American Expat: Moving to Romania in 2023

Pucari1984 wrote:

Hello Everyone,

New member to expat.com as I'm a recently-married American in his mid 30s.  My wife and I are planning to move to Romania in 2023 and although it seems like quite a while down the road, we're starting to make plans now as we start our family. 

A little bit about us: 
Me:  36 year-old male, American, fully employed and will work remotely in Romania for an American company as a W2 employee (paid in USD)
Her:  28 year-old female, Romanian/Moldovian, currently unemployed but used to work as a flight attendant

We are currently living in the United States and plan to remain here through the end of 2022 while I complete a work assignment and she awaits a Green Card issuance.  (We applied for her adjustment of status in March 2021).   Our plan during this time is to have our first child and to save money to buy property in Romania.  We would specifically like to move to Brasov and would ideally like to purchase a 3-4 room apartment.

I'm trying to research information on the following topics and was wondering if anyone here had some good resources or answers:

Potential Romanian Tax liability:
-As I menteioned above, I will be a W2 earner for a U.S. company.  My home domocile is in California so I will have federal, state & FICA taxes witheld from my paycheck.  Am I also liable for any Romanian taxes?  My company does not do any business in Romania;  all my clients served would be in the United States.


Home Purchase:
-My wife and I have begun saving for our first home purchase (in Brasov most likely).   We will likely be able to make the purchase outright in cash, however if necessary, are financing options typically available?  I wouldn't think I'd be able to get loans from a US bank since they couldn't secure the property nor a Romanian bank since I have no employment history there.  I've thought about using a crowdfunding option like SoFi loans but the interest rates seem punitive relative to U.S. mortage rates.  What other financing options have expats used (if any) in Romania?


Immigration:
-I assume I will be required to get a Romanian residency permit.  It looks like I will meet the requirements based on my marriage to a Romanian citizen.  Are there any other immigration documents or issues we may be overlooking?  Will I have any issues buying property as a foreigner or will everything be held in my wife's name?


U.S. Banking/Home Domocile:
-As mentioned above, my home domocile is the state of CA.  I will be required to maintain a U.S. address while living in Romania both for tax purposes and for access to banking institutions and would prefer to legally "relocate" to a no-tax state such as Nevada or Texas.  I've previously attempted to set-up private mailboxes (PMB) services in Nevada, but none of my banks will recognize PMB addresses as legitimate U.S. residential addresses (I bank with Fidelity & Schwab).  I'm guessing U.S. banks have some sort of USPS address lookup where they can verify that a private mailbox location is not an actual residential address.   I've been threatened with account closure due to this issue.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how to establish a residential location outside of California?  Once we move to Romania, we don't plan to return to the U.S. for the forseeable future, but I'll need to maintain a home address and bank in the U.S.  I plan on using a family member's (based in CA) going forward as a last resort.

Thank you in advance for any responses.

Tax: I cannot answer too much about tax liability.  Might want to consult a tax advisor.  My income was all tax-free in the US, so I had nothing to be concerned about in Romania.

Home Purchase:  Getting credit as a non-EU foreigner is extremely difficult and many banks I dealt with were clueless.  I was usually met with the "nu se poate" (it can't be done) response.  One bank was willing, but wanted me to pull my own credit reports from Experian because they didn't know how to do it.  That was a red flag to me and I researched and found it was illegal, no way was I doing that!  The Interest rates in RO are absurd anyway, so we purchased everything with cash.  With your wife unemployed, the prospects don't appear good for credit lending.

Immigration:  Yes you will need a residence permit to stay beyond 90 days.  Firstly, you'll need a D-VF long-stay visa before you can apply.  Have you covered that?  Also, pertaining to your spouse, you are aware that she'll have her green card cancelled after returning to Romania for more than 6 months?  Adjustment of status and getting the I-551 green card is a lot of hassle to just toss away IMO.  Once you have your residence permit, you have equal rights to buy and own property in Romania.

