When New Yorker Antoni Scarano visited Romania in 2019, the journey marked his first return to his nation of delivery because the Nineties.
As a new child, Scarano, now 34, was amongst tens of 1000’s of Romanian kids adopted by US households following the autumn of the Soviet Union in 1991. But round 2017, with the assistance of a Facebook group, Scarano reconnected along with his Romanian household, together with his delivery mom, siblings and grandmother.
Two years later, Scarano and his spouse, Samantha Attaguile, arrived in a small village within the Transylvania area on a sunny spring day to meet these family members — who rolled out “the Eastern European red carpet” for the couple, as he describes it.
“It was like a party,” Scarano says. “It turned into a big love fest, really. We really hit it off, and it felt like we picked up where we left off, you know, all those years ago.”
Over the subsequent a number of years, the couple traveled to Romania three extra occasions, feeling more and more drawn to the nation’s close-knit communities and relaxed tempo of life — a putting distinction to the “60-to-90-hour weeks” demanded by their full-time jobs within the US, Scarano says.
In May 2024, following months of packing and paperwork to safe identification playing cards and residence permits and reclaim Scarano’s Romanian citizenship, the couple moved from New York to a small village in Sibiu county, within the Transylvania area. “It’s idyllic, with mountains, ancient forests, churches — a place that’s truly magical and has a spirit and energy to it,” Scarano says.
The couple, each of whom are musicians, share their new chapter overseas with tens of 1000’s of social media followers as “This Rromerican Life”, which can be the title of their band — the additional “r” displays Scarano’s Roma ancestry.
“Now that we’ve been here for a year and a half, we realize that living in a country is very different than visiting a country,” Scarano says. “So perhaps we did romanticize quite a few things about it. But as we’ve gotten deeper into it, it really has continued to exceed our expectations.”
The want amongst Americans to transfer overseas is reaching file numbers: One in 5 say that, ideally, they want to to migrate if given a possibility, in accordance to a 2025 Gallup poll — with the number of younger ladies wanting to depart quadrupling from an identical 2014 ballot. Scarano and Attaguile are among the many growing wave of those that have really made the move, with security, affordability and a greater high quality of life as key components for a lot of.
Countries throughout the 27-member European Union are, not surprisingly, a best choice, particularly France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, typically identified in immigration circles because the Big Four. But consultants additionally report a growing curiosity in lesser-trodden European locations — particularly Eastern European, Central European and Baltic international locations together with Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Poland, Albania and Estonia.
Jean-Francois Harvey, world managing accomplice of Harvey Law Group, a outstanding immigration regulation agency, tells NCS that inquiries to his firm from the US about non-Big Four international locations have risen as of late: “from one or two per month” about 18 months in the past to “10 to 12 leads per week.”
“People do their homework,” Harvey notes. “In the last few months, we’re seeing people that write to us (have done) their research already. They have their family tree, they find documents in archives. And they say, ‘What do you think? Do you think it’s feasible for me to claim my Romanian ancestry, or my Hungarian ancestry?’ It’s very, very interesting to see.”
While some perennially widespread international locations, similar to Italy, Portugal and France, proceed to tighten immigration laws, others in Eastern Europe are providing attractive choices for relocation, similar to tax incentives and extra versatile necessities for acquiring citizenship, consultants notice.
“In terms of welcoming ancestral claims, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania stand out,” Ted Baumann, world diversification chief for International Living, a month-to-month journal and web site that focuses on dwelling overseas, tells NCS by way of e-mail. “Their policies have no generational cap. Applications for great-grandparents and beyond are routinely approved.”
Dragoș Poede, CEO of Door to Romania, which assists people and companies in relocating to the previous Eastern Bloc nation, has witnessed that surge firsthand. He tells NCS his Bucharest-based agency has seen a five-fold improve over the past 18 months within the number of US purchasers — from about 200 to about 1,000 — trying to transfer.
