I keep hearing from people who say they want to move abroad someday. And almost every time, what they really mean is: they want to know if they’d actually like it before uprooting their whole life. That’s not a weakness. That’s smart.
Here’s the thing I wish more people knew: 6-month visas and long-stay visitor permits exist precisely for this reason. Six countries in particular make it possible to spend half a year living like a local, not vacationing, actually living, before you decide whether to commit to residency, a lease, or a bigger move.
I’ve looked into all of these options carefully, and I want to break down how each one works, what it actually costs, and what tends to make or break the experience. If you’ve been thinking about living abroad even for a season, this guide is for you.
Why 6 Months Is the Sweet Spot
A two-week trip will make almost anywhere look good. You’re in holiday mode, spending freely, staying somewhere charming, and floating on that “everything is so much better here” feeling. That’s not a test. That’s a vacation.
Six months, on the other hand, is long enough to find out what actually annoys you. You’ll experience a full season of weather, not just the nice week. You’ll see what grocery shopping, getting a WiFi problem fixed, navigating a doctor’s appointment, and dealing with boredom on a Tuesday all feel like. You’ll also find out whether you can make any friends, or whether the loneliness gets to you.
That’s the whole point. Six months gives you honest data. Two weeks gives you a highlight reel.
What you can genuinely learn in six months: whether you like the daily pace, what housing quality feels like, whether the healthcare system stresses you out, how much you miss driving (or don’t), and whether the weather actually suits you once the novelty wears off.
What you can’t learn in six months: how long-term bureaucracy works, whether you’ll build deep community over years, or how annual taxes and renewals will feel. That’s fine. Six months is about step one, not the whole journey.
How These Long Stays Actually Work
Before getting into each country, it helps to understand the two ways these longer stays are structured.
The first is a visitor stay, where you’re admitted as a tourist for up to six months, typically at the border officer’s discretion. You’re not authorized to work locally, and the length of stay isn’t always guaranteed.
The second is a long-stay visa, where you apply in advance, meet income or resource requirements, and receive a defined visa allowing stays longer than 90 days.
Here’s the quick breakdown for each country in this guide:
- France: a long-stay temporary visa can cover 4 to 6 months for self-supporting visitors
- United Kingdom: visitor status allows stays of up to 6 months per visit
- Canada: most visitors are permitted up to 6 months, with the border officer making the final call
- Mexico: the visitor permit can be granted for up to 180 days, at the officer’s discretion
- Costa Rica: tourists from many countries can be granted up to 180 days, also discretionary at entry
- Colombia: US visitors can generally stay up to 90 days, with total stays permitted up to 180 days per calendar year
One word that comes up repeatedly: discretion. These aren’t automatic entitlements. Arriving prepared, with proof of funds and onward travel, consistently leads to smoother entries.
France: A Real European Life, If You Can Fund It
France is one of the few places where a six-month test run can genuinely feel like a real European life, not just an extended holiday. The long-stay temporary visa framework allows stays of 4 to 6 months for visitors who can demonstrate they’re self-supporting. You’re not coming to work. You’re coming to live quietly, on your own resources.
What makes France a strong test: you can rent a normal apartment, build a weekly grocery routine, and find out whether you actually enjoy European tempo or just enjoy the idea of it. You can experience a real European winter, which is a very different thing from a spring trip to Paris.
What tends to catch people off guard: French administration rewards thoroughness and moves at its own pace. If you arrive expecting U.S. efficiency, you’ll feel friction fast. Keep a dedicated folder for documents from day one. You’ll need it for setting up utilities, dealing with landlords, and other everyday admin.
If I were planning a France test run, I wouldn’t anchor in Paris unless my budget was completely honest about it. Some of the best “daily life” bases I’ve come across in research are Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nantes, and parts of Provence. Walkability and easy grocery access matter more than romantic views when you’re living somewhere week to week.
The real question France answers: do you love the European lifestyle itself, or just the aesthetics of it?
The UK: Same Language, Completely Different System
The UK removes one of the most common excuses for struggling abroad: you can’t blame the language. A Standard Visitor stay allows up to six months per visit, and the UK is clear about what that means. You can be there. You can explore. You cannot work locally or treat it as a residency pathway.
What I find interesting about the UK as a test: it looks familiar on the surface, but the systems work differently. Healthcare, banking, housing contracts, and even grocery shopping have their own rhythms. That gap between “familiar-seeming” and “actually the same” is where a lot of Americans get a useful reality check.
