The Hollywood actor is a prominent donor to the Democratic Party in the United States. In recent years, that has regularly led to criticism from President Trump, who has called him a “second-rate movie star,” among other things. According to Clooney, it didn’t bother him much. “It’s not my job to keep the President of the United States happy.”
His children would have a good life anywhere. The joys of being incredibly famous and wealthy.
“It’s not my job to keep the President of the United States happy.”
That’s Jeffery Epstein’s job
That was.
Wish I had the money to escape the United States too
How much does it take?
More than just a plane ticket. You need a marketable skill that is easily transferred, rent, food, utilities, new transportation, new licensing, and coverage for enough months until you can get the job. Also, the immigration fees. Basically, immigration is for the rich who can use money as a cushion or for the impoverished who have nothing to lose by assuming the risk.
To be fair it is expensive if you want into Europe or something, but to leave for example to some East-Asian country, the cost of living out there is so much lower compared to US you could probably sell everything you own, buy the flight ticket there, and still have enough to live off for a while. That’s obviously not sustainable in the long run unless you can figure out a source of income, but just leaving itself isn’t that expensive. It’s the where you’re going and how to keep staying away
More than just a plane ticket. You need a marketable skill that is easily transferred, rent, food, utilities, new transportation, new licensing, and coverage for enough months until you can get the job. Also, the immigration fees.
You’ll need a marketable skill, rent, food, and transportation if you stay, too. I’m not sure what you mean by licensing. Immigration fees is something that I haven’t looked into before, but it appears to be something like 800€ in here Denmark.
As for language, if you pick the Netherlands, Scandinavia or larger German cities, then English will be OK.
I’m not saying that I think it’s a walk in the park, nor that’ll be free, but it may be easier, and less expensive, than people think. Start by going on an extended vacation to the countries that you’re interested in. Maybe talk with potential employers. Then make plans afterwards.
You’ll need a marketable skill . . . if you stay, too.
Fair, but some skills are inherent to your placement within the home country, and transferring that skill to another country would actually add to the expense. A great example of this would be an American lawyer relocating to France. They go through law school and learn the American/English common-law system, then they relocate to France, which bases all its laws in a statutory context. So, not only would they handicapped by this new legal mantra, they’d have to then go to school again and pay to pass the bar again. So, there’s another cost.
Maybe you’ll need to learn and get proficient in a new language too
Go to a big city in the Netherlands or the Nordics if learning a new language is too hard. People there are fluent in English. And in many companies there who hire expats they speak English on the work floor.
Sure, you can work in English, but ‘live’ in English? Not so much.
As a local in a city that gets its quota of English-speaking expats, I kinda hate the guys who pretend we locals to switch to their language just because. I have no problem speaking English to visitors (aka tourists), but permanent-ish residents should make an effort to speak our language. Unless they plan to keep themselves in an isolated island of expats.
This is at the heart of a scandal he triggered in France. A lot of people would have prefered him not to get fast-tracked when he doesn’t qualify for the minimum requirements ( this is from his own confession) when so many are getting bumped out when they are more “worthy” ( not in financial or influence terms).
I hear real estate in Iran will be cheap.
ITT: people not realizing his wife was born in Lebanon. Are they safer than your average non-pure-white family? Absolutely. But they have legitimate reasons to be scared.
Also apparently she’s a human rights lawyer so she’s bound to have pissed off republicans one way or another already.
She was a key part of the team prosecuting the war crimes case against Israel
Yeah I get hating rich people, because fuck inequality, that’s true, but the Clooneys seem like pretty decent people to me as far as rich celebrities are concerned.
He for sure has too much money(Google said $500 mill) but he’s small time compared to the richest and the corporations that are doing the most damage to the future. I doubt more than a few folks interested in eating the rich are champing at the bit to get at Clooney.
George Clooney did a pretty good job (just like all the other actors) in the 2000 Coen Brothers film “O Brother Where Art Thou”. Seriously!
My hair!
We’re in a tight spot!
Well, ain’t this place a geographical oddity! Two weeks from everywhere!
Well VP Vances wife is an immigrant, as is Trump:s wife
Women are just “things” to those people. They may feel bad about not buying American, but it doesn’t affect them.
Consistency is not necessary for fascism.
And haven’t you seen how elated they appear to be about their choices (assuming they had a choice to begin with)?
Yeah I imagine Vance’s wife might have an unfortunate accident any day now.
I imagine she will be divorced and have a slur campaign ran against her as Vance remarries Erika.
I don’t know Vance probably doesn’t believe in divorce so I’m thinking he’ll just have her killed like he did Kirk. Allegedly.
More than one Pope told Vance he isn’t supposed to hunt down immigrants with ICE but he still does that
Swallowed by a couch
What does her wife being from Lebanon has anything to do with this? She has British and French citizenship so it is easy for him to get the citizenship and I bet she is safe from ICE on virtue of having shit ton of money, other 2 nationalities and being an international lawyer.
What does her wife being from Lebanon has anything to do with this?
That she’s obviously not safe in the country and people are mad that they decided to uproot their family and leave?
