Unhappier Abroad - OK to go back to USA?

[rudder]

TL/DR: Living in foreign shithole country sucks, hard to make money. Can you go back to the USA as a citizen without being vaxxed? Can you take your dogs with you?

Well, my foreign bride and I have made a go of things working on our life in her country, after 5 years living together in the USA, and the first year of marriage living together in her home country. That first year of marriage was my first attempt at being happier abroad, but ultimately, I didn't like being broke in her country, trying to make ends meet with an english teaching job (I was never crazy about TEFL). She worked as a bank teller in those days when we met. Anyway, life was well-enough in the USA. My wife even naturalized so she has dual citizenship. Now it is my turn to acheive the same in her country, although I feel like I'm pretty close to failing, cause I can hardly stand it here.

The first couple years in the USA we job-hopped through a number of odd jobs. Then I decided to get my CDL. We saved a decent amount of dollars in the USA living together and working in a long-haul truck. It was a good job for me to have. Honestly the only job I ever had that felt right for me. Sure sucked sometimes, but overall it was better than any other job I ever had by far. My wife cooked for me in the truck, fed me, kept me company, did exercize routines with me, helped navigate, and all I had to do was keep the money machine rolling. We averaged 800-1000USD per week, and after two years had already saved enough to buy some land in her home country and planted 6000 fruit trees on it. During our third year trucking, was when the covid-19 situation started. It took a couple months to realize what was really going on, and then we were worried we would never get back to our newly planted paradise in her home country....At least not without being jabbed, prodded and chipped. I could see the writing on the wall. Luckily we pulled some strings and were able to score a "repatriation" flight about one year ago.

Since then we have been living down here, developing our remote property. We built a small house, and I installed a completely off-grid solar system, which supplies all our electrical needs. But everything has been a hassle when hiring people to build the house. So many scammers, and even the people with good intentions just suck at what they do for the most part. I could honestly write a book about all the bad experiences we've had down here. It frustrates me to no end. Anyway, the land was pretty cheap, with an extremely beautiful view, but we've sunk pretty much all of our life savings into it, and now we aren't making a dime doing anything here. The property is too far from any towns with jobs, and being a worker here pays peanuts.

Despite this plandemic still going on, I've honestly been dreaming about going back to the USA to get another trucking job. It just sucks down here financially. This dang plandemic screwed up my world. I never expected to come down here so soon. I was going to drive a truck for at least the next 2-3 years and then build a tourist resort or something. We've been thinking about renting out our modest home for tourist rentals and "camping" on another part of our property when guests are present.

Still, I'm not convinced there would be enough demand. We are waaay off the gringo tourist trail here, and isn't international tourism pretty much dead anyway? Will it ever come back?

Yep, trucking was gravy. We had no apartment, no car, basically no expenses other than food. So, money earned was money saved. It was finally my answer as to how to get ahead in life. I've got 3 years of experience, a clean record, no accidents and no moving violations, so I know I could get hired pretty easily.

Now I feel like my life is stagnant in this third world country. My house and property feels more like a $200,000 ball and chain as opposed to a blessing. We can't leave the house unattended, because some vandals might come and destroy it or steal our thousands of dollars of solar equipment or something. I feel pretty useless here, like I'm supposed to just retire off into the sunset or something. But you don't retire off into the sunset in your early 30s, even if you did have the money to retire.

We've now got 3 dogs that are 1 year old. Can you travel internationally with dogs? Can you take them to the USA?
It was bad enough travelling to the USA a couple years ago with TSA putting their hands down my pants and whatnot. Does anyone know what it's like now? Do they strap you down and give you a lethal injection now upon arrival? How about the foot-long Q-tip up the nose? Of course, I'd have to worry about the same treatment in the future coming back to my wife's country.

