Just curious if anyone know how hard it is to obtain such a thing. Italy, UK, or whatever. I have often considered moving out of the country for a few years so I am interested.
Thanks.
Reality check big guy.
Welcome to the world of expats. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. It's unusal to see a question like this posted on getbig because much like pics here are torn apart, questions like these are torn apart on expat forums.
The short answer to your question is that you are stuck in the USA. There will be no jaunt about Europe. You have said you only possess US citizenship; this affords you a maximum of 6 months in the UK and 3 months in most Shengen states. That is of course assuming you don't work. It is not legal for you to work and if you get caught you will be deported and unable to return for a said number of years. That doesn't stop a lot of Canadians and Americans from doing the under the table thing; it's particularly common in Spain and Italy but it's foolish to do such a thing. You have no legal access to the benefits that you would normally have if you were contractually employed (insurance, sick leave, etc.). Having said that there are some possibel ways of going about it:
A) You have direct ancestry stemming from Hungary or Spain; or ancestry stemming one generation beyond your father, i.e. your grandparents from the UK, Greece or Ireland. Germany is an absolute no go and so is France. There are some others that do the direct ancestry thing but I am not as familiar with their procedures.
B) You are hired as a 'skilled worker', where 'skilled worker' is defined as a non-EU citizen who possesses skills that no member of the EU can bring to the table, thus allowing for a work visa because you are so much in demand. Engineering, information science and the like are all popular employment areas. Of course you have to be better to be than any European to get hired so it is a tough one.
C) You marry an EU or Shengen state national. Probably the easiest way in and in some places, after a few years you can divorce your spouse and still have full visa rights. Most EU countries are on to this one though and they have 'marriage police' to check the legitimacy of said marriage; plenty of people having done this in the past aroused suspicions and now they are on to it.
D) You go and work in an Eastern block country as an English teacher (though many of them require teaching certification); Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine and a few others are willing to hire Americans. You will earn next to nothing but you can say you live and work in Europe; well sort of.
The crux of your question is how hard it is to obtain citizenship; it is very hard. Without B to D you have no residency and long term residency is the
key to such a path; in the UK it is 5 years of legal/employed residency. Also several countries don't allow for dual citizenship (though the UK and Italy do).
If you have anymore questions feel free to pm me but based on the limited information you have provided I would say you are fucked.
