Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

I'm sure others will cover the shorter-term aspects. I'll add that, particularly if you're not young or have a family, it wouldn't hurt to consider the fact that you will probably have a great time for the first N years, but there might be a slump when you realize that you will probably never really integrate and will have a smaller social circle because of it, in a place where people seem to have smaller casual groups of friends, in general. I live in Switzerland, which is particularly harsh on this front - I do not hope to really integrate and accept that as a cost of the other benefits of being here - maybe my grandchildren will. I think it's fair to say that in America, you're American a lot faster.

I think this depends a lot on the culture. I've found (in Barcelona) that it was hard to integrate initially due to language barriers and lack of an existing local network to bootstrap from, but over time those issues have disappeared. 6 years in now, my social circle here is far larger and more diverse than my network in London where I was before.

You do need to somehow actively engage yourself with the community though to make this work. Strongly recommend working from a coworking as much as possible. It forces you to frequently meet new people, gives you day-to-day language practice, and really helps to build a network of small connections that eventually power your social life long-term.