Hi. My name is Renat. People often ask: which country to move to in 2026. As if there is a table of “the best place on earth”. We didn’t have that table. We had another job — find where to put down roots so we don’t pack suitcases a third time.
We’re from Mariupol. We left for Europe, running from the bombing. We lost a city and a home. When you’ve already lived that, “where it’s prettier” stops being the first question. The first one becomes: where they won’t throw us out again. Where we can stay people, not eternal guests.
Switzerland: two years as guests
We didn’t just “google” Switzerland. We lived there — about two years, temporary protection, school, French, as if you could exhale. A calm, rich country, lawns like a postcard. And still they showed us clearly: you are guests.
If a conflict starts around the country, nobody will protect us first. More the opposite: outsiders get pushed out before locals. To the front, to the border, “not your war — but not your home either”. That’s how we counted it and how it felt. More on why we left: /en/shveytsariya/pochemu-uehali-iz-shveytsarii/.
Europe and NATO in 2026
If even neutral Switzerland gave that signal, the rest of Europe and NATO looked worse to us. Not because “life is bad there”. Because we already see how it smells of fire. I’m not a politician or a general. I’m 16. But after Mariupol the nose is trained for that.
Putting down roots where you are an eternal guest and expendable in someone else’s big game — we didn’t want that. A second time — no.
Serbia, Montenegro: their borders, their ring
We started looking at the Balkans: Serbia, Montenegro. Closer mentality, not NATO, seemingly “more neutral”. But conflicts on the borders hadn’t gone anywhere. If something starts, being locked in a small country is a bad deal. Nowhere to leave, the passport may not work, neighbours are tense too.
We needed not “a two-year pause” but a place you can actually breathe from.
Passport, visa-run, Georgia and Armenia
Separately we set a hard filter: your country may not renew your passport. Then you don’t move. Planes, borders, banks — everything stops. So countries where residency is unclear, unrealistic, or you have to keep leaving (visa-run) drop out at once.
Georgia, Armenia and the region around them are exactly that. Plus conflicts nearby again. Without renewing your own passport you become illegal easily. We already ran that in the numbers. More: /en/pereezd/kakie-strany-my-rassmatrivali-pered-pereezdom/.
Asia, the US, Canada
Asia fell away on the same scheme: you have to leave, spin the dates, and a real residency “isn’t happening”. Pretty, cheap in places — but that’s temporariness again. We already ate temporariness with a spoon.
The US and Canada are NATO countries. And in 2026 even from there you can see: migrants have their own hard stories now. Not our “American dream”. Not our lottery level and not our wish to be expendable in someone else’s system again.
Two continents: Africa and Latin America
When we crossed out Europe, NATO, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Asia, the US and Canada, two continents were left on the table: Africa and Latin America. Africa we dropped at once. Not from memes and not from movies — just for our family, with kids, a dog and the job of “putting down roots”, we didn’t see our option there. Where, honestly?
Latin America was already a different conversation. Farther from the lines we know on our own skin. Its own problems — yes. But the map looks different.
Why Uruguay, not “all of Latin America”
Of what we looked at, one of the most stable was Uruguay. Not paradise and not “best country in the world on Instagram”. Simply: you can live, you can build, you can stay. Residency here is not space travel — you need a source of income; no income — you open a unipersonal (sole trader). Time to a passport, in our heads: about three years if married, about five if single. An honest minus: kids under 18 don’t get citizenship on this path.
And one more thing we wouldn’t have chosen without: even if they don’t renew your foreign passport, with a cédula you can travel almost the whole continent. For a family that already sat once without a normal “home” document in their heads, that is not a small thing. That’s air.
- Not a visa-run and not “leave for 90 days”
- Residency is clear: income or unipersonal
- Farther from European and Caucasus tension lines
- Cédula — movement in the region even if the passport stops
- We’re already here: house, school, Piriápolis
Not legal advice and not “everyone to Uruguay”. That’s how our family thought after Mariupol and Switzerland. You have a different passport, different money, different fears. Check the rules yourself — they change.
Which countries we cut point by point — a separate page: /en/pereezd/kakie-strany-my-rassmatrivali-pered-pereezdom/. Why we didn’t stay in Argentina: /en/pereezd/pochemu-urugvay-a-ne-argentina/. What the move cost: /en/pereezd/tsena-pereezda-v-urugvay/.