Banking:  I had a US bank account with a prominent banking institution and used a foreign address without problem.  I told them I was residing temporarily overseas anytime I needed to talk to customer service and they were fine with that.  Wise (formerly Transferwise) is another option, you can get US and/or EU banking account details, receive direct deposit, and transfer/covert funds reasonably easy.  You could consider that.  I used them extensively while in Romania,  For some credit card accounts, I did prefer to use a trusted relative's address in the U.S.

Hope some of this helps, good luck.
Romaniac

Hi,

As a non-EU citizen, you cannot own land in Romania (unless there is a particular international treaty between the US and Romania covering it - you'd have to check) but you can own bricks and mortar so an apartment is not a problem - the deeds will show you as 50-50 partners in its ownership.

Sometimes apartments have a small plot of land associated with them (generally a square meter or so representing a share of the plot the apartment block is built on). This will go solely in your wife's name although as a married couple you still have a right to half of it (on its sale, for example).

As you are married, if you were to buy property with land (i.e. house and garden) this would still be ok as the land would be put in your wife's name on the deeds, although you would still 'own' half of it because any property purchased whilst married is shared by spouses regardless of who pays. In other words, the deeds would show you as 50-50 owners of the house and her as 100% owner of the land, but as it would have been purchased while you were married, on sale, any proceeds would be divided 50-50 (regardless of who actually paid for it).

romaniac wrote:

Pucari1984 wrote:

Hello Everyone,

Thank you in advance for any responses.

Firstly, you'll need a D-VF long-stay visa before you can apply.  Have you covered that?  Also, pertaining to your spouse, you are aware that she'll have her green card cancelled after returning to Romania for more than 6 months?  Adjustment of status and getting the I-551 green card is a lot of hassle to just toss away IMO.  Once you have your residence permit, you have equal rights to buy and own property in Romania.

Banking:  I had a US bank account with a prominent banking institution and used a foreign address without problem.  I told them I was residing temporarily overseas anytime I needed to talk to customer service and they were fine with that.  Wise (formerly Transferwise) is another option, you can get US and/or EU banking account details, receive direct deposit, and transfer/covert funds reasonably easy.  You could consider that.  I used them extensively while in Romania,  For some credit card accounts, I did prefer to use a trusted relative's address in the U.S.

Hope some of this helps, good luck.
Romaniac

Thank you Romaniac for this useful information.  I was not aware of the D-VF long-stay visa so I will definately make sure I have applied before we plan on moving.  I am aware of the green card cancellation issue;  it's something we are still factoring into our decision.  Initially we applied for one as I know I'd be in the U.S. for a 2-3 year contract before I could move to Romania.  The K-1/Green card process was for the purpose of allowing us to marry (as well as getting health insurance, SSN, etc.) in the U.S. and have her live me with during this time before we decided what to do next.  We do seem pretty set on moving to Romania though so if this ends up invalidating her Green Card, so be it.

Maykal wrote:

Hi,

As a non-EU citizen, you cannot own land in Romania (unless there is a particular international treaty between the US and Romania covering it - you'd have to check) but you can own bricks and mortar so an apartment is not a problem - the deeds will show you as 50-50 partners in its ownership.

Sometimes apartments have a small plot of land associated with them (generally a square meter or so representing a share of the plot the apartment block is built on). This will go solely in your wife's name although as a married couple you still have a right to half of it (on its sale, for example).

As you are married, if you were to buy property with land (i.e. house and garden) this would still be ok as the land would be put in your wife's name on the deeds, although you would still 'own' half of it because any property purchased whilst married is shared by spouses regardless of who pays. In other words, the deeds would show you as 50-50 owners of the house and her as 100% owner of the land, but as it would have been purchased while you were married, on sale, any proceeds would be divided 50-50 (regardless of who actually paid for it).

Thank you Mayka for the detailed information on property ownership.  We likely will be purchasing an apartment, but if we opted for a home/land purchase we would be comfortable with 100% ownership in my wife's name if that were required.