It absolutelly is as simple a travelling there and finding a place to stay.
I’ve moved, lived and worked in 3 foreign EU countries just like that.
Those rules about identity documents and registration apply also to the locals: some countries want people to be registered with the city hall of were they live and (supposedly, though in 2 decades I was never asked for it) carry identity papers (though if you have an identity card from your home country that’s valid all over the EU), others couldn’t care less.
You don’t need any kind of visa or even have a job: as long as you can support yourself (i.e. aren’t there to leech of social security) it’s all fine.
That residency status is all conditional in many ways:
As an EU citizen, you have the right to move to any EU country for a period of up to 3 months as long as you have a valid identity card or passport. If you want to settle in another EU country but you have no intention to take up any work or education there, you need to prove that you:
have sufficient resources for you and your family during the time you want to stay in your new country
have comprehensive health insurance
Reporting your presence and registering your residence
During the first 3 months of your stay in your new country, as an EU citizen, you cannot be required to apply for a residence document confirming your right to live there - although in some countries you may have to report your presence upon arrival.
After 3 months in your new country, you may be required to register your residence with the relevant authority (often the town hall or local police station), and to be issued with a registration certificate.
You will need a valid identity card or passport and:
proof of comprehensive health insurance
proof you can support yourself without needing social assistance benefits: resources may come from any source, including from a third person.
Can you be requested to leave or be deported?
You may live in the other EU country as long as you continue to meet the conditions for residence. If you no longer do so, the national authorities may require you to leave.
In exceptional cases, your host country can deport you on grounds of public policy or public security - but only if it can prove you represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society.
The deportation decision or the request to leave must be given to you in writing. It must state all the reasons for your deportation and specify how you can appeal and by when.
Permanent residence
If you have lived legally, meeting the conditions to stay in another EU country for a continuous period of 5 years, you automatically acquire the right of permanent residence there. This means that you can stay in the country as long as you want, you are entitled to be treated as a national of that country and you enjoy more protection against deportation. You can apply for a document certifying permanent residence.
Your continuity of residence is not affected by:
temporary absences (less than 6 months per year)
longer absences for compulsory military service
one absence of 12 consecutive months, for important reasons such as pregnancy and childbirth, serious illness, work, vocational training or a posting to another country.
You can lose your right to permanent residence if you live outside the country for more than 2 consecutive years.
Going with a non chalant attitude of ‘lel I think I’m just gonna go live on the other side of EU now’ will land you in some trouble in most cases, what ever your personal alleged experience is.
Better be prepared with the proper info than leave it to luck and feels.
Considering that I’ve personally went and lived in other EU countries 3 times by now, you’re way overcomplicating it.
Residence is only important for stuff like tax purposes (to avoid that people spend a week in a low tax country and claim they’re resident there for tax evasion purposes) and to avoid Health Tourism in countries with a national health service (were people might otherwise come over for a week just to get free/better treatment).
Your right to live in an EU nation as an EU citizen are not affected by “residence status” as they would be if you’re in a foreign country with a visa system because it’s not the same kind of residence - it’s for tax purposes not for employment or access to services as it would be in the US (or for a non-EU citizen in the EU).
That “residence document confirming your right to live there” is not required by anybody for providing you goods or services (they’re not even allowed to make anything for EU citizens conditional on “residence status”). You can get the document and then the 3 months apply, but it’s only ever needed when you’re filling taxes in the country you were living in before to prove to them you’re a resident elsewhere and hence will be paying taxes elsewhere (so, for example, when I left The Netherlands to go live in Britain I had to inform the authorities in The Netherlands that I was now resident in Britain for tax purposes, though I think I didn’t even need to provide them any document as these systems are integrated across the EU).
Health insurance is only for some countries. In my home country - Portugal - we have a National Health Service so any EU citizen over here who is not a Portuguse can just use it for free like everybody else. Again any such 3 months rules would only apply (if this country actually applied it) to try and avoid Health Tourism and if you’re an EU citizen just get a European Health Card (which is free) and you’re covered by your home country even whilst abroad for those first 3 months (supposedly your country of residence is the one that covers the costs of your health treatment in another EU country). It’s actually a good idea to get that card even if only going on vacations in another EU country since, for example, if you have an accident there and end up in Hospital you’re covered by whatever healthcare arrangements you have in your country of residence.
