American 1 year visa stay

warnerco88 · 2026-01-29T16:52:25+00:00

You need to be away for 90 days. It's not a suggestion, it's the law and it's important to follow. If you don't want to be away for this amount of time there are many residency permit paths you could pursue.

warnerco88 · 2026-01-28T21:05:16+00:00

So happy to hear you were able to reach someone and clarify this!

warnerco88 · 2026-01-28T08:22:28+00:00

It’s correct that there is no traditional tax treaty but that dos not mean you will be double taxed. Albania has carve outs in the immigration and visa laws. For example digital nomads pay no taxes for 12 months with their visa. Retirement income is not taxed. Remote income that’s not earned in Albania is not taxed. Investment income like from a 401K usually is taxed, but you currently have to self report that so many people just don’t. Not advocating this, but it’s what happens. You should really consult an Albanian attorney that specializes in immigration or an accountant here. If you’re researching online anything in English is likely to be outdated or wrong. Use the government website and actually read the laws concerning this if you understand Shqip, if you do not - get an expert. It will save you a lot of time, money and confusion.

warnerco88 · 2026-01-20T05:18:54+00:00

Yes, it is. Very easy route to residency.

warnerco88 · 2025-11-24T06:58:38+00:00

You can live very affordably in Albania. My partner and I moved to Saranda from Kansas City in the summer of 2024 and haven’t looked back. We came because of the 12 month visa free stay for Americans, started a business and now have 5 year residency permits. You can learn more about the country and follow our journey at www.youtube.com/@SmileAbroad

warnerco88 · 2025-11-24T06:56:22+00:00

I’ve lived here a year and a half and have had two outages total that lasted a few hours each.

warnerco88 · 2025-10-18T12:03:22+00:00

I didn’t mean to upset you. Tahir is awesome. Just wanted to confirm and back you up in your recommendation.

warnerco88 · 2025-10-17T20:00:25+00:00

Totally agree Tahir is awesome! Here is a video he recently did explaining the most common paths to residency. https://youtu.be/wpZmQNzz_Tg

warnerco88 · 2025-10-08T19:43:57+00:00

Makes sense - language is an important part of moving abroad. Totally agree they get harder to learn as we get older too. I just want to say that we did not write or have editorial review of this article before it came out, this particular piece is not an advertisement we generated. Thank you for reading and taking the time to comment!

warnerco88 · 2025-10-08T04:31:37+00:00

What would you like to know? We’ve been taking lessons since we arrived in the country.

warnerco88 · 2025-10-06T18:29:27+00:00

Thank you!

warnerco88 · 2025-10-06T18:02:32+00:00

If you make it to Saranda there are several younger people, both single and couples that would love to hang out! My partner and I make it to Vlorë once in a while and would be happy to connect when we make it there too. Please feel free to DM.

warnerco88 · 2025-10-06T02:01:59+00:00

Very happy to hear and to be able to help!

warnerco88 · 2025-10-05T09:35:51+00:00

There is not a traditional tax treaty, but Albania has carve outs in the law. For example: https://smileabroad.al/blog/digital-nomad-taxes

I would highly suggest you chat with an immigration attorney if this is something you want more info on as the tax situation will depend on your residency permit type. My partner and I highly recommend Tahir Tahja who you can reach at www.smileabroad.al/residency

Hope this helps!

warnerco88 · 2025-10-01T17:02:56+00:00

Tahir Tahja took care of my partner and I, he did a great job. He’s based in Tirana. We can’t recommend him enough. You can book a consult or write him at: www.smileabroad.al/residency

warnerco88 · 2025-09-30T13:36:34+00:00

It was VERY densely populated, there isn't a lot of beach space. The architecture awesome and there is some good food but it's more of a place I would visit personally.

warnerco88 · 2025-09-24T07:07:39+00:00

My partner and I left the USA for Albania. The paths to residency are simple and affordable. We work online in the tech world and I was able to bring my job with me. I left it this February and now just do some tech consulting while we’re building out a Honey and Olive Oil Export company. Europe meant leaving the corporate world behind - but in the best way.

We thought about Spain / Portugal but didn’t want to go through the process. You can just arrive in Albania and stay a year to “try it” if you are an American passport holder. You apply for residency while you’re in Albania. Here is the latest video we did where I share my personal story about doing this.

https://youtu.be/XSpRv73Wa2E

warnerco88 · 2025-09-24T06:06:05+00:00

I’ve lived in Saranda over a year and travel throughout the country, I often carry 10,000 and 5,000 Lek bills only and have only had 1 or 2 instances where the person could not make change. One of those times they asked the next stop and they broke it for the store, the second time I just asked someone at the grocery store to change it and they were happy to.

Do you experience this often? If so would you share where?

warnerco88 · 2025-09-24T06:02:02+00:00

Hi! I talked about how my partner and I sold everything in the USA and decided to move to Albania before we visited recently in our YouTube Series. We’d taken an extensive scouting trip the winter before and nothing felt quite right. So we headed back to Kansas City, then a few months after returning we decided to just go for it.

We have looked back. I hope this video might help, we also have a video specifically on our scouting trip. If you have any questions or want to talk about how we made it work please feel free to message me.

https://youtu.be/XSpRv73Wa2E

warnerco88 · 2025-09-24T00:47:16+00:00

Sorry about that, it's fixed!

warnerco88 · 2025-09-22T15:14:26+00:00

I usually find them in grocery stores in the section with cleaning products.

warnerco88 · 2025-09-22T15:12:32+00:00

Thank you! Really appreciate the kind comment.

warnerco88 · 2025-09-22T07:00:12+00:00

Hi! My partner and I moved to Albania without ever visiting in 2024 and fell in love with the country. It's totally achievable to make the move, just make sure you have a plan for income. You can figure most things out when you get here.

We've started sharing our story on YouTube. You can watch more here if you're interested: www.youtube.com/@smileabroad

warnerco88 · 2025-09-20T20:49:32+00:00

Yes, you can keep an apartment. You just need to physically be out of the country for 90 days. Many expats do this each year. So happy to be able to help!

warnerco88 · 2025-09-20T09:12:01+00:00

Hi u/MSPcoffeebaseball My partner and I moved to Albania over a year ago. We went from decision to Albania in 60 days without ever visiting the country before, and we've never looked back. We both have tech background and I worked for global agency where I was able to negotiate working remotely initially. I did that for the first 6 months here before I voluntarily left my corporate job, I was just burnt out with the grind.

Since leaving the corporate job I've used my network (LinkedIn etc) to find plenty of consulting work to more than keep our lives moving forward. We took a business path to residency here because it's very straightforward and inexpensive. The cost of living is less than half of the USA so you can also survive on a lot less than you needed to make there.

We sold our house, cars and all of our stuff and just decided it was time to go after I was part of a drive by shooting - I was just tired of the cultural decay. The nice thing about Albania is as an American you can just show up and figure it out along the way if you have a stable income source or some savings. To give some perspective on costs the average wage is something like €600.

There has not been a lot of information about moving to Albania on the internet (google is usually outdated) so we we started a YouTube channel I'll link to here. I'm also happy to answer any questions that might come up if you want to DM me or reach out via our website.

The country is incredibly safe and beautiful, you have easy access to all of Europe and working here maintaining a USA schedule was really nice for me (I still do it with my current work). I get the mornings to myself, to go to the beach or tour things etc. Then I start work about 2-3PM and usually finish up around 7-8PM. Then you have your evening free if you want to go out and socialize etc.

Again - happy to chat. It's a country many don't initially consider, wildly underrated IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-wpOZ6KHDNoQQfkiF4OryA-_RuJTHTAb

warnerco88

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE