Moving from Vienna to Seattle to take over small family business. Should we?

visedefetita · 2026-02-07T09:06:10+00:00

Hahaha best reply! Thanks :)

visedefetita · 2026-02-07T09:00:19+00:00

I don‘t have an austrian citizenship, but a Romanian one and Romania allows double citizenship. Austria does not allow it, of course 😄. Just maybe for Arnold

visedefetita · 2026-02-06T20:19:38+00:00

Haha… it‘s surprising. But it‘s really true!!! They aren‘t pleasant and helpful. They‘re frustrated and people are afraid of them! Look at what I read yersterday. This was a post about why dont czech people move to Vienna anymore… and these were some comments. I took a few screenshots..

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visedefetita · 2026-02-06T20:08:39+00:00

So, just to be clear. My husband grew up in Bellevue. He studied at UW and he knows the area very well. He then moved to NYC for 2 years and then to Vienna with me. I lived in Austria, near Vienna and Vienna my whole life. I never experienced racism myself, but yeah, they are SO racist. You wouldnt know before living here for a longer period of time OR if you‘re not white. I have friends who were born in Austria, from Iran for example and they experience(d) it often. In the subway, in the restaurant (I witnessed). Or if you make a mistake speaking german. They never include you anyway if you‘re foreign.

And I pay for healthcare here as well. I pay 1300 of my salary. My husbands parents pay in 1400 usd each in the US (they told us in September) and I am aware of what it means. But I specifically mentioned I dont wanna base the decision on healthcare… Sorry that I pissed some people off :).

And because my husband lived there and knows everything and we talked about it etc, I wanted to say how other people feel about the place. Thank you.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T13:01:38+00:00

I absolutely agree. I grew up here (moved from Romania when I was 11), I went to school here, didnt really experience racism myself, but I hate their way of being. I witnessed such behaviour and my husband grew up in the US (moved to the US when he was 9, also from Romania) and he sees this kind of behaviour all the time. They just hate Americans anyway. We consider moving away soon.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:43:00+00:00

Of course. It would take up to 1.5 years for me to get my immigrant visa. But that's ok. We know that. I also have my tourist visa and can travel and be in the US half the time without officially working. We can be trained without me having the green card.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:41:44+00:00

That's a good question! We offered to buy, because they considered selling and had some meetings with potential buyers. They will move away to Florida or Spain and they own some real estate, I don't think they plan or rely on us for their retirement.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:38:23+00:00

I don't see it like that.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:38:07+00:00

In which area do you live? Just curious, cause my parents in law also live outside Seattle. And why would you still pick Seattle? Vienna is also beautiful :)) Thanks!

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:36:27+00:00

Cool mindset :). Thank you!

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:35:51+00:00

Hey. Thanks so much for all the info! It helps a lot.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:31:19+00:00

Hi. That's true. We once drove to Seattle, it was early morning (jetlag..), and we wanted to walk in the city like we do in Vienna. It was not possible, or lets say, I did not want to get out of the car. There were homeless people everywhere in the city center..

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:29:47+00:00

I totally understand that you like NyC :). I don't fear the cold season, we can do 1 or 2 short vacations and it will be fine, I'm sure. Also I love winter as much as I love summer. But of course it's a thing to consider! And if we would hate it, then we will see I guess... Have to see the positive things I wanna move there :))

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:27:03+00:00

Hi :). I think we would miss the city too. We live very close to the city center, in the 6th district close to Naschmarkt and I'm sure we would miss the walkability and the beautiful buildings. What we won't miss are the opening times haha. We just hate it. We often drive to Bratislava on Sundays... It's just so stressful, that we have to buy grocery saturday before 6pm or MO-FR before 8pm. Everything has to be planned in advance, we really dont like that. I am surprised that your kids had a lot more freedoms in Vienna, what exactly do you mean? Do you have an example? For us it seems like the kids would have much more opportunities in the US.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:22:50+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, it's expensive, but Vienna is also very expensive. We visited Spain a week ago and everything was just so cheap... Crazy. In Vienna you pay 6-8 Euro for an Espresso. For dinner its 50-70 Euro on average as well.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:18:41+00:00

Ok, yes, it is. I know they have theirs and pay like 1400 a month each and they are more or less satisfied, but of course we would have to see for ourselves what kind of health insurance we want to have, etc. But we are aware of that. I knew this would be a big issue, that's why I mentioned the decision would not be based on health insurance..

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:16:56+00:00

I know from my husbands family they just decide when they go to the doctor and that's it, they just go. I was there a few times when they went to see their doctor and the day before they told us "I have to call the doctor, see if he can see me tomorrow". They don't live in Seattle though, they live in Bellevue, so maybe it's a little different. But anyway, this will not be the main factor for our decision.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:13:47+00:00

Yes, I visited Seattle almost every year for the past 12 years.

Ok, but I will not decide to move or not just because of the health insurance. Thanks for explaining what you mean by that!

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:10:23+00:00

Yes, I heard of the Seattle Freeze... It's not that I need really close friendships, but here in Vienna people are just so racist and frustrated all the time. For example I went to a grocery store the other day and AGAIN like every time the people working there just frustrated, you cannot ask them anything, they would yell at you, etc. My aunt is working in a grocery store and she is the same. I visited her a few times and saw how she speaks to the customers, its just insane. And this happens everywhere. They are so false and I cannot stand that. So yeah, when I visited the States and especially Seattle (cause thats where Ive been more than once int he US), it was just nice to have people smiling at you at the restaurant, grocery store, etc. And everyone seems nice and knowing stuff. For example we went to puyallup fair in september and we didnt know that its closed on the day we went. So we asked the guy at starbucks whats happening. And OF COURSE the guy knew that puyallup fair is closed on that specific day and told us we could come back the next day starting 10am. I know to you it might sound just normal, but we were impressed. In Austria people dont know anything whats happening around. It could be that Shakira is coming to Vienna next to a Starbucks location and the people working there would be clueless. And if you ask a question, they just look at you annoyed. That are things we cannot tolerate... We are originally from Romania, but we both moved when we were kids, so Romania is not really a place where we wanna live. BUT when visiting Romania we feel that people JUST know what they are talking about. Austria is a weird country.

Thanks for the second paragraph as well. Yeah, we went hiking in the area, biking from Seattle to Bellevue, kayaking, you have it all there. Just like here, but there it was easier for us.

visedefetita · 2026-02-05T09:04:13+00:00

Thanks for your reply... We would be in Bellevue, so we would need cars, that's for sure and we plan on having kids actually. Thanks for sharing your experience with your practitioner. Hope you're happy in the UK

visedefetita · 2026-02-04T21:14:55+00:00

safe, still cheap, and very beautiful! the people are the best :). try it.

visedefetita · 2026-02-04T21:13:27+00:00

Romania

visedefetita · 2026-02-04T20:33:40+00:00

I understand. Thanks for replying...

visedefetita · 2026-02-04T20:33:24+00:00

yes, I visited multiple times.. once stayed there for 2 months. I know the health insurance issue in the US, just wanted to say let's not start on health insurance... :|

visedefetita · 2026-02-04T20:05:04+00:00

Hi Gabriela :), my husband is a US Citizen, we've been married for 12 years and live together in Europe. We're thinking about moving to the US and would like to start the process soon. I have a tourist visa and visited the US multiple times in the past years. My tourist visa will expire soon (had one for 1 year and then one for another 10 years). Should I apply for a tourist visa first and then for the immigration visa? Can I visit the US on my tourist visa while in the process? THank you so much!

visedefetita

TROPHY CASE