How can I escape my third-world country?

You could might try applying to immigrate to Canada. They allow over 300k immigrants a year and the biggest requirements are to not be too old and fluent in English (or French). Lack of an official high school diploma is tricky but you might be able to a) pass some kind high school equivalency test in your country or b) write an internationally recoginzed test (eg SAT or GMAT) if you can score well on those then it should count for something.

If you're not from a liberal democracy kind of place (eg any where that was a UK colony for instance) then your biggest adjustment might be culture. I've worked many very fine people who arrive here and think it's quite ok to voice an opinion like "I hate chinese." or "I hate Indians" or etc which is acceptable in their country but definitely not fine in modern liberal democracy.

If you make $2,000 USD a month I think the worst thing you could do would be to move to a very developed country, since you will barely be able to survive on that income.

Consider moving to a developing but decent quality of life country where USD is strong. Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Argentina, etc.

If you are a developer or related to IT area, in Costa Rica though is a third-world country life is descent (I'm Venezuelan living in CR), look for opportunities in LinkedIn (where most of the job market here is), there are companies that sponsor work visa and your family can come too (mine is here). Also (not necessarily related to your question) Costa Rica announced they started working on a law to have "digital nomads" work here for a "long" period of time

This would be a better place to seek assistance for this issue than HN:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IWantOut/

Without knowing where you're from, or where you intend to move to, I don't know if my experience will be helpful to your situation. Your country of origin, in particular, will play a huge role in how easy it'll be to migrate to your country of choice.

I grew up in Malaysia, and is now living and working in Australia. My journey was a typical one - I studied at an Australian university, lucked out and got sponsored for a job here, and I leveraged that to obtain permanent residency.

Australia has a lenient skilled-independent visa (the 189 visa), which doesn't require nomination, but does require certification. You can check online if you're qualified for it: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-li...

If there's one piece of advice I can offer, it is to get proper certificates, preferably from an institution in your preferred country. Immigration departments look favourably on that.

Your biggest difficulty at the moment is in discovering what country is "a safe, clean country with a non-toxic culture (and preferably a cool climate)."

I also would like to move to a suitable country. But .... There is no country on Earth at the moment which conforms suitably to my criteria.

For what it's worth, New Zealand while not particularly suitable is more suitable to me than other countries at the moment.

You could investigate the option of immigrating to the US as a Registered Nurse. Last I looked (which was some years ago) nurses were exempt from the Labor Certification requirement -- meaning you don't have to prove that there are no qualified Americans willing to take a particular job, because a long term shortage of nurses is assumed.

If you want to risk a country that is currently cheap and might soon brighten up a lot, there was a Hacker News thread on Bulgaria, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21113203

I think middle and eastern european countries are decent enough and shouldn't be too hard to get into if you can land IT job and cheap enough to live in with your passive income.

Maybe Czech Republic? Or Estonia?

There are "golden visas" or residency by investment programs in many different countries, including some EU countries... Generally they require you to invest (much) more than 50K especially in developed countries... But there may be some opportunities there.

And there are entrepreneur visa in different countries too ; as reader of HN and someone having passive income looks like something that can be interesting... Estonia (https://startupestonia.ee),France (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24232025 https://lafrenchtech.com/en/how-france-helps-startups/french...) and Chile (https://www.startupchile.org/) come to mind but there are other option out there, including for tradition non-tech businesses.

I think that Chile - safe, clean country with a non-toxic culture (and preferably a cool climate)- also gives visas to people with passive income...

And Estonia have also a 1 year Digital Nomad Visa that may be used to test the water

Education will open doors for you.

First, try to get your high school diploma. Ask the high schools in your country to give you an exam and then grant you a diploma. International schools can do this, too.

Pick a country. Then:

1. Attend a language school there. For example, the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University http://mtc.ntnu.edu.tw .

2. Take exams: TOEFL, TOEIC, local language competency, high school equivalency, college entrance, http://www.tw.org/tocfl/ , etc.

3. Apply to universities. Apply for scholarships. Every university has a student financial advisor who can help you get scholarships. Ask them for advice. Ask them to check your scholarship applications. Reply to every scholarship rejection with an appeal explaining why you need the money for school. I received a scholarship after sending an appeal letter. A lot of money is available to students who can show that they need it.

4. Attend university. Work part-time. Earn a 4-year degree. Consider earning a master's degree, too. A master's degree helps a lot with getting jobs and visas. It can also help you move to a third country later.

5. Get a job and apply for a work visa.

These steps are straightforward in many countries.

You can skip step 1 and save time & money. If you need an exam and nobody offers it nearby, take it in another country. Or ask your local university to administer the exam.

Good luck!

Not sure what your requirements are. But, you are very well off by developing country standards. Since you are single and if you believe your income earning potential continues to stand good, here are two awesome, low budget places that come to my mind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darjeeling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

You won't even be compromising on city fancies or fantasies either. You could pick up a bike, car or flight anytime and to experience anything with the realm of availability.

From a factual perspective, you would have way more time for experiences and exploration than most city inhabitants waiting for that occasional (often stressful) PTO.

Happy weekend!

You have a lot to work with: English. Computer and internet access. You seem smart. Your income gives you time to work and will let you travel to make connections. You're still young enough to learn. Maybe this is doable.

Let's talk. We can brainstorm something. Email's in my profile.

$2k/mo in a passive income + $50,000 savings would qualify you for a decent quality wife :)

What prevents you from moving to "safe, clean country with a non-toxic culture (and preferably a cool climate)"?

Ok, we can cross out Monaco, but there are still lots of options on a table?

From which country is your passport issued?

Unfortunately not in a position to help with advice. But I too am in a position that I'm struggling to escape from, and a steady income would be very helpful. Would you mind sharing how you created that income stream (of course, I'm not asking for specifics, just what general field, how long it took to create it, how many failed attempts were there before it etc).

As for getting out of your geographical area, money is usually very helpful. Many countries offer investor visas for instance.

For what it’s worth, you are doing better than me, who lives in a developed country with high school and university diploma and what is considered a good, full time job.

If that saving and passive income is self made, that is nothing short of incredible! I think you are selling yourself short in terms of landing a “lucky job”

Getting a degree if at all possible will generally be a great help with immigration around the world. I would try to get a degree if at all possible.

Where I live in Japan, a degree and a job offer will get you in the door very easily. No degree and you have very few options.

If you're a good programmer consider moving to Sweden for these reasons:

* Many reputable software companies have engineering offices there

* Obtaining a work permit is easy even for a high school dropout if you have a job offer

* Getting citizenship or permanent residency is easy

* Safe, clean and highly developed

* Almost everyone speaks english fluently

> Not a good team player yet

Don't do anything else until you fix this. I think the piece of advice that might do you the most good is:

"Don't play to win. Play in such a way that people will want to play with you again."

Best of luck!

Can you explain what you mean by "Not a good team player yet"? If I didn't have any other information, I would have to assume this means "someone who often argues or fights with colleagues"

Your savings and income is enough to get a small yacht and not stay anywhere really. That said getting tourist visas for most of the countries probably isn’t easy...

Canada had a points based residency system. The major issue here will be the lack of higher education.

It may sound cliche but education is so easily accessible nowadays

$2000/month from passive income ? what kind of business ?

I would take that 50k and get a green card marriage or the equivalent in other countries.

You shouldn't escape, you should find a way to change it from the inside.

“If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom” --Eisenhower (b. 1890)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_the_United_Stat...