What’s one of the hardest parts about moving to another country? Making friends while you settle into a new community.
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While expats face less bureaucratic red tape compared to immigrants when it comes to visas and residency, they often face a similar uphill battle when it comes to settling in socially. Making friends as adults can be hard—and that’s doubly true when language and cultural barriers come into play.
In short, some countries are more open to American expats than others.
InterNations, an expat resource site that covers topics like finance and visas, releases an annual report that ranks countries when it comes to expat reception. Their 2025 report uncovers the top 15 countries around the world according to different metrics. These include ease of settling in, quality of life, personal finance, expat essentials, and happiness levels.
The study measures both qualitative and quantitative areas, from transit to finding friends to working abroad. Ready to see which countries have a more laissez-faire approach to expats, both logistically and socially? Here’s what over 10,000 expats living in 172 countries had to share with InterNations.
Top 15 destinations for expats who want an easy landing
Here are the top 15 countries in the world for expats, based on the ease of moving abroad and ability to integrate into a community:
- Panama
- Colombia
- Mexico
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- China
- UAE
- Indonesia
- Spain
- Malaysia
- Oman
- Saudi Arabia
- Philippines
- Cyprus
- Brazil
If you want to keep exploring these rankings, check out the full study from InterNations. The list above reflects the weighted rankings across the categories mentioned above, but you can also see which countries stand out for each metric.
For example, Spain leads when it comes to quality of life; Mexico leads when it comes to settling in; Panama for working abroad; Vietnam for personal finance; the UAE for expat essentials; and Panama again for happiness levels.
