Americans are flocking to expat websites after the election: ‘They want out, fast’

Tens of thousands of Americans are looking into moving abroad after Donald Trump’s presidential reelection.

In the hours following the presidential race being called for the Republican nominee, nearly 30,000 people and counting visited the website for Expatsi, a travel company that offers scouting trips to help Americans move abroad.

“We’re getting more than a month’s worth of site traffic today — already almost more than we got in all of 2022,” said Jen Barnett, co-founder of Expatsi, in an email to CNBC Make It Wednesday morning. “We’ve also booked more than 100 new clients since last night.”

“They want out, fast. Preferably before inauguration,” she added.

LaVerne Collins, 65, was visiting Portugal on a scouting trip with Expatsi when she learned of the presidential election results.

She voted early for Vice President Kamala Harris from Greensboro, North Carolina, but already had plans in motion to move abroad if her candidate did not win.

Collins, a licensed professional counselor, visited Costa Rica for the first time in July as a potential relocation spot when she thought Trump had a shot at a second term.

“As an African American woman, my concerns about government stability and safety is heightened,” she tells CNBC Make It. “I recognized that depending on how this election would go, things could become even more unstable.”

As a mental health professional, she says she questions whether she can live out her retirement years being surrounded by American politics and the media’s coverage of it.

Collins hopes to leave the U.S. by January 2025 to find “the space to experience peace and not be overwhelmed by either events or news coverage of events that potentially strike me as threatening.”

The most important factors in choosing a new home country for herself and her husband are government stability, cost of living, accessible health care, low rates of gun violence, an easy transition for Americans and a warm climate.

That said, she’s concerned about American foreigners crowding into certain destinations following the election’s outcomes. “The exit is real,” she says.

In the past, countries including Portugal, Spain and Mexico have been popular with Americans considering an international relocation, Barnett said. Now, we’re “seeing new interest in Ireland, France, and Albania,” she said. “Americans can spend a year in Albania without residency.”

Anxiety had been brewing for weeks leading up to election day.

Expatsi received “hundreds of messages from people who are planning to be our customers if Donald Trump wins, but we’d rather have fewer customers and democracy,” Barnett told CNBC Make It in late October. “That said, we’re here to help everyone who needs us.”

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