Visas and other country options?

[tomVVV]

Hi, stumbled across this site while trying to research something to do with my new job, ironically advertising Russian Dating sites online!

Allow me to explain my new choice of career;
 
I do this now because I'm newly married to a Russian woman 10 months ago. I'm British and at the time we met in Argentina, (another story for another time) I was recently out of the British Forces and not really working, more travelling, drinking and drinking.

Anyway Argentina- we fell in love out there and lived together for 2 months before heading home. After that we met every month somewhere in Europe for the next 6 months and essentially vowed to give up our careers, time and money to make it work. Later that year we married in Czech Republic with all our friends and families, it was awesome, my army buddies loved pesting the Russian chicks! Think most thought they'd made a big mistake marrying British..

Stupidly up until about a 2 months before we married neither of us had researched anything about visas. We knew it would be tricky and drawn out as Russian visa affairs are, but jeeze!

After doing some research it slowly dawned on us the sheer magnitude of the hurdle. I couldn't meet the financial requirements having been out of the UK all year and not earnt hardly anything. So we borrowed the 62.5K (other finical requirement) off of friends and family and looked forward to continuing our marriage apart for most of the next 6 months while the money cleared. 

Letters to mp's and all that other crap was tried in vain.

However 3 months ago we just decided that life was too short to sit miserably waiting apart skypeing endlessly. We packed up and moved out to Ecuador. Here everything is cheap, the people are relaxed, the climate is great etc etc.

So we're heading back to Europe for Xmas and then planning to move permanently out here and start a family. But we're still open to suggestions of places to settle that are accommodating for both our citizenships.

My question:  After talking to 'immigration lawyers' (with no clue about immigration law it would seem) it became apparent there aren't a lot of places an Englishman and a Russian can live without Visa complications or a very high murder rate.

So where exactly would people recommend to settle if they could earn money online so wouldn't have to work in that country and the country had Minor Visa sanctions against both British and Russian citizens or was easy to blag, plus was also safe-ish and fairly developed, running water, electricity.?

*Oh yeah so the marketing job, well we both had to find work online so we could live abroad. So we started a painfully slow and frustrating career in Affiliate marketing (advertising other peoples stuff to people online and taking a small commission for every sign up etc) and obviously choose to advertise Russian Dating sites as we felt somewhat subject matter experts and it pays well. Won't say which ones....

Cheers in advance for any advice and great forum by the way

Tom

[I/O]

Cripes, it woulda been simpler if you'd met her pole dancing in a strip club then tried to convert her to Islam by reading verses from the Bible to her.....

[Faux Pas]

The Southern U.S. border seems to be wide open if you want to try it here. There's a few million illegals already here not getting harassed at all. In fact I think Obama is handing out care packages and Visa cash cards.

You said you were in Ecuador and make your money online, what's wrong with Ecuador? I would have suggested a Central American country to your question. There are a number of them you can live quite well with a regular Western salary. Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua all are relatively visa relaxed

[tomVVV]

Cripes, it woulda been simpler if you'd met her pole dancing in a strip club then tried to convert her to Islam by reading verses from the Bible to her.....

If only it was that simple...

@Faux Pas

Haha, can't blame them though, have you ever been to Mexico?

Yeah Ecuador is sweet but we are just keeping our options open incase it doesn't quite workout here. As with most south/ central American countries you tend to, stick out a little; white, tall, blonde hair, blue eyes amongst everyone else who are; brown/black, short, dark hair, dark eyes. You kind of make yourself a little bit of a target. Also the expat community is pretty slim pickings- retired Yanks mainly and massive coke fiends.

[ML]

white, tall, blonde hair, blue eyes amongst everyone else who are; brown/black, short, dark hair, dark eyes. You kind of make yourself a little bit of a target.

Maybe you could set up a business selling your sperm and eggs to help diversify the genetic pool to make it stronger.

[LAman]

The Southern U.S. border seems to be wide open if you want to try it here. There's a few million illegals already here not getting harassed at all. In fact I think Obama is handing out care packages and Visa cash cards.

You said you were in Ecuador and make your money online, what's wrong with Ecuador? I would have suggested a Central American country to your question. There are a number of them you can live quite well with a regular Western salary. Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua all are relatively visa relaxed

Quite right FP about central American countries but the one hassle is making 'border runs' every 90 days, after a while it gets to be a hassle. I see many expats in Costa Rica, mostly American.