Oh, and when I said you're only allowed 90 days out of every 180, I mean you can visit Germany as an American for up to 90 days visa free, max. No work allowed. No public benefits allowed. Then you better get out and get out fast on the 90th day or you'll be banned from re-entering the country without a visa. So you can go for 90 days, leave and return to the states for 90 days, then go back as a tourist to Germany for another 90 days, then leave again, and so on. That's about it. And Canada has no open door policy on Americans either. I'm not up on their immigration laws, but they'll deport you as fast as Germany does if you don't follow their rules to the letter.
I don't know of any country in the world that allows American immigration except for Paraguay (brush up on your Spanish) as long as you deposit $5,000 in a bank down there. Then they might give you a work and residency visa. This is not the 19th century. The US is just as hard on immigrants wanting to come over here if it makes you feel any better.
Hi Jeremy: well, I'd like to emigrate to Germany too, but there no such thing as open borders on immigration anymore (unless your a citizen of an EU country moving from one EU country to the next- and the US is not an E U country). Wish it were different. So unless you're a dual US citizen and citizen of a EU country too, you might find your move to Germany is going to be limited to 90 days every 180 days max, with no work allowed. You need a visa for anything else (going to school on a visa might not be too hard to get), but any kind of residency permit that would allow you to work in Germany is almost impossible for an American to get. If you're in the military on assignment, that's different, but that wouldn't last for more than a few years tops.