I bet she is safe from ICE on virtue of having shit ton of money, other 2 nationalities and being an international lawyer.
I’m sure that being part of the team that being one of the authors of this article makes you popular with Netanyahu’s sock puppet’s pet anti-immigration criminal organization lmao. She’s also represented other people that the US government doesn’t exactly agree with. There are a LOT of good reasons for Trump to disappear her. She did exactly the one thing that the shit ton of money allowed her to do: Escaped. I hope everyone else who can and needs to, does as well. The bigger the brain drain, the better - Trump’s empire won’t last as long.
Neither him nor her or their family are in any danger in the USA, besides the usual due to the nature of the country.
The American dream is now to escape America.
I heard you were dead
I got better
Damnit, another sequel?!
It’s harder than you think to renounce American citizenship.
If you’re brown, they’ll do it for you
You don’t have to and it’s not clear whether or not Clooney did.
It would be a massive tax bill if he did.
It really isn’t. https://www.usa.gov/renounce-lose-citizenship
- Extensive forms;
- approval by the U.S. Department of State;
- In-person interviews with U.S. consular officer abroad (at least one in person).
- Renunciation in person;
- Exit tax for renouncing citizenship, on top of existing U.S. tax liabilities;
- Retain Selective Service obligations;
Yeah I don’t think that helps them make the point they thought they were making lol.
At least 3 of those things are kinda the same and would be covered in one visit.
The selective service won’t apply to people over 50 I don’t think.
The exit tax is probably the sticking point for many, I’m not sure how that works for mega rich like Clooney, but it might be really easy for a poor like me.
If you are rich, Europe, the poor struggle with visas and thw rise and rise of the far right there is America redux :) as an Australian, I gave up on my French dream
If you are poor, SE Asia. eg Cambodia, neaely anyone can be there, YT is awash with retired Americans who can no longer afford to live in the US and burnt out tech guys making a new life. Sinilarly, The Philippines for retirees . Vietnam and Thailand have visa issues
It must be a confusing time for Russian dissidants that just got here 👀
It always has been.
Anyone would have a better life in France instead of the US but good for him. Glad to see there’s still some backbone in Hollywood.
How is earning another nation’s citizenship having a backbone?
I don’t know if cloony said it before, but a bunch of actors said they’d “leave the country” if Trump got elected, then didn’t. So it’s nice to see someone follow through
That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
Oh no, not that. I mean speaking up compared to other actors who gladly bend the knee.
Got it. Yeah, I read a bit more to have context. Good on him indeed.
I’m hearing this in a Ulysses Everett McGill voice from “O Brother, Where Art Thou” “What we are experiencing here today is a Re-verse migration in progress. In other words, Adios, vaya con Dios.”
Yup, leave if you can.
Username checks out
instance too
I’d love to if I could afford it. Neither my wife or I are particularly tied to our families.
rich people always say these things once they are safely away, remember ellen degeneres she only moved away because of diddy/epstein controversy last year, she smelled the wind could turn against her and she ditched the us.
Yeah I’m in the process of moving to France as well. Have been planning it before the current state of affairs and for work reasons but things like ICE and the Thought Police EO are expediting things.
Ultimately my family came here from Europe generations ago for better economic opportunities, more freedom, and virtually every one of us have served our country in some compacity. I no longer see anything on the list that is true anymore. Europe, and France, have their own problems but in the next 60-100 years they seem much more stable and democratic than the US.
I’m contemplating just going on our 90d visa, WFH with my American business, and simply renewing until I get a 1y long-term visa (which you can renew every year with proof of income and NOT working for a EU company). A lot of people on r/digitalnomad and r/getout do a variation of this in Fr.
If things get worse I genuinely think seeking political asylum may be on the table for some people. But I make enough money to not really consider that.
seems harder for non-tech, non scientist level people(i would say extremely difficult)
I know and quite frankly I probrally should. Not enough money to leave yet too much anger to die.
And if you can’t, whine about those who do.
I’m a regular guy who saved up for years while studying another language and gtfo of the US. It’s an option.
congrats man. welcome 2 the club.
I did that too and I got tired of it and came back and now it looks like the country’s fucked. Thanks a lot guys
If you did it once, you can do it again. Nowhere is perfect, though. If I had it to do over, I’d probably pick one of the Nordics instead of Japan.
Even ethnic Japanese people born outside Japan have a hard time there
Probably a harder time as they’re often expected to know all the unwritten rules and behave a certain way. I know people who have struggled a lot to reintegrate. Many end up working for themselves and/or in entertainment if they have a more western mondset
And they still let him in after that Louvre heist?!
Ocean’s 14 is about to be authentic as fuck
This is the best comment.
Where were you when they were shooting “The Night Of” ?
Must be nice to have “Buy Myself French Citizenship” kind of money.
He could do it for under $500K. He probably started the talent investor visa process during the 45 administration, as they take about 4 years to get approved.
Super easy for him to spin up some production company that makes 2 art movies a year, hire 3 French people he knows on 5-year contracts, and he’s basically at the minimum requirements. If he’s bought and invested more than a certain amount in a home as well, that also counts towards citizenship.