What if we fly from South America to Mexico, and then walk across the Mexico-USA border? I remember reading back in March on the state dept website that you wouldn't need any "test" when entering by land with US passport in hand. The only reason I'm considering going back is because I've read Texas has banned mandatory vaccines, so I'd definitely head to one of those states. If it weren't for that, well I was basically willing to starve to death in the jungle than die on my knees a slave to big pharma.

So what's the scoop on travel to the USA these days? Has anyone done it?

[Cornfed]

Given that you are a couple of steps ahead of me in getting what I want, I'd advise you to stick it out somehow. Try to source income online. I'm here living off savings and lacking property or a wife, but I sure don't want to go back to the West. It is likely to get much, much worse. BTW. of course you need a test to fly in. Maybe you need a jab now for all I know.

[rudder]

Given that you are a couple of steps ahead of me in getting what I want, I'd advise you to stick it out somehow. Try to source income online. I'm here living off savings and lacking property or a wife, but I sure don't want to go back to the West. It is likely to get much, much worse. BTW. of course you need a test to fly in. Maybe you need a jab now for all I know.

Yeah maybe. We're going to try putting our small home as a vacation rental. We've got a million dollar view. We also want to set up a campsite on another part of our land.

Still, things were just so much easier in the USA. Life on the road actually felt like progress. I enjoy making money, but hate losing money. The USA is good for making money. South America is good for losing it.

My last straw moment was in August 2020 when I went to make a delivery to Hormel foods in Atlanta, and they wanted to take my temperature just to back my trailer into a dock. I didn't have much of a problem with that in and of itself, but on principle, I knew it was the foreshadowing to mandatory
vaccines. I even told their manager that - He thought I was nuts. Well not so crazy anymore really.

Anyway, I just decided to make a stand that day, and put my foot down. I told them I don't want any medical procedures just to back my truck into a dock. Their management was just as stubborn, so they refused to let me deliver. My company was pissed off at me, and had to send someone from a couple hundred miles away to switch trailers with me, since they were willing to comply with the temperature check. I was almost fired that day. t Within a month we made it back to South America.

When I hear that Texas banned mandatory vaccines, I'm really tempted to find my way back across that land border into southern TX and into a nice cushy trucking job somewhere around there.

[Shemp]

So what's the scoop on travel to the USA these days? Has anyone done it?

I just flew back to the USA from Ukraine. Arrived yesterday evening. I had to take a test within 72 hours before flight departure to confirm I didn't have active covid infection. Various times I had to display the printout of negative test results but no one looked too carefully at it. Negative test is all that is required for USA citizens. Starting next week, they will require another test in the USA after you arrive, to confirm you have no infection, if you are not vaccinated.

I got vaccinated as soon possible after arriving back in the USA. In fact, got my jab 3 hours ago. Janssen vaccine, so just one shot. I wasn't eligible for vaccination in Ukraine, where I overstayed my visa for past 16 months.

You sound like an idiot for freaking out about these vaccines. Didn't you get vaccinated as a child for tetanus, polio, etc? Now you are indeed f***ed, because just as you wrote, the minute you leave your house unoccupied, thieves will steal everything valuable (including ripping out copper wiring and maybe even unscrewing the toilet and other fixtures or even stripping the roof tiles, and then squatters will move in and you'll have a devil of a time evicting them unless your wife has some pull with the local mayor/police. All because you listened to lowIQ Trumptards. It's one thing to be skeptical. It's another to reject one stupid secular religion (liberalism) only to embrace another stupid secular religion (Trumptardery).

[Cornfed]

You sound like an idiot for freaking out about these vaccines. Didn't you get vaccinated as a child for tetanus, polio, etc?

There are a number of differences between those vaccines and the covaids jab that are not in dispute. Those vaccines are actually vaccines rather than experimental gene therapy. They were tested for years in double blind tests rather than a few months in fake tests. Most of them are to confer immunity to actual serious diseases that have a high probability of killing you, not (if anything) supposedly lessening they symptoms of a single strain of the common cold. The medical rationale for taking the jab is so utterly bizarre and ridiculous that there are really only two conclusions possible. Either a huge proportion of the establishment worldwide woke up one morning and found that they had gone batshit insane or they have some ulterior motive. The fact that prominent promoters of the jab have been promoting eugenics for years should give you a clue on what that might be.

