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The American Exit — Compare 10 countries built for people who actually want to leave

We tested every country with a US Social Security treaty against 4 strict legal filters. Only 10 passed. Here's everything you need to know about each one.

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Free forever for Greece, Italy, and Portugal. No credit card required.

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The 10 countries

Every country here passed four non-negotiable filters: a real long-term visa for people who earn online, a genuine path to permanent residency, an active US totalization agreement, and no wealth requirement to qualify. Chile is included as a bonus country — its residency path runs through passive investment income rather than self-employment.

Your best match, scored

Answer a few questions about what matters to you and see every country ranked against your actual priorities, not a generic top-10 list.

The American Exit home screen showing Greece as the best match with a score of 84.9 out of 100 and a breakdown of entry ease, visa income fit, taxes, climate, political stability, and cost of living.

Ask Atlas anything

Your AI relocation guide, grounded in the app's verified country data. Ask what you'd need to qualify for Greece on $5,000/month, and get a real answer with real numbers.

Atlas AI chat answering whether a $5,000 per month net income with a spouse qualifies for the Greek Digital Nomad Visa, citing the $4,494 monthly requirement.

Compare countries side by side

Put any countries next to each other across cost of living, taxes, visas, healthcare, and quality of life.

Country comparison screen putting Greece and Italy side by side across cost of living, climate, healthcare, internet, English, expat community, political stability, and religious freedom scores.

82 data points per country

Ten categories covering tax, immigration, cost of living, real estate, geopolitics, healthcare, lifestyle, infrastructure, culture, and bureaucracy.

Greece country data screen listing the ten data categories: tax and financial sovereignty, immigration and residency, cost of living, real estate, geopolitics and safety, health and environment, lifestyle, infrastructure, culture, and bureaucracy.

Every visa, by name

Most countries don't have one visa option — they have several. Each pathway is broken out by income requirement, duration, and whether it actually leads to permanent residency.

Greece visa guide listing the Digital Nomad Visa and the Employment / EU Blue Card with income requirements, initial duration, and path to permanent residency for each.

Inside the app

The numbers, not the hype

Most relocation content covers countries with no real path to permanent residency, or glosses over the details that actually decide whether a move works — US self-employment tax, totalization agreements, visa-to-PR timelines, healthcare access. This app is built the opposite way. Every figure is traced to official government sources, not aggregators. When a law changes, the data changes. Aggregator sites still list Spain's Golden Visa, which was abolished in April 2025. We don't.

Pricing

Launch pricing ends December 31, 2026 — lock in $30/month before it becomes $50.

Secure checkout via Stripe. Free tier requires no payment method.

Why I Built This

I'm Naji. I grew up a 90s kid, catching the last stretch of an America that actually worked — where wages and cost of living still made sense together. I watched that gap widen for two decades, but it didn't fully hit me until the 2020s, once cost of living became something you couldn't ignore.

Before I ever looked outside the US, I spent three years — just out of curiosity, in my free time — comparing states to move to. Every region, every angle: no-income-tax states, healthcare access, airports, population size, real cost of living once you factor in property tax, sales tax, tolls, insurance. I learned the obvious answer is usually wrong. The cheapest state on paper rarely stays cheap once you add everything up. I landed on Indiana — a good state, by American standards.

Then 2025 happened. Watching the country shift that fast made me ask a question I'd never seriously entertained: what if home base isn't in America at all?

So I ran the same process again, at a bigger scale — this time against every country with a US Social Security totalization agreement. Thirty countries. I filtered them against four hard requirements: a real long-term visa for people who earn online, a genuine path to permanent residency, that totalization agreement (it saves you from paying 15.3% self-employment tax twice), and no wealth requirement to qualify.

Narrowing that list meant digging through visa rules, tax treaties, and cost-of-living data for country after country — Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal especially, since they share a climate I love but differ in every legal and financial way that matters.

What started as personal research became a system worth building for everyone asking the same question I was. The data exists — it's just scattered, inconsistent, and sometimes wrong. This app is that research, done once, done right, and kept current.

Frequently asked questions

Is the free tier actually free?

Yes. Greece, Italy, and Portugal are fully unlocked with no credit card and no time limit.

What's included in the paid plan?

Full data on all 10 countries plus Atlas, your AI relocation guide, for $30/month or $270/year.

How is this different from free sites like Numbeo or expat blogs?

Cost-of-living aggregators give you raw numbers with no filtering for your situation. This app adds the layers that actually decide a relocation — every visa pathway by name, US totalization agreement status, self-employment tax exposure, and permanent residency timelines — sourced to official government pages.

Do I need to be wealthy to qualify for these countries?

No. Every country on this list has a route that works on earned online income. No investment buy-in, no large savings requirement.

What is Atlas?

Atlas is your AI relocation guide, grounded in the app's verified country data. Ask it anything from "can I afford Greece on $4K/month?" to specific visa questions.

What's your refund policy?

Monthly plans are fully refundable within 7 days of a charge, annual plans within 30 days — just email support@theamericanexit.app. After that window, charges aren't refundable, but you keep access until your paid period ends. We also send a reminder before any annual renewal so you're never charged unexpectedly.

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