“When people ask us, ‘Why (do) your clients choose Romania?,’ many expect a complex answer or some hidden secret,” Poede says. But in actuality, the reply is “everyday factors, like essential elements without which it is difficult to enjoy your life, like safety in public spaces, access to a high-quality healthcare system, education, taxes, business environment, a very low cost of living.”
Many US purchasers additionally communicate of feeling an absence of safety or security of their residence nation “due to political reasons.”
“They understand the American dream, it’s not like it used to be,” says Poede.
That’s a sentiment Scarano and Attaguile can relate to. The couple, who met in opera faculty in 2012, discovered themselves more and more disillusioned by life within the US, Attaguile says, from its “work to live” tradition to the excessive value of dwelling, compounded by a continuing concern of gun violence.
“When we got (to Romania), we went to a festival outside, and I turned to him, and I was like, ‘there’s no chance of us getting shot here,’” she says. “I didn’t realize that was even something that I lived with on my shoulders.”
The couple plans to finally buy a house in Romania, and within the meantime, is having fun with the liberty allowed by their much less hectic work schedules: Scarano is a full-time musician and competition organizer, whereas Attaguile teaches English. They’re additionally leaning extra into their shared love of music, and they just lately appeared on the favored TV present “Românii au Talent” (”Romania’s Got Talent”): Scarano on guitar and Attaguile as vocalist.
“In the States we didn’t even have the time to think about pursuing those passions, and here we actually get paid to perform, which is such a gift and a privilege,” Attaguile says.
The pull of Poland
Like Scarano, Natalie Boruk just lately made a reverse migration of kinds: In May 2025, she and her husband moved from northern Virginia to Poland, the place her dad and mom have been each born and raised earlier than immigrating to the US in 1981.
As with Scarano, Boruk’s ancestry made the method of relocating to Poland, which the couple had visited quite a few occasions, extra simple. She and her sister each have twin US/Polish citizenship by their dad and mom. They “were very passionate about us understanding our roots and having the connection to Poland,” explains Boruk, who has had a Polish passport since round age 10. “And I’m so, so grateful for that.”
The pathway for Boruk’s husband, a US citizen, has been extra complicated, she says. After arriving in Poland, the couple, who married in a civil ceremony within the US and have a extra elaborate wedding ceremony celebration deliberate in Poland this spring, have been individually and totally interrogated by immigration authorities about their relationship.
“I was like, this feels like the movies, all these questions, and I don’t remember all the details — we’ve been together for like eight years,” Boruk says with amusing.
Boruk’s husband just lately acquired his short-term residency card as half of the multi-year course of to acquire long-term residency and finally citizenship. Both are leaning onerous into the language; Boruk estimates her stage of Polish is at a middle-school stage. “It’s hard for me to gauge,” she says. “I’m very much fluent, but I don’t have all the lingo you’d have just from living here, or like the names of chronic diseases — which just happened to me last week.”
Adjusting to the nation’s lengthy, darkish winter has additionally been a problem. But Boruk notes that any hurdles have been far outweighed by the advantages that life in Poland affords, together with less expensive lease and groceries — the latter of which, at about $400/month, is about one-third of what the couple used to pay within the US. They love the walkability of Polish cities, too; in Kraków, they dwell in a refurbished one-bedroom condo in an artsy neighborhood.
Boruk, a wellness advisor who’s creating a neighborhood of feminine entrepreneurs throughout Europe, additionally appreciates Poland’s red-hot startup scene as one of Central and Eastern Europe’s hubs for expertise and innovation.
In 2024, practically 37% extra foreigners acquired Polish citizenship than in 2023, in accordance to authorities information — a determine that’s doubtless to proceed to develop as extra Americans uncover the vacation spot. “I have this theory that started, I don’t know, a couple of years ago: I feel like Poland is gonna be one of the next places that really blows up from an awareness standpoint,” Boruk says.
Word already could also be beginning to unfold, no less than in Hollywood circles: In early 2025, actor Jesse Eisenberg, whose ancestors have been Polish Jews, received his Polish citizenship in a ceremony attended by then-President Andrzej Duda.