He could do it for under $500K.
Oh, is that all? Let me check my couch for loose change.
If he’s bought and invested more than a certain amount in a home as well, that also counts towards citizenship.
I’m sure he has a home in the South of France. Probably walking distance from the Cannes movie festival
Home bought 2021, according to reports. Not long enough for the normal 5 year residency requirement, plus he’s probably away lots. Looks fishy. Nice to be rich.
Cool to see he already knew back then (this is a comple guess, of course) that getting out of the US was needed. If this was the plan all along it still took this long, but there are obviously many more things than just the citizenship to make a move like that.
I’m sure you’re correct. And yes, these are trivial amounts for him – and not exactly insane amounts if you simply owned a house in LA and sold it to flip it into EU citizenship. IMO the key point is that this is a 4-year process that I bet he started in mid-2021. Time is something he can’t buy.
The US has its own citizenship by investment schemes as well, well before the “Gold Card” or whatever scam that is. Usually the base investment levels on these things are $100K-$300K and then you’ll be on the hook for taxes and admin fees and a lawyer as well. It’s why so many UK cits bought property in Portugal or Greece as they had lower levels for investment to count.
You only need savings of about 1.5x the SMIC (minimum wage) - currently 1801.80€ monthly for 12 months and you can get a year visa. If you have enough the following year, you can renew. Do that four times and you can ask for a more or less permanent multi-year residency if you speak french by that time. So as you can see, you could probably sell a house in the US for a decent profit and invest time enough to gain French residency without needing George Clooney money.
In the process of moving to Fr myself (diginomad). As I understand it you don’t even need 1.5x SMIC in savings just prove you earn 1.5x monthly x12. I could be wrong, still trying to work the plans out if you have any resources you can recommend would love to learn more!
The other big aspect to getting your temp long stay (1yr) visa, if you’re not being sponsored by a company, is to prove your income is solely from non-EU companies. Since I’m WFH American business, I basically just need to pay rent+insurance.
Yes, there seems to be some confusion in the french interpretation of non lucrative visa categories. The benefit of this is that some remote work may be tacitly allowed. The complexity comes really from French taxation and social charges. Nobody can really say whether you will be chased for 9% of your income, 17% of your income, or 47%.
The problem is nobody can actually give you a clear and definitive answer, so if you do things like stay past six months, get a permanent apartment, get rid of your home elsewhere, there is a risk you could be asked to pay even several years later. It makes for a complicated situation, and for this reason I think another country with a clearly specified digital nomad program and tax regime is a much safer bet.
I can get more detailed outside of a public forum.
Add I understand it, permanent residency also requires a language exam and doesn’t guarantee employment rights (because French voters don’t want people “stealing jobs”). So it’s more complicated than that.
The multi-year residency requires B2 proficiency as of this year, and also allows working in France. It is of course up to french authorities as to whether it is granted, taking into account your time in the country and your level of integration.
I’m pretty sure France has all the retail workers they need.
Now if you are a medical doctor or a reasonably famous scientist, famous actor, or just rich, they will also be happy to take you in. But plebes generally need not apply for citizenship in almost any nation on this planet.
I am speaking of highly specific regulations in France which I have direct personal experience of. If you decide to work in retail after receiving your multi year residency, the French government has no objections to this as long as you have sufficiently integrated.
Probably cheaper than a “Trump Card”
He didn’t buy it, his wife has french citizenship so he can get it too although I bet the process was faster for him since he is rich and famous while I have been waiting 8 months for my wife to be allowed to enter the country.
They’re rich. His children will be fine wherever they are.
Says something when even rich people are better off elsewhere.
being rich doesn’t protect you from fascism
If you’re NOT on a government watch list by now, you should be ashamed of yourself.
If you’re posting history of the last 6 years doesn’t get you on a list, I don’t want to be your friend.
My activities are not televised.
They removed me from it: They lost too many agents due to boredom.
i was going to go with the Terry Davis method but i’m just not comfortable screaming racist things into every microphone.
Whereas Crudbump had an even more ingenious plan to get the NSA off his tail, pun intended.
If I check to see if I’m on any lists, does that put me on a list?
Just this comment makes you eligible for being on a list. Not The List though, you gotta do something special for that one.
Like a burning bag of poop on the front porch?
Only one way to find out 🤷
Lmao 🤣
It’s funny you say that, because even just finding out whether you’re on a list is nearly impossible.
There are certain magical household chemicals that makes them appear if you stockpile enough of them.
“What‽ What‽ Is it wrong to want a clean house‽ It’s illegal to collect styrofoam coolers now‽”
I have so many Magic Erasers, how big does my stockpile have to be to them to appear?
Considering Clooney’s involvement with the Satellite Sentinel Project, he’s probably on every list.
But also if you’re on one with your real name, don’t even op-sec?
I’m probably on two lists.
CCP and US 47th admin
Having more money than you could spend in your lifetime buys you options not available to most people, news at 11.
i got out with less than 20k.
Don’t you mean French actor Le George Clooney?
French cinema world busy updating all their leaderboards about best paid actors etc.
George Le Clooney
