Americans Abroad

But just like foreigners who stage phony marriages to come to the States, the authorities will go through a thorough and sometimes intrusive verification process.

Dutch takes some getting used to as far as pronunciation goes, but has many words similar to English (only Swedish was easier to learn, in my experience), and once you get used to their sentence structure (halfway between German and English/Swedish), you'll be fine. It may seem like gibberish at first, but it's easier than it seems in the beginning.

They don't have any "too old" clauses, but what they don't want is a stream of people coming in asking for pensions they never paid into. Germany had to cope with this after 1989, and got robbed of billions by so-called "ethnic Germans" from all over Eastern Europe coming to Germany asking for pensions for life ("me German, papa fight for Nazis in war, give me money&quot . As with Greece now, the German taxpayers were furious at having to pay for people coming with outstretched hands asking for money because their own governments were too corrupt/inefficient to pay for their own pensions.

However, come with a legit claim, especially a will to somehow pay your own way, or at least try, and they won't give you too hard a time.

And don't forget to tell them you like stroopwaffeltjes!