Deportation is for things like one having murdered somebody in the host country, serving a sentence and then getting deported. It really has to be this extreme and is incredibly rare to happen. EU countries can’t just deport EU citiziens without quite a heavy reason they can justify - it was actually part of the bitching and moaning of the Brexiters in Britain that they couldn’t just deport EU Citizens.
The general rule in the EU at a treaty level is that citizens from other EU countries cannot be discriminated against compared to citizens of the host country. Yeah, you found the details related to avoiding that people evade tax by gaming the residence status for the purpose of paying less or no tax, do Health Tourism or just come over and start living of the Social Security in a rich country.
You absolutelly can just get on a plane and go stay on an EU country pretty much unprepared and then you have 3 months to figure out if you want to stay and only by then do you need to do stuff like register (only for some countries) and get health insurance (again, only for some countries: those where health insurance is mandatory by law for everybody). Further, you can get a job there on day 1, since you have the right to do so anywhere in the EU and your residence status is irrelevant (and in fact plenty of freelancers working in a Services domain will just go to some country, do some work there, and then come back and it’s actually the intention of the EU treaties that they can do so: it’s the Freedom Of Movement required for the Freedom Of Trade part to apply to Services, not just Products).
I’ve done it like that twice, first when moving to the UK (hopped on a plane, stayed in a hotel for 3 weeks whilst I looked for a job, ended up staying there for over a decade) and latter to Germany (where I left before the 3 months were up as I could to the work I was doing elsewhere with lower living costs and knew I would need to start paying health insurance in Germany after those 3 months).
I also have family members that do the Freelance thing of just going to another country in Europe, working there for a couple of months and then coming back.
Agree with you that people should be informed (which is why I knew when I went to Germany that I had 3 month to decide if I would stay or not and that if I did I would need to register and get Health Insurance), just disagree that is in any way a significant bump in the freedom to just go to another EU country to live and work there - the biggest bumps are cultural, linguistic and having the money to pay for a place to stay whilst you find your first job.
PS: Oh yeah, and taxes are also a bit of a bumb since you have to figure out which country you’re supposed to filled them with and pay them to based on how long you’ve live where and most people really aren’t used to it. If I remember it correctly in some cases you might have to fill and pay taxes in multiple countries depending on how long you worked in each during the tax year, plus different countries have different tax year ends, which adds to the mess.
And also for the European Parliament, were you are voting for the EU MPs of the country you’re living in rather than of the country you’re a national of.
It absolutelly is as simple a travelling there and finding a place to stay.
I’ve moved, lived and worked in 3 foreign EU countries just like that.
Those rules about identity documents and registration apply also to the locals: some countries want people to be registered with the city hall of were they live and (supposedly, though in 2 decades I was never asked for it) carry identity papers (though if you have an identity card from your home country that’s valid all over the EU), others couldn’t care less.
You don’t need any kind of visa or even have a job: as long as you can support yourself (i.e. aren’t there to leech of social security) it’s all fine.
That residency status is all conditional in many ways:
As an EU citizen, you have the right to move to any EU country for a period of up to 3 months as long as you have a valid identity card or passport. If you want to settle in another EU country but you have no intention to take up any work or education there, you need to prove that you:
Reporting your presence and registering your residence
During the first 3 months of your stay in your new country, as an EU citizen, you cannot be required to apply for a residence document confirming your right to live there - although in some countries you may have to report your presence upon arrival.
After 3 months in your new country, you may be required to register your residence with the relevant authority (often the town hall or local police station), and to be issued with a registration certificate.
You will need a valid identity card or passport and:
Can you be requested to leave or be deported?
You may live in the other EU country as long as you continue to meet the conditions for residence. If you no longer do so, the national authorities may require you to leave.
In exceptional cases, your host country can deport you on grounds of public policy or public security - but only if it can prove you represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting one of the fundamental interests of society.
The deportation decision or the request to leave must be given to you in writing. It must state all the reasons for your deportation and specify how you can appeal and by when. Permanent residence
If you have lived legally, meeting the conditions to stay in another EU country for a continuous period of 5 years, you automatically acquire the right of permanent residence there. This means that you can stay in the country as long as you want, you are entitled to be treated as a national of that country and you enjoy more protection against deportation. You can apply for a document certifying permanent residence.
Your continuity of residence is not affected by:
You can lose your right to permanent residence if you live outside the country for more than 2 consecutive years.
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/residence/residence-rights/index_en.htm#inactive-citizens-1
Going with a non chalant attitude of ‘lel I think I’m just gonna go live on the other side of EU now’ will land you in some trouble in most cases, what ever your personal alleged experience is.