The trap is London pricing. It’s easy to spend far more than planned when you’re padding out discomfort with convenience purchases. If you want the UK to be a genuine test, you need to track spending weekly from the first week, not when the panic sets in.
For a more honest six-month experience, the bases that tend to work better than London for actual daily life include Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and smaller university cities. Lower costs mean the budget lasts longer and the numbers tell you something real.
One habit that makes the UK test genuinely useful: build a daily routine within a 20-minute walking radius. If everything you do requires a long transit journey, you’re not learning what living there feels like.
Canada: The Underrated Soft Landing
Canada doesn’t get much attention in the “living abroad” conversation because it’s not considered exotic. That’s exactly why it works so well as a test run.
Most visitors are allowed up to six months, with a border officer determining the exact period at entry. Culturally, the adjustment curve is gentler for many Americans, which is either a feature or a bug depending on what you’re trying to learn. If you want to find out whether you actually enjoy international life, or whether you just want relief from pressure at home, Canada gives you a clear answer. The friction is low enough that you can’t blame “culture shock” for your discomfort. It’s just you and the new context.
What surprises people: Canada is not “basically the US.” Housing costs in certain cities are genuinely high, winter requires intentional preparation, and the social culture has its own rhythms that take time to understand.
Cities worth considering for a six-month pilot: Vancouver and Toronto are both excellent and expensive. Montréal is often more affordable and culturally distinct, though French adds a layer to daily life. Smaller cities can offer a calmer pace if that’s what you’re after.
One thing Canada is particularly good for: testing whether you like being a foreigner at all, even in a friendly, low-friction environment. If the answer is no, moving to a place with more cultural distance probably won’t fix it.
Mexico: The Classic 180-Day Test Run
Mexico is one of the most popular six-month test destinations for US travelers, and one of the most misunderstood. The visitor permit allows a maximum of 180 days, but the number you’re actually granted depends on the immigration official at entry. Planning on 180 days is reasonable. Assuming you’ll automatically get them is where people run into trouble.
Arriving with proof of onward travel and evidence of financial solvency tends to result in longer grants. Arriving with a vague plan and no documentation tends to result in shorter ones. That’s the practical reality.
What makes Mexico genuinely strong as a test run: you can build daily life rhythms quickly. Neighborhood markets, local cafes, transit habits, and weekly routines come together faster here than in many other countries. You also get immediate feedback on whether warm-weather, lower-cost living actually suits you, or whether you just liked the idea of it.
The common trap is choosing somewhere so saturated with tourists that you never get a feel for real local life. A more useful approach is to pick a primary base and stick with it for most of the stay, then spend a few weeks in a second, different-feeling location for comparison.
Budget tracking matters more in Mexico than people expect. It can be genuinely affordable, but tourist-mode spending adds up fast. Tracking groceries separately from eating out, and setting a weekly spending ceiling, tends to give you much more honest data about what your life there would actually cost.
Costa Rica: Slower Life, Real Tradeoffs
Costa Rica allows many visitors to stay for up to 180 days, with the length determined at entry by the immigration officer. It works well as a test if what you’re specifically trying to evaluate is outdoor-focused, slower-paced daily life in a warm climate.
What I want to be clear about: Costa Rica is not a paradise with no friction. Imported goods are expensive. Housing quality varies significantly. Safety planning and logistics require more attention than people expect when they arrive with a “we’ll figure it out” mindset.
Where people go wrong: they spend the first two months in vacation mode, then wonder why they feel unmoored and restless. A real test run here looks like picking one base for at least 10 to 12 weeks, establishing a grocery routine, building a weekly movement habit, and finding at least one recurring social anchor. Without that structure, six months can pass without you learning anything useful.
The places worth comparing within Costa Rica are genuinely different from each other: Pacific coast beach towns, the Central Valley, and the Caribbean side each offer completely different daily rhythms, price points, and communities. Spending a few weeks in a second area mid-stay gives you much better data than staying in one spot the entire time.
Colombia: The Fast Feedback Loop
Colombia gives you quick, honest feedback about whether you can handle being genuinely outside your comfort zone. US visitors are generally permitted to stay up to 90 days at a time, with total stays capped at 180 days per calendar year. That structure works well as a phased test: come for up to 90 days, assess, extend or return if you want to continue.
What makes Colombia interesting as a test destination is that the cities are meaningfully different from each other. Medellín, Bogotá, and Cartagena each offer a distinct daily reality. Spending time in two of them during a single stay gives you a useful comparison that a single-location stay never would.
