you pay taxes? In most countries you pay taxes in the
country you have your primary residence. However there are some
exceptions. The US will tax you no matter where in the world you are, but
they will try to not double tax you for some time. The US will also tax
you if you stop being a citizen and they think you relinquished your
citizenship to dodge taxes.

The Illegal Route

Many people I met over the years just never legally immigrated somewhere.
That however does not mean that they are illegally in the country. It can
also mean that they just never immigrated to begin with and just hop from
country to country. They are there as submarines either by pretending to
be tourists and regularly changing the place of living.

This is a bit different from the traditional method of not crossing the
border much which many migrant workers do. This however can turn terrible
the moment someone catches you. Overstaying your permitted time in
Schengen for instance will lock you out for 5 years from almost the entire
European Union.