For decades, the United States was where talent accelerated and futures expanded.
Today, that assumption is being recalculated.
What appears as individual relocation decisions is increasingly forming a collective pattern: foreign expats living in the US are quietly preparing contingency plans.
- Political volatility.
- Visa fragility.
- Rising healthcare exposure.
- Long-term cost unpredictability.
Advisors working directly with high-skilled visa holders observe a clear shift in language. Conversations are no longer about opportunity. They are about durability.
How secure is my status?
What happens if policies change?
Can my income sustain healthcare and family security long term?
This is not disillusionment.
It is structured risk assessment.
Measuring Pressure, Not Preference
Since 2022, we have tracked outbound migration patterns from the US under what we describe as The Great American Exodus. Across earlier research modules, including retirement mobility and LGBTQ+ relocation dynamics, one pattern became increasingly clear.
Expats are no longer just thinking about relocation.
They are modeling it.
Our latest release, the Expat White Paper, formalizes this shift.
Introducing the Migration Stress Index, built on 2,000+ one-on-one consultations conducted between 2022 and 2026 with non-US expats living in America.
Unlike traditional migration statistics, which measure movement after it occurs, the MSI captures pressure at the moment intention begins to form.
It maps accumulated exposure across:
- Visa stability
- Healthcare predictabilit
- Income durability
- Family-wide security
The question is no longer simply who is leaving.
It is when staying begins to feel like the higher-risk option.
DATA SNAPSHOT
Migration Stress Signals, 2022–2026
Europe as Structured Diversification
The data reveals a directional pattern.
Since 2024, inquiries from US-based expats exploring European residency options have increased by 49 percent. Between 2023 and 2025, 75 to 80 percent of North America to Europe relocations were driven by remote professionals maintaining US-based income.
For this group, Europe represents continuity rather than escape.
Income remains intact.
Healthcare becomes predictable.
Policy exposure decreases.
A second residency is no longer framed as relocation.
It is framed as diversification.
Healthcare has emerged as the tipping variable. Approximately 66 percent of remote professionals cite healthcare cost predictability as their primary decision trigger before relocating.
Security concerns now outweigh cost of living considerations across multiple expat segments.
From Dream to Equation
What is emerging is not the collapse of the American Dream.
It is the rise of a parallel framework, the Expat Equation.
Decisions are increasingly structured around calculation.
- After-tax income
- Healthcare stability
- Visa durability
- Family security
When those calculations align across thousands of individuals, structural migration follows.
Launching the Expat White Paper
Measuring the Pressure: The Migration Stress Index of Expat Life in the US examines how expats accumulate pressure, segment risk, and use second residency as strategic planning infrastructure.
It expands our human-centered research framework and adds a new behavioral layer to our ongoing analysis of outbound migration from the US.
The Migration Stress Index is not built in isolation.
Founded in 2014, Get Golden Visa is an international advisory firm specializing in residency and citizenship by investment solutions across Europe and selected global markets.
Through our real estate advisory arm, Get Properties, we support clients not only in structuring residency pathways, but in identifying, acquiring, and managing property assets aligned with long-term capital and lifestyle objectives.
Each year, Get Properties facilitates 250+ property transactions representing over €200M in annual investment volume and serving clients from more than 37 nationalities.
Our research is informed by direct engagement with individuals actively structuring cross-border mobility decisions, not theoretical modeling alone.