Cost of living can be reasonable depending on city and lifestyle, but the neighborhood you choose controls your experience more here than almost anywhere else. Two people living in the same city but different neighborhoods can have completely different daily lives in terms of safety, convenience, and social environment.
A structured approach that works well: six weeks in one neighborhood, tracking spending and sleep quality. Three weeks in a second city, comparing mood and daily friction. A final two to four weeks back in the first base to see whether it still feels right once the novelty has passed. That’s not overthinking it. That’s actually running the test.
What It Actually Costs: Honest Monthly Budgets
Six months abroad isn’t cheap. It’s just potentially cheaper than making a permanent move to the wrong place. Short-term rentals cost more than long leases. Setup costs exist. Comfort fixes cost money. And travel health insurance is something worth budgeting for, not skipping.
A rough honest monthly range for a single person doing a modest, real-life pilot in each country:
- France: €3,000 to €5,500 depending on city and housing
- United Kingdom: £3,000 to £6,000 depending on location
- Canada: C$4,000 to C$7,000 depending on city
- Mexico: $2,200 to $4,500 depending on area and lifestyle
- Costa Rica: $2,800 to $5,000 depending on location and housing
- Colombia: $2,000 to $4,200 depending on city and neighborhood
Whatever number you land on, I’d add a 10% buffer for unexpected costs. Not because something will definitely go wrong, but because something small always does, and it shouldn’t derail the whole test.
For Europe specifically: don’t forget to account for winter comfort. A cold, damp apartment that you chose for its charm will affect your mood, sleep, and how you feel about an entire country. It’s worth paying a bit more for somewhere properly heated.
Mistakes to Avoid on a Long-Stay Trip
A few patterns come up consistently when six-month test runs don’t deliver the clarity people hoped for.
Treating it like a long vacation. The whole point is to find out what ordinary weeks feel like. If you’re still in holiday mode by week three, you’re not running a test. You’re extending a trip.
Choosing housing for romance, not function. Prioritize sleep quality, heating or cooling, and walkability over aesthetics. You live where you sleep. A charming rental that makes you cold and miserable will warp your entire read on a place.
Not tracking spending until the panic arrives. Start a simple weekly log from day one: rent, groceries, transport, eating out, and a misc category. Don’t wait until month four to wonder where the money went.
Assuming your length of stay is guaranteed. When discretion is involved, arriving with proof of onward travel and financial solvency is just good practice. Don’t treat a 180-day maximum as a 180-day guarantee.
Trying to test too many places. One primary base and one comparison location is plenty. More than that and you’re testing how much you can tolerate constant movement, which is a different question entirely.
Waiting for community to happen on its own. Pick one recurring activity in your first two weeks. A language class, a gym, a regular coffee shop, a volunteer shift. Repetition makes you a recognizable face, and that’s where friendships actually start.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve been dreaming about living abroad but haven’t known how to find out whether it’s actually right for you, a structured six-month stay is probably the most useful thing you can do. Not a two-week trip. Not a permanent leap. A real, intentional test with a weekly routine, an honest budget, and the willingness to learn something you might not have expected.
The goal isn’t to fall in love with a country. It’s to find out whether you can have a normal Tuesday there and still feel like yourself. That’s the question six months can actually answer.
What is a 6-month visa and how does it work?
A 6-month visa, or long-stay visitor permit, allows you to live in a country for up to six months without needing full residency. Some are granted at the border at an officer’s discretion, while others require an advance application with proof of income or self-sufficiency.
Which countries allow Americans to stay for 6 months?
France, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia all have pathways that allow stays of up to six months for US citizens, though the exact terms and permit types vary by country.
Do I need to apply for a 6-month visa in advance?
It depends on the country. France requires an advance visa application. The UK, Canada, Mexico, and Costa Rica typically grant extended stays at the border, though the length isn’t guaranteed. Colombia allows up to 90 days at entry with the option to extend.
Can I work during a 6-month visitor stay?
Generally no. These permits are for people living on their own resources, such as remote income, savings, or investments. Working locally without authorization can jeopardize your stay and any future visa applications.
How much money do I need for a 6-month stay abroad?
It varies significantly by country and lifestyle. A rough range for a single person runs from around $2,000 per month in Colombia to over €5,500 per month in France. Building in a 10% buffer for unexpected costs is worth doing regardless of destination.
Is a 6-month stay enough time to know if I want to move there permanently?
It’s enough time to get honest with yourself about whether daily life there suits you. It won’t answer every question about long-term bureaucracy, community, or taxes, but it’s a far more reliable signal than any two-week trip.
