For When You Need to be Leaving America in 30 Minutes
Rediscover your own little bit of Jason Bourne
If you are a Gen Xer of a certain sort, like me, you have memorized most of the screenplays of most of the Bourne movies.
I don’t think I was the only one who thought making tiny cars drive faster than they ought to, and motoring over the Brenner Pass to haunting, pulsing orchestral music on the way to a giant safe deposit box in Zurich with a quarter million dollars spread between six different currencies and a fistful of passports was awesome.
So, truth be told, this past March and April, as the regime ramped up the fascism-meets-capital-flight vibes to eleven, I downshifted the tiny little Trabant of my lower upper class overeducated Midwestern City life, and started to have a little bit of fun.
Back when national command authorities asked them to do heroic things like raising the flag on Mount Suribachi and holding the line in the cold at the Chosin Reservoir instead of occupying Los Angeles and guarding ICE’s concentration camps, Marines talked about the need to always be able to “shoot, move, and communicate” as the basis for maintaining operational effectiveness.
(Guns don’t travel well, so for current purposes we can leave out the shoot part.)
But the principle remains the same: mobility, access, communications, and optionality are the essence of resiliency, now more than ever.1
So I got to work applying these Semper Fi principles with more than a little bit of Bourne wannabe in the mix too, to harden up and get effective and ready in response to the authoritarian threat.
Passport & Passport Card
It started with renewing my passport. It was coming due in 2027, before the (potential) end of the Dictator’s term.
I saw what was happening at the State Department with the mass firings, and realized that backlogs in processing could keep me trapped.
I sent my passport in for renewal, and applied for a passport card too. My wife preferred not to renew her passport (it’s not expiring until 2029). We applied for a passport for my little son, too (his first).
The clerk at the Midwestern City government office where we got his passport photos taken observed quietly to us that “it had been busy” since the elections.
(Midwestern understatement at its best.)
The weeks that all of this was pending and we were (actually) trapped passed very, very slowly. I called the State Department after a few weeks and paid an additional fee to expedite the processing, and after perhaps only 4 weeks total, they all came back.
The passport card provides great peace of mind. I keep my regular passport locked up, because it’s too big to carry around day-to-day on my person, and I’m super paranoid about losing it. But the passport card stashes in my wallet.
Exit Routes
The passport card plus cash for bus fare would get me from Midwestern City to San Miguel de Allende. (Yes, you can buy Greyhound tickets with cash.).
Do you know where the bus station is in whatever city you’re in? Do you know how to get there? Without using your phone or Google Maps?
If not, change that. (Don’t just be a little bit Bourne. Be a little bit Jack Reacher too.)
I’ve researched land egress points through Laredo, and as backups, around the Great Lakes (bridges and ferries).
I’ve also checked out satellite photos of the Vermont-Quebec border and the small roads that will ingress you there.
I’ve even confirmed which stops on the Alaska Marine Highway get you close to the deserted border with the Yukon Territory (Skagway, in case you were wondering.)
The passport card is good for land and sea travel into Mexico, Canada, and throughout the Caribbean.
With it on you all times (and better yet also some cash and a high-limit credit card without foreign transaction fees)2, you can exit any time.
And somehow, in our current version of America, it just feels a lot better to have that optionality.
I know the flight segments from Midwestern City to Toronto, and to Dallas and Houston for further transit on to San Luis Potosi. This information isn’t only on my phone, it’s in my head.
I have a pre-filed ETA authorization for the United Kingdom in case I decide one day to just get up and get out via Heathrow. (That’s important, by the way, because even if LHR isn’t your final destination, to fly through there, you need advance authorization.)
Right now, the ETAs take about 10 minutes and USD $21.50 to get. Will that always be the case? Are you willing to take that chance? I’m not. So I got it done, in advance.
Note that by the last quarter of 2026, the EU is going to have a similar ETIAS requirement to the UK’s ETA. If you want instant optionality to fly into any EU airport, when the ETIAS application comes open, you should get that pre-filed too.
Because these days, you just never know.
Cash
I also carry $500 to $700 in “blue bill” hundreds on me, in my wallet, at all times. (Aren’t hundreds the real international multi-tool?)
You should have accounts at more than one bank, making your ability to access cash resilient against computer glitches or account freezes at a single institution.
I confirmed and harmonized all the cash access PIN numbers for my bank accounts across several institutions. I have a small array of credit cards, and pay them off every few days, to keep the limits large and untapped.
I also set up foreign bank accounts in Jersey (the Channel Islands, not Bayonne!) and Singapore with HSBC. The process was largely on-line, going first through HSBC’s US affiliate.
There are several ways (minimum amounts on deposit and/or monthly direct deposit flows) you can qualify as a “Premier” level customer for HSBC. Once you are “Premier” in one HSBC affiliate anywhere, you are a “Premier” client throughout the HSBC group worldwide.
This status gives you the ability to open accounts in several HSBC jurisdictions (most of all, their “HSBC Expat” unit in Jersey) without having to travel to the jurisdiction in person for the account opening.
HSBC issues you a debit card, and you can hold funds with them in multiple currencies, including all the usual suspects like EUR, GBP, CHF, along with others like CAD, SGD, AUD, and NZD.
You can, of course, hold USD offshore too, if you want to do that. The debit card works to buy anything you want like any other credit card, day-to-day, in the USA.
The HSBC debit card, plus one or two credit cards, plus the passport card, plus USD cash, lets me carry access rights and funding with me, all the time.
Right now I’m keeping the deposits across three different currencies – USD, GBP, and EUR. The currency mix that’s right for you will vary for your own unique circumstances.
I also keep a meaningful amount of USD currency safely stored at home, mostly in “blue bill” hundreds, but also several hundred in twenties.
