<story><title>Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve long considered leaving this country for a multitude of reasons.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d be curious to hear some first hand experiences of those who&amp;#x27;ve made the move to Europe and what you think of the process and considerations one should make.&lt;p&gt;A few questions to start the conversation:&lt;p&gt;- Where do you live?&lt;p&gt;- What&amp;#x27;s the biggest sacrifice you had to make (i.e. pay, housing, friends, etc.)&lt;p&gt;- What have you gained?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>starik36</author><text>&amp;gt; brink of civil war&lt;p&gt;I think that might be overstated.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; NHS is absolutely amazing&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve read and heard that for a non-emergency appointments, the wait could sometimes be months.  Is that also overstated?</text></item><item><author>jzellis</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m just outside London, moved here to marry my English wife from Vegas. I work part time doing basic IT for a US law firm due to health issues after heart surgery, and Yankee dollars are worth jack shit here - I&amp;#x27;m not making serious tech industry money, but over here it&amp;#x27;s barely enough to survive on.&lt;p&gt;Housing is always smaller than you&amp;#x27;d get in (at least the western) US for the same price, and I&amp;#x27;d bet that&amp;#x27;s true pretty much everywhere in Europe. Speaking the same language is useful, but Covid has made it hard to make friends or do much.&lt;p&gt;Despite its reputation, I find that Europe is far more provincial than the US when it comes to food - a lot of stuff you think of as ubiquitous in the West will be &amp;quot;foreign&amp;quot; food and harder 48 to find. (And if you like tacos, stay on that side of the pond.)&lt;p&gt;Benefits: it&amp;#x27;s a lot quieter and generally less dangerous than the US. The NHS is absolutely amazing and you&amp;#x27;ll never want to deal with the American system ever again. People tend to be less aggressive.&lt;p&gt;From an entrepreneurial standpoint I&amp;#x27;m sure it&amp;#x27;s much harder to get up and running, but I&amp;#x27;m old enough to not care anymore. If I could work legally for a UK startup or tech firm doing basic dev I&amp;#x27;d be happy enough and well-paid enough to never feel the urge to start my own ragged little thing again.&lt;p&gt;It is colder in most of Europe than the US, in my experience (not just living here but traveling extensively in my life). If you&amp;#x27;re a Cali kid, you will miss the sunlight, especially in the winter. It&amp;#x27;s like a fucking Joy Division video here from October through April. :-D&lt;p&gt;I think if my wife and I could afford to split our time between here and Vegas, we would. But that&amp;#x27;s just not in the cards right now.&lt;p&gt;But hey, at least they&amp;#x27;re not on the brink of civil war here and the curry is good.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>exdsq</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;ve read and heard that for a non-emergency appointments, the wait could sometimes be months. Is that also overstated?&lt;p&gt;Depends on where you are. I lived in the UK until last August and am now in the US. When I lived in London and Oxford I found the wait times to be very quick - in Oxford I could get non-emergency appointments the same day, possibly due to the high number of GPs and University hospitals. In London it was same week for everything I ever had an issue with. I believe in the less well-off areas, especially in the North of the country, there are areas with far lower staff numbers so the waiting time inflates. Worst-case scenarios in worst-case areas do have multiple-month waiting times nowadays.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve long considered leaving this country for a multitude of reasons.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d be curious to hear some first hand experiences of those who&amp;#x27;ve made the move to Europe and what you think of the process and considerations one should make.&lt;p&gt;A few questions to start the conversation:&lt;p&gt;- Where do you live?&lt;p&gt;- What&amp;#x27;s the biggest sacrifice you had to make (i.e. pay, housing, friends, etc.)&lt;p&gt;- What have you gained?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>starik36</author><text>&amp;gt; brink of civil war&lt;p&gt;I think that might be overstated.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; NHS is absolutely amazing&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve read and heard that for a non-emergency appointments, the wait could sometimes be months.  Is that also overstated?</text></item><item><author>jzellis</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m just outside London, moved here to marry my English wife from Vegas. I work part time doing basic IT for a US law firm due to health issues after heart surgery, and Yankee dollars are worth jack shit here - I&amp;#x27;m not making serious tech industry money, but over here it&amp;#x27;s barely enough to survive on.&lt;p&gt;Housing is always smaller than you&amp;#x27;d get in (at least the western) US for the same price, and I&amp;#x27;d bet that&amp;#x27;s true pretty much everywhere in Europe. Speaking the same language is useful, but Covid has made it hard to make friends or do much.&lt;p&gt;Despite its reputation, I find that Europe is far more provincial than the US when it comes to food - a lot of stuff you think of as ubiquitous in the West will be &amp;quot;foreign&amp;quot; food and harder 48 to find. (And if you like tacos, stay on that side of the pond.)&lt;p&gt;Benefits: it&amp;#x27;s a lot quieter and generally less dangerous than the US. The NHS is absolutely amazing and you&amp;#x27;ll never want to deal with the American system ever again. People tend to be less aggressive.&lt;p&gt;From an entrepreneurial standpoint I&amp;#x27;m sure it&amp;#x27;s much harder to get up and running, but I&amp;#x27;m old enough to not care anymore. If I could work legally for a UK startup or tech firm doing basic dev I&amp;#x27;d be happy enough and well-paid enough to never feel the urge to start my own ragged little thing again.&lt;p&gt;It is colder in most of Europe than the US, in my experience (not just living here but traveling extensively in my life). If you&amp;#x27;re a Cali kid, you will miss the sunlight, especially in the winter. It&amp;#x27;s like a fucking Joy Division video here from October through April. :-D&lt;p&gt;I think if my wife and I could afford to split our time between here and Vegas, we would. But that&amp;#x27;s just not in the cards right now.&lt;p&gt;But hey, at least they&amp;#x27;re not on the brink of civil war here and the curry is good.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ascari</author><text>I moved to UK from Europe and I wouldn’t really say NHS is convenient. It is universal healthcare and you are not facing a bankruptcy most of the time in case of a health condition. Preventative and diagnosis treatments are so slow. In case I need to see a GP, i must try reaching them at 8ish in the morning otherwise they will simply ignore you and tell, call tomorrow.</text></comment>