Al because you listened to lowIQ Trumptards.

Trump is in favour of the lethal injection

[PaloAltoMan]

I got vaccinated as soon possible after arriving back in the USA. In fact, got my jab 3 hours ago. Janssen vaccine, so just one shot. I wasn't eligible for vaccination in Ukraine, where I overstayed my visa for past 16 months.

Shemp get fine or Ukraine ban? Can go again or no? Why no eligible vax Ukraine? Foreign no pay for tourist vaccine?

[publicduende]

You sound like an idiot for freaking out about these vaccines. Didn't you get vaccinated as a child for tetanus, polio, etc? Now you are indeed f***ed, because just as you wrote, the minute you leave your house unoccupied, thieves will steal everything valuable (including ripping out copper wiring and maybe even unscrewing the toilet and other fixtures or even stripping the roof tiles, and then squatters will move in and you'll have a devil of a time evicting them unless your wife has some pull with the local mayor/police. All because you listened to lowIQ Trumptards. It's one thing to be skeptical. It's another to reject one stupid secular religion (liberalism) only to embrace another stupid secular religion (Trumptardery).

I beg to disagree here, @Shemp. There's plenty of evidence that these vaccines have been designed to recognise and target a specific protein of the Covid-19 virus and the immunity is short-lived. Plus it's pretty clear to most of us who don't stick to mainstream news, that there is a very sinister agenda attached to global mass vaccination. Once they get the majority of the world population into the habit of complying with a one-a-year or two-a-year shot, then anybody can, literally, inject anything they want into our circulatory system, without a shroud of criticism or protest.

I took the bother of editing a long and very insightful essay about what's going on with Covid and the vaccine hysteria. If you (or any of you on HA) have some time and desire, it's really worth reading.

It's called "Immunity as a Service" and is available for download here:

https://filebin.net/16dcdvf8k8rupj8z

[publicduende]

TL/DR: Living in foreign shithole country sucks, hard to make money. Can you go back to the USA as a citizen without being vaxxed? Can you take your dogs with you?

Well, my foreign bride and I have made a go of things working on our life in her country, after 5 years living together in the USA, and the first year of marriage living together in her home country. That first year of marriage was my first attempt at being happier abroad, but ultimately, I didn't like being broke in her country, trying to make ends meet with an english teaching job (I was never crazy about TEFL). She worked as a bank teller in those days when we met. Anyway, life was well-enough in the USA. My wife even naturalized so she has dual citizenship. Now it is my turn to acheive the same in her country, although I feel like I'm pretty close to failing, cause I can hardly stand it here.

The first couple years in the USA we job-hopped through a number of odd jobs. Then I decided to get my CDL. We saved a decent amount of dollars in the USA living together and working in a long-haul truck. It was a good job for me to have. Honestly the only job I ever had that felt right for me. Sure sucked sometimes, but overall it was better than any other job I ever had by far. My wife cooked for me in the truck, fed me, kept me company, did exercize routines with me, helped navigate, and all I had to do was keep the money machine rolling. We averaged 800-1000USD per week, and after two years had already saved enough to buy some land in her home country and planted 6000 fruit trees on it. During our third year trucking, was when the covid-19 situation started. It took a couple months to realize what was really going on, and then we were worried we would never get back to our newly planted paradise in her home country....At least not without being jabbed, prodded and chipped. I could see the writing on the wall. Luckily we pulled some strings and were able to score a "repatriation" flight about one year ago.