There is such a thing as having too much cash around, so the right level for you will, likewise, vary for your own unique circumstances.
Lodging: (New) Home, Sweet Home
I’ve downloaded and have active, solid profiles on Airbnb and VRBO (for whatever reason, I prefer Airbnb).
It can be a fun exercise late at night when you’re winding down - pick a city (whether Piriapolis in Uruguay, or Cuenca in Ecuador, or Quebec City, or Edinburgh - wherever), and browse through places you might like, and see how much they cost to rent for a month.
You may be very pleasantly surprised. It’s a good way to indirectly explore neighborhoods in different cities, and develop a gut-level instinct for the comparative cost structures of other places you might go.
Some of this browsing may turn into fun vacations that combine with useful scouting trips for emigration options.
It can also be the rough outline of a plan for where you could land, get some breathing room, and take time to figure out your next steps if you ever need to go in a hurry.
Other Apps
I’m ashamed to say that before eight weeks ago, I’d never used WhatsApp.
That has changed.
It seems like virtually everywhere outside the US, it’s the default texting and phone call app, and also the easiest way to do a lot of communicating with small businesses, like car services, bike rentals, tour operators, etc. Even lawyers use WhatsApp as an ordinary way of back-and-forth communication.
If you don’t have WhatsApp installed and aren’t comfortable with using it (it’s extremely easy to use), then you will be very, very far behind the curve when you find yourself suddenly in a new place. So, download it and start using it now.
Backup Phone
It belabors the obvious, but when you’re international, your phone is your most critical tool.
If you only have one, you have an uncomfortably significant failure node.
That old phone you might have lying around? Don’t trade it in.
Instead, keep it charged. Get an external battery you can connect by USB to recharge it. Get adapters to connect its charger block to power outlets, and consider getting a Faraday bag for it so you can travel in “stealth mode” if needed.
Even without a currently live sim card, if your spare phone can still connect with WiFi, then you have a very viable backup communications tool.
After you arrive at your bolthole destination, buy and install a local sim card for your old backup Wi-Fi capable phone, and you’ll be even more operational.
Of course, keeping your core set of banking and travel apps up to date on your backup phone makes a lot of sense.
Backup Documents: Your “Invisible” Bugout Bag
I hope you are using a password manager. (My favorite is Dashlane.)
You should have all your various website logins stored there, along with key contact information for your banking, investment, and credit cards, including account numbers.
A good password manager will also allow you to upload and store scans of key documents.
These should include scanned copies of your passport page, your driver’s license, your birth certificate, your diplomas, your professional licenses or certifications, copies of (ideally clean) FBI criminal background checks, your marriage licenses, etc.
You should also upload similar documents for anyone you’d want to be able to leave with you (or leave to be with you soon afterwards).
Consider obtaining extra hard copies/originals of all of these documents, and send them to a trusted friend or business partner (ideally one overseas).
Make arrangements with the friend for them to send the originals or copies of those originals to you, as needed, wherever you land, once you get settled.
An advanced version of this will be to pre-obtain apostilles for your critical documents, from either state or Federal authorities, as needed. Once you have those apostilled documents, organize them and send them to your trusted contact for safekeeping.
The goal with all of this is to be able to leave quickly, get to your target country, and have the lowest possible friction in gathering the document set you will need for long-term visas and residency in that country.
Apostilles can take weeks or even months to get under the best circumstances. Doing that work in advance can yield tremendous benefits.
One adage, annoying but true, says that if a document like a birth certificate is important enough to get one copy of, it’s probably important enough to get three copies. I think there’s truth to that.
Operational Security (“OpSec”)
This topic area is so extensive. Although I am learning more, I don’t claim to be an expert.
One useful starting point is the work of
about how to protest safely, in an age of Palantir databases and omnipresent facial recognition software.You can adapt the techniques and tradecraft in her post to your own exit arrangements.
That’s where simple things like a Faraday bag, knowing where the bus station is without needing Google Maps, and having ample currency on hand can all come into play.
Being able to get out without emitting any signal (and only doing traceable signal-emitting next steps after you are safely out) could turn out to be so important.
With All Deliberate Speed
We are living in upsetting and very concerning times.
It used to be that sudden exit from an authoritarian regime’s territory was a problem for other people, something to feel sympathetic about.
But now it’s an issue for us.
Learn from the examples of the past, especially those of the Inner German Border as it tightened in the years before the Wall went up in 1961.
It’s always so much better to move a year or a few months early, than a day late.
Watch your own signs of exit “red lines” and probabilities.
Build the baseline of tools and plans you will need for a low-emit, low-signal, low-friction rapid exit in advance.
Hope, of course, that you never need them. But have them.
You deserve it for your freedom, your safety, and your peace of mind.
The regime wants you to lose hope in your own agency. Don’t. As long as you are taking specific, purposeful action towards your own plans for safety and freedom, they don’t own you. Resist.
For a focused and very useful systematic review and set of action steps on the ideas in this essay, I recommend the “International Escape Plan” course published by Radical Personal Finance. The course costs $97 but it comes with several hours of audio and a good set of PDF notes. The outlook is practical and systematic. The course’s author, Joshua Sheats, has extensive international experience himself and speaks from his own well developed knowledge set. He is not pushing an agenda for his listeners to exit – only to develop the capacity to exit if they need to, or want to. I believe the purchase price is very fair and the time allocation is well spent. Kudos to Josh for putting such a good resource together.
Another similar perspective is from Radigan Carter, a pseudonymous semi-retired Special Forces operator who publishes fascinating long-form essays and monthly newsletters.
I use Chase’s Sapphire Reserve card, which is an expensive indulgence, but some of the time, I’m not frugal. I can’t justify it. I can only admit to it.
Some great ideas here, even if you have considerably more than 30 min. Love the Bourne reference.