Hey digitallando, just don't do what my son's fiance did, she received the letter from the FBI , and opened it... You probably already realise this, but you have to forward it with your visa application unopened. She put the process back a couple fo months when she had to apply AGAIN to get a sealed report. lol Plenty of fruit picking jobs in SA too, grape picking and vine trimming in wine growing regions North, South, in the hills around Adelaide as well as the Riverland. My sons did some recently, a simple phone call, then turn up. Pretty much turn up at a caravan park and follow the other backpackers. ETA My son was also looking at some kind of farm stay program. You get free board in return for a few days a week work, the rest of the time is yours. Lots of eco/sustainable type farms with projects they need help on do this.
Just be careful with farm stays/work for board kind of arrangements. The people who offer this kind of deal know how to extract a good deal of work out of someone... I have seen situations where I feel workers were definitely taken advantage of, treated like servants etc.
Oh, I didn't know. May have really saved me here. Its not a visa application though, its citizenship by descent. How will I know if the background check cleared if I don't open it though? It is very welcoming to foreigners, very easy to start residency ( just $5000USD in a bank account) and get citizenship (3 years though). The process is much faster for professionals. Paraguay is the size of California with only 6.5 million people. It's politically stable and has bountiful food, energy, and water and very low taxes. It has high quality super cheap farmland. "Paraguay's Guarani aquifer, amoung the largest it the world, supplies Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. And it has the largest hydroelectric facility in the world; they use only a tiny fraction and export more than 85% to neighboring Brazil." He recommends Chile first, its maybe his favorite country in the world, the new America, where he may start a small self-sustaining community. He also thinks highly of Columbia, and Brazil has great opportunities too. They are all great markets, some big some small, each suited for different purposes. While the western countries have squandered their resources, emerging countries have been sitting on theirs and saving, and their economies are exploding (in a good way).
THUCYDIDES79 wrote: "Why go to Paraguay ?! Why not some other South American state?" If the USD breaks final support at 71/72, then I would need to seriously consider leaving the US in mid 2012. If I do not qualify for NZ, AU or any other first choice. So I would need a place to live until I qualify for Oceana residency. South & Central American countries are on my scouting list of possible places to live. For me, Paraguay is a possibility for a residency/citizenship. My understanding is that Paraguay does not tax income not earned in Paraguay. If the pm bull market does what a pm bull market normally does, fortunes will be made in the pm miners. To qualify for an investor in most countries (like NZ), I would have to sell my previous investments and buy that country's investments, etc. If I have already left the US, then I do not want to pay a large amount of capital gains taxes on the mining stocks that I sell. To avoid that tax, I would have to renounce my US citizenship or find another way. I will explore the other ways, but would I like to have a fallback plan. Paraguay is a potential option, but it does have a lot of negatives. 1. Not much to do. 2. You must speak Spanish or Guarani. 3. Very hot/humid in the summer and most places don't have heaters in the winter. 4. Other than food, many things like cars are expensive. I just started looking at other options this month. I thought they would keep the USD from weakening any more, but Bernanke appears willing to let the dollar fall through its last level of technical support. Considering the people who are running America, I believe my backup plan needs a backup plan.
How can you be so sure that the dollar is going to collapse if it falls past it's support at 71 or 72? The dollar today is doing what the dollar was doing in the middle of 2008, that was right before all hell broke loose and markets started crashing like mad. I suspect we'll see a repeat of 2008 but of course since the problems in 2008 are still here and haven't been resolved I would hazard a guess that it'll be just like 2008 but a whole lot worse.
benjamind2010, Bernanke's speech made it clear that he has chosen to support bonds of the dollar. The USD is not getting a positive reaction from any of the type of events that would normally cause it to rise (ME upheaval, Osama dead, etc.). Trillions and trillions of USD have been printed since 2008. That fact is why the USD will drop below final support. If assets start declining after QE2 ends, then QE3 will be brought out. The script is written, the only questions are how long the play lasts.
Trolling for more info on this guy seems to bring up claims of him being a scammer... no evidence and the trail down his singapore hosted website pointed to him living there, turns out it's just his hosting company. It is interesting that he offers a lot of in-depth information through his free newsletter if you read between the lines and do a bit of investigating yourself. He is a good writer, but I highly doubt he is travelling as much as he claims to. His private forums cost several hundred a year and it's not the sort of thing that is going to be of much help to Australians (Mostly catering to Americans in relation to tax, etc.) Anybody else had any dealings with his site?
He has GOOD imfo for USA people who want to get out of Dodge before the SHTF. I feel his info his heart felt & would be of interset to those wanting to bail out of USA. He did visit NZ & had some interesting comments on what NZ had to offer. I hold him in "high" regard for his efforts. He does have a paid listing info, but his general blog does paint some good info for free. Do you know a second language???? DYODD. Enjoy the ride
I bought the Going Global report, have just subscribed to the Casey Report, and I am definitely going to subscribe to Sovereign Man Confidential eventually when the time is right. I am going to be a world traveler, the information and potential networks in these reports will be invaluable.