Better be prepared with the proper info than leave it to luck and feels.
Considering that I’ve personally went and lived in other EU countries 3 times by now, you’re way overcomplicating it.
Residence is only important for stuff like tax purposes (to avoid that people spend a week in a low tax country and claim they’re resident there for tax evasion purposes) and to avoid Health Tourism in countries with a national health service (were people might otherwise come over for a week just to get free/better treatment).
Your right to live in an EU nation as an EU citizen are not affected by “residence status” as they would be if you’re in a foreign country with a visa system because it’s not the same kind of residence - it’s for tax purposes not for employment or access to services as it would be in the US (or for a non-EU citizen in the EU).
That “residence document confirming your right to live there” is not required by anybody for providing you goods or services (they’re not even allowed to make anything for EU citizens conditional on “residence status”). You can get the document and then the 3 months apply, but it’s only ever needed when you’re filling taxes in the country you were living in before to prove to them you’re a resident elsewhere and hence will be paying taxes elsewhere (so, for example, when I left The Netherlands to go live in Britain I had to inform the authorities in The Netherlands that I was now resident in Britain for tax purposes, though I think I didn’t even need to provide them any document as these systems are integrated across the EU).
Health insurance is only for some countries. In my home country - Portugal - we have a National Health Service so any EU citizen over here who is not a Portuguse can just use it for free like everybody else. Again any such 3 months rules would only apply (if this country actually applied it) to try and avoid Health Tourism and if you’re an EU citizen just get a European Health Card (which is free) and you’re covered by your home country even whilst abroad for those first 3 months (supposedly your country of residence is the one that covers the costs of your health treatment in another EU country). It’s actually a good idea to get that card even if only going on vacations in another EU country since, for example, if you have an accident there and end up in Hospital you’re covered by whatever healthcare arrangements you have in your country of residence.
Deportation is for things like one having murdered somebody in the host country, serving a sentence and then getting deported. It really has to be this extreme and is incredibly rare to happen. EU countries can’t just deport EU citiziens without quite a heavy reason they can justify - it was actually part of the bitching and moaning of the Brexiters in Britain that they couldn’t just deport EU Citizens.
The general rule in the EU at a treaty level is that citizens from other EU countries cannot be discriminated against compared to citizens of the host country. Yeah, you found the details related to avoiding that people evade tax by gaming the residence status for the purpose of paying less or no tax, do Health Tourism or just come over and start living of the Social Security in a rich country.
You absolutelly can just get on a plane and go stay on an EU country pretty much unprepared and then you have 3 months to figure out if you want to stay and only by then do you need to do stuff like register (only for some countries) and get health insurance (again, only for some countries: those where health insurance is mandatory by law for everybody). Further, you can get a job there on day 1, since you have the right to do so anywhere in the EU and your residence status is irrelevant (and in fact plenty of freelancers working in a Services domain will just go to some country, do some work there, and then come back and it’s actually the intention of the EU treaties that they can do so: it’s the Freedom Of Movement required for the Freedom Of Trade part to apply to Services, not just Products).
I’ve done it like that twice, first when moving to the UK (hopped on a plane, stayed in a hotel for 3 weeks whilst I looked for a job, ended up staying there for over a decade) and latter to Germany (where I left before the 3 months were up as I could to the work I was doing elsewhere with lower living costs and knew I would need to start paying health insurance in Germany after those 3 months).
I also have family members that do the Freelance thing of just going to another country in Europe, working there for a couple of months and then coming back.
Agree with you that people should be informed (which is why I knew when I went to Germany that I had 3 month to decide if I would stay or not and that if I did I would need to register and get Health Insurance), just disagree that is in any way a significant bump in the freedom to just go to another EU country to live and work there - the biggest bumps are cultural, linguistic and having the money to pay for a place to stay whilst you find your first job.
PS: Oh yeah, and taxes are also a bit of a bumb since you have to figure out which country you’re supposed to filled them with and pay them to based on how long you’ve live where and most people really aren’t used to it. If I remember it correctly in some cases you might have to fill and pay taxes in multiple countries depending on how long you worked in each during the tax year, plus different countries have different tax year ends, which adds to the mess.
Just to add to this, and hammer it home, you actually get to vote in municipal elections the moment you registered your move.
And also for the European Parliament, were you are voting for the EU MPs of the country you’re living in rather than of the country you’re a national of.
When living abroad I usually voted in both.