1. What has your experience been?

Incredible! Extensively checked out all the major European Cities for 2 years before making the move. Government & Commercial Aerospace R&D funding fell off a cliff in 2003 and that triggered the move.

2. What is your particular career?

Safety critical Air & Space Flight Control Systems Design & Certification. Commercial, Military, Space.

3. What were your moving expenses?

$11,000 dollars in 2003

4. How much is your rent or did you buy?

1143 Euros per month or $1545.85

5. Where did you move to/from?

FROM:KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
TO:VIENNA, AUSTRIA.

6. How are the schools?

AMAZING! I had 3 young children (3,7,10) when we moved in 2003. The Vienna Bi-lingual Schooling project is a world famous education initiative. My 2 school age children had no difficulties. My 3 year old went into 2 years native German kindergarten.

After 4 years, both of my 2 older children moved to the German schooling. They have native Viennese accents, without any US detectable accent.

Education in Austria is intense, compared with the US. Up until the 9th year, kids go to school only 4 hours a day, and no homework!

The emphasis is entirely different. In the US, emphasis is on the 1st 4 years of gaining solid BASIC competency, at which point intensity goes to zero.

In Austria, the first 4 years are used to expose children to a large variety of subjects, and then the student decides where their interests are, and then attend the schools focused on that subject.

The 5th - 13th(HTL) years are intense. With the 9th year, students are taught the equivalent of college courses.

My oldest already knew what she wanted. BioEngineering! When we de-registered her at school, they gave us her education records, which contained testing results showing that she was 5 years ahead of her age in math and science!
She attended HTL Rosensteingasse. A world renowned school of chemistry. http://hblva17.ac.at/

My middle son is at HTL Spengergasse which focuses on computer programming. http://www.spengergasse.at/

My youngest also starts at Rosensteingasse in the fall.

Higher Education is 100% free! So anybody who can pass the Matura(a tough school leaving certificate test founded in 1851) is guaranteed by law a free higher education.

7. Have you become fluent in the native language and was the language barrier difficult to overcome?

Yes, our entire family is fluent. German is a challenge for native English speakers. As Austrians are proud of their english lanugage education in school. They want to impress you with it, and practice it, wherever you go. They immediately pick up on your being a native English speaker when you talk German. You have to be polite and insist on speaking German with them, if in anything other than a shopping experience.

8. How long have you lived in this country? Are you a permanent resident or do you plan on moving back to the US?

We have lived here for 11 years. We are all permanent residents. Vienna is home for all of us. We have fully integrated.

I love my country (USA) but hate my government (USA).

Every American deserves the quality of life that Austrians have, thanks to the structuring of the Austrian Constitution on the US Constitution after WWII, Austria is the country that the USA used to be when I was growing up. A government of virtue, and a nation of "self interest rightly understood". A land of safety and security. A land of highly educated and intelligent people.

Now, its a nation given over to legalized (legal is what you can get away with (Bill Clinton)) piracy (take what you can, give nothing back(Captain Jack Sparrow)), kleptocracy and crony capitalism. Dog eat dog, everybody for themselves, and buyer beware. Injustice is everywhere you look. Crime is rampant. There is no "America" or "Americans" any longer. Just selfish spoiled brats who never grew up, and their victims. The rare exceptions can be found in the "flyover states" places like Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, and Missouri where we lived before emigrating to Austria. However the disease has now infected these once sheltered areas, and taken hold in a majority of the population. There are a few isolated pockets such as Boulder Colorado, however the signs of infection are now visible here as well.

The USA is a majority population of Apostates (who have perverted the rule of law, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Urinating on wisdom of the founding fathers.

Most egregious examples:

1. The "American Stazi" (NSA,FBI,CIA).

2. The Toyota software/hardware defect coverup & conspiracy
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=13216...

3. The killing of Aaron Swartz.

I am proud to be an American. I am embarrassed and ashamed of my government, and the people who disgrace our proud heritage as cowards who tolerate the destruction of this once great and proud nation.

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Where is the outrage. Where is the revolution?
Only a "second republic" of the United States of America will solve this problem.

I am a 3rd generation US citizen with all of my genetic heritage from Ireland.

I now live in a land with a terrible past (NAZI Genocide in WWII) which learned the tragic mistakes of the past and now respects life, and personal freedoms more than the victor of WWII and the worlds only superpower. I respect the Austrian Government far more than the government of the United States of America. This is a personal tragedy.

At this moment it is deeply painful even thinking about possibly giving up US citizenship (Hold out hope of revolutionary change). I regret that this however has become inevitable. The USA shall not recover its virtue in my, nor my children's lifetime. The people have to be willing to fight for it! FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. Citizens must hold its government accountable to the rule of law. US citizens choose not to given the cost of personal sacrifice. A Napoleonic "DIVIDE AND RULE" has poisoned our people and our politics.

We should be Americans first, but sadly we are now Americans last.

9. What was the process like to become a permanent resident?

http://www.migration.gv.at/en/types-of-immigration/permanent...

I was classified as a "Very Qualified Worker" which substantially reduced the red tape.

http://www.migration.gv.at/en/types-of-immigration/permanent...

Permanent residence in Austria also conveys permanent residence in the whole of the European Union.

Permanent residence requires B1 level German competency.

After 5 years of full time employment in Austria, exceeding a minimum income requirement, one can become a legal permanent resident of Austria and the EU.

10. Did you have to already have a job when you moved to that country?

Yes. In 2003 this was the case. However this is no longer the case with the Red-White-Red card (EU blue card)

11. What's the cost of living compared to where you moved from? Has your quality of life improved or not? How and why?

The European Union spends far more money on Aerospace R&D than any other country in the world. Its why Airbus is the world leader in commercial aircraft, and Ariane is the number one satellite launcher. NASA is a hollow political bureaucracy compared to world leaders DLR & CNES.

Weather: mild winters and summers.

Skiing and climbing in the Alps.

Austria is a country which tries its very best to eliminate "uncompensated externalities"(subsidies and privatizing gain while publicizing losses are extremely rare, but do exist here but in lower proportion). Actual costs (healthcare, pollution etc.) are incorporated in product pricing. Most things, as a result, cost more than in the US.

Austria is a "social" country(not socialist/communist). Over 50k in income taxes are 50% or greater, and very few tax deductions are allowed.

My quality of life has skyrocketed in comparison. Vienna & Zurich Switzerland for the past 40 years have had the highest quality of life in the world. I gave up my McMansion in a gated community in the USA for paradise on earth. My children have the very same freedom I had as a child growing up in the early 70s. Children here as young as kindergarten travel unaccompanied on the public transportation system to school. There is virtually no crime, especially violent crime. There is no poverty.

In Austria the private funding of political campaigns is illegal. The government funds 100% of the costs. As a result, the government belongs to the people. In America, nothing short of a revolutionary civil war can eliminate the corruption of the government by wealthy individuals and corporations.

Quality of life has a high price that Americans are just not willing to pay.

"Taxes are what we pay for civilized society"
US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.