Since then we have been living down here, developing our remote property. We built a small house, and I installed a completely off-grid solar system, which supplies all our electrical needs. But everything has been a hassle when hiring people to build the house. So many scammers, and even the people with good intentions just suck at what they do for the most part. I could honestly write a book about all the bad experiences we've had down here. It frustrates me to no end. Anyway, the land was pretty cheap, with an extremely beautiful view, but we've sunk pretty much all of our life savings into it, and now we aren't making a dime doing anything here. The property is too far from any towns with jobs, and being a worker here pays peanuts.

Despite this plandemic still going on, I've honestly been dreaming about going back to the USA to get another trucking job. It just sucks down here financially. This dang plandemic screwed up my world. I never expected to come down here so soon. I was going to drive a truck for at least the next 2-3 years and then build a tourist resort or something. We've been thinking about renting out our modest home for tourist rentals and "camping" on another part of our property when guests are present.

Still, I'm not convinced there would be enough demand. We are waaay off the gringo tourist trail here, and isn't international tourism pretty much dead anyway? Will it ever come back?

Yep, trucking was gravy. We had no apartment, no car, basically no expenses other than food. So, money earned was money saved. It was finally my answer as to how to get ahead in life. I've got 3 years of experience, a clean record, no accidents and no moving violations, so I know I could get hired pretty easily.

Now I feel like my life is stagnant in this third world country. My house and property feels more like a $200,000 ball and chain as opposed to a blessing. We can't leave the house unattended, because some vandals might come and destroy it or steal our thousands of dollars of solar equipment or something. I feel pretty useless here, like I'm supposed to just retire off into the sunset or something. But you don't retire off into the sunset in your early 30s, even if you did have the money to retire.

We've now got 3 dogs that are 1 year old. Can you travel internationally with dogs? Can you take them to the USA?
It was bad enough travelling to the USA a couple years ago with TSA putting their hands down my pants and whatnot. Does anyone know what it's like now? Do they strap you down and give you a lethal injection now upon arrival? How about the foot-long Q-tip up the nose? Of course, I'd have to worry about the same treatment in the future coming back to my wife's country.

What if we fly from South America to Mexico, and then walk across the Mexico-USA border? I remember reading back in March on the state dept website that you wouldn't need any "test" when entering by land with US passport in hand. The only reason I'm considering going back is because I've read Texas has banned mandatory vaccines, so I'd definitely head to one of those states. If it weren't for that, well I was basically willing to starve to death in the jungle than die on my knees a slave to big pharma.

So what's the scoop on travel to the USA these days? Has anyone done it?

Hi @rudder,

Thanks for the detailed and insightful account. From your account, you might be living in South America or the Philippines. I have been living in the Philippines continuously since 2015 and, let me tell you, I found myself in many of your statements.

I have been lucky enough to have a job in an industry, IT and software development, that usually allows to make money (albeit in different amounts) regardless of what location you're working in. I started with an outsourcing IT company in Davao City (the city of Prez Duterte) in 2015 and, basically, made all the mistakes I could possibly make. After 2.5 years I shut it down and restarted, with greater wisdom and greater luck. I did make a bit of money and, like you, invested that money on some condos. I had bought a condo here in Davao in 2015 and I bought 2 more in Manila, both in 2019.

I can repeat your words, consonant by consonant and vowel by vowel, about these assets being more of a "ball & chain" than a blessing. The smallest of the apartments, a 1 bedroom in a nice business district of Metro Manila called Ortigas Center, has been rented for a little more than a year now. Problem is, since most foreigners are gone, the only market I could rent my apartments to has been local, Filipinos, who notoriously have much smaller budget than foreign expats. So this one 1-BR ended up rented for little more than half of what would have fetched a year prior, when all the Korean and Chinese were still around.

I still have 2 larger 2-bedroom units, the one in Davao and another one in Ortigas (same building, same floor), one of which I am supposed to rent. And these rocks are going to be a lot harder to shift, since they are larger and should command a rental price that is way beyond that of the typical Filipino single or family. So for now I am stuck with both of them, paying a combined $400/month just in condominium fees and with no yield on the horizon.

