Should I Leave the US? An Honest Way to Decide

If you're asking this question, you're in large company. Gallup found in 2025 that 20% of Americans would like to leave the country permanently, double the share from a decade ago. Among women under 45, it's 40%.

And yet almost nobody leaves. Roughly 5 million Americans live abroad, out of 340 million. The gap between wanting to go and going is enormous, and it isn't laziness. It's that "should I leave the US?" is a hard question, and most of what's written about it is either relocation marketing ("Yes! Here are 10 visas!") or dismissal ("You'll be back in a year").

This article tries to do better. It gives you a framework for actually deciding, and it covers the third option that the stay-or-go framing hides, which for most people is the right answer.

First, figure out what you're actually solving for

"I want to leave" is never the real sentence. The real sentence is underneath it, and it's different for everyone. Before any visa research, write down which of these is yours:

Fear about where the country is heading. Political volatility, institutional erosion, worry about rights or safety for you or your kids. This is the most common driver right now and the polling reflects it.

Money. Healthcare costs, housing, the math of retiring on a US budget versus a Portuguese or Mexican one.

Lifestyle. Walkable cities, slower pace, safety, food, being closer to a culture you love. You're not fleeing anything; you're moving toward something.

A specific tie. A partner, a job, family abroad.

These lead to different answers. A money problem can be solved by moving and often can't be solved any other way. A lifestyle preference is solved by moving and only by moving. But the first one, the fear, is trickier than it looks, and it's worth slowing down on.

If your driver is fear, be honest about what would actually fix it

Here's the uncomfortable pattern: people who move abroad out of political fear often report that the fear doesn't fully move with them, but their US tax filings do. The US taxes citizens on worldwide income wherever they live, so an American in Lisbon is still an American, still filing with the IRS, still holding only a US passport, still subject to the same government they were worried about. They've changed their scenery, not their standing.

What actually reduces the fear is not distance. It's independence: knowing that your ability to live somewhere else doesn't depend on any government's ongoing permission. That comes from citizenship, not residence. A visa can be revoked or non-renewed; Spain ended its golden visa program in 2025, and Ireland closed its investor route in 2023 with applicants mid-queue. A second citizenship can't be taken back by a policy change.

Hold that thought; it's the third option at the end of this framework.

The five questions

1. Is your problem portable?

Some problems stay behind when you leave. Some come with you. Cost of living stays behind. Career networks come with you (or don't transfer at all). Aging parents stay behind, and this one deserves more weight than people give it: the median regret among returned expats isn't money or logistics, it's missed years with family. Run your specific problem through this filter before anything else.

2. Have you actually spent time there?

Not vacation time. A vacation is a curated highlight reel. If you're seriously considering a country, spend a month there in its worst season, doing normal life: groceries, bureaucracy, a doctor's visit if you can manage it. The number of Portugal plans that survive a February in Porto is smaller than the number that survive a June in the Algarve.

3. What's your reversibility?

Moving abroad is more reversible than people fear (you can come back) and less reversible than people hope (careers stall, kids root, houses sell at the wrong time). Ask: if this goes badly, what does year three look like? If the answer is "fine, we return and resume," your risk is low and you should weight the upside. If the answer involves a career you can't restart, price that in.

4. What are your tripwires?

This is the most useful exercise on this list, borrowed from emergency planning. Instead of deciding now, under emotion, define in advance the specific, observable conditions under which you would leave. Write them down. "If X happens, we go." The conditions are yours to choose; the point is that they're concrete, so you're not re-litigating the decision every news cycle. People with written tripwires report something surprising: they check the news less. The decision is pre-made, so the daily monitoring stops being existential.

5. Could you leave quickly if a tripwire fired?

Here's where most plans fail. Say your tripwire fires. What happens next? If the answer is "we start researching visas," your plan has a two-to-five year hole in it. Residency applications take months. Citizenship by descent claims take one to three years. Citizenship by investment takes the better part of a year. Naturalization takes five to ten. Every route gets slower and more expensive when demand spikes, and demand spikes exactly when tripwires fire, because a few million people share your tripwires.

A tripwire without a pre-built exit is just a diary entry.

The third option: don't decide, prepare

Notice what the five questions reveal for most people: the move itself is optional, but the ability to move is not.

That's the option the stay-or-go framing hides. You don't have to choose between your life in the US and an exit. You can keep your life exactly as it is and acquire the exit as a standing capability: a second citizenship, obtained now, while you're calm and programs are open, that sits in a drawer until a tripwire fires or a better life calls. Or forever, unused, inherited by your kids.

For Americans this is more practical than most realize. If you have Irish, Italian, Polish, German, or certain other ancestry, you may already be entitled to citizenship and just need to document it. If you don't, citizenship by investment programs in the Caribbean grant full citizenship in months, from your couch in the US, for roughly $200,000 to $250,000. Both paths are covered in detail in our guide to getting a second passport without leaving the US.

The psychological effect is the underrated part. The question "should I leave the US?" is heavy because it feels binary and irreversible. With a second passport in the drawer, it stops being a decision you have to get right and becomes a dial you can turn whenever you want. People describe the same shift: staying starts to feel like a choice instead of a trap, and the urgency drains out of the question.

So: should you leave?

A short version of the framework's output:

Leave soon if your driver is money or lifestyle, your problem is non-portable, you've done real (off-season) time in your target country, and your reversibility is good. Those moves tend to work.

Don't leave yet if your driver is fear. Distance doesn't fix it and a rushed move creates real costs. Define tripwires instead, and build the exit before you need it, starting with a second citizenship.

Never feel obligated to leave. Twenty percent of Americans share your doubts, and the vast majority will stay and be fine. Preparation doesn't commit you to going. It's what makes staying a choice.

Common questions

Is it hard for Americans to move abroad? Legally, yes-ish: Americans need a visa or residence permit for any long-term stay, and most are tied to work, retirement income, or investment. Practically, tens of thousands do it every year. The harder parts are usually tax filing (US obligations follow you), banking, and distance from family.

Where are Americans moving? Mexico hosts the largest American population abroad. Portugal is the fastest-growing European destination, with the official American resident count up more than a third year-over-year. Spain, Canada, the UK, and Costa Rica round out the usual list.

Do I lose my US citizenship if I move or get another passport? No. Dual citizenship is fully legal for Americans, and neither moving abroad nor acquiring a second citizenship affects your US status. Renouncing is a separate, deliberate legal act that very few people take.

What's the fastest way to get the option to leave without moving? Citizenship by descent if your ancestry qualifies (cheapest), or Caribbean citizenship by investment if it doesn't (fastest, roughly four to nine months, no relocation required).

---

Whether you go next year or never, the preparation is the same and it starts with eligibility. CitizenX helps Americans secure second citizenship through vetted government programs without leaving home. Check which paths your family qualifies for in a twenty-minute conversation.

General information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice. Program rules and prices change; verify current requirements before deciding.