With all the chaos in Washington right now, I’m low key worried about Musk and his goons managing to fuck up the FDIC. If that happens, we’re looking at simultaneous bank runs on every bank in the country.

Is it possible for a US citizen, without actually traveling to a foreign country, to open up a bank account in Canada or Europe somewhere and transfer some funds there? I’m not quite at the point of “liquidate everything and get it out of the country.” But having a hedge in the form of an emergency fund in a Canadian or European bank account is very tempting right now.

Is this sort of thing possible? Can you open up a foreign bank account remotely? Or is this the kind of thing you can only do by physically traveling to a foreign country, walking into a bank branch, and opening an account there? And can you open up a bank account in a country without having any citizenship or residency there?

Basically, is it possible for a US citizen, whose only nationality or immigration status is American, to open up an account in Canada or Europe without physically leaving the borders of the US?

Sorry if this is a silly or stupid question. I don’t have a lot of experience with international banking.

  • @papalonian
    4•1 day ago

    I think the plan is to move to the outside country before things reach “close the borders” level. And having a nest egg there ahead of time

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashedEnglish
      4•20 hours ago

      I think the plan is to move to the outside country before things reach “close the borders” level.

      I mean… good luck getting a visa. Most places you would want to go to (like the EU) has very strict immigration requirements. If borders are still open, its likely the US is still recognized as a democracy, so yoir chances of getting political asylum as close to zero.

      And when the US is recognized as dictatorship, i’d probably be too late to leave.

      (Unless you somehow plan your exit right before the borders close to some country that doesn’t deport you back to the US before the US close its borders, and then you’d have to convince the country’s government that you really deserve political asylum.)

      • @surewhynotlem
        5•20 hours ago

        We have the world’s largest impossible to protect border. As long as you can survive camping for a week, you’re in Canada.