Of course neither of us could have predicted the mayhem that this pandemic, with associated lockdowns and travel bans, would end up being. Yet, as they say, "it can be hell in Paradise".

Good luck with your life abroad! If it can be of any consolation, there are plenty of people (including, indeed especially on this forum here!) who are stuck in the US of A and can't wait to leave!

May I suggest...perhaps you could spend some time retraining for a job that you could do online?

[MrMan]

My wife doesn't want a vaccine and she just flew to a left-leaning state to take care of some things. There are states in the South where people rarely use masks. There are pseudo-vaccine mandates for federal employees to keep their jobs and Biden used Medicaid to force medical workers to get pseudo-vaccines if they want to keep their jobs, and he's trying to get businesses to use similar means to pressure people, but some states are banning companies from doing that.

As far as I know, no one will force you to get a vaccine. But there are certain places where things are extreme, like NYC, where they required people to show a pseudo-vaccine card to go to restaurants and stuff, or the restaurants are or were supposed to look at the cards.

It's hard to make money in developing countries unless you are in a niche that pays well. English teaching pays so-so in a lot of places. I did that for quite a while. The US is better for making money in manual labor type jobs that require a degree of skill.

My advice is if you want to travel, you need to give the dogs away and not get any more. If you have pets, you are tied down, same with livestock. It's okay if you want to be in one place and you can earn a living, for example from a farm or something like that. Maybe you could sell that property where you live.

If you go back to trucking, you should be flexible about checking temperatures. In some of the red states, they have cut back on that sort of thing, anyway.

If you were close to a tourist area, farm tourism is a thing. In the US, near cities, there are farms where city folks go to pick corn, pumpkins, walk through a corn maize, etc. People will pay to pick strawberries for the farmer, or at least pick them and buy them by the pound. They pay to let kids ride on rinky-dink rides, like a minifair, or to shoot the pumpkin slingshot or corn gun. That sort of thing might work in the developing world. if you were close enough to a population center, maybe city slickers would pay to pick fruit from your trees, or just pick it for you then buy it.

[yick]

@Shemp is bang on as usual - the vaccines are the least of your worries, you're obviously homesick and are sick of where you are (guessing Mexico or Colombia...) and wanting to go back to wherever you are from in The States where it all made sense - well, getting to that stage in your new country takes years - it took me three to five years not to hate China now, I don't, I quite like it but it took awhile to get to that stage.

If you have invested 200000 dollars into a rural home - rest assured that its gone the day you leave as it will be stripped of all its worth or become squatted/destroyed or a land takeover - and it doesn't matter what papers you have - unless you're in there, they're next to worthless, might is right.

If I was you - I would take up beekeeping or growing avacadoes or citrus fruit or something along those line - grow loads of orange blossom trees and set up a few beehives on your land and cultivate orange blossom honey. Make use of your land OR just write off the house you have where you are now because as sure as shit the locals find our you've gone, they'll be in there - I would never buy in a rural setting in Latin America, always best off buying in an urban setting where you have neighbours and civilisation and you are protected by fences, grilles and keys - sometimes that isn't enough but you have a better chance of keeping hold of your property once you go back to America.

Rural living should only be recommended in a select few countries - for the most part - rural living has many more disadvantages than advantages.

[yick]

My wife doesn't want a vaccine and she just flew to a left-leaning state to take care of some things. There are states in the South where people rarely use masks. There are pseudo-vaccine mandates for federal employees to keep their jobs and Biden used Medicaid to force medical workers to get pseudo-vaccines if they want to keep their jobs, and he's trying to get businesses to use similar means to pressure people, but some states are banning companies from doing that.

As far as I know, no one will force you to get a vaccine. But there are certain places where things are extreme, like NYC, where they required people to show a pseudo-vaccine card to go to restaurants and stuff, or the restaurants are or were supposed to look at the cards.

It's hard to make money in developing countries unless you are in a niche that pays well. English teaching pays so-so in a lot of places. I did that for quite a while. The US is better for making money in manual labor type jobs that require a degree of skill.

My advice is if you want to travel, you need to give the dogs away and not get any more. If you have pets, you are tied down, same with livestock. It's okay if you want to be in one place and you can earn a living, for example from a farm or something like that. Maybe you could sell that property where you live.

If you go back to trucking, you should be flexible about checking temperatures. In some of the red states, they have cut back on that sort of thing, anyway.

If you were close to a tourist area, farm tourism is a thing. In the US, near cities, there are farms where city folks go to pick corn, pumpkins, walk through a corn maize, etc. People will pay to pick strawberries for the farmer, or at least pick them and buy them by the pound. They pay to let kids ride on rinky-dink rides, like a minifair, or to shoot the pumpkin slingshot or corn gun. That sort of thing might work in the developing world. if you were close enough to a population center, maybe city slickers would pay to pick fruit from your trees, or just pick it for you then buy it.

If he has had pushback against depots not wanting him to offload his cargo before which led to him losing his job/routes etc then it isn't going to be any better if he returns, maybe truck companies these days want to see proof of vaccination before they take drivers on - it doesn't sound like a good future for anyone who wants to remain unvaccinated.

When we make the move abroad and we are dealing with teething problems, we sometimes forget there was a good reason why we moved abroad in the first place and we start looking through our former place of residence back in our home countries through very rose coloured glasses.

I think the OP should stick it out where he is and start looking at business opportunities that are somewhat cost effective and easy to learn. As for TEFL - if he hasn't got a degree then it won't be well paid, that is just the facts of life of working within the education industry.

[gsjackson]

You need a test to get back to the U.S., but not a jab. Beginning Nov. 8 that test will have to be taken at most 24 hours before arrival, rather than 72 as it is now. And according to what I read, you have to have bought a self-test kit to take within three days after arrival.

I don't know how it is in the U.S., but flying between countries in the Balkans you need a test for the airline to let you on the plane, but once you get to the country you're going to passport control doesn't give a shit. So I'm wondering what kind of bureaucracy, if any, the U.S. has set up to enforce taking a second test after arrival. I'm sure we all can agree that more tax dollars should be spent for such a program. Right?

I'm sure dogs can be flown into the U.S., but don't know what sort of quarantining requirements there might be, if any. I know that adopted dogs from Greece are being flown to several European countries and the UK without any required waiting time.

[Winston]

I got vaccinated as soon possible after arriving back in the USA. In fact, got my jab 3 hours ago. Janssen vaccine, so just one shot. I wasn't eligible for vaccination in Ukraine, where I overstayed my visa for past 16 months.

Shemp get fine or Ukraine ban? Can go again or no? Why no eligible vax Ukraine? Foreign no pay for tourist vaccine?

Oh no PAG is back again already?! This time his username is obvious. Why couldn't he give us a longer break from him? lol

[yick]

I got vaccinated as soon possible after arriving back in the USA. In fact, got my jab 3 hours ago. Janssen vaccine, so just one shot. I wasn't eligible for vaccination in Ukraine, where I overstayed my visa for past 16 months.

Shemp get fine or Ukraine ban? Can go again or no? Why no eligible vax Ukraine? Foreign no pay for tourist vaccine?

Oh no PAG is back again already?! This time his username is obvious. Why couldn't he give us a longer break from him? lol

At least you now know who Spencer was...

[gsjackson]

Pag might want to consider how comfortable he is with the new acronym. Sort of like how the Bush administration initially labelled their invasion of Iraq 'Operation Iraqi Liberation,' until someone pointed out that the acronym was all too revealing of true motives and it was changed to 'Operation Iraqi Freedom.'