What has happened to those who have self deported? - Page 2

Originally Posted by thedelight21

Do you get paid in US $? And if so, how is that possible if you left the US....Wouldn’t that mean your EAD isn’t valid anymore?

Originally Posted by FinAnalyst

I am one of the ones that “self deported” or a I like to call it “gracefully exited” the USA a year and a half ago. Currently residing in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.

A little background
http://dreamact.info/forum/showthread.php?t=82071
http://dreamact.info/forum/showthread.php?t=83713

I must confess that I have ZERO regrets from leaving. I’ve never felt more liberated. It’s crazy but I don’t even remember the feeling of constantly watching my back or making sure I don’t do “anything” that could jeopardize my situation. Not that I’d do anything stupid but just the realization that I am a citizen, with rights, in my own country, and the ability to stay or go anywhere I’d like... I FINALLY understand what freedom feels like. Let’s see, in a year and a half I’ve been to..

1. Mexico (All over beautiful Jaliscos magical towns, Guadalajara, Nayarit) Mexico City for #thegreatesmatch got seat 3 rows up at Plaza de Toros for the Roger Federer vs Zverev tennis match(wife is a big fan), also did Teotihuacán and climbed the pyramids! Plus got to explore so many “Pueblo’s mágicos”
2. Slovakia 3 times! (Košice, Bratislava, the peak of the high tatras, got married to my amazing wife this year at the St. Elisabeth's Cathedral)
3. Hungary 2 times! (all over including Budapest)
4. Italy 2 times! (Venice, Rome Twice! Once in 2018 and then took my parents, who left the USA in 2019)
5. France Paris!
6. Czech Prague!
7. Austria Vienna!
8. Netherlands (mainly Amsterdam!)

Plan is to head back to Europe in May and stay for a month while traveling to a few other countries. I’d like to do Barcelona and Germany among others! Too many choices but we’d like to travel as much as possible before we start having kids. Also planning on hitting South America, thinking Peru in late February and hit up Machu Picchu.

As far as living in Mexico, still love it! Half a block from the beach, soothing wave sounds while falling as sleep, tropical bird sounds in the cool breezy mornings, the smell of the ocean and the warm sun during the “winter months”. Tourist call this paradise and when we go out to eat at nice restaurant they are always reminding me of how lucky we must be to live in a place that they can only vacation at. Not going to lie, I can truly see why. Wife and I can go into town and pick from hundreds of restaurants, with just about any type of delicious foods, we can spoil ourselves and go to fancy white cloth candle dinner locations have drinks or wine and steak, seafood, pasta, etc.. at the cost of a simple chili’s or Applebee’s..

I must confess, both my wife and I work for US companies and make US (midwest area manager) level salary. At this point in our careers we could probably be making slightly more in the USA (both of us have MBAs and significant industry experience) but our cost of living is significantly lower, it could even be much lower but we live in a beach condo, have personal trainers and nutritionist at a more expensive gym, tennis club membership at a country club, like newer (midrange) cars, and love all our extra amenities... overall, we are loving our prospects in Mexico, in fact two months ago I became an investor/part owner in a restaurant that my parents (who left the US after 19 years) opened! So far doing great!