Am thinking about becoming an expat from the U.S. and moving to Denmark, what should I know?

Question

The United States has become one of the worse places to live especially when you live in a welfare state (people loaded up on food stamps, too lazy to work) and my family and I are plain miserable because we being middle class has to pay for other people's mistakes ( not getting an education, getting knocked up, drop outs) so we are considering moving to Denmark. What is the process in being a expat? Is Denmark a great place to live where you get rewards for hard work?

Answer 1

You may need to be able to speak Danish.

Taxes are not lower, so if that is your issue, you may be looking at the wrong place.

Answer 2

One thing is you have to speak Danish.

Also, unless you have training in some field that Denmark has need of, you may find it difficult to get a visa.

Answer 3

Linda has it right.  All the Scandinavian countries have that Socialist Cradle to Grave thing, which means that those who work, pay huge taxes in order to support those who can't for whatever reason,  And all the European countries are very difficult to get visas for, anymore, because. and work is generally very hard to come by.

Actually, the US is one of the best countries to live in, bar none, for the simple fact that the poor CAN get wealthy through hard work.  (not possible in many other countries).  It IS a great place to live where you get rewards for hard work.  

I kind of wonder what you are thinking of trying to get?

I have to ask why you chose Denmark, though?

Answer 4

Denmark IS a welfare state - your taxes will go to support the  'have nots' in the populace moreso than they do in the US.

Moving to Denmark isn't a matter of 'gee, let's move to Denmark' - you'll have to apply for a residency visa, and since none of you are married to a Danish citizen, you might encounter issues unless you're well educated in fields that in demand in Denmark.

Here's the immigration website: http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/frontpage...

You'll all be required to enroll in Danish language courses, to be passed within 3 years of your arrival, you may be required to obtain a 'security' deposit of ~10,000$ US to ensure you can support yourselves and don't need assistance from the state.

Getting employment before you speak a reasonable amount of Danish can also be a problem, since most employers require that you have a reasonable fluency in the language.

Answer 5

A previous answerer questioned "why Denmark?". I would venture to speculate that it's something to do with the news stories and surveys which surface from time to time, suggesting that Denmark has the most contented population. Of course, this has a lot to do with the safety net provided by the welfare state.

Denmark is a great place, but it sounds like it's not for you.

Try London!