‘Just pack a bag and go’
Another Eastern European nation gaining traction amongst American expats: Albania, situated on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. According to information from Albania’s Institute of Statistics, the nation had practically 22,000 foreigners with residence permits on the finish of 2024, greater than 3,000 of whom have been from “America, Africa or Oceania” — up by practically 1 / 4 from 2023.
Jen Barnett, co-founder of Expatsi, which focuses on relocation scouting excursions and help, factors to flexible residency requirements for US citizens, who are not required to acquire a visa or residency allow for stays of up to one yr. In addition, Albania’s cost of living is also considerably decrease than in another European international locations.
“Just pack a bag and go,” Barnett, who is predicated in Mérida, Mexico, tells NCS by way of e-mail. “You can live on $1k/month, so it’s a great place to go to start a remote work business and stretch your money. If you decide to stay longer, you can apply for a digital nomad visa.”
Another nation on Barnett’s “personal underrated list” for US residents contemplating a transfer to Europe: Estonia, “a draw for Americans for its high-tech environment,” she says, with a extremely digitized authorities and a lot of attractive applications for startups. The Baltic nation additionally makes use of a flat tax rate for each residents and foreigners, which at 24% (a latest improve from 22%) is way decrease than in another EU international locations, together with the Netherlands.
Several Scandinavian and Nordic international locations, in the meantime, have rolled out expertise recruitment applications designed to appeal to extremely expert worldwide employees, particularly Stateside. In September 2025, Work in Finland, a government-backed initiative based in 2022, launched a marketing campaign particularly aimed toward attracting US expertise within the high-tech, healthcare and protection sectors. Finland additionally affords an possibility for “fast-track” residence permits for eligible entrants.
Laura Lindeman, senior director of Work in Finland, tells NCS Travel that the excessive salaries within the US in contrast to these in Finland have historically made recruiting tougher. However, organizers have found newfound traction by emphasizing Finland’s quite a few social advantages, Lindeman notes.
“You get lots of different things from society: education for children and healthcare, and all that comes with taxes,” she says. “So we thought, ‘Let’s try it out and see how this resonates,’ and now we have been very happily surprised, actually, with how well it has been received.”
As sought-after international locations like Portugal and Spain grapple with the downsides of rising international arrivals — maybe most notably, greater rents and gentrification — Americans who settle in locations much less found by their fellow countrymen and ladies could discover an upside: a extra genuine, native approach of life.
Mike Dunphy, a author and educator who moved to Prague in late 2025 from Salem, Massachusetts, counts “the relatively few Americans living here” as one of the numerous perks within the Czech capital, together with a a lot decrease value of dwelling and higher work alternatives than within the States.
“I did not move all the way from America to spend time with Americans,” says Dunphy, a US citizen who has lived in Prague twice prior, in 2001 and once more in 2016. “At the same time, I don’t avoid them either. And since the Velvet Revolution, Czechs have embraced many aspects of American culture, including businesses, media, music, technology and such. So there’s plenty on tap when I’m hankering for a taste. But I like that it’s my choice.”
While Boruk has related with a couple of fellow American expats in Kraków, she and her husband additionally make it a precedence to embrace their new neighborhood and get to know its locals. “We’re here, and I want to be immersed in the culture of Poland,” she says.
Wherever they’ve landed, many Americans who have relocated to lesser-known European locales nonetheless maintain a detailed eye on information out of the States. Especially as it relates to twin citizenship, a subject that Bernie Moreno, Ohio’s Republican senator, has introduced to the forefront with an “Exclusive Citizenship Act” that may ban Americans from holding every other citizenship.
Jordan Blake Banks, a US citizen who moved to Finland for her grasp’s diploma in power expertise in 2019, later married a Finn and just lately earned Finnish citizenship, can’t think about being confronted with that situation. Says Banks: “It would be an impossible choice.”