Where are all the online grinders living these days? A bit over Thailand, but elite visa does make things quite easy.

Considerations so far include:
Japan (just no.1 personally as gf is Japanese, so very easy for her to get job, no need for her to get visa etc)
Philippines
Vietnam
Malaysia
Cambodia

Canada
US (Vegas?) - probably bad choice for gf's quality of life, although likely the place I'd make the most money if playing live games

NZ
Australia

Would also consider moving back to UK, but job choice seems a little thin for a Japanese person, and visa seems difficult.

Are there any options for long stay in these countries, asides from doing something like teaching English, which is too counter-productive with regards to taking time and effort away from poker (unless there was a very small minimum requirement, which is NOT the case for Japan).

Education visa (learning language) in Japan also seems very strict, with a big time commitment.

What do all the grinders in Philippines/Cambo/Viet do for visas these days?

TIA for any advice, opinions, or personal experiences!

It mostly comes down to visa considerations for me. Euros will obviously have it much easier than Americans. For us Americans, it can be complicated to stay more than 3 or 6 months in many places.

From there, it will depend on if you have the income/savings to qualify for digital nomad/residency visas.

Mexico used to be super lenient on tourist visas, but supposedly they're cracking down and you won't auto receive a fresh 180 days by leaving and coming right back.

Georgia would be super easy to stay long-term as they give 1 year free, and supposedly can just leave and get a fresh year.

Albania used to offer 1 year to Americans (not sure on other nationalities), but that might be going away.

Colombia offers a digital nomad visa with a low barrier (only like $800+/month income needed) and a lot of poker players like Medellin and there are some other quality cities. Probably requires a decent level of Spanish and is getting a bit more dangerous lately.

There are probably a couple dozen reasonable answers to your question based on budget, nationality, income, etc. Obviously it gets much easier too if you're fine country hopping every 3 months or so.

I've been hopping around a lot since 2011 and kinda just want to settle in a place a long time and don't want to deal with visas/paperwork, so I'll probably just buy Thai Elite.

Colombia's digital nomad visa isn't that good. It's only 6 months just like a tourist visa (3 months and then you renew for 3 months).

Mexico has a pretty easy to get residency visa that's easy as a US citizen. You just have to show like $1200/month in income or something, or some big amount in your bank account and go to a Mexican Embassy in the US.

Thailand would be a cool spot to stay. There's a lot of countries that give out business visas that last 3+ years if you have like $20k or $200k depending on the country. But yeah what FossilKid said, you're gonna be hopping out of countries every 6 months otherwise. Just pick whatever country you like

I'm living in Colombia now paying like $550/month for a high rise apartment and planning on staying there till 2024. I'd like to stay in Japan, Vietnam, or China though just to see something different. Impossible to know if you prefer the high income of USA, or having a gf that works in Japan

Yeah visas are the main issue. Seems very difficult now as a poker player to settle anywhere for long.

Coming to the end of my Thai elite and it's been fine. As long as you know it's literally just a bog-standard visa. Asides from airport transfers you have to pay extra for any service (other than 90-day reporting which is free if you travel to their office). Been in Thailand a long time now and definitely time to move on. The main negative is just being grinded down by every simple small thing like changing internet contract etc is just a huge drawn out process in Thailand, where no one has a brain. It's just part of living here; you have to deal with extremely poor service, close to ******edness, and scams on a very regular basis. I think I'm getting old because I used to find it mildly amusing, now it's always irritating as my time feels more precious.

I did a bit of Googling and first 2 hits for Colombia said it's good for up to 2 years and might even include path to citizenship.

Mexico isn't that easy anymore. Mexperience is usually my go to and they list the requirements as:

Temporary Residency: Monthly income of c.US$2,400-$2700 over the last 6 months (some consulates request 12 months); or savings/investment account balance(s) of c.US$45,000 over the last 12 months.

Permanent Residency: Monthly income of c.US$4,300-$4500 over the last 6 months (some consulates request 12 months); or savings balance of c.US$180,000 over the last 12 months.

That's interesting. I'm late 30s and probably gonna do Thai Elite to "settle down". I have a pretty high tolerance for minor scams and BS though. The poor service on basic things like changing utilities does sound annoying though.

There are quite a few digital nomad visa options and lots of them mostly just require you to show a minimum income per month. Others do have other BS requirements though that knock out poker players, even if they otherwise qualify on income.

49 Countries w/Digital Nomad Visas

I've started to pull out 4k per month on the same date and to the same account so I have a more legit looking source of income. If we decide against Thai Elite, then we'll probably try for some visa based on income in the future.

but in Colombia you can not play on Pokerstars, can you?

As far as I know you cannot play at all. Am i wrong? Where exactly can you play in Colombia?