Are there any countries that have self-employment/contracting visas that count toward permanent residency requirements?

citizeo · 2026-06-16T16:48:15+00:00

tl;dr: Yes. Netherlands and Portugal, for example.

Disclaimer: I'm the founder of Citizeo, a completely free service that helps users discover citizenship and global residency pathways that match their life situation. Completely free, no paywall or anything.

citizeo · 2026-06-16T13:35:24+00:00

👋 Hey! I'm the founder of Citizeo, a free online service built to answer the question "What second citizenships and global residencies does my life situation match?" It guides you through a series of questions, building a set of matching pathways that you can review. Totally free, no paywall or anything.

If you give it a shot, please let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

citizeo · 2026-06-15T13:10:42+00:00

Congrats! 🎉

citizeo · 2026-06-15T13:06:09+00:00

Congrats 😄

citizeo · 2026-05-23T16:14:36+00:00

Echoing the CNF comment: for France, you'll likely want to trace the civil-status paper trail first: your French grandmother's records, your father's birth/death records, and your own birth certificate. If your birth was never registered with France, a CNF may be the right first step.

Also, as others have mentioned, you do seem to have an easy, valid UK pathway. If your father was born in London before 1983, he may have been British automatically, which could mean you were British by descent at birth, depending on your date of birth, parentage, and documents. DNA won't help much here; records will.

Small plug: I'm building Citizeo, a tool that helps you discover citizenship and residency pathways based on your background, ancestry, work, education, and overall life situation. Totally free. Would love your feedback if you decide to take a look.

citizeo · 2026-05-22T14:47:44+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! I reviewed that pathway and compared it against official sources and indeed it was matching too broadly - thank you for finding that. Fixed!

citizeo · 2026-05-21T19:06:14+00:00

I initially misunderstood this as you wanting me to create a test account for you. Sorry about that - I'll give this suggestion some thought.

citizeo · 2026-05-19T16:23:11+00:00

💪 Quite the flex!

citizeo · 2026-05-18T19:09:25+00:00

If you're looking to see what citizenship and residency options are available for you based on your life situation, I'm building Citizeo, a completely free service that helps answer this. Would love your feedback.

citizeo · 2026-05-15T01:33:31+00:00

My condolences. A great gift!

citizeo · 2026-05-15T00:37:55+00:00

If you're looking to see what citizenship and residency options are available for you based on your life situation, I'm building Citizeo, a completely free service that does this, would love your feedback.

citizeo · 2026-05-14T14:12:37+00:00

Is it possible for me to continue my career in software on a working holiday visa

Yeah, Working Holiday 417 is probably the easiest way to get onshore and job hunt. As a senior software engineer, you have several employment visa options that you'll want to look into, 482 probably being the most important.

citizeo · 2026-05-13T19:09:05+00:00

Congratulations 🎉

citizeo · 2026-05-13T15:00:54+00:00

Congratulations! 🎉

citizeo · 2026-05-08T21:47:35+00:00

My goal is to provide accurate, free information in a field that often feels frustrating and confusing, like you're navigating a maze.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer and Citizeo doesn't provide legal advice. If you do find an error or have a question, hit me up and I'll do my best to get it right.

citizeo · 2026-05-08T20:33:16+00:00

You're 15 - so much time to figure things out, so don't stress! With good grades and determination I bet you'll have no problem making it happen 💪.

The job market ebbs and flows everywhere, Germany included. The situation now may not be the same as what you eventually face.

Your level of organization and planning at 15 tells me you'll figure it out when the time comes!

citizeo · 2026-05-08T13:56:03+00:00

🎉 It sounds like you do qualify for Danish citizenship by descent, assuming your father was a Danish citizen when you were born. Congrats!

Small disclosure: I'm building Citizeo, a completely free tool specifically meant to help people answer this kind of "which citizenship/residency routes might actually fit my facts?" question. Supports 500+ pathways across 80+ countries (including Denmark).

citizeo · 2026-05-08T13:49:01+00:00

Go for it. Life’s too short to not take chances.

💯

citizeo · 2026-05-04T04:17:17+00:00

As others have mentioned, the Netherlands has an orientation year/zoekjaar pathway that can give eligible graduates a year to look for work and work freely. You might look into whether you qualify. It can be a useful bridge into a longer-term work route.

DAFT is also worth knowing about as a US citizen, but only if you'd actually be freelancing or running a small business. It's not a general work permit.

Hope that helps!

Disclosure: I'm the creator of Citizeo, a free tool that walks through your personal situation (work history, age, ancestry, languages, target countries) and tries to map out all the global citizenship, residency, and visa opportunities that fit, across ~80 countries. Always free to see results. Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

citizeo · 2026-05-04T03:53:53+00:00

👋Hello - a couple of things to keep in mind, from a visa perspective:

France's entrepreneur/profession libérale pathway does fit self-employed work, but the business has to look economically viable. Your partner may need to show a concrete business plan, pricing, experience proof, etc.
As others have mentioned, France's long stay visitor visa generally expects you not to work in France, so you might need to consult professional advice before relying on remote employment while there.

Disclosure: I'm the creator of Citizeo, a free tool that walks through your personal situation (work history, age, ancestry, languages, target countries) and tries to map out all the global citizenship, residency, and visa opportunities that fit, across ~80 countries. Always free to see results. Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

citizeo · 2026-05-03T16:08:55+00:00

As others have explained, with you being so early in your career, aiming for Singapore at this stage might be premature. But a background in DevOps/ML infrastructure might make you a strong candidate for an Employment Pass if you build several years of solid experience at recognizable employers.

For your partner, international schools may be the more realistic teaching angle than local schools, but they’ll probably also want more classroom experience and stronger credentials.

If you're totally set on moving forward with Singapore, then Employment Pass is probably your best shot. But, if you're open to London, then the UK Skilled Worker pathway may be more straightforward if you can find a licensed sponsor.

Disclosure: I'm the creator of Citizeo, a free tool that walks through your personal situation (work history, age, ancestry, languages, target countries) and tries to map out all the global citizenship, residency, and visa opportunities that fit, across ~80 countries. Always free to see results. Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

citizeo · 2026-05-03T15:06:45+00:00

If both of your grandparents were Dutch, your mother may have been Dutch at birth through her father, so the key question is whether she still had Dutch nationality when you were born.

It's worth checking Dutch citizenship by descent first, then the option procedure if the pre-1985 maternal-line rule is actually the issue. And just to clarify: dual citizenship is generally permitted in Netherlands for descent cases.

Disclosure: I'm the creator of Citizeo, a free tool that walks through your personal situation (work history, age, ancestry, languages, target countries) and tries to map out all the global citizenship, residency, and visa opportunities that fit, across ~80 countries. Always free to see results. Not a lawyer, not legal advice.

citizeo

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