About · gtfo.guide

Why I Built GTFO

— Natasha, founder

I started seriously thinking about leaving America the way most people do — slowly, then all at once.

The slowly part lasted about two years. The all-at-once part lasted a weekend, and at the end of it I had 47 browser tabs open, three half-finished spreadsheets, a Google Doc full of half-vetted immigration lawyers, and a sleeping pit bull who had no idea what was coming.

That's where GTFO started.

A problem to solve

I'm not a software engineer by trade. My day job is healthcare SEO and content marketing — I'm a consultant. I build apps the way some people garden: for fun, when a problem in front of me is annoying enough that an app is the right way out of it. I've shipped a handful at this point. By any reasonable measure, I'm good at finding information on the internet.

Researching a real, multi-country, family-and-pet-included move was the most fragmented research project I've ever undertaken.

The information existed. It just didn't exist in any one place.

The visa requirements were on a government site (in another language). The realistic timeline for that visa was buried in a Reddit comment from 2023. The cost of living was on Numbeo, but Numbeo doesn't know that you have a kid in school or a 65-pound dog who needs a yard. The school options were on three different expat blogs that all linked to each other but contradicted each other on tuition.

By the time I had a clear picture of what one country would actually cost, look like, and require — I had spent weeks. And I still didn't trust my own answer.

My ADHD lends itself to late-night, hyper focused app-building. It does not lend itself to organization. Which is exactly why an app to organize a chaos of relocation information was the right shape of problem for my brain to want to solve.

The dog, the schools, and the six-month deadline

People underestimate how much harder this gets when you're not just moving yourself. Here's how I learned that.

I had a plan. I was going to move to Germany on the Article 116 route — the reparation-citizenship pathway Germany offers to descendants of people stripped of citizenship by the Nazi regime. As citizenship pathways go, it's one of the simpler ones. We had the documents. The lawyer sent everything in.

Then I found out Germany doesn't take pit bulls.

Not "doesn't usually." Doesn't. So: now what?

Now I had a constraint set, and it was specific:

• Somewhere that takes my dog. No listed-breed bans on bullies.
• Somewhere with good public schools that have immersive English programs. I'm not rich. I can't pay international-school tuition for kids on top of moving costs.
• Somewhere that takes a whole family — not just one working adult — on a single application.
• Somewhere whose visa process didn't require a U.S. federal FBI background check, because the federal apostille queue alone was longer than my timeline.
• Somewhere that didn't restrict my medication. Many ADHD medications are flatly illegal in Japan, South Korea, the UAE, and Singapore — and tightly controlled in a long list of otherwise good options. "You can't take your prescription with you" turns out to be a real and disqualifying constraint.
• And: six months. Not eighteen. Not "when we feel ready." Six.

Try fitting all of that into a "best countries to move to" article. Not one of them surfaces this stuff. They tell you Portugal has good weather and Spain has good food. They don't tell you the dog gets turned away at customs, the school costs $30K a year, or the FBI check takes longer than your visa window.

So one night of research turned into a week, and decision paralysis began to set in.

That's when I thought: this should just be an app.

What GTFO is, and isn't

It's a planning app. You answer a few questions about where you are in the process, what matters most to you, and what you're stuck on. It points you at the right country options, the realistic visa paths, the people on the ground, and the parts of the move you haven't thought about yet.

It is not a coaching service. I'm not going to charge you to talk to me on a Zoom call.

It is not a forum. There are good forums. r/AmerExit is a good forum. Reddit's not the problem — Reddit's free, it works, and it's where the live conversations happen. GTFO is the layer above that, where the information has been organized and filtered.

It is not a travel company. We don't run scouting trips. We don't take you to Portugal for two weeks to walk around. Someone else does that well; that's not what we are.

What we are is the resource I wished existed 6 months ago. The one that would have saved me 47 browser tabs and an enormous amount of time.

Who this is for

Americans 25 to 65 who are past the should I and into the how do I. People with families, with pets, with mortgages, with jobs they want to keep, with kids in school, with parents to think about. People who are doing this seriously and don't have time for a coach or a quiz that ends in "join our community."

If you're doing the research alone right now, you are not the only one doing the research alone. The data on this is clear: more Americans left in 2025 than in any single year since the 1930s, and the growth is in families and people in their 30s and 40s and 50s, not college kids on gap years. There are a lot of us.

Where I am right now

I'm building this from inside the same problem you might be in. As I write this, the move hasn't happened yet — I'm in the middle of it. The country is selected. I'm talking to visa and housing agencies. The boxes aren't packed. The dog is asleep on the couch, still oblivious.

If you're reading this from inside the 47-tabs phase, I get it — I'm in a version of it right now. Open the app. Start with whichever section feels most like the thing you're stuck on. If you like what you see, buy the Compass subscription — there's a lot more to this app than just a directory.

Tell me when something's missing, broken, or wrong — or if there's something that would help you that isn't on this app yet. I'm one person and I'll see the email.

Welcome to GTFO.

— Natasha

Service providers

Are you an immigration attorney, international mover, relocation agent, or other service for Americans moving abroad? GTFO's directory is being built editorially — not pay-for-placement — and I'm always looking for providers worth featuring.

To request a listing, correct your information, or be removed, email hello@gtfo.guide with the subject line "Directory."

Last verified: May 2026 · Numbers change. We re-check thresholds and timelines every quarter. Always confirm with the consulate or official government source before you act.