Traveling together indefinitely - solution or making things worse?

[Tamarahhansen]

About two months ago my SO and I decided to leave together. We've been together for over a year and have crossed the atlantic 4 times for visits.
Realizing that we needed each other more than anything else and being unable to get VISA's for each other's countries we decided to travel the world for a couple of years.
It works so well, I get to wake up next to him every morning and explore beautiful places. We are having the time of our lives and I am excited about every day.
To clarify: We work online and make a small amount of money that way. We also live on a very strict budget and spend less money in total than we would have living and working at home.

Having spent this much time with him non-stop and never seeing any other familiar people I now know that we are perfect for each other. This makes me worried. Of course we would have never left everything in the first place if we'd not thought we'd work out but now that I am so sure, I am looking at the future here:
We can't run forever. We can't travel for more than a couple of years, and then what? How will traveling make us more able to get Visa's for each others countries? I am with him now. I have him. And I don't ever want to let him go.

So what do you guys think? We are together while traveling, but are we making things worse?

[Hollandia]

Here is a copy of what I just posted in your other thread on same subject. I know you don't want to hear this, but I have done it, with more income and more assets and a few hundred thousand of frequent flier miles and an ability to work remotely in my USA business anywhere in the globe. The airfare adds up, quickly, very quickly for transatlantic flights. Enjoy him for his 89 days, say goodbye and spend everyday finding a job somewhere that will let you close the distance. When you do close the distance you are going to need some funds for that as well. Even with my SO's job and my income from my USA company we are still struggling since finding a long term rental has cost us extra in paying for short term and many transportation cost to even just go look at places. You will need to have money to buy supplies for your new home and money have attire that is suitable for your jobs. The expenses will come out of things you never even suspect. You also might start to resent each other for being forced to live so poorly to be together. Traveling will not help at all to get Visas. Following Visa requirements will, unless you count traveling to other places to look for work....

I did that too legally. It cost almost everything I had and I was still able to work remotely in USA and he was able to work in EU. It cost a hella lotta money and even if you have 10 grand in the bank, it will go fast, very fast. The trip back and forth from USA to EU is gonna to hit you at almost a thousand dollars a pop each round trip each time. You could jump into UK but good luck even finding a cheap hostel and again, He can't work there. The same is true for Croatia and Cyprus. You can live out of back packs and try to cut down as much as possible but the airfare is going to kill you quickly. Beware of some countries taking issue with him doing long stays even when legal, the border control agents still have the right for him to prove he has sustainable income and he must be able to provide a return ticket home. Even if he does, they can still deny entry, it is their individual call, read the small print of Schengen.

We jumped back and forth from USA, to NL, to Ireland, to Croatia , London and now Northern Ireland over our time. We had pretty much ran out of ability to fund it when we were finally able for him to land a job in Belfast. The USA will also want proof of your sustained income and a return ticket back. Each stamp you put in your passports on either side will make the immigration officers more suspicious. If you can't get a job meeting the requirements in your country and he can't in his your best bet is to find another one in EU where you are only required to have "a full time" job. They are not allowed to ask for payslips or bank statements or utility bills or anything else. They may only ask for proof of you exercising your EU rights of movement via a letter from your employer. Once you acquire a job, you can run to the Caribbean or Gibraltar or several places that allow non residence marriage with little to no waits and then you could bring him with you. As a family member of an EU citizen he would also be entitled a work permit....

I can't speak for Denmark but USA is going to have a problem with you doing continued long term stays, this won't last for long before they deny you entry. If you don't have proof of funds in USA or if he does not in EU, the ride will end quick. I hate to burst your bubble but the ride you are on is a very limited one unless you have tons of cash to spend. Start applying for jobs, every day, and be flexible about what other EU country you could settle in and that is really your best bet if you can't do it in yours or his at this time. Good luck.

[Tamarahhansen]

Thank you so much, that is really valuable advice. To clarify again though, we are not travelling in between USA and EU. Rather we are moving around the globe, staying as tourists in other world parts for months at a time as well. When it comes down to it all our passports show is that we are traveling a lot, nothing suspicious. The only difference from other nomads is our motive to travel; being together.

As far as money goes, Alex has a remote online job which more than sustains his expenses. We don't rely on it because they might fire him any day for being unreliable when it comes to location and timezones, but it is good for now. In the mean time we are looking into ways to make money online so we can keep going. When I turn 24 we can legally get married in Denmark and he can move there with me. As so this traveling is an experience and a way to test our relationship until then as well as a last resort to be together right now and a way to make time pass.

[silvermoonfairy3]

If the goal is to be together from now on, yes, I think you're making it worse.
Because it's unlikely with the way you're doing things that you'll be able to just stay somewhere together at the conclusion of this adventure, and it sounds like that will be painful for you. (Unless you're going to travel until you can get married in Denmark and then he can come over there automatically, but I have no idea if that's how Denmark works, or if you're planning on traveling til you can get married.)

I would love to have the freedom and funds to travel like that, so if you're enjoying that aspect of it and are fine with the likelihood that you'll need to be apart for awhile when you're done traveling, because of visa stuff, keep doing the traveling thing. I think it would also get old after awhile, not having a steady regular home base, but some people enjoy that.

So, if Denmark allows him to just move with a married Dane, and you guys are just going to travel til you get married, then you're probably alright. But if Denmark doesn't allow that (if he still needs a spouse visa or something) I would suggest that you both think about cutting the traveling short so as to have some savings for visits and emergencies, etc. and start the process of finding work in the others' country, or looking into a third country to live in together.

[differentcountries]

If you can get married/close the distance at 24, then the reasonable thing to do is to find a full time job a couple of years before that.

I don't know about Denmark, but in Norway in order to bring a spouse over you have to have a certain income and it must be full time work, and for the income they look to your last 3 years of income.

[Dziubka]

How old are you now? 22?

Do you have an education or any job experience to fall back onto once you stop travelling?

I'm all in favour of gap years and doing them while you're still young and don't have responsibilities. You just need to realise that quite possibly after you finish your travels, you'll most likely need to get back to being long-distance for a while, while waiting for visas or a job that pays enough to support you both. Even if Denmark doesn't require you to make a certain amount of money for the spousal visa. Your SO might not be able to find a job right away, so you should probably be prepared to support him while he's looking for a job.

I guess in the end, it doesn't really make a difference to how long you're going to be long distance alltogether. You'll just be long distance in a year or two, instead of now.

[Redheart14]

Well good luck to you, I personally wouldn't do it though.

[lucybelle]

Traveling is fun and I'm all for it. But it's not a good plan for closing the distance. The other posters have all made good points. The one I would like to make is that traveling together without a care in the world, and living together with jobs and responsibilities are two completely different things. I'm not saying your relationship won't work out, just don't expect everything to be the same when you're dealing with bills and lawn care.

[dizzyupthemeg]

I really hope you are still around in 6 months to tell us how this is working out for you guys.